Greetings from Wichita Falls, Texas
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Red River Speedway – Asphalt Oval
Lifetime Track #971
Red River Speedway – Dirt Oval
Lifetime Track #2,064
I have been to the Red River Speedway on two different occasions. Back in 2005 I saw more tracks in one year than anyone had up to that time or ever since. 182 tracks! You’ve got to ‘keep on truckin’ to see 182 tracks for the first time in a single year. One of those tracks in 2005 was the Red River Speedway then an asphalt track. In the world of trackchasing the rules makers decided than when a track “changes surfaces” you can count it a second time. In 2005 the Red River Speedway competitors raced on asphalt. Then in 2014 the track was changed to racing on dirt. It didn’t take me long to get on down to Wichita Falls, in 2015, to wipe their dirt track off my “futures” trackchasing map. By the way if I had made the trackchasing rules, which I didn’t, I don’t believe I would have ever considered a ‘change of surface’ opportunity to add a new track. However, I didn’t make the rules; I just follow ’em. As noted in October, 2005 I saw a ‘day/night’ trackchasing double. In the afternoon I visited the Abilene Speedway. Then in the evening I made it on down to the Red River Speedway. That’s a trackchasing double. The asphalt version of the Red River Speedway was my 971st lifetime track. A highlight of my visit to Red River in 2005 was spending the night with Wisconsin trackchaser Ed Esser. Somewhat unbelievably this was the 12th time during the year that Ed and I had seen each other at one track or another. All of those meetings were unplanned. By the way, Ed was attempting to win the “Cheese Challenge” a very special contest set up just for him. You can read all about it behind the “Asphalt track” tab. Fast forward some ten years and I found myself in the Red River grandstand for a second time. On this evening they were racing on a dirt surface. Weather, plane problems and a UCLA basketball game affected my trackchasing during this visit.. Nevertheless, the Red River Speedway, dirt version, will forever be known as my 2,064th lifetime track. Now that I’ve seen the dirt racing at the Red River Speedway I had notched 67 lifetime Texas tracks. No trackchaser has seen more. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures to the Lone Star state. THE EVENT My ice racing season has ended. I woke up this morning at home in San Clemente, California. I went to sleep in Ardmore, Oklahoma. This is how the day turned out. My 2015 ice racing season has ended. It was one of my most successful seasons on the ice even though I got a late start with things. I ended up seeing nine ice racing tracks. That gives me a grand total of 71 ice racing tracks and 87 ice racing championship points. This season I moved into the #1 spot in the worldwide ice track standings. After ice; before the great outdoors. There is always a 2-3 week time frame when ice racing engines have stopped and my traditional outdoor season begins. Over the years that trackchasing down time has been converted into fun and enjoyable activities for Carol and me. I always give Carol the choice. Would she like a “traditional” vacation or the chance to see another racetrack? Often times she chooses the traditional vacation. I know. It’s a shocker to me as well. Cruising…the best recurring vacation. How do we spend that off time? Carol and I like to take cruises. Believe it or not we cruised more than 25 times. A very popular cruise with us is to sail on down to Mexico for a week. We consider it a “long weekend” even though it’s an 8-day cruise. One of the pluses of this cruise is that it’s so convenient. All we have to do is drive 45 miles up to San Pedro, California and board the ship. We had a fun time just relaxing on this cruise and can’t wait to do it again. The ports are always the same: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. I’ll share a few pictures of our time on the ship and in Mexico in this track’s Picasa photo album. By the way I’m hoping to do some trackchasing in Mexico this season. I’m already seen five tracks south of the border. Here’s a link to a photo album of that adventure: March madness. The second major fun thing to do, just four days after getting back from the cruise, was to follow UCLA basketball. During the second week of March the Bruins play in the Pac-12 conference basketball tournament. A few years ago they switched the tournament’s location from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Everyone, including us, seems to like that change. Here’s a link to a short photo album from this trip: Las Vegas – Pac-12 basketball – Fun! This year Carol I went over to Las Vegas for two days. On our first night we saw the comedian Carrot Top perform. I had seen him once before. I wanted to share the experience with Carol. Carrot Top is what is known as a “prop comic”. This show was fast-paced and irreverent. For the most part everyone in the audience smiles and laughs for a solid hour and a half. If you’ve never seen Carrot Top perform live I highly recommend it. $180 USD down the toilet? Our second day in Las Vegas was reserved for basketball. I am sad to report that I threw $180 down the toilet at the tournament. How did that happen? Tickets to these events are not cheap. The very best ticket prices I could find for the tournament’s Thursday afternoon session was about $100 per seat. That’s a bit high but this is big time sports. Of course that price did include getting to see two games. There is one team in the Pac-12 that draws about 90% of the fans. That would be the University of Arizona Wildcats. As they say in college sports their fans “travel well”. On the other hand UCLA fans generally do not “travel well”. Los Angeles has so many things going on. The people who support UCLA have such diverse interests that attending a basketball game is not their life’s highlight. Maybe that explains why Los Angeles has not had a NFL football team in 20 years….and nobody seems to care. And now about those people with the red shirts. However, if you are from Tucson, Arizona your entire social life could and probably would revolve around following Arizona basketball. Pac-12 tournament games are played at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas on the strip. Barbara Streisand opened the arena on New Year’s Eve in 1993. The arena has hosted some of the biggest boxing matches over the past 20 years. The place seats about 12,000 for basketball. I would estimate that Arizona fans wearing their bright red shirts occupied a good 80% or maybe even more of the seats today. Quite frankly their fans are obnoxious. No offense to any Arizona fans who read my reports. However, I have sworn a secret oath to always be honest and tell it like it is. In any given game where I’ve seen Arizona play their fans will question 50 or more calls by the referees in a single game. How could it be that 50 calls go against a team in just one game? They get real quiet when their team isn’t doing well. On the other hand at the sign of any good news they act as if they just won the NCAA championship. I believe that when you are successful you have to “act like you’ve been there”. Arizona fans were costing me money. The demand for Pac-12 tournament basketball tickets goes up by a factor of several when Arizona is playing. Carol and I were planning to go to the tournament’s quarter final games. During the quarterfinals there are two games played in the afternoon (session 3) and two games played at night (session 4). Fans need a separate ticket for each “session”. As luck would have it (not really) UCLA would be playing usc in the afternoon session’s second game. Who was playing in the first game of the session? That’s right. Arizona. They were playing the semi-lame Cal Bears. Because UCLA was playing in the same session as Arizona, Wildcat fans were driving up ticket prices. The evening session featured Stanford, Utah, Oregon and Colorado. When those teams are not winning big they don’t “travel well” either. Tickets for the afternoon session with Arizona and UCLA were going for TWICE the price as the evening session. That was all a function of Arizona having such a huge fan base. That meant the Arizona fans were making me pay $100 per ticket rather than $50 if UCLA were not grouped in the Arizona session. Today Arizona would play in the first game. UCLA would play in the second game of the afternoon session. Based on that rotation here’s how I flushed $180 down the ticket toilet. A retired pensioner can’t afford to flush $180 down the ticket toilet. Recall I had paid $100 per seat or $200 for Carol and me to attend the afternoon session. I could’ve have done something and I knew I could have done something to dramatically reduce our ticket expense. I didn’t do that. What was this magic idea? Carol and I could have bypassed the first game with Arizona playing Cal. The last thing I really wanted to do was sit in a packed grandstand amongst these rabid red-shirted Arizona fans. Here’s how I could have remedied the problem. When the Arizona game was finished about half of their fans left the arena. They did not return to watch the second game (UCLA vs. usc). That might give you some idea of their arrogance. When fans of any team leave the first game and the arena they can give or sell their tickets to fans wanting to come in for the second game. I could have purchased for ten or twenty dollars per seat, from any number of people, seats for the second game, the UCLA game. Two major benefits. That would’ve been a major benefit in two important areas. First I would have paid only $20 or maybe $40 for the both of us rather than $200. Secondly and equally important was that I would not have had to sit amongst a legion of redshirted Arizona fans during their game which they won handily over a poorly trained Cal team. Trust me I made notes and put it into my Google calendar on what to do next time. I am nothing if not an opportunist. As it was when Carol and I returned from the break between games the place was now less than half full. We took advantage of the situation. We marched right in and sat at center court about 15 rows from the action. I got to thinking. We had paid $100 each for our tickets. For the first game we sat in the upper deck amongst hundreds of Arizona fans. That was painful. However, for the second game, we had center court seats just 15 rows from the floor to see UCLA put a whipping on usc for the THRID time this season. Yes, I had flushed $180 USD down the ticket toilet. However, I felt pretty good about the last half of the day. I also learned a few things for next time. Now it was time to head toward the long and dusty trackchasing trail. After the game Carol and I made the 4 ½-drive back to Southern California. We had stayed at the luxurious Luxor Hotel on the strip. We had seen top (no pun intended) comedian act as well as seeing the Bruins demolish their hated rivals (usc) 96 to 70. Now it was time to get to “work”, trackchasing work. We were back home at a little after 11 p.m. I set my wake-up alarm for 3:30 a.m. That’s right. After such a busy couple of days I would have four hours of sleep to begin even more recreation. Yes, this is the life of a retiree. Yes the ice racing season is over now. Our late February/early March entertainment season is finished. Bring on the outdoor more traditional trackchasing season! Let’s go rub shoulders with hoards of spring breakers. Today, Friday, I needed to get to Dallas, Texas. It’s the beginning of the “spring break travel” season. Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter are tough times to travel on a standby basis. However the spring break travel season is about six weeks wide. It’s getting harder and harder every year, especially with the economy improving, to fly standby. Who flies through Portland from Los Angeles to get to Dallas? Today my best option was to fly from Los Angeles to Portland and then on to Dallas. The flights I had picked out were relatively open. However I only had a 40-minute connecting time in Portland. As luck would have it (bad luck) my flight from Los Angeles to Portland departed late. We landed late in Portland. I missed my connection to Dallas. Scramble mode is my favorite ‘mode’. This put me in scramble mode. Typically I do well in scramble mode. I made a brief stop in the Alaska Airlines private club the “Boardroom” to sort out my immediate future options. I soon found another airline that I might be able to use from Portland to Dallas. If I made that flight my trackchasing weekend would not be majorly affected. If I missed the flight there would be no trackchasing today. Believe it or not I ended up getting the very last open seat on the plane. I’ve actually done that quite a few times! When I started planning this trip a few weeks ago I was thinking about seeing only one track. That track would be in Oklahoma. I don’t normally travel far from California to see just one track. However, if I could see one more track in Oklahoma I would tie Ed Esser for the Oklahoma state trackchasing lead. Direct from the Randy Lewis Racing research department. Earlier in the week I had done some additional research. I found a track racing tonight in Wichita Falls, Texas. I was first made aware that the Red River Speedway switched from asphalt to dirt from Mike K. in a message he posted last year. Now I had a track for Friday night. My Oklahoma track would be racing indoors on Saturday morning. That freed up Saturday evening for anything I could find. More than a year ago I got some great advice from Scott Evans. I thought I had already been to the Battleground Raceway in Highlands, Texas. Highlands is near Houston. After talking it over with Scott I discovered I had NOT been to Battleground. There are a few other tracks in and around Houston that have changed names in the past. I had confused those track visits with Battleground. I’ve really got to thank Scott Evans for correcting my oversight. Finally if I could make an airplane ride from Texas to California on early Sunday morning I could add another UTV track in Lancaster, California. Lucky or what? Was I lucky to move a one track weekend into a four track weekend? I don’t think so. I had listened to some experts on the subject. I had added TWO Texas tracks that heretofore I would never have even considered. I had scrambled effectively to make the airline situation work. I just missed bad weather in Texas by about two hours and 100 miles in distance. This is really what I do. Carol considers me an opportunist. I take that as a complement. THE RACING . Red River Speedway – Wichita Falls, Texas I arrived in to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport at about 5 p.m. on Friday. By the time I got my rental car and a Whataburger sandwich it was nearly 6 p.m. That put my estimated arrival time into the Red River Speedway at about 8:30 p.m. Tonight’s racing was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Good info from the race promoter. This afternoon I had talked to the promoter at Red River. He told me that “all the tracks in the Dallas area have rained out. We may have a lot of cars.” Of course this was the promoter speaking. No offense to my promoter friends who read my reports. When I asked him what time the program was likely to be finished he said “about midnight”. A lot of times, especially in the past “about midnight” means 1 or 2 a.m. I was anxious to see how many cars would show up based upon his comment about rain in Dallas and what time the program would actually end. The weather was turning ‘iffy’. At 7:30 p.m. it was 58° with strong winds. Tonight was going to be a chilly evening. There was very little chance I would still be at the Red River Speedway by midnight. Could the Bruins put it to those Arizona Wildcats like they did last year? I pulled into the parking lot of the Red River Speedway at about 8:40 p.m. I have been listening to the UCLA – Arizona basketball game on my car radio. UCLA was doing much better than expected. With the program scheduled to start at 8 p.m. I could hear the cars racing around the track in their heat races. The promoter told me the program might go until midnight. I figured I could stay in the car, do some “housework” and listen to the rest of the UCLA game. That would probably take me until 10 p.m. Then I would swoop in and see the feature racing. That being the case I hooked my phone to my MacBook Pro and tethered. I used Priceline and then Kayak to help me get a hotel for the night. I worked on my airline reservation for Sunday. I canceled one rental car reservation and reserved another one. This was required when I changed airport drop off locations in Houston. My weather forecasting apps are perfect….99% of the time. Tonight’s Wichita Falls weather forecast at race time called for a 0% chance of rain. However, on the drive up here, it had sprinkled and then rained just 40 miles south of town. As the second half of my basketball game began I could see and hear that the track had gone to intermission. The racing started at 8 p.m. and they went to intermission by 9:15 p.m. That “data” made it hard to fathom that this type of program could run until midnight. I was obviously doing a lot of “calculations” on all matter of topics. It was at this point that rain sprinkles began to appear on my windshield. That concerned me. I had certainly jumped through a lot of hoops today and I still hadn’t seen any racing. This would be a bad time to get rained out especially when I sat in the car during a few of the heat races. The promoter and I were thinking the same thing. The promoter must have felt the same way I did. The track had been in been in intermission for about 20 minutes when it began to rain. All of a sudden I could hear the racecars coming back on the track. I soon discovered that I could use my “Tune-In” iPhone radio app to listen to the UCLA game on my iPhone. I decided to use my Bose noise canceling headset with my iPhone. The headset would block out some of the racing noise so I can hear the game until its conclusion. I quickly bought a ticket for eight dollars at the senior rate. I walked into the grandstand to find a decent sized crowd in the large metal stands. Not my first visit to the Red River Speedway. Remember I had been to this track back in October, 2005 seeing racing on their asphalt surface. The asphalt track version of the Red River Speedway was my 971st lifetime track. On that night I had sat with Wisconsin trackchaser Ed Esser. After the races we must have “bench raced” in the parking lot for an hour before we each headed out in our separate directions. We did that many times over the years. A lot of people don’t know this but Ed was a “talker”. Tonight I had come back to see racing on their dirt oval. Trackchasing rules allow a chaser to count a track a second time when there is a change of “surface”. In 2005 the track surface at the Red River Speedway was asphalt. Last season the management tore up the asphalt and made the Red River Speedway a dirt track. If I were setting up the trackchasing rules from scratch I don’t think I would have included “change of surface” opportunities. However, I didn’t make the trackchasing rules; I just follow them. Everything at the track looked really good. The site lines in the grandstand were excellent. The stands were nicely elevated over the track. The PA system wasn’t too loud and the announcer was a little laid-back. Nevertheless, he gave the fans all the information they needed to know. Let’s go racing. The first feature race on tonight’s agenda was for winged sprint cars. These cars seemed a little underpowered. They ran a couple of slow yellow flag laps before their race would begin. Oh no! Oh no! It was at this point that the rain sprinkles began to turn into a rain shower. The cars were within 15 seconds of taking the green flag. The program couldn’t possibly be stopped by rain at this point before I had seen any actual racing could it? No! The cars took the green flag as the rain picked up. The track was getting slick. It looked as if some of the cars might crash in the first turn because of the wet surface. However they all soldiered on with just one yellow flag during their 20-lap a feature race. This track was in the books! Next up was a 4-car street stock feature race. This race wasn’t much. By the time these cars finished up it was raining harder. The flagman displayed the red flag. The program was under an official “delay”. About half the fans began to exit the grandstands. It wasn’t raining all that hard but it doesn’t take much rain to delay or cancel a dirt track race. Google it! By now the UCLA game was over. The Bruins were playing the #5 ranked Arizona Wildcats. At one point in the second half UCLA was leading 47-40. Want to know who won the game? Google it. I stayed in the stands for a while to see what the rain was going to do. When it picked up a little more I went to my car in the parking lot and waited. Most fans had left by now. I waited for nearly an hour. At that point they had not canceled the program NOR had they resumed racing. It was 10:30 p.m. I had an hour and a half drive over to my hotel in Ardmore, Oklahoma. I figured I had given them their best shot to get their features in. I left the Red River Speedway. As circumstances had dictated I had only seen two feature events. However, for a second overall visit to the facility I had to be satisfied. The USMTS modifieds come to this track. I’d like to see that show. AFTER THE RACES Not my favorite time to drive on two-lane roads. Much of my drive over to Oklahoma tonight was on two-lane wet roads. I never like to drive on those on a Friday or Saturday night or any night for that matter. There are just too many crazies out late on a weekend night. Two lane roads aren’t the safest method of travel either. Well satisfied. Overall I was pretty well satisfied that I had seen a track tonight. The way the airplane situation was this morning there was an excellent chance I wouldn’t get to see anything tonight. Then when it started to sprinkle and rain with a 0% chance of rain at race time I dodged another bullet. Tomorrow morning’s event in Oklahoma is indoors. I don’t think weather will create any kind of a problem there. Then tomorrow night’s racing event in the Houston area comes with a 0% chance of rain. If I can get those two tracks and then catch a “zero dark thirty” airplane ride from Houston back to Los Angeles I could possibly get four tracks in three days in the middle of March. At my level of trackchasing (more than 2,000 tracks in the bank) that kind of penetration is pretty unbelievable. Texas The Lone Star state This evening I saw my 67th lifetime track in the Lone Star state, yes the Lone Star state. Years ago I remember I had seen about ten Texas tracks and had sixty left the see. That fraction has nearly turned itself upside down. 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 Texas sayings: Happy: I’m cooking on a front burner today. QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Portland, OR (PDX) – 834 miles Portland, OR (PDX) – Dallas, TX (DFW) – 1,616 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport – trip begins Wichita Falls, TX TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Red River Speedway – $8 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 450 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report GREETINGS FROM ABILENE, TEXAS AND THEN WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS CONTEST WINNERS Yesterday’s report included the following statement, “By the way, I was talking to a reader just the other day who said he reads the Trackchaser Report just to see if I’m offering a prize to people who have read this far. Today, I am. The first two people to respond to me via email will win a $5 gift certificate to a surprise location. Good luck!” New and old readers alike should know that from time to time I have contests and rewards for loyal (and thorough) Trackchaser Report readers. Although I promised to reward two people I will actually being giving prizes to three people. All three winners replied within three hours of my sending out the reports. Because there is such a large volume of Trackchaser Report subscribers, Yahoo requires that I send out the Trackchaser Report in batches. Therefore, some folks actually receive the news a few minutes ahead or behind of everyone else. Here are the results and winners: Kristy L., Los Angeles, California (report sent 5:21 p.m., reply received 5:24 p.m.) In the spirit of full disclosure, I must identify “Kristy L.” as my daughter. You will see she actually received her copy of the TR later than the other two winners did. I have absolutely no idea how she got the message and read that far in just three minutes. Maybe having the ability to speed read is how she became an attorney. Carol thinks she has her secretary reading the Trackchaser Report for her. Here is what Kristy has to say in her defense, “And…just to set the record straight, mom’s theory about my secretary reading my emails for me is unfounded. I really enjoy these reports!” Editor’s note: If you cannot have your own daughter on your side, you had better give it up. With Andy Ritter (center) and my brother Mark Andy R. of Somewhere in, Pennsylvania (report sent 5:19 p.m., reply received 5:35 p.m.) Andy recommends in his note back to me that I take in the Branch Dividian compound the next time I am in Waco. I did check out Waco for this trip, but it was in the wrong direction. I am planning another trip to Texas this year and maybe I can include Waco then. Jim S. of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida (report sent 5:20 p.m., reply received 8:15 p.m.) was more succinct with this comment, “Send me my $5.00.” He also gave me some good tips on Southwest Airlines boarding passes. Therefore, I am proud to reward these three early birds with a $5 gift certificate from my newest associate sponsor, Wal-Mart. You have probably heard of them. Wal-Mart’s success mirrors my own in trackchasing. They started their business in a faraway place (Arkansas) and no one really knew anything about them for a long time. Soon they began to grow and rise in the mass merchandiser standings. Today, they are the gorilla of retailing in the U.S. and many other parts of the world. They are the model of efficiency and common sense and a great business model to emulate. Congratulations to all contest winners. Your prize is being mailed this afternoon (Andy, I will need an address from you). AND THE READERS RESPOND Kindred P. of Clearwater, Florida gives the rather harsh, although possibly accurate, analysis of Pac-10 football, “For the record Pac 10 football is not comprable to Eastern football. The condoms almost lost one of our most mediocre teams– if Bcs gives them VaTech the result will be quite different.” Mike K. of Reading, Pennsylvania writes the following after reading about my visit to the JFK assassination site, “Randy, Another great report. Sometimes I think I learn more about history in your reports then I did many years ago in school. I think I am more interested also because your reports are associated with racing.” TRIP ENDING SUMMARY The weather was perfect for my three day, five-track trip to Texas and Oklahoma. Incredibly, I have now been to 87 consecutive days of trackchasing without a rainout. During that time, I have seen 131 new tracks. Somehow, I have a bad weather feeling about our trip to North Carolina next weekend. I am not doing as well as I would like with the balance between my golf and my trackchasing. To date, I have seen 162 new tracks (171 total tracks) and played only 37 rounds of golf in 2005. I would like to see those numbers be about the same in any given year. My golf is understated a little since I could not play in January or February due to shoulder surgery. During my last several golf rounds, I have scored in the 78-85 range. That is 3-4 shots higher than what I consider normal. I attribute my spotty play to not being able to put more time into my golf. On the other hand, I congratulate my fellow golfing competitors. They are willing to put the time and effort into the game and people of my ability are beating me. I can either give up or put more effort into golf. I intend to do the latter and hope to again be competitive in the not too distant future. I was shocked to see that gas cost “only” $2.39 per gallon in Oklahoma last night. A year ago, I might not have made that comment. Driving just 868 miles to get five new tracks was great! Overall, this was a perfect trip with a good track count and ideal weather as we approach the seasonal end of the trackchasing season. PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS Although the Angels went down in flames and Carol was there to watch it all, that was probably for the best. Why would I say that? Today’s track conditions were exactly what Carol dislikes the most. The racing started at 2 p.m. It was 85 degrees, the sun shown directly into the faces of the spectators as it went down and a strong wind blew directly into the grandstand. Saturday evening I had stayed overnight in Wichita Falls, Texas. Sunday morning’s drive down to Abilene was just over 150 miles. I was surprised to be reminded how flat much of Texas is. The traffic on rural Texas highways on a Sunday morning was almost non-existent. Grass in Texas is now winter brown. I did see some unusual sights along the road. I was really surprised to see a camel farm. From a distance, they looked like dinosaurs! Texas is one of the few states that have day and night speed limits. They are also one of the few to allow you to drive 70 M.P.H. on two-lane state highways. It must be the season as I saw several signs that read, “Welcome hunters.” By the way, part of my people strategy is to never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. RACE TRACK STATS: ABILENE SPEEDWAY, ABILENE, TEXAS -TRACK #970 This Texas track is my 21st countable track to see in the state. This is my second visit to Texas this year and my fourth new track to see in the state this year. I am ranked #2 in Texas. John Moore leads the state totals with 29 tracks. RED RIVER SPEEDWAY – OVAL, WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS -TRACK #971 This Texas track is my 22nd countable track to see in the state. This is my second visit to Texas this year and my fifth new track to see in the state this year. I am ranked #2 in Texas. John Moore leads the state totals with 29 tracks. RACE TRACK NEWS: ABILENE SPEEDWAY, ABILENE, TEXAS I entered the city of Abilene, population 115,000, about an hour before race time. I had been in Abilene within the past year and like today, visited Abilene Christian University. As a child, I used to listen to sportscaster, Lindsay Nelson, and it always seemed as if he was broadcasting an Abilene Christian football game on national TV. I stopped at the campus bookstore to pick up an ACU (not ACLU) t-shirt but they were closed on Sunday just as they were the last time I visited. One of my life’s goals now is to someday get an Abilene Christian University t-shirt! Today, I paid $9 to get into the race. That seemed very reasonable for a race that was billed as the “$70,000 Southern Challenge.” I am not sure where they will come up with that much money. They had a nice crowd that was forced to stare into a bright setting sun on a very warm day. It continues to be beyond this writer’s understanding as to why racetrack builders would build their grandstand to face a setting sun. We spectators also encountered a stiff easterly wind. The wind blew 20 M.P.H. the entire day. Day racing on a sunny and windy afternoon is a recipe for spectator disaster. The track was somewhat dusty but it could have been a lot worse. The race schedule today was the final day of a three-day program. Nevertheless, they still had several “B” features, last chance races and heat races before they ran their “A” features. I don’t understand why they needed to run so many qualifying races on the last day of a three-day program. The track announcer gave me a nice trackchaser mention. After that, I really didn’t hear much from him since the speaker system wasn’t very good. I did listen to the track’s radio channel (154.570). I found this both entertaining and informative. The track’s concessions were tasty and affordable. I was given a fork to eat my BBQ sandwich and it was great. Two Coors 12 oz. beers only sat me back $3.50. I pay almost 7 bucks for a beer at Angels Stadium. I did notice one item I had never seen before. The track has a supply of “Rain Check Request Forms.” If a customer cannot attend the races the weekend after a rainout, they can submit this form for a pass good for any night during the season. I guess that is a good idea. The racing was O.K., but they simply had too many races. I would estimate that I saw 250 laps of racing in the three hours I spent at Abilene Speedway. This doesn’t show much concern for the racers by the track’s management. Many of the drivers came a long way to race at Abilene and getting out late on a Sunday night will not be convenient for them. Abilene Speedway will be the first half of today’s day/night trackchasing double. The day/night double is by far my most popular type of double this season. I have 21 day/nights out of 55 total trackchasing doubles this season. RED RIVER SPEEDWAY – OVAL, WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS The evening half of my day/night double was 151 miles up the road. I was able to cover that distance in about 2.5 hours and arrived at the Red River Speedway at 7:15 p.m. for the 6 p.m. scheduled start. They had six classes of racecars racing today. Each class would run a 50-lap feature. I arrived with less than 10 laps completed of the super stock class, the third class of the evening. This track has a huge steel grandstand. There are 25-30 rows and it spans nearly the entire front stretch. The view walking in from the parking lot, made the grandstand look almost empty. That early warning sign was not far off as I estimated only about 250 people were in attendance. This was not a very entertaining program. Each class had between 8-14 cars. That’s not much iron for 50-lap features. The lighting was poor on a full moon evening. The announcer had very little to add, although the track’s radio communications (151.625) were most entertaining. It was most unusual to see a prison located just off the third turn. You hear the “real scoop” listening to the track radio channel. This communication is for track workers only, but you can pick up what is being said with a race scanner. At one point, a racecar lost a wheel and came to rest in the infield but near the track. During the yellow flag period, they called for the wrecker but none came. Over the radio, I heard the following, “The wrecker is out of gas, and Marty already went home”. While the crowd waited for the wrecker to come, I knew it would not be coming. Finally, they used a jeep to push the disabled racecar a little further from the track. The flagman wore a striped shirt and shorts. I’m assuming his striped shirt had nothing to do with the nearby prison. The flagman was not exactly on the top of his game. He didn’t do anything with the flags unless directed over the track’s radio. In a first, he did start one race with the yellow flag and not the green flag. He sheepishly told everyone listening over the radio “he was colorblind.” The three complete 50-lap features that I watched came with these car counts, Pony Stocks (14), Modifieds (11) and Bombers (9). Those are pretty small car counts for races of that distance. The Pony Stocks had their race shortened by a few laps when they exceeded their 45-minute time limit. Shortly after arriving, I was located by none other than Wisconsin’s Ed Esser. It looks like Ed and I are the only trackchasers still doing this hobby on a full-time basis with the possible exception of Belgium’s Roland Vanden Eynde. Look for the three of us to move up in the worldwide trackchaser standings as time goes by. You may know that all worldwide trackchasers are on the honor system when counting their tracks. If you say you saw it, we believe you. This is the 12th new track I have seen with Ed Esser this year. Could it be that worldwide trackchaser management is sending Ed out to check on me? Maybe worldwide trackchaser management is sending me to check on Ed! Heck, maybe we are both double agents being sent out by worldwide trackchaser management to check on each other!! Nevertheless, Ed continues to do well in the “Trackchaser Cheese Challenge” as outlined below. Ed went to two of the tracks I visited this weekend except on different days. This part of Texas is 1,000 miles from Ed’s home in Madison, Wisconsin, so he was a long ways from home in his Chevy Blazer. A malfunctioning driver’s side electric window made his weekend trip all the more memorable. Overall, not very good racing at the Red River Speedway. I’m glad to get this oval track in my rearview mirror although there are rumblings; the track may be attempting a figure 8 race in the future. Based upon tonight’s car counts and the overall organization of the track, I would be wary of the figure 8 show. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Budget Rental Car Racing Mercury Marquis got 24.6 M.P.G. At an average gas price of $2.49 per gallon, my per mile charge for fuel was just 10.1 cents per gallon. I didn’t like that the Marquis had only one electrical outlet and even that one was located inconveniently near the radio. The car seemed a little stiff. The chassis is nearly identical to a Lincoln Town Car but the ride is not nearly as good. LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. Other notables 2005 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS * Trackchasing “New Tracks in One Season” record Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21st century I trackchase for the event not the outcome. Remember, it only costs about 85% more to go first class. CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES: RENTAL CAR Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas Airport – trip begins Greenville, Texas – 81 miles Fort Worth, Texas – 173 miles Lawton, Oklahoma – 371 miles Abilene, Texas – 575 miles Wichita Falls, Texas – 733 miles Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas Airport – 868 miles – trip ends AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – Dallas, TX – 1,256 miles Dallas, TX – Los Angeles, CA – 1,256 miles Total airline miles – 2,506 miles TOTAL TRACKCHASING TRIP MILES – 3,374 TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Superbowl Speedway – $5 Texas Motor Speedway – $5 Lawton Speedway – $7 Abilene Speedway – $9 Red River Speedway $8 Total racetrack admissions – about $34 (very reasonable!) October 21 – Thunder Valley Speedway, Lawndale, North Carolina Our daughter Kristy and her husband James ventured to Ed Esser’s home in Madison, Wisconsin to present the ‘Cheese Challenge’ award. “TRACKCHASER CHEESE CHALLENGE 2005 PACE OF THE RACE REPORT BROUGHT TO YOU BY FRONTIER AIRLINES” This is a comparison of how many new tracks Ed Esser has seen in 2005 and how many tracks I saw through the same date in 2004 on my way to seeing, at then a record, 127 tracks. In order for Ed to win the “Cheese Challenge”, he must see 128 new tracks. Through October 19 – Ed – 121 tracks Randy – 102 tracks* Prize: If Ed sees more than 128 new tracks in 2005, he wins a round-trip domestic airline ticket to anywhere Frontier Airlines flies. If he cannot see at least 128 new tracks then I win 10 pounds of the Wisconsin cheese of my choice. ** Great Yarmouth Stadium (oval), Yarmouth, England, March 27 ** Tucson Raceway Park (outer oval), Tucson, Arizona, April 30 ** U.S. 30 Speedway (outer oval), Columbus, Nebraska, May 26 ** Rocky Mountain National Speedway (oval), Commerce City, Colorado, May 28 ** Hawkeye Downs (outer oval), Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 3 ** 81 Speedway, Wichita, Kansas – July 21 ** Spartan Speedway, Mason (oval), Michigan – August 7 ** Galesburg Speedway (oval), Galesburg, Michigan – August 14 Click on the link below to see the day’s activities on the way to the Red River Speedway Red River Speedway….a re-visit for dirt track racing 
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
Racetracks visited in 2005 (** not the first time to visit this track)
3 comments
Randy great pictures of your vacation! I couldn’t tell what cruise ship you were on.
The Crown Princess!
Vegas is always interesting, and usually fun. A buddy and I are heading there Wednesday to bet on March Madness basketball. We’ll be there almost a week. You should come join us, Randy. If you’ve never been to Vegas during March Madness, it’s a crazy scene.