Greetings from Richmond, Virginia
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Richmond Coliseum
Aluminum oval
Lifetime Track #1,614
THE EVENT Today’s undertaking was just one of more than 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the 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! ON THE WAY TO THE RACES DAY 3 – “EVERY YEAR I HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE” TRACKCHASING TOUR TODAY’S HEADLINES It’s all about ‘Free Time Diversification’ …………..details in “The Objective and the Strategy”. It pays to pay attention………………more in “The Trip”. This Trackchasing Tourist Attraction was huge. ………..details in “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”. Which two short track racing organizations “get it”………………more in “Race Review”. THE OBJECTIVE AND THE STRATEGY, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Objective and the Strategy Retirement is all about ‘Free Time Diversification’. In this section of each Trackchaser Report I will explain my objective (what am I trying to do) and my strategy (how am I going to do it). As you know, one my most important trackchasing goals for 2011 is “Free Time Diversification”. Of course, as a retired person I find some folks think that all of my time is “free” so why the need for diversification. This goal is designed to insure that I don’t go trackchasing too much. Too much of a good thing is not a good thing. Remember this is the goal. My goal is this area requires that I NOT go trackchasing two weekends for each of the “off-season” months of January – April and also September – December. Of course with this goal “carryovers” are allowed within the year. As an example if I only missed one weekend in January I would need to miss THREE weekends in another of the above months. I will easily make my goal for January. Actually, I have other plans for THREE weekends of the five from January 2011. This will allow me to “add a weekend” in one of the remaining “off-season” months. Carol will figure much more prominently in many of the non-trackchasing weekends than she might when I do go trackchasing. Speaking of Carol where does she fit in? Carol has already achieved her two most primary trackchasing milestones. First, she’s seen racing in all 50 of the United States. Secondly, she has qualified to become a trackchasing voter with her 400+ lifetime tracks. Now she can help influence the legislative direction of trackchasing without having to do this week in and week out. Because of the above restrictions, I must be very diligent and productive in the maximum of 34 trackchasing weekends that I do have for this hobby. International trackchasing’s scheduling will usually limit me to one new track for the weekend. Nevertheless, I should average 3-4 tracks for most of my domestic trackchasing outings. That being the case, I expect to be more than satisfied with my 2011 trackchasing totals. PLUS, I will have some 18 weekends to practice “entertainment diversity”. It’s all in the planning! The Trip Two nights in one place is a luxury. Whenever I can sleep in the same place for two nights in a row I consider this a major win while I’m on the trackchasing road. Tonight I would get to sleep for the second straight night in Richmond, Virginia. This evening’s track was less than 10 miles from my hotel. However, “no good deed goes unpunished”. In order to make Sunday’s event (tomorrow) I will have to awake at 3:45 a.m. Eastern time (12:45 a.m. San Clemente time). More on that later. It pays to pay attention. Travel expenses on the road can add up quickly. Because I am an independent trackchasing team I must watch expenses closely. Take a look at how I attempt to do that. Hotel At 6 a.m. Eastern time in the Washington Dulles airport I popped open my laptop. I can do this on my iPhone but the laptop is more convenient when I have the time and space. I first used www.biddingfortravel.com (to know how much to bid) and then www.priceline.com to “bid” on a hotel in Richmond for two nights. I ended up with a Holiday Inn at $42 per night. When I checked in the clerk told me the “walk-in” rate for the evening was $89 per night. The hotel’s website was offering rooms, with a AAA membership for $66 per night. Anyway you look at it, I gained a nice savings with Priceline. Rental Car As a retiree of Procter & Gamble I am eligible for “corporate” rental car rates with my rental cars. My primary rental car company is the National Rental Car Company. My corporate rate amounted to $110 for a two-day full-sized car rental. However, my “backup” rate was even better. As an eligible member of the “National Leisure Club” the bill for two days would be just $56. Of course, I have to ask for this rate whenever I think the corporate rate is not as good as it should be. Additionally, as an “Executive Selection” National member, I get one free rental day for each five-car rental I have. I use these free rental days when I rent cars on a one-way basis. An average one-way rental is about $75-80 per day even with my corporate discounts. For the “normal” rental car buyer a one-way rental can be over $100 per day. For the winter months National has been offering a special promotion. In addition to the above benefits, for every TWO rentals during the promotion period I earn another free day. Pretty soon, they’ll just hand me the keys and a twenty-dollar bill and wish me a nice trip! Race tickets As an “experienced” person I received a $2 discount off the regular $13 ticket at the Richmond Coliseum. Basketball ticket At the John Paul Jones arena on the campus of the University of Virginia I bought a ticket to the sold out game with North Carolina for $20. The face value of this ticket was $28. That’s a 28% discount. Airlines This trip will have me clearing airport security in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Minneapolis and Honolulu if all goes according to plan. Of course, my airline sponsors are instrumental in nearly all of my airline flying. I couldn’t do this without them. Gasoline Alas, I have no sponsors for fuel. Of course, if you own a gas station I would me more than willing to wear your logo to each trackchasing event I attend. Until a gasoline sponsorship comes through, Carol and I will continue to fund this expense out of our modest retirement savings. Summary Possibly the above explanation will help answer the question, “Randy, how can you possibly keep up with those big well-funded East coast trackchasing teams? How can you continue to pursue this hobby with such gusto when you live in the most geographically disadvantaged location of any in the continental U.S.?” No, it is not easy but it is doable. By the way, I cannot stress this point enough. I am never trying to buy cheap things cheap. I want to buy good things cheap. That means quality hotel rooms, full-sized option laden rental cars, first class and premium coach airline seats as well as top of the line Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. The People Brotherly love. It’s always fun to interact with the “brothers” when I need a basketball ticket. 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 usually 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. University of Virginia Basketball – Charlottesville, Virginia It was time to see some big-time basketball. Often I have to spend the day flying to my next trackchasing location. However, on this trip I could spend two consecutive nights in the same hotel in Richmond, Virginia. Since the Richmond Coliseum race would be run at night that gave me Saturday afternoon to scout out a Trackchasing Tourist Attraction. A little internet searching turned up some basketball action nearby. The Virginia Cavaliers would be playing the North Carolina Tar Heels just 71 miles away at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia. Arguably, the Tar Heels would be the biggest game of the year for Virginia. The school’s athletic website confirmed this. The game was SOLD OUT! I’ve never met a sold out game I couldn’t get into. Off I went in a Saturday morning snowstorm for the 12-noon tipoff. Once I reached the University of Virginia campus I followed signs to “General Parking – Shuttle Bus”. This proved to be convenient and it was free. I dusted off my “Need One” sign and headed to the arena. I prefer not to ‘deal’ with professionals. As soon as the shuttle bus stopped in front of the basketball building I was approached by ticket selling professionals. Nearly 100% of these ticket sellers are of a similar demographic. Political correctness prevents me from identifying this group. They are also 99.9% male. I guess it’s O.K. to point out their gender. I don’t have anything against these “professionals”. They serve a purpose. However, I consider myself a “professional” as well in this department. Both the ticket sellers and myself have conflicting objectives. We’re both trying to rip off, I mean satisfy our own needs. Nevertheless, it never hurts to talk right? The first professional seller wanted $75 for a ticket with a face value of $28. No thanks. He was willing to dicker but he was starting far higher than any price I might be interested in. Soon another seller approached me. However, in the “scalping business” there is a “professional code of conduct”. One scalper will not go after a potential buyer until the first scalper to make contact has given up on the sale. Folks, that’s just how they (we) do it. I wasn’t fully prepared. I did not have an arena seating chart. That was an oversight on my part. It did remind me of a basic tenant when dealing with professional ticket sellers (scalpers). Never believe a word they say about the ticket’s face value or its location. When I say “never” I mean “never”. The next fellow was willing to sell his $28 face value ticket for twenty-five dollars. I feigned a lack of interest. This encouraged him to “bid against himself”. I KNOW that none of my readers would ever “bid against themselves” in a negotiation. You’re all too smart for that. Without my making any offers he reduced his asking price to twenty dollars. Folks, it was 32 degrees out. The game was starting in 40 minutes. Twenty dollars seemed more than reasonable for a ticket in section 314, Row N, Seat 24 to a sold out ACC basketball game. The place seats some 16,000 although it seemed much smaller. My seat location was just beyond the end line about midway up in the upper deck. The scalper has told me I would be at “about the free throw line”. I wasn’t all that far from the action and considered my seat to be very good for the price and the quality of this opponent. It never hurts to buy a ticket at more than 25% less than face value to a sold out game. This arena was first class. The John Paul Jones Arena opened for the 2006-2007 season. Paul Tudor Jones II, a 1976 graduate of the University of Virginia made a $35 million dollar gift for the construction of this arena. For that they allowed him the naming rights. Who do you think got the best end of this deal? Mr. Jones chose to have this beautiful basketball arena named after his father “John Paul Jones”. Lewis children are you listening? This would make a GREAT father’s day gift. Both teams entered the game with winning records. I didn’t think either team played very well. At halftime the Cavilers led 37-30. During the second half UVA widened their lead to eleven points. Then they went into a delay offense of sorts and everything went south. The Tar Heels came back strongly with good foul shooting to win 62-56. I look at TTAs like I do seeing new tracks. Whenever I get the chance to see something for the “first time” I will. I particularly like to see the football and basketball arenas at colleges near where I trackchase. If I get a chance to see an actual game I consider it a major win. RACE REVIEW RICHMOND COLISEUM – RICHMOND, VIRGINIA Not everybody ‘gets it’. I would say that on the somewhat “local level” for auto racing there are just two sanctioning groups that really “get it”. That would be the Stadium Off-Racing Series and the Arena Racing USA Series. Of course, NASCAR and their 100,000+ crowds at nearly every event are in a class by themselves. How can the two groups mentioned above consistently get large crowds at premium ticket prices? The Stadium Off-Road Series normally gets $30 per adult and attracts crowds of 5,000 to 15,000 people. The Arena Racing USA Series, although not quite as robust as the Stadium Off-Road folks can still attract a crowd of 2,000-4,000 people at somewhere around $13 per person. As a point of reference the short tracks I visit (excluding once a year county fair events) more often than not have a crowd of less than 500 people. I attend many such venues where the crowd might not reach 200 people at an admission price of $7-10. I exclude the county fair events from this analysis because many of the people in the grandstands come for the fair more so than the races. Why? Let’s try to analyze this situation. I have several promoters (typically the better ones) who read my Trackchaser Reports. Maybe they’ll get an idea or two and/or share their thoughts on this subject. The ingredients for success. Of course these two successful short track groups start their shows on time. You might not think this is noteworthy. However, MOST short tracks do not start within 15 minutes of their advertised start time. Many are much more tardy than that. Both Stadium Off-Road and Arena Racing operate with stout P.A. systems and professional quality announcers. I think the event announcer is the most important employee at the track that has any contact with the racing fan. These two groups understand that this is ENTERTAINMENT. I fear most other short tracks including road course organizers see this as primarily a competition event. It may be competition for the racers but the fan want to be entertained. In both Stadium Off-Road and Arena Racing USA outings there are minimal delays for caution flags and no dust. That has to appeal to the women in the audience as well as the casual race fan. Importantly, these sanctioning bodies provide close action-packed racing. Despite there being a good deal of racing contact in these events (which the fans love) it doesn’t result in mind-numbing delays that often doom short track oval events. Of course, these two groups operate in arenas that offer quality and diverse refreshments. That’s not only a profit-maker for the race promoter but a nice convenience for the race fan. People ‘vote with their feet’. Make no mistake about it. The race fan votes with his feet. The married race fan votes with HER feet. The numbers don’t lie. Both Stadium Off-Road Racing and Arena Racing attract the crowds at premium ticket prices. They must be doing something right. Tonight’s racing took place indoors at the Richmond Coliseum, which is also home to the Richmond Raiders, members of the Arena Football League. I’ve seen Arena racing at four different locations in Virginia and North Carolina. I’ve also seen arena racing in Michigan (now closed probably because no one in Michigan has a job). These arenas are what I would call “second tier”. They probably had their hay day 20-30 years ago. One nice thing about this type of indoor racing is that it’s heated inside. Recall that last night’s kart show was run in an unheated indoor arena. Of course, this evening’s show started on time. The most important employee at the track. The Arena Racing USA announcer makes the show at these events. He stands in the center of the track where he can be seen and heard by everyone. Tonight, he had all kinds of crowd involvement. They shot t-shirts into the stands, had the local Boy Scouts present the American flag, another school group said the Pledge of Allegiance and still another school group sang the National Anthem. Folks, they call this PROMOTION! Who do you think brought all these kids to the races? There ticket-buying parents! In the evening Arena Racing USA runs only feature events. Fans don’t want to sit through time trials and, for the most part, they don’t like heat races. Arena Racing USA used to run their heat races in the afternoon before the main crowd arrived. I don’t know if they still do that or not. Tonight’s program consisted of four 50-lap feature events for the adults and two 30-lap features for the youth classes (5 cars per race). No race took more than 15-20 minutes. The full show began at 7 p.m. and was over by 10 p.m. I will say this. I don’t know why announcers insist on telling the crowd local sports scores throughout the evening. They did that tonight. Don’t they know that true fans record these games to watch AFTER they leave the track? Who wants to watch a sporting event when the outcome is already known? It doesn’t help when the announcer asks fans to cover their ears if they don’t want to hear a score. When that happens I can always tell the sports score by the reaction of the race fans. Please, stop with the sports scores of events going on at the same time as the races. Arena racing is conducted over a very small (1/7-mile?) high-banked aluminum track. All of the action is easy to see in a comfortable environment, especially considering the 20-degree temperatures going on outside. Between races I entertained myself with my iPhone. I texted videos of the racing action to my friends and family. Of course, I caught up on the news with USA Today and my sports score apps. I also updated all of my future travel plans so that the rest of the trip would come off well. STATE COMPARISONS Virginia This evening I saw my 16th track in the Old Dominion state, yes, the Old Dominion state. This moves me into a tie for 16th place with Ed Esser. I guess neither of the world’s top two trackchasers has had much interest in the Commonwealth of Virginia up to now. Guy Smith leads in the state with 47 tracks. I would need to have 24 Virginia tracks in order to break into the state’s top ten. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Therefore, I will have only a passing interest in Virginia events for NGD purposes. I show just 13 tracks remaining to be seen for me in Virginia. Nine of those race on a regularly scheduled basis. There are a few interesting ovals that might interest me for a return visit this year. Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! My review of the Apple iPhone trackchasing “app” Track Guide powered by the National Speedway Directory. What is the current trackchasing “proposal” being voted on this month? Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Virginia sayings: Who says government stiffs and slackjaw yokels don’t mix. TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Washington, D.C. (IAD) – 2,285 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Dulles International Airport – trip begins Williamston, NC – 279.9 miles Richmond, VA – 607 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Senator Bob Martin Eastern Agricultural Center – $25 Richmond Coliseum – $11 ($2 senior discount savings) COMPARISONS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total. Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the “Video Plus” 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. The visit to the Richmond Coliseum and much more….. 
