Greetings from Mulhurst, Alberta, Canada
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Pigeon Lake Ice Track
Ice oval
Lifetime Track #2,529
THE EVENT I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Before you discovered my site had you ever heard of trackchasing? Maybe not? So….what the heck is trackchasing? Sit back, take a read and you’ll be an expert on my hobby of trackchasing when you’re finished. Here’s my best explanation. Trackchasing is a three-pronged hobby. I’m a racing fan. I love to travel. I love to analyze opportunities to get the most out of everything while saving time and money. Trackchasing fills the need for all of the above. The racing part of my trackchasing has me trying to see wheel to wheel auto racing at as many different racetracks as I can all over the world. Yes, all over the world. So far things are going pretty well. As this is written, I’ve seen racing in 82 countries at more than 2,500 tracks. As a matter of fact, I’ve seen racing at more tracks than anyone else in the world. Equally important to me are the things I get to see and experience over the “long and dusty trackchasing trail”. I call these adventures “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions”. You won’t want to miss my “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions” page. Here’s the link: Trackchasing Tourist Attractions or my “Sports Spectating Resume” page, Sports Spectating Resume on my website at www.randylewis.org. I live in southern California. That’s probably the most inconvenient location in the country for seeing tracks in the U.S. Most of the racetracks in the U.S. are located well over 1,000 miles from where I live. As a matter of fact, my average trip covers 5,000 miles and more. I take 35-40 of those trips each season. In any given year I will travel well over 200,000 miles, rent more than 50 cars, and stay in more than 150 hotel rooms. I get the chance to meet people all over the world. With trackchasing trips to 82 countries and counting just getting the chance to experience so many other cultures, spend time in their homes and meet their friends is a huge reward for being in this hobby. I am indebted to several of these folks for their help and friendship. It’s takes a good deal of planning to do the above and not spend my entire retirement portfolio. I enjoy the challenge, the travel and every other aspect of “trackchasing”. In reality, my trackchasing hobby is a lot like being with the carnival. I breeze into town, stay a little while and then head on down the road. Today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the proverbial long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD Golf and trackchasing are great teachers about life. With both you are likely to encounter difficulties just like in life. It is how you handle and react to the difficulties of golf, trackchasing and life that help determine how happy you’re going to be. Remember, you’re in charge of how you decide to react when the ball is flying towards the out of bounds marker. Today’s trackchasing taught me just a little bit more about the benefits of reacting in the right way. When I go out on the long and dusty trackchasing trail I really have three overall objectives. I’m going to wherever I’m going in order to see a new racetrack. Racing definitely brings me to these places located all over the world. Often times it takes a good deal of commitment to get from San Clemente, California where Carol and I reside in a modest seaside cottage, to whatever far-flung location that is home to the next racetrack. It is definitely a mental and physical challenge getting from point A to point B to point C etc. Folks, I’ve seen racing at more than 2,500 tracks. It’s unlikely that I’m going to see many really “new” things from simply watching the cars racing on the track. Yes, I’ll see you some unusual things but the actual racing is pretty much “old hat”. Then what really is the attraction of going to and from the racetrack? Most of the time it’s going to be the people I meet. They come from different locales and often times different countries. The things they do day in and day out are usually quite a bit different than the things that I do on a daily basis. It’s the fun of meeting these people and being able to spend a day in their environment that makes trackchasing so much fun. During my trip to Alberta I would come against some difficulties. I learned a long time ago that I personally get the chance to choose how I’m going to react to the different situations I encounter. When something happens will I be happy, sad, concerned, disappointed or what? It’s so important that I remember that I get to choose my own reaction to the circumstances I encounter. On this trip I was headed to Alberta, Canada. I was going to experience a couple of “blips” on my radar screen. These blips would give me a good chance to decide how I was going to react to the situations that were presented to me. I was in the middle of my trip to Alberta when I got word from the Alberta Oval Ice Racing Championship series. They had canceled Sunday’s ice racing! That’s never a good sign. I was already committed to going to Alberta. I had two nights of hotel reservations that could no longer be canceled. Yes, I was committed. This was a blip! Then the first morning I woke up in Alberta I went out to get into my rental car. I discovered that all four doors were frozen shut. The wind chill temperature was 35 below zero. I wasn’t going to get into my rental car. This was a blip! I needed to be somewhere in the next several minutes. They would end up towing that car back to the airport. How was I going to react? The official ice race on Pigeon Lake in Mulhurst, Alberta, Canada had been canceled. I was standing out in 35° below zero temperatures and I couldn’t get into my rental car. How was I going to react? Folks, this is what the “story” is. Trackchasing for me is all about the story. Without the story I wouldn’t be trackchasing as long as I have. Luckily, there is always a story. You are about to experience the story. It won’t cost you a thing. You won’t have to leave the country. You won’t have to stand outside in 35 degree below zero temperatures. You can experience it all in the comfort of your own home right in front of your computer screen. Saturday, February 9, 2019. On Saturday afternoon I left the ice racing on Lake Ripley in Litchfield, Minnesota. Under cold and snowy conditions I had a two-hour back to the Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport. This evening I was catching a plane to the Canadian province of Alberta. I’m lucky in the sense that I have sponsors who support my trackchasing. I try to mention this as often as I can. Could I do this without sponsors? Yes, I could. Could I do it easier and have more fun without the support of sponsors? No, I could not. When I got back to MSP I had enough time to do some power walking. When I was finished, my daily total exceeded four miles. The Minneapolis airport is a fantastic place for power walking. It’s huge and everyone is already doing a lot of walking so no one notices anything unusual when I put in a few miles. I had just enough time for a nice pasta dinner at one of my food sponsors, the PGA MSP Lounge. This is one of my favorite dishes at the restaurant. Then I hopped on a jet airplane from Minneapolis to Edmonton, Alberta. It was nice being upgraded to first class. I had a Bailey’s and ate another meal that I hadn’t planned on eating. I spent most of my time on the plane listening to the Burt Reynolds movie, The Last Movie Star on my MacBook Pro. When I travel like this traveling is never a hassle. Frankly, for me traveling has never been a hassle regardless of whether I have a middle seat in the last row of coach or a first class seat. I had made a reservation for the next two nights at the Sheraton hotel in Edmonton. My trackchasing sponsor Priceline.com got me a fantastic rate of only $51 per night. Fifty-one bucks for a Sheraton? That’s a pretty good deal. When I arrived I “mentioned” my platinum elite frequent stay status. My business loyalty ended up getting me an upgrade to a king suite room as well as free breakfast at Ric’s Lounge. Ric’s is a private restaurant connected to the hotel. Of course, enhanced Wi-Fi Internet connectivity and hotel parking was included as well. For 51 bucks a night I was doing pretty well. Sunday, February 10, 2019 Last night I had rented a Toyota Camry from National Car Rental Company at the Edmonton airport. Alberta’s cold weather climate can be a bit of a problem during the winter with the rental cars. They wash the cars and make them all clean and pretty for the next person who will be renting the car. However, the cars then sit in a parking garage where there is no heat. It doesn’t take much for the doors, trunk, gas fill up door, etc. to freeze up. When I picked up my car in Minneapolis yesterday there was a placard inside the interior of the car. It said something to the effect, “It’s freezing and we didn’t wash the outside of the car because it’s simply too cold and everything would freeze up”. I’ve got no problem with that as long as the car’s interior is clean. I guess Edmonton doesn’t have the same policy regarding washing cars that Minneapolis does. Maybe they should. The temperature in Alberta was even colder than what it was in Minneapolis. Before I go much further I wanted to tell you about my advance people contacts with the ice racing program in Alberta. And before I tell you that I simply wanted to remind you that I spent 30 years working for Procter and Gamble. Do you ever wonder how a juggler can be a world-class juggler when you find doing that so difficult? Have you ever wondered how a heart surgeon can perform in such a difficult and complicated profession when you might have some difficulty doing that? Have you ever wondered how a professional golfer can pull off some of his or her sports skills when again you might find it difficult if not impossible time doing the same thing? The reason is simple. First of all, these people are talented in whatever skill they have perfected. Secondly, they have spent eight hours a day or more since they were small children or students in school learning and doing their special vocation. They didn’t just walk in one day and perform a heart operation or shoot seven under par on the golf course. I spent most of my 30 years with Procter & Gamble, one of the biggest corporations in the world, in sales. In sales, I had to quickly analyze the situation and evaluate the people I was trying to sell. Most of my career was as a sales manager. This required hiring people and again assessing their skills and abilities before I made a commitment to offer them a job. I did this for the better part of 30 years. I think I have some skills in this area. I know how to read people. I know which people I can count on and which I cannot. I can translate those people skills when I go trackchasing. Just like when I was selling, I have to make sure I’m talking to decision-makers. Decision-makers can give you the right information and most importantly they can make decisions. As this translates to trackchasing I have to find people who have the information that I need. I’ll be wanting to know when the track is racing, where the track is racing and any other information that is pertinent. Based upon the information I get from these people I will make a substantial financial commitment to making a long-distance travel decision. With the ice racing situation in Canada I first got in contact with a fellow by the name of Mark Meyer. Mark is a UTV ice racer in Canada. He works for a company called UTV Canada that supplies parts to Canadian UTV racers. Mark and I had been corresponding for well over a year. During that time I found him to be a great source of information and a passionate supporter of UTV the racing on ice. Mark was a great source of information. Later in the process I got in touch with Mellissa Tranfield. Mellissa was one of the leaders of the Alberta oval ice racing series. Having Mark and Mellissa on my team was going to be crucial for my ice trackchasing success in Alberta. Ice racing is a delicate sport. You might not think that but it is. The conditions have to be just right in order for ice racing to work. In most places ice racing is limited to January and February. Even then there can be problems. If there isn’t enough ice there will be no ice racing. Duh! Even when ice begins to form a warm weather spell can put the kibosh on any racing. If it snows at the wrong time there might be too much snow to plow and there will be no ice racing. If it rains too much at the wrong time the water will create a lot of slush and there will be no ice racing. Ice racing straddles a delicate balance beam. Finally, if it’s too cold there will be no ice racing. The Winnipeg Sports Car group has a rule that says if the temperature is colder than 40° below zero wind chill they will cancel their races. That’s simply too cold for a track worker to be out on the ice for long periods of time without danger to them personally. The biggest ice racing group in New York has canceled EVERY one of their six weekends in 2019 so far. First they didn’t have enough ice. Then it snowed too much. That canceled the event. The next week too much rain canceled the ice races. Last week they had 11 inches of ice and they have a minimum requirement for safe racing of 12 inches. They canceled again. Despite the potential event cancelling problems for ice racing I’ve had an excellent 2019 season so far. By the end of this weekend I will have seen racing at 10 different ice tracks in two Canadian provinces and three American states. Is that much of an accomplishment? I think it is. The funny thing about seeing those 10 tracks is that at the beginning of last year I have not heard of any of these tracks holding any trackchasing countable racing at all. Not only were these 10 new ice tracks for me but they were brand new ice tracks for anyone. Yesterday, I had seen racing in Minnesota on the ice. Lake Ripley was my 100th ice trackchasing location. I’m pretty proud of that since I started seeing ice racing much later than most of the other leading ice trackchasers. I’ve seen ice racing at 10 tracks this year. If you were to add the totals of every other listed trackchaser in the world, COMBINED, they haven’t seen 10 ice tracks between all of them! Maybe that puts into perspective what seeing ten ice racing tracks this year really means. I told you that the Alberta Oval Ice Racing Association had canceled today’s event. They didn’t cancel until yesterday morning. Why cancel? It was simply too cold for the safety of the workers. Event canceled. However, you can never downplay the passion and ingenuity of racing drivers. The UTV guys and gals got together and decided they were going to have a race even if the official sanctioning body had canceled. I got the word about this from first Mark and then Mellissa. To be honest, it didn’t matter to me if the race was going to be sanctioned or not. In order for a new track to count in trackchasing I simply need to see a race. The race needs to have all of the starters begin the race at the same time, race for a certain number of laps or time and then effectively take a checkered flag. I didn’t care about points. I didn’t care about sanctioning bodies or “official” approval. I simply needed to see a race. With the knowledge that there would be racing on Pigeon Lake in Mulhurst, Alberta I continued my trip. Mark told me it would be good idea to be out on the ice by 10 a.m. Whenever I get news like that I work backwards. I budgeted 30 minutes for showering and shaving and 30 minutes for breakfast. That allowed me to sleep in as late as I possibly could. My complimentary breakfast from the Sheraton Hotel was fantastic. Their pancakes, strawberries and bacon were simply delicious on this cold and clear Canadian morning. However, I did experience a roadblock when I went out into the parking lot. All four doors of the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry were frozen shut! I’m talking about solidly frozen shut. There was no way I was getting into that car this morning. How was I going to get to the racetrack which was some 40 miles away? By the way, later that afternoon the National Car Rental Company sent a driver out to my hotel to tow the car back to the airport. Folks, I’ve been doing this for a while. I’ve encountered problems similar to this from time to time. I kind of know what the drill is. I know which drill will take a long time and which drill will take less time. At this point I was flying by the seat of my pants. I need to fly fast though in order to get out to Pigeon Lake. There was no time to call National Car Rental, explain the situation, wait for a tow truck and wait for transportation back to the airport to get another car. There just wasn’t time for that. Here’s what I did. I called Uber. I was only two or three miles from the airport. Uber would take me back to the airport. Then I would quickly explain to the National Car Rental people my situation and grab a new car and be on my way. I did just that but it wasn’t easy. I encountered a young man at the National Car Rental counter who was one of those folks who seemed to like to say “no” and pass the buck. He told me I couldn’t get a second rental car contract if I hadn’t returned the car from the first contract. He asked me why I hadn’t returned the first car I had rented? I try to be patient, kind and appreciative with the people I work with in the service industry. However, I am finding more and more folks who simply don’t listen. Today I asked the gentleman in the most gracious way that I could, “Are you listening to me? How in the world could I return my first rental car back to the airport if all four doors are frozen shut?” He continued to offer up suggestions and other reasons on why I wasn’t going to get another car. Briefly, I considered renting a car from another agency. Then I simply told him that I needed to talk to someone else. He directed me to a young woman named Amanda who was “manning“ the exit gate for National Car Rental at the airport. In about 20 seconds I explained my situation to Amanda. In another 10 seconds she made the executive decision and told me to pick any car that I wanted and get on my way. She took the car keys from my first rental car and told me she would handle it from there. I’m going to be brutally honest with you right now. You can either accept that brutal honesty or not. It’s up to you. There are certain ethnicities that I find to be inept a good deal of the time in business dealings. Sorry, that’s my data. I will also say that if I had a choice of working with a woman or a man I would choose the woman. Women have a greater attention to detail. They’re usually more empathetic and you can count on them to follow up. This analysis is not true 100% all of the time but it’s true more often than not. Given a choice, and I don’t always have that choice, I’ll take working with a woman over working with a man. THE RACING Pigeon Lake Ice Track – Mulhurst, Alberta, Canada Melissa Tranfield had given me exact coordinates to where they would be racing on Pigeon Lake. That was most helpful. I pulled onto the lake at 10 am. just as Mark had recommended. Racers were still arriving. The wind chill temperatures lived up to their billing, 35° below zero. I had all of my winter ice racing gear on including my toe warmers! Watching ice racing in such cold temperatures is not all that difficult. However, if you’re going to do that you had better have some “systems” in place. I did. For the first several minutes I hung out in one of the heated trailers. Drivers came in and out putting on their gear and then getting in their racers and going out and taking some test laps. When I stood out in the cold it was FREEZING”. I soon learned that I could get in my car and take photos and videos from all kinds of different angles. I performed my “human drone” maneuvers in the rental car. The first person I met at the track was Mark Meyer. He was happy to see that I had made it to Alberta to watch them race. He kept apologizing because this wasn’t an “official” race. I told him that didn’t really matter to me. It was a race. There were about a dozen UTVs racing today in three classes. That’s probably the largest car count of UTVs that I’ve seen at any of the ten tracks I’ve visited this year. There were not a lot of creature comforts with today’s ice racing. There were no food concessions. There were no PA systems. There were no Porta potties. This was ICE racing, basic ice racing like they used to do before people needed toilets. When I pulled on the lake I encountered the track ambulance leaving the premises. It turned out that nobody told them that the official races today were canceled. That meant this was definitely a “rogue“ event without EMT support. I was able to get great photographs and video from the racing action. I won’t tell you very much about that at this stage. I’ll simply recommend that you take a look at my photo album and my YouTube video from the ice race it on Pigeon Lake today. I meet a lot of nice people when I travel the long and dusty trackchasing trail. Today was no exception. Before I arrived in Alberta, Mark Meyer had messaged me saying that he and his wife Melissa had an extra bed at their house and invited me to stay with them. I would have loved to have done that but I had already made a nonrefundable reservation at the Sheraton. Nevertheless, that was really nice of them to offer. While I was sitting in the comfort of my rental car Melissa Tranfield came by to say hello. She races in several divisions but today her UTV wouldn’t start so she couldn’t race with the UTV class. She was most welcoming. It’s always nice to meet people in person who you’ve chatted with on line. Today I also got the chance to meet Mark Meyer’s wife, Melissa. I was getting two Melissas on Pigeon Lake for the price of free. There was no admission price to watch the races today. I don’t know if they charge anything to watch their “official” events. Let me tell you just a little bit about Mark’s wife Mellissa. She is an avid supporter of his racing. Today she was out on the ice in the treacherous cold weather taking photos. Their two young sons travel to the ice races with them as well. They had two small bicycles at the ready despite the cold. I was all the way down at one end of the track parked in the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry waiting for the next race to happen. Then I saw this small figure trudging some 100 yards in my direction. It turned out to be Mellissa. She was walking directly into a 15-mile an hour winds with wind chill temperatures of 35° below zero. I wondered why she was doing it. When she arrived I lowered my window. She had something in her hand. It was a pulled pork sandwich! Mellissa had walked all that way into that cold wind to give me a sandwich! What a sweetheart. She explained that she had heated up the sandwiches over the propane heater in the race trailer. I will tell you this. A pulled pork sandwich heated up on a propane heater and then transported 100 yards in 35° below zero temps loses some of its heat. Nevertheless, this was just about the best pulled pork sandwich I had ever eaten. It was the thoughtfulness and love that brought it to me that made it so delicious. Thank you Melissa. AFTER THE RACES When all of today’s racing had wrapped up it was time for me to head off the ice. This had been an excellent day despite the fact that my original rental car was 100% disabled, the official race was canceled and the wind chill temperature was 35° degrees below zero. Remember, when I told you that everyone gets a chance to choose their own “reaction” to the circumstances they encounter? The above diatribe will tell you that I try to walk the walk with that life strategy. Soon I was back in the warmth of my Sheraton king suite. It was about that time that I got a message from Mark. He and one of his fellow drivers and their families were going out for supper. Would I like to join them? Of course I would. When I left for dinner tonight there was a bit of commotion in the hotel parking lot. I saw a tow truck driver hitching his rig to my disabled Toyota Camry from this morning. Wait! Yes, that’s right. That was MY Toyota Camry. The car had sat there all day and just this evening was being towed back to the barn with its doors still solidly frozen shut. Soon I was putting on enough of my ice trackchasing gear to get me out the door and over to the Leduc Diner. There I found their racing rigs in the diner’s parking lot. Inside I found Mark, his wife Melissa and their two sons as well as Mark’s good friend and racing competitor, Danny. Danny’s son and girlfriend also joined in on the fun. We were all together to enjoy a dinner like so many racing teams do all across the world after the races. By the way, it’s my opinion that you don’t really have a friend if you have not dined with them and played golf with them. Tonight at dinner we did what racers do at dinner after the races, we “bench raced”. They told me they wanted to hear “my stories” from trackchasing all over the world. Danny mentioned he couldn’t even name 82 countries let alone think of the idea that I had been to that many places to see racing. Heck, I didn’t know much about many of these countries before I struck out on some of my trips! We all had a great time, including the kids. Here we were people from two different countries, albeit side-by-side countries, enjoying each other‘s company. It was a fantastic way to end a racing day. Soon my friends were all off to take care of their families on this Sunday night. When would I see them again? There’s a reasonable chance I’ll see them next Sunday as well. More on that later. I guess I am nothing if not energetic. The evening was still early for me. I decided to check out a local movie theater. There I saw the movie, Cold Pursuit. It starred Liam Nielsen. The movie was excellent. I thought it was much better than its 48% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Monday, February 11, 2019. The objective today was simple. I simply needed to get from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada back to San Clemente, California. No other trackchaser has ever trackchased from such a remote location as Southern California. We’re only 74 miles from the Mexican border and the city of Tijuana. Getting to San Clemente was going to be just a little bit difficult however. I’ve had excellent luck with the weather for five separate trips this year to the Midwest and the East. No flight delays at all. Today I showed up at the Edmonton airport (YEG) in plenty of time. My first stop was to the National Car Rental location. I was trying to get my computer charging cable back that had been locked in my “frozen” rental car. No luck. However, they did give me a brand new cable as a replacement. Thanks! Clearing airport security, considering I was leaving a “foreign” country, was easy. I even had time to stop in the Priority Pass “Plaza Premium Lounge”. I didn’t have a lot of time but even 30 minutes in a place like the lounge can be worth it for the food, drinks and quiet. I was flying from Edmonton to Seattle first. The scenery from the air was breathtaking. No problem there. However, when we landed in Seattle we were in for a BIG weather surprise. It was snowing to beat the band. That slowed down everything to a crawl. Randy Lewis – 82 countries – 2,529 tracks. Alberta The Wild Road Country province This morning and afternoon I had seen racing at my 14th lifetime track in the Wild Rose Country province, yes, the Wild Rose Country province. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Alberta. I’ve seen 14 or more tracks in four different provinces. No other trackchaser has done that in more than two provinces. 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 The last day of the Calgary Stampede is the beginning of the countdown for the next years’ festivities. From Cowboy’s ‘100 Days Until Stampede’ Party to the release of the artist lineups (btw, Usher, The Chainsmokers, Big Sean, and Fetty Wap are all performing this year!!!) the excitement never ends. QUICK FACTS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The threemost 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 695 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries The nearest trackchasing competitor has seen racing in 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. Ice racing on Pigeon Lake? Yes! My first ice trackchasing visit off the year to Alberta, Canada 
Alberta sayings: “How many days until the Stampede?”
