Greetings from Ararat, Virginia
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Rolling Thunder Speedway
Dirt oval
Lifetime Track #2,209
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 THE PLAN Time to get serious. I’m beginning to get into the serious part of my trackchasing season. What does that mean? It means Angel games during the week and trackchasing on the weekends. This “busy part” runs from about May 1 through Labor Day. During those four months I will see more than half of the tracks I’ll visit for the entire year. You gotta have goals. Every year I set goals for my trackchasing hobby. Those goals are always available by clicking on the link at the homepage of my website at www.randylewis.org. Wanna go there now? Here’s the link: One of this year’s trackchasing goals is to try to add at least one additional state where I’ve seen 100 tracks or more. I’ve already seen racing at 100 or more tracks in four different states. It’s very possible I might add states #5 and #6 to the “century” club this year. Pennsylvania or bust. It was with that in mind that I headed out toward Pennsylvania on this weekend’s trip. When this plan was first formulated I thought I might be able to add four new tracks to my Keystone state track total. If that happened I would be up to 97 total tracks in Pennsy by Sunday night. Unfortunately early on in the planning process one of the Pennsylvania tracks dropped out. They were not going to be running countable racing. That’s always a concern. Then a new track in Maine popped up on my radar screen. That’s always a plus! Bad weather can change my direction. As I got closer to the weekend I could see the weather in Pennsylvania was not going to be very friendly. Spring is just springing in that part of the world even in late April. All of these changes were not going to be a major problem. The staff at Randy Lewis Racing research department is very creative. They soon found a race in southern Virginia for Friday night. The weather forecast down that way was good. Drive…then drive some more. After the Virginia race I would drive overnight all the way back to Pennsylvania in hopes of seeing two tracks on Saturday. Then from there the plan was to drive nine hours overnight up into Maine for their Sunday afternoon race. Yes, this would require catching just a couple of hours of sleep for two consecutive nights in highway rest areas. No, trackchasing ain’t as easy as it looks. I’m always thinking. In the back of my mind I was considering replacing Sunday afternoon’s race with an afternoon trackchasing outing in Southern California. That’s right! The plan might call for Virginia on Friday, two tracks in Pennsylvania on Saturday and then a track in California on Sunday. That was a pretty far cry from the original plan of adding four tracks in Pennsylvania and a single track in Maine. However, in my world that’s the way things work. I always need three things to make these plans work. I’ve said for years and years that in order to make a success of a trackchasing weekend I need three things. First I have to find a place where they are racing. Secondly, I need a workable plan that will get me there. Finally, I need acceptable weather. As I see more and more racetracks it’s not that easy to pull off this trifecta. Getting there. Here’s how the “getting there” part of the trip would work this weekend. When I go trackchasing on the East Coast I’ve got to leave California the day before the race is scheduled. In almost all cases there’s no way to leave California early and still get to an eastern based race with the travel distance required and the three hour time change. I call this the “California trackchasing penalty.” Where did trackchasing begin? The hobby of trackchasing began in Pennsylvania. Most of trackchasing’s leaders hail from Pennsylvania or states that border Pennsylvania. Folks in those areas can fall off their backyard patio and be in the pit area of two or three new tracks. Yes, there are that many trackchasing opportunities in that part of the country. I live in Southern California. There are likely more tracks that have been seen in and around Pennsylvania than there are within 1,000 miles of where I live. Nevertheless I haven’t let this deter my trackchasing efforts. THURSDAY The flights are wide-open…now. The flights I needed to get to the East Coast were generally open. That won’t be the case when school lets out for the summer in another month. I figured I should take this long trip this weekend while the going was good. There was a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. That would have been the most convenient option. However, that flight was filling up fast. The safer option, to make sure I got to the east coast, was to fly from Los Angeles to Seattle and then over to Washington D.C. I took this connection just to play it safe. Of course that would add to my overall flight time. That meant I would leave the house at 4:45 a.m. I wouldn’t get to Washington D.C. until nearly midnight. I would have a nice 2 1/2 hour layover in Seattle. I would use that time for or planning. For me trackchasing is a hobby of planning and strategy. It never stops. I made it to Seattle in good shape. Once there I saw the flight to Washington was looking good. That meant I could make a Priceline.com non-refundable hotel reservation. I did just that. I would be staying at an Extended Stay America hotel in Fairfax, Virginia. I got my hotel room for nearly half of what the general public would be paying. Yes, Priceline rocks when used the right way. Have you noticed this? I do it myself. In case you haven’t noticed there are a lot of logistics that go into planning one of my trips. I don’t count on anyone else to make my plan. I don’t expect anyone else to drive me to the races. I don’t count on anyone else to cover any of my expenses. I do get quality advise from informants located all over the world. I’m very grateful for each of their contributions. However when it comes down to it I’m the guy who steps out the front door to make it all happen. That is not the case with several of my fellow competitors. I can’t imagine being so totally dependent upon others when making a trackchasing trip. I like my way better. A good car is worth its weight in steel. I would be renting a car from the National Car Rental Company. At nearly midnight in the Ronald Reagan National Airport I selected Hyundai Sonata with 11,000 miles on the odometer. My original plan, if I went to Maine, would put 2,100 more miles on that odometer. If California replaced Maine I would “only” drive about 1,100 miles. FRIDAY This was a big surprise. Last night I had made a convenience store run picking up a couple bottles of water, some Diet Mountain Dew, a package of pork rinds and a pickled sausage. A man has to eat right? I would use the bottles of water for this morning’s three-mile power walk. My Extended Stay America hotel rooms always come with a full kitchen. Last night I put my bottles of water in the fridge. I certainly wasn’t expecting this morning to open up the refrigerator door to find the two bottles of water nearly frozen solid as a rock. When I went out this morning for the walk it was 50°, windy and looked as if it had rained all night. I was wearing a T-shirt and running shorts. Remember I’m from Southern California. These were not the ideal conditions to be carrying a 24-ounce bottle of block ice on the power walk! That sucker was a handful to hold onto for three miles! Head south young man. Bad weather to the north up in Pennsylvania made my decision for me today on where I would trackchase. I would head south from the greater Washington, D.C. area. Tonight I will be seeing racing near the Virginia/North Carolina border. That racing will happen under blue-sky conditions and temperatures in the mid-70s. I can’t pass ‘em up. Along the way I made my first stop at a Waffle House in a long time. I figured I was in line for the 1,000 calorie plus All-Star breakfast with waffle. I had already exercised for the day. It was now past 2 p.m. I was eating for the first time today. I must tell you this eating plan has never worked well with weight loss in the past however. Nevertheless, today it was all good! I finally made it to Ararat, Virginia. Tonight’s racing would be at the Rolling Thunder Speedway in Ararat, Virginia. I’ve had this Friday night racing venue on my radar screen multiple times. Then a couple of years they closed the track. I don’t worry too much about track closures. There always seems to be another promoter willing to give things a shot. Then last year they re-opened as a go-kart track. Finally, in 2016, they were back to racing stock cars at RTS. I don’t get to see racing on short dirt ovals much anymore. Why is that? It’s because I’ve seen racing at nearly every small dirt track in the United States! When I pulled into the track property at 5:49 p.m. I knew I was early. However, I subscribe to the adage that, “If you’re not early you’re late.” THE RACING Rolling Thunder Speedway – Ararat, Virginia Scenic but not convenient to get too. The Rolling Thunder Speedway is in a very rural spot in southern Virginia. The Blue Ridge Mountains, winding roads and a heavily wooded area surround the track. It’s so rural that the phrase “no service” showed up on my iPhone about 10 miles from the track. On the one hand that was OK. Once I lock in on a destination my Waze GPS system won’t forget even if I do lose cellular service along the way. Not that easy. However “no service” can be quite problematic when it’s time to leave the track. At that point I’ll need to enter my “exit destination”. However, I can’t do that in a “no service” cell phone area. To get around that little stumbling block I had to remember my last three major turns “left, right, left” that got me to the track tonight. Then to get back to civilization I would simply go “right, left, right”. That’s sometimes easier said that done at night. Last year I was at a rural track in Kentucky. It took me about a half hour trying to find my way out of the woods when I couldn’t get service on my phone! Ten bucks. Tonight’s general admission price was $10. That’s pretty much the going rate across the country for a “normal” oval track program. I found the track to be neat as a pin. The people I met at the track were as nice as folks could possibly be. I was early enough where I could park on a hillside overlooking turn number one. If I wanted to I could watch the races from my car. I always enjoy having that option. It lets me play with my computer and such during downtime in the program. This part wasn’t so good. The one major drawback to the racing tonight was an overall lack of cars. There were eight racing classes. Two of those classes had nine cars each. Those were the crate late models and the U-cars. Most of the other divisions had just 3-4 racers. What could be worse than having such small fields of cars? Large fields of cars in the same classes! I can only imagine what would have happened if 25 cars had showed up in each class. I wouldn’t have gotten out of there until July 4. What will I remember from here? I always seem to have a remembrance from each track I visit that lasts for a long time. That remembrance tonight will be of the track announcer. He was an older gentleman. I can make that statement because I’m older too. He told the crowd tonight was his first night on the job at the track. I learned in sales that even when you’re new to the job it’s probably not a good idea to admit it. The track announcer had worked several other tracks over the years but tonight was his first effort at the Rolling Thunder Speedway. The announcer made a lot of “interesting” comments. Earlier in the evening he told the crowd they should go down to the concession stand and buy some food and drink. He said something like “I don’t really know what they have but they must have something you’d like.” On the backstretch several 4’x8’ (above) advertising signs were displayed. The announcer kept trying to bring those signs to the attention of the fans. There’s nothing wrong with that. The ads help keep the track profitable. However, he kept saying the signs were “big and wonderful”. The signs were so far away and so small that to the naked eye, from the front stretch, I could barely make out who most of the advertisers were! The announcer kept wanting to call the track the “Thunder Valley Speedway” even though the track’s name is the Rolling Thunder Speedway. He must’ve stumbled over the track’s official name 10 times during the evening. By the end of the night I didn’t know for sure what the track’s name was! He also had a hard time identifying the racing classes. Nevertheless, I could tell he was a nice humble guy. We can all remember what it was like on that first day on a new job. He was doing his best in the new surroundings. Not politically correct but that can be a good thing….a very good thing. In today’s ever increasingly politically correct world the track announcer stepped out of that box as well. I appreciated that. Even though tonight was Friday night he invited the crowd to attend the church of their choice tomorrow morning, Sunday. I guess he normally works Saturday night tracks. He told everyone where he went to church and invited anyone in the crowd to join him. He said, “If you already go to church somewhere don’t leave that one to come to ours. However if you come to ours we will treat you real nice. The people who live on the mountain are good folks.” I liked this guy even if he wasn’t sure that a mini-sprint was a….mini-sprint. So what is really “racing” and when does it begin? The track’s Facebook page said that racing would begin at 7 p.m. It was now about 7:30 p.m. and nothing much had happened. I have been busy doing financial planning on my computer when I looked out toward the pit area. All I could see was ONE racing trailer. Panic! Stark raving panic. All of a sudden I had a panic attack. I hadn’t seen any racecars pulling into the track. Now I could only see one car in the pit area. I honestly thought they were going to cancel the races for lack of entries! However when they called the driver’s meeting about 40 people showed up. I figured only one out of three of those people would be drivers. What did that mean? There weren’t very many racecars here tonight. Eight classes of racing. Nevertheless, there were about 35 cars in the pit area. Every class ran a heat race except the crate late models. In the middle of program they time trialed. Yep, that’s what they do in the south. I don’t care for it but I’m not going to change that ritual. Racing actually got underway at about 8 p.m. By 9 p.m. all the heat races and the time trials were completed. Decision time. I had an important decision to make. Tomorrow I was planning to see some afternoon racing at the Pocono International Raceway. Pocono was about 500 miles north of where I was tonight. Did I want to sit through intermission and then watch a series of feature events with 3-4 cars in each race? I really wanted to see the nine car late-model feature race. However, it was going to run off seventh in the eight-class feature lineup. The announcer told us that intermission would take just 10-15 minutes. I’ve heard that line before. Somewhat surprisingly to me, I decided to wait it out the intermission. They did take just 13 minutes for that break. I sat through six feature events with really small car counts. From what I could tell every one of those features went for 20 laps even the races with only three entries. Groan! Late models…one of my favorite classes. The late-model feature went off at about 10 p.m. on the red clay banked quarter-mile dirt track. The race was OK, for a nine-car late model feature. Fans watched from several different vantage points. You won’t want to miss my photo album of the surroundings at the Rolling Thunder Speedway. As mentioned everyone I met was more than nice. The facility was very clean. Concession prices were low. A bottle of water went for just a buck. The corndog I ordered was out of stock. I replaced it with an all red Martinsville type hotdog, which tasted as if it had been grilled in the backyard. They ran the races off most efficiently. I was out of the track by 10:15 p.m. or so. AFTER THE RACES My night was just beginning. Now I was going to have to drive most of the night. I had 14 hours before the next race up at Pocono. However, that track was an eight-hour drive from tonight’s track in southern Virginia. That meant I could sleep somewhere along the line for four hours or so. That was good enough for me. I’m used to it. I learned most of what I know from NASCAR. Once I found my way out of the track I came across a gas station. Yes they were selling fuel for just $1.99 a gallon. However I didn’t fill up even though I was down to a quarter of a tank. I try never to get gas until the orange low fuel light comes on. I learned all of my fuel strategies and pit stop methods by watching NASCAR on TV! Health food. However I did stop for more provisions. I ended up buying a four pack of extra strength 5-Hour Energy drink. I had just one bottle tonight. I’m sure I’ll use the rest sometime during the coming summer. I also gathered up some more pork rinds, Diet Mountain Dew and a pickled sausage. Oh ya, some Muddy Buddies too. Those Muddy Buddies didn’t make it too far up the road. Off I went. I quickly downed the first bottle of 5-Hour Energy drink. That stuff works really well for me. Even though I had an eight-hour drive it would get me down the road. Using my West coast heritage to maximum advantage. I would also be using the time zone to my advantage. For the most part I was on West Coast time which meant that at 10:15 p.m. when I got out of the track it was really only 7:15 p.m. my time. At least that’s what I said to myself in order to convince me to keep on driving. Ah Sheetz! I love these folks. My Hyundai Sonata was giving me about 36 miles a gallon. I was also able to drive about 550 miles on my first tank of petrol. I needed to stop for gas at a Sheetz gas station. Sheetz service stations are mainly located in and around Pennsylvania. I really like these places. They’re all well lit. Their convenience stores have a wide selection of items. With a full load of fuel and a glazed cinnamon twist in my belly I headed on up Interstate 81 with a smile on my face. Good night. Virginia The Old Dominion state This evening I saw my 26th lifetime tracks in the Old Dominion state, yes the Old Dominion state. I’ve seen twenty-six tracks or more in 23 different states. 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 Virginia sayings: Aunt: Translation: Obviously this is your parent’s sister. But it’s pronounced “awnt” not “ant.” An ant is an insect. We must be very clear on this one. And I’m not so sure about the rest of the country, but I know around here, a good friend is like family. “Aunt Betty” doesn’t have to be blood. She might just be your mom’s best friend. QUICK FACTS TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Rolling Thunder Raceway – $10 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 525 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 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. Rolling Thunder Speedway – photo album 
