Greetings from Rochester, New Hampshire
(with stops along the way at the Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) and the Darlington Raceway (SC)
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Rochester Fairgrounds Dirt road course Lifetime Track #2,698 THE EVENT Editor’s note: The only sure thing on this trip was my visit to New Hampshire. Everything else was “tentative”. I don’t mind that at all. If I wasn’t used to “tentative” I would have given up doing this a long time ago. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above in Hungary with champion Bosnia and Herzegovina racing driver and good friend, Boris Miljevic). I live in San Clemente, California. 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 2,690 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 Saturday, May 8, 2021. I can’t believe it! What can’t I believe? Each one of my trackchasing plans is like a special part honed by a CNC machine creating a custom-built travel adventure. Hours and hours are spent using the highest level of technology to create a travel/trackchasing plan that is unmatched by anyone else in the industry. Nevertheless, despite my trackchasing sponsorships, having all of the latest travel tools and years and years of experience I can’t seem to get these trips to come off the way they are planned. You would think that after seeing racing at 2,697 tracks and traveling literally tens of millions of miles on more than 7,000 airplanes and staying in more than 5,000 hotel rooms that sooner or later a trip would come off perfectly as planned. I’m still waiting. I’m going to tell you about my simple plan for this trip. As you read this, I would like you to imagine that your family and you would make this trip. Do you find my simple plan complex? I think it’s sort of simple. Nevertheless, no one else in trackchasing has ever pulled off this type of plan. That’s just a fact, Jack. What exactly was my simple plan? It went like this. I would fly into Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday night. I needed to come in on Thursday night for a Friday night race in North Carolina for one reason. I live in California. I would land in Charlotte at about 9 p.m. As soon as I knew I was getting on a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Charlotte I used my iPhone and Priceline to secure a hotel in Charlotte. This was a special hotel. It had to have an airport shuttle. Why? I didn’t really need a rental car on Thursday night when I landed. If I could ride a shuttle from the airport over to the hotel it would save me a day’s worth of rental car expense. On Friday my plan called for me to spend the majority of the day in Charlotte visiting the Billy Graham Library and sampling some North Carolina barbecue. Later in the day, I would make a three-hour drive down to Brinkleyville, North Carolina. Next, the plan called for me to sleep overnight in my car on Friday night. On Saturday morning I needed to catch a 6 a.m. flight from Charlotte to Boston, Massachusetts. When I landed in Boston, I would rent a car and drive over to the Rochester Fairgrounds in Rochester, New Hampshire. I was returning to the Rochester Fairgrounds after having been there on March 6 of this year. Heck! That was only two months ago! What was the attraction at the Rochester Fairgrounds? In March these folks raced on an oval track configuration. Today I was returning to see a similar type of race but this time on a road course configuration. Trackchasers do things like that. Back in March, I sat in a rather chilly and rustic county fair grandstand with my longtime buddy Bruce Spencer. Bruce and I have attended many races together over a period of a couple of decades. A couple of years ago Bruce decided that he had enough of watching races from the grandstand. He decided to trade his seat cushion for a crash helmet. Yes, that’s what they used to call race car helmets back in the day. This was going to be my first opportunity to see Bruce race. I was looking forward to that. I just hoped that the promoters knew that Bruce’s fan base was strong enough to bring fans in from California all the way to New Hampshire. United States Marine Corps – 1971 When this afternoon’s racing was finished, I would beat feet (a Marine Corps term) over to Providence, Rhode Island. Why Providence? I was going to Providence because that was the only place that looked like I might be able to fly into Charlotte, North Carolina from on Sunday morning on a standby basis. Once in Charlotte on Sunday morning I would grab another rental car, my third of the trip and drive on down to Darlington, South Carolina. The NASCAR Cup division was racing in Darlington on Sunday afternoon. I hadn’t been to Darlington since 1982. I figured that while I was out on the East Coast in New Hampshire I might as well go to a race in South Carolina. People do that, right? When the racing in Darlington was finished, I would drive back to Charlotte, grab a hotel and fly back to Los Angeles on Monday morning. Does this sound like a daunting trip? Does this sound like a simple trip? Have you ever in your life read about any other trackchaser planning and implementing a daunting/simple trip like this? The answer to these three questions would be yes, yes and no. Did my simple planned trip work out as planned? The answer is, “not exactly”. However, if every planned trip worked perfectly then you probably would not have opened up this email. I think people enjoy the uncertainty and the “what will come next” elements of my hobby. If that is true for you, I don’t blame you. Now I’m going to tell you exactly how this trip did work out. Mother’s Day is this Sunday, May 9, 2021. I wasn’t planning to be at home to celebrate Mother’s Day with Carol. Don’t worry too much about that. Although our family has birthdays and holidays just like everyone else, we don’t always celebrate them on the exact day. We learned to do this when I was working. Often, I needed to be away for business commitments on some birthdays, holidays and anniversaries. I probably missed being home on Father’s Day for well over a decade. We always had our national sales meeting and managers had to come in a day or two early wiping out Father’s Day. Yep. Life is a trade-off. In order to make up for my not being home on Mother’s Day this year I expanded Mother’s Day to Mother’s Day WEEK for Carol. Of course, Carol isn’t my mother but she spoils me as if she was. On Tuesday night I took her out for her special Mother’s Day dinner at a brand-new Indian restaurant in San Clemente. We like Indian food and we like it spicy. Basanti’s did a good job. Then the next night I took Carol and our clan including J.J., Kristy, James, Dustin, Mitch and Astrid to see our Los Angeles Angels play a ball game up at Angels Stadium. It’s early in the season but this was our third visit up to Anaheim. It’s fun watching two of the very best players in baseball, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani play tonight. On this evening we were treated to a pitching start by Ohtani. This was his first start since he pitched in Texas against the Rangers a little more than a week ago. I was in Texas for that game too! THURSDAY After wining and dining Carol it was time to get back to business and my business is trackchasing. O.K. it’s not really business but it’s similar. I grabbed an exit row seat with all kinds of legroom and no one sitting next to me for a flight from LAX to Charlotte (CLT). You should know that I examined nearly 100 flight options before I chose this one. Just after I sat down in my seat on the plane and before we took off, I grabbed my cell phone and made a quick hotel reservation from Priceline at a Sheraton hotel close to the Charlotte airport. They have a shuttle. When I landed in Charlotte, I grabbed that shuttle. Soon I was staying in another opulent hotel room provided to me by the Marriott Corporation. FRIDAY With today’s plan, I was expecting a fairly laid-back day. First, I would sleep in. That was a good idea considering I was now in the eastern time zone. Then I would tour and I would eat. After that chore was finished, I would drive to the races and then I would sleep in my car overnight. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect day one of anyone else’s vacation? Just as planned I was able to sleep in. I only got that far with this plan before things began to fall apart. I don’t actually think of things as “falling apart”. I simply think of them as changing. Being able to adapt to change is one of the facets of life that I pride myself in being able to do. Not everyone is good with change. I had already selected a barbecue restaurant I would use for lunch. Of course, I used Yelp to identify the very best option for North Carolina barbecue. Following that, I would have time to tour the Billy Graham Library and Museum. I’ve been wanting to do that for literally ever. My grandparents were huge fans of Billy Graham. I might even have a chance to catch one more Charlotte area attraction before I left for the races. You should know that I’m constantly on my phone checking all manner of things. One of the things I checked today was the Dixieland Speedway Facebook page. I would be trackchasing there tonight. What I found made me shutter. They had canceled their race for this evening. They had canceled the event nearly a day in advance. Who does that? The Eldora Speedway wouldn’t do that. Eldora has the capability to handle just about any kind of rainfall they get more than a day ahead of time and still race as scheduled. Dixieland was not Eldora but then few tracks are. Yuck. I was in a Sheraton hotel room and I was in a pickle. My Friday night North Carolina option had rained out. There were only two other potential Friday night choices for me. My New York option had also canceled more than a day before their race. It doesn’t seem like racing organizations hang in there and try to make it work as much as they used to. My final choice in Wisconsin seemed to be too far out of the way…even for me. I immediately decided that although I was in Charlotte, North Carolina at 9 a.m. I needed to make my way hastily to the northeast. Luckily, I was in Charlotte the airline hub of American Airlines. They have tons of flights leaving for everywhere from CLT. Covid first reared its ugly head in March 2020 in the United States. Virtually everybody in the country stopped doing whatever they were doing and continued to stop doing whatever they were doing for a year. I didn’t stop what I was doing. I stayed in more than 100 hotels and flew on nearly 100 airplanes during my year of Covid. Today, 14 months after Covid began, those people who stayed in their basements and washed their Cheerio boxes now want to go somewhere. For me, it was a lot simpler when Covid was raging. Now I have to battle all of these people to get a seat on an airplane. I know. Life is rough. It looked as if flying from Charlotte to Providence was going to be my best bet. I showered, shaved…well I didn’t shave and grabbed the hotel shuttle back to the airport. There I battled the hordes of travelers that were running around the Charlotte Airport. By the way, CLT needs some serious rehabilitation. The Charlotte airport is the only airport that I know of that has male “attendants” in the men’s bathroom. I find that creepy. These folks are running around with a towel and basically just asking for a tip. I really don’t like this at all. Come on CLT. Get with the 21st century. Get rid of your attendants in the men’s restrooms. For the flight to Providence, I was the sixth and last standby passenger on the standby list. Every seat on the plane had been sold to paying travel starved passengers. Things didn’t look good. However, it is common for passengers with a ticket and passengers on the standby list not to show up. I was counting on that. My plan almost worked but not quite. I missed getting on the Providence plane by one seat. Thinking quickly, I noticed a flight was leaving for Hartford, Connecticut in just 40 minutes. It looked like it had some open seats. To my surprise, the American Airlines gate agent was able to transfer me from my Providence plane to the Hartford flight. I liked that. I was going to have a middle seat but at least I was going to get to Hartford, Connecticut tonight. I was in seat 5E. However, I was a little confused. I thought I was in seat 5B. After I disrupted the guy in 5C I realized my error and began to disrupt the lady in 5D. I hate it when people do that. Using my National Car Rental app, I was able to create a one-day reservation picking up my rental car in Hartford (BDL) and returning it to BDL on Saturday morning. There I would immediately exchange my car for a reservation that had me picking up another rental car in Hartford and dropping in Providence where I expected to be on Sunday morning. For my hotel this evening I used Kayak.com rather than Priceline. Once in a while Kayak provides a better travel opportunity. This evening I got a steeply discounted room at a Hilton Garden Inn. I find these hotels to be very nice. I have never stayed much in Hilton properties. I’ve always been a Marriott, Sheraton and Hyatt guy. A couple of months ago our son J.J. gave me the opportunity to become a gold member with the Hilton frequent stay program for one year. Today would be my first benefit coming from his generosity. Because of Covid most hotels are not serving their normal hot breakfast buffets or cooked to order breakfast. However, this Hilton Garden Inn was. They had a menu that was fairly basic but at least it was custom and it was hot food. For tomorrow morning I could order anything and everything off of the menu because of my Hilton Gold status. All right! It was now nearly Friday night and I was in Hartford, Connecticut. No, until a couple of hours ago, I had absolutely no idea I would be in Hartford tonight. What was there to do? I was pretty sure that Hartford had a minor-league baseball team. They do. The Hartford Yard Goats are their team. Hartford is a Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. I thought I had seen the Yard Goats play somewhere maybe Syracuse or Portland Maine but I knew it wasn’t in Hartford. If they had a home game tonight, I could go there. They were playing tonight but they were having an away game against the Richmond Flying Squirrels in Richmond, Virginia. Bummer. That would’ve been fun to see a game in Hartford. Then I remembered from long ago that a racetrack in Stafford Springs, Connecticut raced on Friday nights. Maybe they didn’t race on Friday nights anymore. I had no idea if Stafford Springs was anywhere close to Hartford. Luckily, Connecticut is a small state. Most people think of me as a Californian. It is true that I have lived 42 years of my life in the Golden State and absolutely love it. Few people know that Carol and I and the family lived in Ridgefield, Connecticut for about 18 months in 1979-80. Ridgefield is a beautiful little New England town. Living in Connecticut was a unique experience. We had a huge house on a two-acre lot. During the summertime, the trees were so prevalent that we couldn’t see a neighbor in any direction. However, during the wintertime the hours of my job had me leaving our house in the dark during the week and returning in the dark. I only saw our house in the daylight on the weekends! However, it was a job like that, which required a strong commitment at the time that allowed me to submit my retirement papers at age 52 and never look back. I soon discovered that the Stafford Motor Speedway WAS racing tonight. The track was only a 40-minute drive from the hotel. I couldn’t pass that up. I looked at my records. I had not been back to the Stafford Motor Speedway to see racing on their main track since 1980! Yes, I had been back to Stafford Springs to see a junk car race on their road course in 2009. I had also come back for a Monday night show to see kart racing on their smaller oval in 2006. However, at the Stafford Motor Speedway, real racing is all about seeing modifieds on the “big track”. When I returned to the Stafford Motor Speedway tonight, I found it to be a better facility than it was back in 1980. That cannot be said for all racetracks. After watching the races this evening, I would have to say the total SMS operation likely ranks in the top 10 short tracks in the United States. That’s a pretty strong statement considering I’ve seen as many tracks as I have. Tonight, heat racing was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. with feature racing to follow in about an hour. Any track that starts their feature racing at 7 p.m. rather than 10 p.m. is already a big hit with me. Tonight’s general admission price was fairly steep, for a regular show, 20 bucks. There were no discounts for seniors. However, the speedway recognizes folks like myself who served in the Armed Forces. Even though I didn’t have my United States Marine Corps I.D. or dog tags with me the lady selling the tickets gave me the five-dollar military discount. I knew there had to be a reward for going through Marine Corps boot camp! I don’t think there is any question the tracks on the East Coast have the best food concessions. Why is that? I really don’t know but it’s obvious that they do. I would normally bypass the option to eat at most racetracks I visit. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Tonight, I was glad that I chose to dine at the Stafford Motor Speedway. I began with an order of their chicken wings. How many American or worldwide for that matter short tracks have chicken wings on the menu? Then I went to a separate window to get some “fresh-cut fries”. Something must have been lost in the translation. I believe I was served fresh-cut sweet potato fries. I would’ve preferred regular fries on this evening. Later in the night, I would stop by the “fried dough” trailer. When the races were finished and I was back in my hotel room I would call Carol as I do pretty much every night that I’m on the road. I was trying to get her mind to go back in time and remember either “fried dough” or “elephant ears”. She was having some trouble with that. I think she just tries to put certain things out of her mind. There’s a reason she’s in the best physical condition, by a wide margin, of any of her trackchasing fellow competitors, be they male or female. For those of you who might not know what fried dough is or an elephant ear is think donut batter. They take that batter and stretch it out in the shape resembling an elephant ear. Then the fry the dough and smother it with cinnamon sugar, sugar, powdered sugar and any other sugar they can find. They might add, for an extra charge, some chocolate sauce or strawberry sauce and you’ve got fried dough. It’s a delicacy that I can never pass up. I was surprised about one thing tonight. I can say this because for me Covid in the rearview mirror. I say that because I have been fully vaccinated. Wait just a minute! Would you permit me to digress for just one quick moment? Thank you. When I was going through airport security this morning, I noticed a woman who was quite fit, attractive and probably in her 50s or so. I thought to myself the person who is married to this woman is a lucky fellow. He’s got a very attractive wife who keeps herself in shape. She was a knockout. I was right in front of her in the security line but for whatever reason, she struck up a quick conversation with the fellow standing behind her. She couldn’t stand the idea of masks. She thought vaccinations were not vaccinations but “shots”. Gee, I wonder what TV channel she listens to? She told everyone within earshot that she wasn’t going to get her shot because she knew someone who died and another 200 people who are on ventilators in hospitals because they got the shot. Really? After she went on and on about this type of stuff with the guy behind me, she proudly announced that she was now going to get off her “soapbox”. I smiled behind my mask and thanked God for small favors. Then she immediately followed up with, “the country has really changed for the worse in the last five months”. Now I knew what TV channel she watched and who she voted for. It’s interesting what you can learn about people by simply listening. I’m going to guess she didn’t vote for Joseph R. Biden. Yes, this woman was a knockout. However, after hearing her open her mouth, I think if I were married to her, I would’ve had to knock her out. She would be a long day. Whatever. Anyway, let’s get back to the Stafford Motor Speedway situation. I have found during my travels that east coasters can get to be a pretty cantankerous might I say, skeptical group. Folks, that’s just the East Coaster. You can’t be put off by their demeanor. Their bark is a lot worse than their bite. I have a lot of lovely East Coast friends. It’s just that a bigger percentage than you might expect of the people living in the east have this grumpy approach. That’s why I was shocked when virtually everyone who was not sitting in the grandstand, and who was roaming around the concession area was wearing a face mask. Really? These skeptical people were wearing a face mask when face masks are starting to lose their favor just about everywhere I visit? That was amazing. Once in the grandstands, people removed their masks to enjoy eating and watching the races. I even saw a SMS employee scrubbing down the grandstand’s handrails. Most tracks don’t even HAVE handrails! The “hardware” at the Stafford Motor Speedway is top-notch. They have a robust speaker system and two quality announcers. One of those announcers is long-time eastern racing notable, Ben Dodge. The grandstand is huge. It’s got to seat 6,000-8,000 or maybe even more. The car counts were outstanding. Tonight, they had five divisions of NASCAR quality stock cars and modifieds. Each division had 25-30 cars. Compare that to the average car count of about ten in each division at most tracks that I visit elsewhere. Stafford runs a solid program. When one race is finished the next race is pulling out onto the track within a minute or so. When they do have a crash, and tonight I saw some hard ones, they have things repaired in a minute or two and they’re back to racing. Tonight’s temperature was going to be chilly. I was wearing shorts because I believe no one except maybe those folks living in Antarctica should wear long pants. Fortunately, I had a blanket with me on this trip. Why did I bring a blanket? I was expecting to sleep overnight in my rental car. Tonight, I used that blanket at Stafford as my “long pants “. Each feature race ran 20-30 laps. They even had to have a couple of consolation races to narrow down the drivers who could participate in the main event. The racing on the half-mile paved oval was most professional. Every one of the cars was well-maintained and pristine looking. When the temperature dropped to 48° during the fourth of five features I considered going down and getting my serving of fried dough and heading for the exits. It was just at that moment that two cars crashed into the turns three and four walls separately. These crashes were so hard that they took out some of the fencing. The program was now going to be delayed for another undetermined amount of time while the fence was repaired. The accident didn’t modify my plan much. I still went down and got that serving of fried dough. Then I walked around just a little bit and watched the racing and commentary that was being broadcast on several TVs scattered around the track. Tonight’s race program was being streamed on Flo Racing. I took a few minutes to check out a special “wall” of the “Top 50 Modified Drivers” that is located behind the main grandstand. I had seen many of those drivers over the years. Then… I was out of there. Stafford Motor Speedway does a few things that most tracks in America could only dream of doing. They race on Friday nights and charge $20 for a regular show. They get a huge crowd. I’m guessing that tonight’s crowd might have been 2,000 people. They definitely run a complete and professional program and have one of the best facilities in the country. However, for me, the show was only mildly entertaining. I didn’t really know any of the drivers. I would rather see a show at a bullring with 11 cars in the feature where I know seven of those drivers really well than come and watch the racing at Stafford Springs. This is not a criticism of the racing at Stafford. It’s just I didn’t know anything about tonight’s racers. Obviously, the 2,000 fans who showed up tonight probably knew every driver in the field. From there I retired back to my hotel back in Hartford. My plan tomorrow morning was to get a second rental car that I could pick up in Hartford and drive to Providence, Rhode Island. Then Saturday night after the afternoon racing in New Hampshire I could fly from Rhode Island to Charlotte, North Carolina. However, there is nearly always a “however”, as I put more research into this plan, I figured I could probably get to Charlotte on Saturday evening from Hartford. That being the case I would simply hold onto the car that I had for an extra day. I wouldn’t tell National Car Rental about this new plan as my reservation was for one day, not two. I would just do it. It’s better to ask for forgiveness than approval, right? SATURDAY I woke up this morning in Hartford, Connecticut. The day’s plan would be simple. I like simple plans that accomplish a lot. I would drive up to Rochester, New Hampshire and watch the enduro racing on their road course. Then I would drive back to Hartford in the hopes of catching a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina later this evening. I would stay overnight in Charlotte and sleep in just a bit before going to tomorrow’s NASCAR Cup race in Darlington. Would this simple plan gets screwed up? I didn’t know. That’s why I play the game… to see what happens next. This morning’s hotel breakfast had everything priced individually, ala carte style. Luckily as a gold member of Hilton’s frequent stay program, I could order anything and everything that I wanted. For me, there would be no charge. I gotta be honest. I ordered $26 worth of “stuff”. It was all good and ready for me when I came down to pick it up. Thank you, Hilton, for sponsoring my breakfast and lunch today. Next up was the three-hour drive from Hartford, Connecticut to Rochester, New Hampshire. You might recall I was here in early March just two months ago. That visit, nine weeks ago had netted me my 13th new track visit in 2021. Today I would be seeing my 27th new track of the year. Today’s trip to Rochester was going to be extra special. I would get to do something that I hadn’t done very often with my trackchasing. I was going to meet up with pro endure driver Bruce Spencer. Of course, I am happy to say that I knew Bruce before he was “somebody” in the New Hampshire enduro stock car racing world. Bruce and I go all the way back to our initial meeting at the White Mountain Motorsports Park in 2006. A quick look at my notes reminds me that he and I have trackchased together at about a dozen locations over the last 15 years. 2006 #1,076 – White Mountain Motorsports Park – North Woodstock 2006 #1,115 – Londonderry Raceway – Manchester, NH 2006 #1,116 – Hudson Speedway – Hudson, NH 2007 #1,155 – Northeast Pond Ice Track – Milton, NH 2007 #1,156 – Lee Pond Ice Track – Moultonborough, NH 2008 #1,312 – Mototown USA – Windsor, CT 2009 #1,453 – Seekonk Speedway (kart track) – Seekonk, MA 2010 #1,588 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway (asphalt oval) – Fair Haven, VT 2017 #2,352 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway (dirt oval) – Fair Haven, VT 2018 #2,419 – Meredith Bay Ice Oval – Meredith, NH 2018 – #2,488 – New Hampshire MX (RC) – Lempster, NH 2021 #2,684 – Rochester Fairgrounds (Oval) – Rochester, NH 2021 #2,698 – Rochester Fairgrounds (RC) – Rochester, NH Bruce has been testing the waters and steadily working his way up in local enduro racing. He drives a 1995 Chevy Cavalier (it’s a Texas car with no rust!) and carries the racing number 333. Despite all of the racing he’s been doing this would be my first time to see him compete. I couldn’t wait to see his #333 out on the track. Today’s race program was going to begin at 1 p.m. The plan was to have two separate enduro races with about 30 cars in each race. The first race would be for amateur drivers. The second race was for the pros. Bruce would race in the second event. These two dirt road course races would be followed by an afternoon of demolition derby. When done properly I like demo derby. I don’t spend a lot of time going to them on my own but when they are connected to one of my trackchasing programs I enjoy the demos. I wouldn’t be able to do that today. As soon as the two enduros were finished I needed to hightail it back to Hartford, Connecticut. I’ll tell you more about that later. The good thing about today’s event was that I had nearly an hour to visit with Bruce. He was able to give me a lot of background information on the New Hampshire enduro series as well as on today’s racing program. I’ve always found Bruce to be a very levelheaded guy and enjoy spending time with him. Enduro racing is one of the least expensive forms of auto racing that exists. Some people, including me, refer to this as junk car racing. A lot of these racers are one stop removed from the junkyard but then souped up both mechanically and performance-wise in one way or another. This transforms what might have been a junk car into a full-fledged race car. I’ve seen enduro racing all over the country. It’s popular for two reasons. One, the competitors can race for not too much money. Secondly, there are a lot more race fans who like to see beating and banging compared to seeing the high-profile sprint cars and stock cars that come with a $40 ticket price. The $40 ticket race? It might come with very little beating and banging and sadly not much passing. To be clear, and this was pointed out at the drivers’ meeting, today’s enduro was NOT a demo derby. This was racing. I think the drivers took that to heart. I didn’t see virtually any rough driving. I did see some cars without roll cage protection. That scared me a bit for that driver’s safety. It’s always fun to sit in on the drivers’ meeting. As a race fan, I get a lot out of that. The promoter spent almost all of his time asking everyone to be on the lookout for people running around the pits without a wristband. The wristband signified that someone had purchased a pit pass. By buying a pit pass everyone has signed a liability release. That meant that if anyone got hurt in the pits they were on their own. Today’s weather was cool. I pegged the temperature at about 55°. A lot of people were wearing long sleeve shirts and jackets. I wondered how many people DIDN’T have a wristband? I had my wristband and I paid 20 bucks for it. By the way, I was wearing shorts. All day I saw just one other guy wearing shorts. I think folks knew I wasn’t “from around here”. As noted, I was at the Rochester Fairgrounds a few weeks ago. They have a very rustic, old and covered county fair grandstand. I love those. However, they are disappearing fast. In March I saw racing on a homemade oval. Today they were racing on a homemade road course. The course was marked by a series of cones. It was pretty funny when the pace truck led the drivers around the track for a slow tour of the course. He got lost and made a series of wrong turns! I felt bad for the good-sized crowd in the grandstand. The enduro racing kicked up a lot of dust. The only really dusty part of the track was directly in front of the grandstand. I’m sure that made seeing the entire race track difficult for those sitting in the stands. I had a great view from the pit area. I think you’re really going to like my video. It’s got some special elements in it that I don’t normally include. I think Bruce had one of the best-looking cars at the track. The body was red with a white number 333. The roof was a metallic green. It seemed like his racer was the “Christmas” car. The majority of the other competitors had dull black/gray OEM paint. Bruce’s car really stood out. I sent a video clip to Carol. She told me she could really follow Bruce’s car. Bruce has a unique paint sponsor. However, I’ll let him tell you about that if you get the chance. Each of the enduro races would run for a specific amount of time rather than a specific number of laps. That race time was 15 minutes. Initially, I thought 15 minutes was really a short time to be racing. Then when I looked at the track and saw how muddy but more importantly bumpy it was, I figured if I were a driver, fifteen minutes would be about right. The shorter races fit very well into my plan of getting back to the Hartford airport as well. Today’s video from the Rochester fairgrounds is going to focus on Bruce Spencer and the Bruce Spencer racing team. To be clear Bruce does not do this by himself. He and his good friend, Kevin Simpson, prepare and bring the car to the track. They have a blast doing what they do. I also got the chance to meet the enduro racing race organizer, Leon Keniston. He was a nice friendly guy. Leon said he really enjoyed my Trackchaser Report when I came to see their racing on the oval. I snapped a photo of Leon and Bruce. I reminded Leon, the series promoter, that he ought to give Bruce some special consideration whenever he needed it! Bruce’s individual race had some exciting moments. He got hung up a couple of times with traffic. Bruce passed a couple of guys and a couple of guys passed him. When Bruce pulled in after the race he stopped where I was standing. Bruce understands his media obligations. He knows that my social media presence, website, Facebook, print and YouTube channel are the envy of every other trackchaser. Bruce unbuckled and took some time to tell his fans about his ride today. You are definitely going to want to see my YouTube video. By the way, you might want to brush up on your Beatles’ trivia before you catch that video. By the way, I am very envious of Bruce’s racing endeavors. When the live interviewing was finished it was time to say our goodbyes. Bruce lives about an hour away from the racetrack. He would be towing his racer on an open trailer back to his race headquarters in Bristol, NH. In the meantime, I was headed back to Hartford, Connecticut. I was hoping to be able to fly to Charlotte tonight. The flight was tight and overbooked with standby passengers. I didn’t know if I would make it or not. Before I close, I can tell you this. I’ve seen quite a bit of stock car racing and quite a bit of enduro racing. When I’m a long way from home like I was today in New Hampshire the racing is a lot more fun to watch if I know somebody who’s racing and they are my friend. All of that made today’s enduro racing a lot more fun to watch. From Rochester, I headed down to the airport in Hartford, Connecticut. My travel drama was just about ready to begin. I was flying standby. I almost always fly standby for my domestic trips here in the United States. I have a lot of technology tools at my disposal. These tools make traveling’s “behind the scenes” gyrations just a little bit easier. Much of what I use is not really available to the general public. I’d like to tell you about them. But that probably wouldn’t be good for me and it probably wouldn’t be good for you in the long run. I was hoping to get on an airplane that would fly me nonstop to Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte was my destination because I plan to see the NASCAR Cup race in somewhat nearby Darlington, South Carolina tomorrow afternoon. If I didn’t make the flight or I didn’t make any of my backup options I would simply head back to Southern California. It was really a simple as that. As I was driving down to the airport, I discovered another option that might work. An airline was flying from Hartford down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. That seemed like a really odd flying combination. Myrtle Beach was fairly near Darlington. The flight flying into Myrtle Beach was wide open. Why wouldn’t I just take that? Here’s the deal. I need an airplane to get me into the general area of where I need to be to see the next race. But once I land, I need some form of ground transportation. I would need a rental car. I would need a rental car that I could pick up in Myrtle Beach and drop off in Charlotte. None of my sponsors could handle that responsibility today. There was also the issue of getting a hotel somewhere around Myrtle Beach. I was pretty certain that the Darlington Raceway fans were taking up most of the rooms in the area. The rooms race fans were not using were being occupied by golfers anxious to get back onto the links for their first springtime outing in South Carolina. I was correct on that point. Hotels were in so short demand that a Super 8 motel was selling for $305 plus tax. With all of that being the case I nixed the idea of flying on a wide-open airplane with 134 open seats to Myrtle Beach. I would sink or swim with tonight’s flight to Charlotte. If I didn’t make the flight to Charlotte, I might rent a car and drive over to Providence, Rhode Island. I would need to sleep in my car and try for a 6 a.m. flight to Charlotte from Providence. I could also try for two separate morning flights tomorrow morning from Hartford to Charlotte. The Providence flight loads looked a little bit better than CLT. Would you like to travel the way I do? I’m happy to report that although I was 13th on the standby list and there were only nine open seats, I made my flight from Hartford to Charlotte. As soon as I got that word, I immediately used my smartphone with the Priceline app. I made a reservation for a very low price at a Courtyard by Marriott hotel. I almost always stay in Marriott or Sheridan properties. I almost always use Priceline to get the very best deals. SUNDAY This had been an unusual trip. When I think about it most of my trips are unusual. No harm no foul there. This was supposed to be a trackchasing trip but it turned into more of a racechasing trip. I had returned to the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday. I was now heading to the Darlington Raceway on Sunday morning as a racechaser. My only trackchasing opportunity after the rain out in North Carolina on Friday night was the Rochester Fairgrounds up in New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon. I woke up this morning in Charlotte and grabbed the hotel shuttle over to the airport so I could pick up my next rental car. I had purposely chosen a hotel last night with an airport shuttle so that I could forgo an extra day of rental car expense. I was wearing my really cool-looking Dale Earnhardt Jr. t-shirt. This t-shirt gets a lot of comments. Even the Courtyard by Marriott shuttle driver loved it. He told me he was a Jeff Gordon fan. When Jeff was driving, he was my favorite driver as well. Meeting Bill Elliott – Evergreen Speedway 1985 Yes, I was heading to the Darlington Raceway for the first time since 1992. Back then I spent the weekend down there seeing first Robert Pressley and then Bill Elliott win the two NASCAR races. That seemed like a long time ago and I guess it was. I didn’t have a ticket to the race today. That didn’t concern me in the least. I had something that was far better than an advanced purchased race ticket. What was that? I had my famous, “need one” sign. My need one sign never lets me down. It and its preceding brothers and sisters have literally saved me, and I am not kidding you on this, thousands of dollars to big sporting events from the NFL to major-league baseball to the NBA to the National Hockey League and now once again to a NASCAR race. My need one sign doesn’t really need any supporting actors. However today my sign was getting some extra support. What was that? It was my Dale Earnhardt Jr. t-shirt. Everybody loves Junior. There will be a lot of people at the race today who will have an extra ticket. They will make a conscious decision on whether or not to sell their ticket or not to someone else. If a NASCAR fan shows up all the way from Alabama and they are a Crimson Tide supporter come hell or high water they will not be selling their extra ticket to a guy with an Auburn T-shirt. As a UCLA fan, I would NEVER sell an extra ticket in order to get my lunch money to a usc fan? Are you friggin’ kidding me? I would never sell anything or have any contact with a usc fan no matter if I had to starve to death. Tomorrow I’ll be flying back to Los Angeles on Monday morning. I thought about staying just a little bit later and trying to see the JR Motorsports museum and shop. Then when I learned that they don’t allow photography I said no to that idea. Dale Junior? What’s up with the no photography rule? Not fun. Not good. Change it and I’ll be there. Today I arrived at the Darlington Raceway about an hour and a half before the official start time of 3:30 p.m. I’ve heard some people say they think attending a NASCAR race is abnormally expensive. Oh my. Are they crazy! Do the people who think and say that understand the market? I don’t think they do. If you want to get a good deal you have to be smart about it, right? If you want to get a good deal at a NASCAR race, I suggest you listen to the tips I’m going to offer you here in just a moment. If you do, you’ll be paying less money for a big-time national event than if you went to a minor-league baseball game in a small town anywhere near you. If you’re coming from out of town, you’re going to need a hotel. As I pointed out hotels in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina were terribly expensive. Myrtle Beach is 78 miles from Darlington. Myrtle Beach has a big golf crowd and they know how to spend some money. I’m sure the Darlington race crowd was showing up in Myrtle Beach as well. As an example, the Super 8 Motel in Myrtle Beach was selling for $305 plus tax. However, in Charlotte, North. Carolina, which was a distance of just 96 miles from Darlington, hotel prices were much more reasonable. Last night I stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott hotel for $82 and tax. I thought that was most reasonable and the driving distance to Darlington was reasonable as well. The first expense I encountered at the Darlington Raceway was parking. I saw signs and people paying as much as $25 to park their car in a field. Don’t they know that every NASCAR track offers a good deal of free parking? Today I parked at the Darlington Raceway probably a half-mile (that’s four city blocks) or less from where I parked my car to the ticket entrance. No charge. Free! When I come to a NASCAR race whether I’m by myself or with Carol, I never ever buy my tickets in advance. First buying a ticket ahead of time locks me into the event. I have a lifestyle that changes at the drop of a hat. The second reason is that I never pay “retail” prices for a ticket. They were selling tickets to this event at the Darlington Raceway ticket office today. The least expensive ticket for an adult was $82 on the frontstretch. However, I bought my ticket from an individual who had tickets to sell on the grounds. I paid 20 bucks. As I look back at my list of NASCAR races that I have attended in the last decade or so I’ve probably seen 15 races, maybe more. I have never paid more than $20 for a ticket. Today a gentleman approached me and asked if I needed a ticket. I guess he had read my sign that said, “Need One”. I told him I did but I didn’t want to buy one from him. He was taken aback. “What’s up with that?” he asked? “I don’t buy tickets from professionals because I am a professional,” I told him. That definitely got his attention. I could see in his eyes that he wanted to try to prove me wrong. He said he had a “$110 ticket” that he would sell me. I told him I wasn’t interested because I would be paying a maximum of 20 bucks. All of a sudden he had a “$30 ticket” for me. Nope, 20 bucks was my limit. He looked at me, understood the situation, and gave me the ticket for 20 bucks. This man was a scalper. Did he make money on his $20 sale with me? Probably. I didn’t mind. I was paying $20 for a NASCAR Cup race at Darlington. That was a solid deal. How many professional sporting events do you know be they hockey, baseball, basketball, or football or even minor-league versions of those sports that will allow you to bring food and drink including alcoholic beverages into the arena at no charge? That’s what they do it NASCAR races. You get yourself a clear bag put some ice in it put a six-pack or 12 pack in it and you walk right on in. You can bring all of the food and drink that you want so that you can enjoy your afternoon with the items that you like to eat and drink. Let’s review. I stayed in a Marriott hotel last night for about 80 bucks. I parked at the races for free. I paid $20 for my race ticket. Finally, I brought in my own food and drinks, Gatorade zero and snacks at no charge whatsoever. The next time somebody tells you it’s expensive to attend a NASCAR race you might want to share the information I’ve shared with you. Today my ticket called for me to sit in the Pearson grandstand. That was fine for me. This was a very steeply pitched grandstand overlooking primarily turn four. I could see the racing on the front straightaway really well and see the cars racing through turns three and four in a close-up version. My ticket said, “Row 14”. Randy said, “Row 42”. I loved my seat location. Some time ago I bought a racing radio. For the life of me, I can’t remember what I paid for it. Nevertheless, my racing radio allows me to listen in on the MRN radio broadcast of the NASCAR race as well as the driver to crew private uncensored communications for every driver in the field. At each race, I simply walk up to the Racing Electronics trailer and turn on my radio. The radio reprograms itself with all of the current race team radio frequencies. It works like a charm. It wasn’t long ago that I bought a noise-canceling Bose headset. I’ve had these Bose products for probably 20 years or more. They’re a little bit expensive but are they good. Today’s noise-canceling headset, which I also use on airplanes to listen to movies, cancels out the extremely loud noise of the race cars. The headset also allows me to listen in on everything that was happening with today’s race. I wouldn’t go to a NASCAR race without a RE radio. I wouldn’t say today’s race was the most exciting NASCAR race I’ve ever seen. Martin Truex Jr. led about 80-90% of all the laps. Not only did he lead so many laps but he led by a wide margin at times. It looked like Kyle Larson might run him down during the last 20-30 laps. He got within a couple of car lengths once. However, Truex was the winner and I kind of liked that. Martin seems like a nice quiet reasonable guy. I like Kyle Larson as well. He’s just got so much talent. I know that today’s crowd was limited because of Covid protocol. They did make an announcement to say that the Darlington race on Labor Day will be run at 100% capacity and tracks like Pocono, Atlanta and Daytona will as well. That’s good news! I will tell you this. I’ve been traveling heavily since Covid began in March 2020. I have enjoyed the open spaces created when people hunkered down and never left their basement. I didn’t think I was being irresponsible with my travel. I tried to do exactly what the CDC was recommending in terms of wearing a mask, social distancing and washing my hands. I’m thankful that all of that turned out well for me. However now a good number of people have been vaccinated. Crowds are starting to show up in airports and races and other places. It’s no fun to deal with big crowds after you get used to small crowds. Today is Mother’s Day. My mother passed quite a long time ago. May she R.I.P. Carol is now “my mother”. She takes care of me like a champ. We did some celebrating before I left on this racing trip. We will do some celebrating when I return home tomorrow. As of about 8 p.m. tonight I still hadn’t gotten her a card or a gift for Mother’s Day. It was too late to send flowers. I had already sent her flowers not all that long ago for another occasion. At just the right moment I was passing a CVS drugstore. I hopped in there quickly and picked up a greeting card and three gift cards to be my Mother’s Day gift. Carol will be enjoying a gift card from Starbucks, Bed Bath and Beyond and a restaurant gift card good for the Macaroni Grill and some of there are other brands. All that will be easy to carry home. I think she’ll enjoy it very much. On the drive back to Charlotte it began to rain lightly. At about that moment here came an onslaught of NASCAR race car haulers. The teams with drivers like Kurt Busch, Michael McDowell and Brad Keselowski were passing me and heading back to their Charlotte shops. I wondered for a moment what life on the road would be like for some of these NASCAR teams and drivers. I am suspecting that the driver and crew chief are the kings and princes of the operation. The people in the trenches work pretty hard for whatever they make. Tonight, I’m staying in a TownPlace Suites Hotel by Marriott in Charlotte. Normally the demand for hotels is the least on Sunday nights. People who traveled for the weekend are returning home on Sunday. Most business travelers don’t begin their travel until Monday morning. With all of that being the case, I paid just $58 for another quality Marriott property. Priceline has really allowed me to upgrade my hotel choices over the past few years. Now on most nights I stay in luxury. MONDAY. This had been a good trip. It was a little rocky to start with when the track that I wanted to see on Friday night in North Carolina rained out a day in advance. However, with that advance notice, I was able to get myself up to the Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Connecticut to see some racing for the first time since 1980. Saturday was a special day. I was able to see good buddy Bruce Spencer race on the road course at the Rochester Fairgrounds in Rochester, New Hampshire. It’s always fun to see somebody that you know out there on the track. Then I was able to get myself down to the Darlington Raceway. I hadn’t been there for a long time. How long? My one and only visit to Darlington until Sunday came all the way back in 1982. This was a fun weekend although it wasn’t an outstanding trackchasing weekend. It didn’t matter. I was there for the enjoyment and the ambiance of the overall trip. Pretty much all weekend long the flights that I wanted to take were nearly full and a nail-biter as to whether or not I was gonna make it to where I needed to be. Today’s Monday morning flight from Charlotte to Los Angeles was relatively wide-open. I would land back in Southern California at noon. I would be in the loving arms of Trackchasing’s First Mother in our modest seaside cottage by mid-afternoon. This coming week we’ve got an unusual opportunity. Carol and I will be taking care of our grandkids, Mitch and Astrid for several days. I’ve got a special plan cooked up for them for the weekend. We’ll see a UTV off-road race and then go hiking in a very special and rural location in central California at an elevation of 6,000 feet. That hike will be followed by a visit to the McDonald’s museum which housed the very first McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, California. I’m looking forward to that. So that’s it. I know these Trackchasers reports are a little lengthy but then there’s a lot to tell. So long from Connecticut, New Hampshire and South Carolina and all points in between. Randy Lewis San Clemente, California Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,698 tracks. New Hampshire The Granite State This afternoon I saw racing at my 26th-lifetime track in the Granite, yes, the Granite State. I hold the #4 trackchasing ranking in New Hampshire. New Hampshire ranks #27, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time New Hampshire state trackchasing list. I have made 17 separate trips to New Hampshire seeing these tracks. New Hampshire state track list 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 New Hampshire sayings: New Hampshire: The One on the Right 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 800 tracks of my lifetime total. That’s a fact, Jack. 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. The SmugMug Photo Album Each trip includes a lot of photos of the “trip” and not just the racing. From one U.S. senator, “I think if I wanted to see what this adventure was like and didn’t have all that much time, I would just look at the photo album.” Yes, the photos are captioned as well. The first album covers the Stafford Motor Speedway, which was preceded by our Mother’s Day celebration at Angels Stadium. Mother’s Day Angel’s game outing and the racing trip to Connecticut This was the highlight of the trip. I came to New Hampshire to see my buddy, Bruce Spencer race his Chevy Cavalier. It was worth the trip! A return visit to New Hampshire for road course racing This weekend I was going to see my fourth NASCAR Cup race of the year. I was ready. I had my “Need One” sign. I was returning to the Darlington Raceway for the first time since 1992! 
