Greetings from Monroe, Washington
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Quarter Midget Racing Association Asphalt oval Lifetime Track #2,654 THE EVENT Editor’s note: One of the best things about the racing portion of my trackchasing hobby is the variety of racing I get to see. You’ve got to agree. There’s a little bit of everything! Today I share a type of racing I only see rarely…quarter midget racing. Check it out. The cars are beautiful. The drivers are young. They put on a fun show. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with my buddy Simon at the ice races on a frozen lake in Sweden). I live out in San Clemente, California. We’re only 74 miles north of the Mexican border. I’m not sure a person could pick a more inconvenient location in the continental United States if they wanted to be a world-class trackchaser. My residential location virtually assures the idea that I must fly to virtually every track I visit. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,670 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you? I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this nearly 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. 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 Sunday, September 20, 2020. Seeing any racing at today’s track was going to prove to be a bit tenuous. I had a race location sort of. I had a way to get there sort of. The weather forecast was O.K. sort of. When you multiply three “sort of” probabilities you get an end result of “possibly not“. Today I was attempting to see some quarter-midget racing at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington. If you have followed my trackchasing for very long you know that quarter midget racing is almost always limited to drivers aged 5-16. As a trackchasing mini-expert, you would also know that trackchasing’s founding fathers, who met together in a smoke-filled room in rural Pennsylvania sometime back in the 1990s, turned thumbs down on “kids” racing. Why did they do that? I wasn’t there. I can only offer conjecture. I can only observe that type of behavior after it occurred. I can tell you this. I don’t care much for their decision. Want to know more? You might want to try to find out by going directly to the horse’s mouth by asking one of trackchasing’s founding fathers. What in the world were they thinking? A quarter-midget race car is a fully countable car by trackchasing rules. Many quarter midget racing associations have a special event, normally at the end of the year, where adults or drivers 18 years of age or older are allowed to participate. Sometimes these are called handler’s races. I saw one that was called a mom’s race. Today up in Evergreen Monroe, Washington they were planning to have a “retired drivers” race. I’ve known that they’ve done such a thing up here in Washington for a few years. This year it looked as if the trip to Washington might fit my travel schedule. I got in touch with a couple of key decision-makers for the Washington Quarter Midget Racing Association. I first contacted Mindy who is a vice president of the organization. She was extremely helpful and did some behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Soon I was being admitted to the race without having to pay a membership fee. I was placed in the category of “press” which is a very apropos category for me. I also talked to Andy a past president of the group. He and I had talked a couple of years ago. Andy was also very helpful in giving me some background on the retired drivers’ race. So I had a race! Now I needed a way to get there. Yesterday afternoon I trackchased in the far northeastern corner of Montana way up by the North Dakota and Canadian borders. There I saw the Montana Bump n Run group compete at the Round Town Raceway in Circle, Montana. The Montana main events wrapped up about 5 p.m. I was originally scheduled to return my rental car to Denver, Colorado. However, if I did that it was going to be a 650-mile 9 ½-hour drive down to Denver. If I went with that plan I would need to get on a 7 a.m. flight from Denver to Seattle. I only had about 13 hours to make that 9 1/2 hour drive. That plan didn’t look attractive. I threw myself on the leniency of the court of opinion with National Car Rental. What could they do for me? Lots! I made a special arrangement so that I could return my rental car in Billings, Montana. Billings would only be a 3 ½-hour drive from Circle, Montana. Three and a half hours is much better than 9 1/2 hours. The time savings even allowed me to get a hotel room in Billings. I chose Billings over Bozeman, Montana for two reasons. Both of those cities had a 7 a.m. flight to Seattle. However, Billings was 3 1/2 hours from yesterday’s racing and Bozeman was 5 1/2 driving hours. I was taking a chance. I would be flying standby. The plane from Billings had seven open seats and no standbys the night before it was scheduled to take off. However, the flight from Bozeman had 21 seats and only one standby available. Was it worth it to drive two more hours to have that many more open seats? I didn’t think so. By the time I got to my hotel room in Billings, I checked that Billings flight one more time. In a matter of about 12 hours, the flight that had seven open seats and no standbys had gone to only six open seats and six standbys. I was last on the standby list. That was a little scary. Now I was sort of wishing I had gone with the Bozeman situation but it was too late to do anything about that. I pretty much knew that if I scheduled myself on a 7 a.m. flight that some people were going to miss that flight. I’ve always counted on the sick, lame and lazy (a term I learned in the Marine Corps above front left) to come through for me. Those folks would move me up in the rankings just a little bit further. Not only did I make that flight but I ended up getting a first-class seat! I have the sick, lame and lazy folks to thank for my good fortune. Now I had to get the weather to cooperate. Today’s track in Monroe was just a 40-minute drive north of Seattle. Seattle gets a lot of rain. It rained all day yesterday. The weather was expected to clear up about race time at 10 a.m. today. Even though I would only be driving about 80 miles round-trip I picked up a Toyota Camry from National Car Rental. When I exited the SeaTac airport the weather was misting. It wasn’t rain but the conditions might change for the worst. I didn’t like the looks of things. I have been extremely fortunate with the weather this year. When I arrived at the track at 9:45 a.m. the rain was over for the day. A mix of sun and clouds were on tap for the rest of the afternoon. Today I would be seeing my sixth countable track at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds here in Monroe. You know that trackchasing’s rules allow chasers to see different kinds of configurations be they ovals, road courses or figure 8 tracks as well as varying forms of lengths, shapes and surfaces. I think that’s a very liberal way of counting things. Yes, it was true that I was seeing my seventh different race track at Evergreen. However, I have made six visits in total to get those seven tracks so I don’t really feel like the system has been too lenient for me at Evergreen. 1985 – Evergreen – 5/8M oval (above with Bill Elliott) 2001 – Evergreen – 3/8M oval 2001 – Evergreen – figure 8 2005 – Evergreen – permanent road course 2008 – Evergreen – 1/5M oval 2017 – Evergreen – mixed-surface road course 2020 – Evergreen – quarter midget track Today’s retired drivers’ race was going to have 10 participants. When I had called ahead only four cars had registered so I guessed more than half the field were late arrivals. I think quarter-midget racing is entertaining and very competitive. The cars typically are immaculate miniatures of what many of you know as a sprint car. In almost every case the quarter midgets are caged but without wings. I had a chance to meet the track’s treasurer. She was handling the sign and duties. I signed my liability release and from then on I had the opportunity to explore every nook and cranny of the Washington Quarter Midget Association’s very small and beautifully paved asphalt oval. Today the retired drivers would have two heat races and the main event. Following their main, they were going to have a “relay race”. This was a special concoction where a retired driver would race for three laps, come into the pits and exchange drivers with a “current” driver a.k.a. “kid” and do that a couple of times. This was going to be a timed event with the lowest elapsed time being the winner. I’m not sure why this race needed to be a timed event if everybody started at the same time. I don’t make the rules. Over the years I’ve picked up a few retired drivers/ handler’s events at tracks from the quarter midget race world. I don’t know that I’ve seen as many as 10. This type of race is kind of a change of pace. I enjoy it on a limited basis. Some people think that the trackchasing rules should allow go-kart racing. I’m talking about flat karts. I agree that we should have done that from the beginning. I’m not so sure it’s a good idea now. Why do I say that? Here’s my reasoning. I think it would screw up the lifetime trackchaser statistics. So many trackchasers have come into the hobby and now left the hobby because of age/lack of interest or are now deceased. They didn’t have the chance to see flat kart racing at the nation’s seemingly more than one thousand kart tracks. There’s been less discussion on whether or not we should count “kids” Racing. That would for the most part fall into the quarter midget racing group. I think counting kid’s racing would have probably been a good idea as well. Again, it would have been a better idea at the onset of trackchasing rather than now after so many of the veteran trackchasers are pretty much retired. Those folks would no longer have an opportunity to add to their track lists at this point. Doing something like that equates to moving the fences in at baseball games. It just doesn’t seem right. I have been very fortunate in 2020 to not have a single event on my schedule rained out. Since I started up trackchasing again during Covid in early June I have flown for 16 straight weekends and not missed a single destination. I would say that finding a race, finding a way to get there and getting some decent weather has been working out extremely well in this minorly abbreviated trackchasing season. Now following today’s racing I just needed to find a way home and another trackchasing trip would be on the books. Alas…I did find a way home. Following a Saturday afternoon of racing in rural Montana and a Sunday afternoon race north of Seattle, Washington I returned home safely into the loving arms of Trackchasing’s First Mother. Another excellent trackchasing trip was in the rearview mirror. Good evening from Monroe, Washington. Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,654 tracks. Washington The Evergreen State This afternoon I saw racing at my 44th-lifetime track in the Evergreen State, yes, the Evergreen State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Washington. Washington ranks #19, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Washington state trackchasing list. I have made 28 separate trips to Washington seeing these tracks. 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 Washington sayings: “Help! We’re Overrun By Nerds and Slackers!” JUST THE FACTS 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 780 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 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. From Montana to Washington to California and everything I saw in between 
