Greetings from Corinth, Mississippi, no make that Martin, Tennessee
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Ned McWherter Ag Complex – Track #1,929
We began the trip with a “bucket list” Trackchasing Tourist Attraction…………..more in “Attractions”. Friday night’s “hotel” was actually three 12-minute power naps in my car…………..more in “The Details”. “Express Deals” are a new tool in my trackchasing toolbox………….more in “The Details”. I’ve got a new sponsor that supplies my food no less!………….more in “The Details”. What do karters do when they’ve finished practice? They practice some more………….more in “Race Review”. It’s not pretty when one runs out of options……..details in “Race Review”. Thursday. Three 12-minute power naps. We woke up this morning in San Clemente, California. We went to to bed in Portland, Oregon. Then I sent Carol on her way back to SoCal before I flew to Seattle and then St. Louis. Then I stayed overnight in in my car for 36 minutes before arriving in Corinth, Mississippi. Who does this? May I ask you a question? Who goes trackchasing in Mississippi from Southern California? And for those folks who do who makes stops in Portland, Seattle and then St. Louis? Yes, it was a roundabout way to make this trip happen. However, as always I had good reasons for doing it this way. This is what my trackchasing trip to Mississippi looked like. Using other people’s good ideas. I pride myself in being efficient. I learned a lot in the corporate world about things like this. One of our mantras was “search and reapply”. What did that mean? Use other people’s good ideas! I’m not very smart but I know a lot of smart people. I take their ideas, modify them for my use and then benefit from their intelligence. Make sense? Less is more. Did you know that one of the basic elements of efficient activity is eliminating things? Let’s say you have an 8-step plan. Wouldn’t a six-step plan that accomplishes the same thing be more efficient? Fewer things could go wrong right? The overall objective of this trip is two-pronged. First we want to see a basketball game in Central Oregon. That will be followed by an indoor racing event in Northern Mississippi and then another racing program in Southern Tennessee. Because I have never had the financial budgets of those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” I have to carefully plan each of my trips on a strict budget. You’re probably thinking, “But Randy, wouldn’t it be a lot simpler in the long run to just give up against those smelly Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers and enjoy your retirement in the little city by the sea?” Honestly, I have never given that particular thought…a thought. Efficiencies and cost-busting strategies. That being the case please let me share with you some of the efficiencies and cost-busting strategies that would go a long way in making this trip a success. Please don’t forget one thing. I am not trying to buy cheap stuff cheap. I want to buy good stuff cheap. We would be out the door at 5 a.m. on Thursday to begin our trip. However, a good number of things had already been put to bed on this trip before we ever got out of bed this morning. We would need some airplane tickets, a hotel, a rental car and, of course, some tickets to the basketball game. All of that was wrapped up before we even backed out of the driveway. It would be expensive for Carol and me to fly to Portland, Oregon. After we had seen the UCLA-Oregon basketball game Carol would head back to Los Angeles and I would continue onto St. Louis, Missouri. This is a limited sponsorship period. We are in the midst of a six-month period where my airline sponsorship is limited to just one airline. That period runs from October through April of this year. Then come mid-April most of the world’s airlines will be available for my use. Watch out then! Some folks think it’s “easy” to be a trackchaser with an airline sponsorship. If someone thought that they might be overlooking two significant pieces of the puzzle. First, we fly standby. Everyone wants to fly free or nearly free. A significantly smaller part of the population is willing to fly standby. You pretty much need to be retired to handle that chore. Just the facts, ma’am. I have actually seen FEWER races, by a long shot, since gaining my airline sponsorship. Can’t believe it? You’re not the only one. Few would have thought that to be a fact. I gained my first full-year airline sponsorship in 2007. In the two-year period preceding that support (2005-2006) I added some 329 tracks to my lifetime total. Since 2007 and the advent of my airline support how have I done? I haven’t done nearly as well as I did during that 2005-2006 time frame. For any of the two year rolling periods, i.e. 2007-2008, 2008-2009, etc. I have never come close to seeing 329 tracks. In fact my BEST average for any of those two year periods has been just 241 tracks. Would you have thought this to be the case before I provided this explanation? “But Randy, I shocked, surprised and astonished. To hear those ‘Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers’ tell it you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and a bunch of twenty dollar bills hanging out your backside” the shocked and in awe reader might say. Elimination and then mechanization. Another benefit related to the airline process is being able to check in on-line. I do this with my iPhone and Passbook app. This takes just a few seconds. Before I go any further I must tell you that the majority of good tech ideas come from son J.J. I told you I know a lot of smart people. Actually all of our kids are smarter than me. You’ve got to wonder where they got it? Anyway when my airline check-in process was completed I had an electronic boarding pass for both Carol and me. Then I took a “screen shot” of Carol’s boarding pass and texted her the photo. She can then use this photo to clear security at the airport. Who did THAT 20 years ago? We also use our “The Weather Channel” iPhone app to see what type of clothing we should bring on the trip. The Northwest was going to be raining the south sort of warmish then the Midwest would be an icebox. That wasn’t too surprising but it was true. Of course, we would need a hotel in Oregon. Carol was coming along. You know what that means. I have to upgrade the accommodations to her liking. Of course, she has never asked for an upgrade she just deserves it. “Express Deals” are new tool in my toolbox. For this trip I would use an “Express Deal” from Priceline.com. How did I do? We booked a Marriott Residence Inn for just $58. The best rate Marriott was offering on their website was $169 U.S. That room with taxes would run about $200 per night. With taxes our room would cost about $75 U.S. Of course, a hot breakfast was included another $20-30 savings for two. Yes, I was sticking to my formula of buying good stuff cheap. We didn’t rob the bank with our rental car with a bottom-line rate of $49 for a full-sized car including all taxes. However, the National Rental Car Company (a long time sponsor of RLR) does give me a $15-30 per day credit on the future rental of any car I choose. I use these credits for what could be very expensive one-way car rentals. Additionally, we’ll be able to pick out the best car in National’s inventory often with such features as satellite radio. I could have saved about $15 with another vendor but I would have been buying “cheap things cheap” and that doesn’t appeal to me when I can buy “good things cheap”. You have to spend money to make money. Often times buying “good things cheap” will cost a little more than buying “cheap things cheap”. However, I would rather pay $100 for something that is valued at $200 than $50 for something that is valued at $75. This is a key element of my strategy. We were first-timers tonight. We would be making our first ever visit to the Mathew Knight basketball arena on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene. I’ll tell you more about the details of that adventure behind, of all things, something called the “Adventures” tab! Have I got a deal for you. However, I wanted to be efficient and cost-effective in getting our tickets to the game. I decided to check out Stubhub.com. I wanted good seats. Good seats were defined as being on the lower level of the nearly 13,000-seat arena. Stubhub had just what I wanted. Two seats in section 109, with a face value of $35 U.S. each could be purchased and were purchased for just $8 each. Wow! We would be seeing a major college basketball game featuring the top-ranked UCLA Bruins (16-4) against the Oregon Ducks (14-5) in basketball crazy Eugene, Oregon for less than $10 per seat? Yes, wowser! What grade do I get? Take a look at the above. Airfare, rental car, hotel and basketball tickets. You can do the math on what all this might cost the average traveler. We don’t pay “retail”. We don’t even pay “wholesale”. However, I don’t skimp on quality either. The above talks about the financial side of things. There’s more to life than just money. Money can only be used to trade for things and for peace of mind. That’s what makes money so valuable. What makes up a good tip? However, this is how the trip worked out on the personal comfort side of things. When I go to a restaurant I always leave a tip. It’s usually a big tip. What is the best tip I ever gave one of my servers? “Stay in school!” That’s a lot better tip than a “10-spot” isn’t it? Carol’s tip is “Always get a buddy for the car pool lane”. Yep, those tips are better than cash any day unless you’re short on cash. Today we followed our own advice. We used the car pool lane and covered the 65-mile drive to LAX in less than 65 minutes. Once there I dropped Carol off at the terminal with our bags. There she could simply relax without any pressure to jump on and off of shuttle buses and the like until I did the work necessary to park our car. Of course, with the airport parking I have what else, an airport parking sponsorship. Airport parking, at a major airport like LAX, can average nearly $15 per day. I’m happy to report that most of my airport parking all year is free with the support of my sponsor LAX World Parking. I had a choice. I could walk the 20 minutes from the Lot F parking garage or ride a shuttle bus. I prefer to walk for two reasons. First, I love walking and the exercise benefits that come from that. Secondly, if I walk, I know it will take me 20 minutes to get to the terminal. If I wait for the shuttle bus my transit time in unknown depending upon how quickly the bus comes along. I’ll take walking anytime. Once at the airport’s terminal Carol and I simply turn on our smartphones to the “Passbook” app. There our electronic boarding passes are stored. I remember a buddy of mine, years ago, stating he didn’t want to ever go to the airport without a “paper” ticket. It’s important to move along with the times. What a benefit. Our boarding passes include our special “TSA Pre-Check” designations. Pre-Check allows us to clear airport security without removing our shoes, taking off a belt, taking any “gels and liquids” out of our carry-on luggage or removing our laptop computers. We pretty much just roll through an area where the line is much shorter and the hassle dramatically less. I must say I use the word “hassle” guardedly. Lots of people think of airport security as a hassle. I don’t. I think of the TSA agents as my friend. They are helping me make my journey safe. Masses of unwashed? I am dismayed that TSA is working hard to expand the usage of the TSA Pre-Check program. Anytime I’m a member of an exclusive activity the LAST thing I want is for it to be expanded to the “masses of unwashed” members of our society. Call me exclusionary just don’t call me late for dinner. Speaking of being exclusionary and eating I have another sponsor to thank. I’m talking about the Alaska Airlines Board Room. These folks are the first food sponsors I’ve ever had! How does this one work? Here’s how my deal works. I pay $333 per year for all the food and drink I can consume in the Alaska Airlines Board Room for two guests and myself. I figure, at a minimum, I will consume $10 worth of food and drink during each visit. The “drink” includes soda, beer, wine and hard liquor. With airport food prices most of my Board Room visits will probably be worth much more than $10 per person. A single “day pass” for a non-member of the Board Room costs $45. We began this program just 17 days ago. We’ve already used the Board Room 12 times. I figure by the end of month three we will have met our “break even” requirement of 33 visits if not sooner. That means for the next nine months we’ll be eating and drinking for free at the five Alaska Airlines Board Rooms and the other 30-40 airlines clubs that are partners in this program all across the country. How’s THAT for a sponsorship? Now it I could just get a dental sponsorship! Just before leaving the Board Room I checked my email. Did I mention that the Board Room offers free Wi-Fi too? Of course I could use just my phone to check email but sometimes having my laptop “connected” is better than the phone. I always have time for the media. One of this morning’s emails was from a journalist in Trinidad and Tobago. She missed seeing me during our visit last week. Yes, I will tell you all about that in due time. Now she wants to do an interview for the “Mentality” section of the Trinidad daily paper, Newsday. The feature story will appear in the Women’s Weekly (who would have guessed!) magazine that comes out each Sunday in the Newsday paper. It features “men and what they are up too” I’m told. Could there be some Trinidad and Tobago women in my future? Let’s keep that little tidbit from Carol for the time being. Make sense? By the way the reason I mention the T&T media coverage is because I will be calling in tomorrow morning to the reporter via my iPhone app, “TruPhone”. Cost? About a penny a minute. When it came time to board the plane to Portland we were given emergency exit row seating. What’s the benefit there? Legroom! Some airline seating is cramped especially for a 6’3” person like me. However, in the “exit row” the seats are a good 8-12” beyond my knees. When we landed we picked out the best car National had, a Hyundai Sonata. Then we drove over to the Residence Inn and checked in before noon. Official check-in time wasn’t until 3 p.m. but being a Platinum member of Marriott’s frequent stay program “greased the skids” if you know what I mean. Finally, I used Yelp! to pick out our luncheon restaurant. More on that behind the “Attractions” tab. I really can compete on a level playing field. So what does all this mean? It means that I can compete on nearly a level playing field with those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers”. I don’t have to work at a job I don’t like. I don’t have to travel with anyone I might not like. I don’t have to wear out my personal car trackchasing. I can simply employ a few (actually a lot) of the things mentioned above to achieve even better results with more quantity and more quality. Anybody can do most of what I do. What are you waiting for? Like I said I’m not very smart but I know a lot of smart people. I take their ideas and use them as my own. Lots of those very same smart people are reading this message right now. What can I say to those folks? Thank you smart people. You know who you are. Friday. Things don’t always work out no matter how much I plan. Nothing is ever easy. O.K., some things are easy but when things get hard it’s easy to forget the easy things in life. Right? I was up at 5:30 a.m. on Friday. Why so early? I had a media interview with a newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago! Yep at 6 a.m. my time and 10 a.m. T&T time. That went well. The story will be published in about ten days. Believe it or not my trackchasing story will appear in a special addition of the Women’s section of the Trinidad daily newspaper called Newsday. The section is called “Mentality”. No, it’s not about “mental” people but men. That’s right. They’re talking about men in the women’s section. It works for me. We were working now. By 6:30 a.m. (when the hotel restaurant opened) Carol and I were chowing down at the complimentary breakfast bar of our Portland, Oregon Residence Inn. We only had 15 minutes to eat. Carol’s flight to Los Angeles left at 8 a.m. Yes, we are pretty busy for an elderly retired couple! Luckily (not really) our hotel was located just two miles from the airport. On a still dark and rainy Portland morning I dropped Carol for her flight and then returned our rental car. That Hyundai Sonata gave us about 35 M.P.G. The car has some interior noise (compared to our Lexus autos) but is most economical. Carol was headed to Los Angeles. Her short vacation trip was ending. Mine was continuing on to Seattle and then to St. Louis I hoped. Flying the quick 129 miles from Portland to Seattle took just 34 minutes on an Alaskan Airlines plane sporting the University of Oregon Ducks logo. Things would slow down from there. My continuing flight to St. Louis wasn’t leaving for three hours. I spent the time with my sponsor the Alaskan Airlines Board Room. It was relaxing in this private club. I caught up on all of my email responsibilities, snacked a bit and charged all of my electronic gadgets. Then I headed over to standby for the St. Louis flight. It was going to be tight getting a seat on a standby basis. This would be a big miss. The flight was fully booked. I was second on the standby list. However, this was a Friday. Folks were looking to get back home from work in Seattle and to begin their vacations in St. Louis. O.K., who vacations in St. Louis during the winter? This “tight flight” was a recipe for disaster although I really expected to make it. I didn’t. That’s right. I missed getting on this flight by ONE seat. That’s O.K. I’ve made a lot more in this situation than I’ve missed. It was ‘action’ time. Now I was scrambling. For anyone who says, “I could do what Randy does if I had his airline connections” I would simply say this. I wish you could try it for a couple of months. It was “action time” now. I needed to be in Corinth, Mississippi by 12 noon on Saturday. It was now 12 noon on Friday and I was in Seattle. My current airline sponsor doesn’t fly that many places in the Midwest or South. The Kansas City flight had already left. The afternoon Chicago flight was well overbooked. I could get on a flight to Dallas but the driving time to first Mississippi and then St. Louis, where I had to be on Monday, was just too long. I was down to my last option. I had only one remaining “best” choice. Of course, “best” can be a relative term. I would wait some six more hours in Seattle and take the last flight of the day to Chicago. I would land in Chicago, rent a car and drive overnight some nine hours to Mississippi. From the time I picked up the car in Chicago until I needed to be in Corinth, Mississippi would be about 11 hours and 30 minutes. The overnight drive would take nine hours. That gave me 2 ½ hours of “free” time. I could use that time to sleep, go to the Waffle House or work out. In reality there wouldn’t be much time for any of that. However, I was committed to seeing that track in Mississippi. There were some other racing alternatives but the Mississippi track only races one time per year. It was now or never for them with me. For the rest of the Friday afternoon in Seattle, after missing my flight to STL, I headed back to the Board Room. There I re-shuffled my rental car plan. I emailed a friend of mine who lives in St. Louis and rearranged our Monday luncheon meeting. Then I went on Priceline and grabbed a Marriott hotel for Saturday night at the St. Louis airport for fifty bucks that had an airport shuttle. That move would save me a day’s worth of rental car. It is times like this when I know the trackchasing hobby is keeping my brain pretty active with real life “word problems”. I love it. My plane bound for Chicago was scheduled to land at midnight. Then my plan was to drive all night to Mississippi. Luckily, I was given a complete row of seats to myself. However, three airplane seats are only about four feet wide in total. That’s not quite enough for someone as tall as me. I tried to sleep laying down but couldn’t. We did land on time at midnight. That was good. However, with snow moving into Chicago’s O’Hare airport we couldn’t get a gate for another hour! That hurt. Now I had just 10 ½ hours to drive more than nine hours to Mississippi. Then at 1 a.m. it took forever for the rental car shuttle bus to come as I stood outside in nearly zero-degree weather. Then when I went to check out with my rental car the agent hassled me over details of my reservation. I wasn’t in much mood to discuss the details. Then I was on my way for the 557-mile drive at 1:30 a.m. I would have just enough time for three 12-minute power naps along the way. I don’t recommend this method of travel. However, if you’re going to do this the way I do, you’re going to have to do it this way from time to time. Saturday. I made it but I didn’t really make it. I pulled into the Crossroads Arena in Corinth, Mississippi just before racing was to begin at 12 noon today. I’ll tell you more about what was to become a very unsuccessful visit to Mississippi in the Race Review section. I will also tell you about my fallback situation in Martin, Tennessee today. The Tennessee race was scheduled for Sunday but in an emergency could be used for Saturday. This was an emergency. Sunday. I don’t care much for days like this. This was a most unusual “non-trackchasing” day. I had nothing to do and I was on the road! I don’t particularly care for those days. Why today didn’t work. A series of somewhat unusual circumstances led to my situation. First, my planned trackchasing trip for today (Sunday) to Tennessee had to be used on Saturday to replace the Mississippi Saturday trip that didn’t happen when not enough countable cars/drivers showed up. When I couldn’t confirm a Sunday Minnesota ice race, and it’s corresponding 16-hour round-trip drive, I was relegated to staying in St. Louis all-day Sunday. Normally I would have attempted to return home on Super Bowl Sunday. However my fixed return ticket with sponsor Frontier Airlines was booked for a Monday (tomorrow) return. This all meant I had no racing to see today and I couldn’t come home for another day. It was a kickback day. With a full day in the luxurious St. Louis Marriott I never left the hotel. I did tune into the Super Bowl just as the second half was beginning. I had forgotten what time the big game started! I don’t follow the NFL anymore. Until today I had watched only about 10 NFL plays in the last 10 years except for bits and pieces of Super Bowls that I record for the commercials. Was this just me? Speaking of Super Bowl commercials was it just me or what? I was watching the broadcast on a super high definition in-room TV at the Marriott. The most interesting part, by far, was watching the commercials. However, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what the commercials were selling until the last five seconds of the spot. For some of the ads, even after the commercial was finished I STILL didn’t know what they were pitching! Why do advertisers spend $4MM for an ad where it can’t be understood clearly what they are selling? Monday. One of my most unproductive trips in a long time. This had to be one of the most unproductive trackchasing trips I’ve had in a long time. I left early on Thursday morning and didn’t get back home until the wee hours of Tuesday. I had been gone overnight for four nights and netted only one track. Truth be told the plan only called for two tracks but one vs. two is a big difference in this game. There were two major highlights to this trip. A trip highlight was surely seeing UCLA play the Oregon Ducks with Carol in their brand new basketball arena. That was fun. Additionally, I had the chance to have lunch with Ron Otto in St. Louis today. Ron and I first began working with each other at Richardson-Vicks in the mid-70s. It’s great to have a friendship for more than 40 years. Ron treated me to lunch at Lombardo’s and we reminisced over our shared experiences. Thanks for lunch Ron. Sorry, I simply can’t fathom it. From lunch it was on SoCal from St. Louis just in time. They were expecting 4-6 inches of snow tomorrow. Although I grew up in Illinois I can’t fathom having to live in this terrible Midwest climate. When I lived here as a kid I didn’t mind. However, after residing in California for more than 30 years I could never move back. Frontier Airlines was picking up the tab today for my ride back home. I don’t fly them much but appreciated their sponsorship of my hobby. I flew from St. Louis to Denver and then onto Los Angeles. Carol was at the airport to pick me up at nearly 1 a.m. St. Louis time. It’s most rare for her to have to drive to LAX to get me. However, when she headed home after the basketball game and grabbed my car to transport herself back to San Clemente I was without a car to get home on my own. I’m only home for two days before one of my last two winter trips takes place. For me, “trackchasing winter” is January and February. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION I very much enjoy the racing when I go on trackchasing trips. However, I am not the type of person who would feel the trip was complete if I simply left home, went to the race and came back home. I do a good deal of traveling. I want to do my best to see the local area when I come for a visit. There are often some unusual attractions that one area is noted for more than any other locale. I want to see those places. I want to touch them and feel them. When I leave an area, I want to have memories of these special places that I call Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I will remember those experiences long after the checkered flag has fallen on whatever race I have seen that day. Matthew Knight Arena – Eugene, Oregon Why we follow UCLA. We are big followers of UCLA sports, especially basketball and football. Everyone likes to follow a winner. UCLA has won more than 100 NCAA sports championships. What’s our formal tie to UCLA? Each of our three children graduated from UCLA. Additionally, son J.J. has an MBA from this fine school. Did you know that UCLA gets more applications each year than any other college in the world? Carol and I go to several home basketball and football games. We’ve been season ticket holders in both sports. We also follow the Bruins all over the country. In fact, we’ve seen them play every one of the other eleven Pac-12 schools in games away from UCLA. Don’t miss this very unique and nearly new arena. Today we were up in Eugene, Oregon. We’ve made several UCLA sports trips up here. The nearly new 12,364 seat Matthew Knight Arena opened in 2011. Prior to that they played their home basketball games in the venerable “Mac Court”. That arena saw its first game played in 1927. It was considered one of the most hostile places to play of anywhere in the country. Seeing games at “Mac Court” was the absolute best! When it closed it was the second oldest basketball arena in the country behind just Fordham University’s Rose Hill Gym. Some day I hope to make it to Rose Hill. The Matthew Knight Arena was named after Phil Knight’s (founder of Nike) son Matthew who died at age 34 in a scuba diving accident. The cost to build the place was $227 million. The arena is famous for two major and unique offerings. The on court design features repeating silhouettes of Pacific Northwest tree lines, giving the impression of being lost in the forest, gazing toward the sky. Please don’t miss the pictures of the most unusual basketball court design anywhere. Additionally, the arena also features a 32-by-36-foot, 65,000-pound center-hung scoreboard, the largest in college sports. It contains four 20 by 12 feet high definition LED monitors and is connected to the ceiling by intersecting “O” logos. Our visit to the Matthew Knight arena checked off another modern day bucket list item. We paid just $8 each for our $35 face value tickets via StubHub. We watched a close game with UCLA coming out on top at the end 70-68. Again, don’t miss the pictures! ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL Yelp! answers all dining questions. One might not expect to find an authentic Mexican restaurant in Eugene, Oregon. However, Yelp! has taught me to increase my expectations! It always comes through. Before the basketball game Carol and I would dine at Mi Tierra, home to authentic Mexican food in Eugene. Ned McWherter Ag Center – Martin, Tennessee Who is the world does this? I had finally gotten my rental car from the airport, at 1:30 a.m., during a snowstorm in Chicago. I had driven 557 miles down to Corinth, Mississippi. I was operating on just three 12-minute power naps when I entered the Crossroads Arena. Yes, the Crossroads Arena not the New McWerter Ag Center as noted above. I paid my $10 admission fee to discover a very nice indoor arena. I think many of these facility types were originally constructed for rodeos and the like. There was a grandstand, with chair-backed seats some 10-12 rows high that encircled the arena’s dirt floor. Lots of folks aren’t as precise as I would prefer. The published advance information had stated practice would begin at 10 a.m. with racing to follow. That was a fairly open-ended way to put things. If you don’t set a specific goal then it’s very difficult to be held accountable. Is that why people don’t set goals? Mildly concerning? I could see the pit area when I drove up to the events center. There didn’t seem to be all that many racers in the pits. That was mildly concerning. This was mainly a “flat kart” show. There was only one countable class that I was hoping to see, the senior champs. These are essentially go-karts with a sprint car type body and roll cage. Another class, “Junior champs” is nearly identical to their older brother the senior champs. Normally, what sets them apart is the driver’s age limit for the juniors. There is no age limit for the seniors. I wasn’t seeing what I wanted to see. After getting my bearings inside the arena I took a stroll outdoors to check out the competitors. I surely didn’t see many caged racers. That wasn’t good. In fact it was bad. Had I made such a sacrifice of driving 557 miles overnight to hit a dry hole? First, I ran into a junior champ kart racer. He told me there were 2-3 juniors racing today. I only saw two race later in the day. Then I came across a senior champ kart racer. He told me there was one other senior champ racing today. That’s all I needed for a countable race, two racers. However, as I looked over the pit area I did not see any other senior champ racer. When the senior champs were called for their last practice none showed up. When I walked back into the pit area the one and only senior champ now had a cover over the machine. Later I would ask one of the track officials if there were any senior champs racing today. “Nope, we don’t have any” was his glum reply. This was despite a promised $500 to win for this class. However, that prize money was probably based on more than one or two senior champs attending. There was one other countable racer in attendance, a 600cc mini-sprint machine. However, after talking to its owner/driver I learned he had just bought the racer and came today to “shake it down” Skunked in Mississippi. To make a very long story just a wee bit longer and sorrier, I had been skunked in Mississippi. However, I did have a backup plan. It was not a plan I wanted to use but I had no choice. After hopefully seeing racing in Mississippi today I was going to head just two hours north to Martin, Tennessee for their champ kart show being held tomorrow. The Mississippi group was scheduled to race their two-day show on Friday/Saturday. The Tennessee boys and girls were racing on Saturday and Sunday. With no Mississippi racing today I would have to see the Tennessee track today, Saturday rather than tomorrow, Sunday. I had no choice the backup plan was now the primary plan. Of course that was assuming the Tennessee event had at least two senior champs racing. Timing might be an issue too. The Saturday Tennessee schedule called for practice at 9:30 a.m. with qualifying and then racing to begin “thereafter”. I would not get there until 3:15 p.m. What if they had already practiced, qualified and raced the one and only countable class I was interested in within six hours or so of the start of practice? Way too much practice. Does a bear #$%@ in the woods? Karters are notorious for practicing, and practicing and when they get done they take a deep breath and practice some more. I entered the Ned McWherter AG Center to a cloud of blue smoke. One of the things about indoor racing is the ventilation or lack thereof. Apparently in the previous six hours they had first practiced and then qualified. My timing was impeccable. When the currently ongoing intermission was finished they would start racing. I had not missed a thing! Where were the racers? I guess by 3:15 p.m. they had stopped charging for admission. They didn’t charge me anything to enter the arena. I took the intermission opportunity to check out the pit area. Just like in Mississippi I walked outside the race building to see what kinds of racers had shown up. However, I looked everywhere and I didn’t see ANY racers. There were all kinds of pickup trucks and racecar trailers. There just weren’t any racers. I checked back inside the track’s building. No racers there either. Finally, I discovered a second building where the racers WERE located. No, it’s never easy. This building was essentially a large animal barn often seen at our nation’s county fairs. With rain on the way for the rest of the weekend having an indoor pit area would work really well. No car count problem here. This building was jam-packed with all kinds of kart racers. There might have been more than 200. There were some 15-20 or so champ karts. I really couldn’t tell if they were senior or junior champs without seeing the drivers. I was relieved at that sight. At least the Ned McWherter Ag Center in Martin, Tennessee would become a countable track. The question was, how long would I have to wait to see the one and only countable class, out of 17 total classes, race? I guess the trackchasing Gods were feeling sorry for me after my earlier Mississippi debacle. The senior champ consolation event would be the fifth race after intermission. Lots of racers; lots of races. Some classes had multiple consies. The senior champ consolation event had just six competitors racing for eight laps. That was good enough to put track #1,929 in the books. Did I really want to stay for the senior champ main event? I would have to wait for some 17-25 races to run before they got back to the senior champs. I was working on 36 minutes of overnight sleep. I wasn’t going to stay much longer. I did see about eight flat kart races then it was time to head north. What would I do on Super Bowl Sunday? I would have a three-hour drive up toward St. Louis. In St. Louis I already had a hotel reserved for Sunday night (this was Saturday) and an airplane reservation for Monday afternoon. Those commitments didn’t work out that well considering my Sunday Tennessee track had been used up on Saturday. What would I do on Sunday? I had just one option. It wasn’t a good option but it was an option. I knew of an ice race up in Minnesota. I checked my Google Maps! program to find out how long it would take to drive there from Tennessee. The answer: 11 hours. Then it would be another eight hours back to St. Louis after the race. Just one verbal confirmation would send me driving off into the night….all night for the second straight night. I decided if I could confirm they were racing I would make the drive. Last night I got 36 minutes of sleep. If I drove from southern Tennessee to Minnesota I would cover some 717 miles. That drive would take 11 hours but I figured I had about 16 hours before the ice race would take its first green flag on Sunday. The troublesome aspect of that plan was that it was going to be below zero overnight. Heck, at the expected 10 a.m. race time the temperature in Minnesota was projected to be -3 degrees Fahrenheit. Would I get that verbal confirmation in time? However, the International Ice Racing Association (IIRA) is difficult to get hold of once the weekend begins. Their website lists one phone number of the group’s president. However, that is the number to his shop and he’s not there on the weekends. I left a message. In his recorded message he mentioned a towing company and gave their phone number. However, when I called that group they had never heard of the IIRA president! I had one more call to make. That was to Flicabird’s Bar in Rush City, Minnesota. I was up there to see an IIRA race two weeks ago. I wondered if anyone working in the bar would know where the IIRA was racing this weekend. The IIRA website did indicate they were to be racing on Madison Lake in Mankato. However, when I went to their event two weeks ago they had changed the racing location to another lake on just two-days notice. I couldn’t make a 16-hour round-trip drive without a 100% confirmation that the IIRA was racing at Madison Lake in Mankato, Minnesota. I never got that confirmation. I did not drive to Minnesota from Tennessee. In hindsight that was probably a good idea. However, as you can see, once I’m on one of these trips I will do whatever it takes to see the next track. Contact from the IIRA. On Monday the IIRA president returned my call. Yes, that had raced on Madison Lake on Sunday. I reminded him that the IIRA group was difficult to reach on weekends. He told me the group’s racing plans were on the www.iceracingmn.com website. That was true. However, before I drive 16 hours I need to speak to someone personally before I make that kind of commitment. This is especially true in the ever-changing world of ice racing. Editor’s note: After my conversation with the IIRA president about the difficulty in reaching the group his cell phone number miraculously appeared on the website for future use. I am glad to see he acted on my recommendation. What was the bottom line to this trip? The bottom bottom line was that I had arrived into the “area” (Chicago) late Friday night. I would not be getting home until late Monday night (actually early Tuesday morning Central time). That’s three full days to see one track and a track that races go-karts no less. That was not a very good use of my time. I wasn’t too happy with this trip. Nevertheless, I’ve had so many fantastic trips that if I had have 25 bummers like this one in a row I would still be ahead of the game. It was time to put this one in the rearview mirror and move forward. STATE COMPARISONS Tennessee The Volunteer State This evening I saw my 26th lifetime track in the Volunteer state, yes the Volunteer state. I still have a few short track ovals that will bring me back to Tennessee. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member Tennessee sayings: No shirt, no teeth, no problem
QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Portland, OR (PDX) – 834 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Portland International Airport – trip begins Eugene, Oregon Portland International Airport – trip ends – 250 miles AIRPLANE Portland, OR (PDX) – Seattle, WA – 129 miles Seattle, WA – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 1,761 miles RENTAL CAR #2 Chicago O’Hare International Airport – trip begins Corinth, MS Martin, TN St. Louis International Airport – trip ends – 879 miles AIRPLANE St. Louis, MO – (STL) – Denver, CO (DEN) – 782 miles Denver, CO (DEN) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 838 miles Total air miles – 4,344 (5 flights) Total rental car miles – 879 (1 car) Total miles traveled on this trip – 5,223 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Ned McWherter Ag Center – No charge LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 375 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,929 Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 68 Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.96 That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report 
I did order one very expensive pizza for consumption during the game. It was from a famous place in St. Louis called Imo’s. It wasn’t too my liking. The cheese tasted like it was sprayed on from a can. Nevertheless, at a net cost of about $25 U.S. I felt compelled to eat the whole thing!
However, once I was back in my office it almost (but not quite) seemed as if I had never been gone. Why did I have that feeling? Because I was 100% focused on my next trip! 
The restaurant is located next to a Mexican grocery store. As a matter of fact, we first walked into the grocery store by mistake. It was obvious “we weren’t from around here”. However once we did sit down to dinner it was wonderful. I can’t count the number of unique and delicious dinners we’ve had with the benefit of Yelp.
