Greetings from Circle, Montana
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Round Town Raceway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,653 THE EVENT Editor’s note: Trackchasing in the Far West is just different. It’s a good kind of different. I’ve been up to Montana many times and love it. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with Dickie, Puffer’s Pond (Vermont) ice racing promoter. I live out in San Clemente, California. We’re only 74 miles north of the Mexican border. I’m not sure a person could pick a more inconvenient location in the continental United States if they wanted to be a world-class trackchaser. My residential location virtually assures the idea that I must fly to virtually every track I visit. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. Trackchasing for me is all about three things. First, I enjoy auto racing. Secondly, my hobby requires a good deal of overnight travel. When I venture out to see a race at a track I’ve never seen before I do not want my trip limited to racing only. The very last thing I want when I’m done trackchasing is to have memories of only racing. I want to take some time to see the local attractions of wherever I might be visiting. Those visits in many cases will provide more long-lasting memories than whatever I saw on the track. Finally, I want to create a logistical plan that allows me to accomplish the two points mentioned above without depleting my retirement account. That’s trackchasing for me. Hundreds of trackchasers have stopped for a moment to create their own personal trackchasing list. I think that is great. However, I will tell you that no one has ever taken trackchasing more seriously than I have. Do I have any data to back up that assertion? I do. To date, I have seen auto racing in 85 countries at more than 2,670 different tracks. Does that sound serious to you? I’ve been able to see the world doing this. If you’re interested in exactly what I’ve been able to experience all around the U.S. and the world I recommend you click on this link. Trackchasing Tourist Attractions After each and every event that I attend I post a YouTube video, a SmugMug photo album and a very detailed Trackchaser Report about the experience on my website at www.randylewis.org. My trackchasing contributions generate a good deal of interest in what I am doing. My YouTube channel (ranlay) has more than 1.3 million views. My website gets more than 20,000 views every month. Because I have seen racing in 85 countries at this point I am considered the World’s #1 Trackchaser. That’s good enough for me. Now I encourage you to drop down a few spaces and read about today’s trackchasing adventure. As you discover what went on at this track just think about the idea that I’ve done this nearly 2,700 times. I don’t mind admitting I am addicted to the hobby of trackchasing. It’s just fun! If you’re interested in looking back and seeing where I’ve been the following link is for you. If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD Saturday, September 19, 2020. I find many aspects of my trackchasing hobby to be most unique, and of course fun. One of those “unique” elements of trackchasing is that I often don’t know what airline or what destination or even where I will stay for the night until nearly the last hour of the day. Do you know anyone who travels the way I do? I will tell you this. This was one of the most challenging trackchasing trips I’ve ever made and I have made literally thousands. One thing after another went wrong. Parts of the planning process that never fail failed. Sit down, get yourself a cup of coffee and hear me out. Trackchasing can be a simple hobby. For me to be successful I need three things to happen. #1 I need to have a firm race date that meets and exceeds all current trackchasing rules. #2 I need to have a way to get where I’m going from my somewhat remote residential location in Southern California. #3 I need acceptable weather so that no race cancellations will come about because of rain, sleet or snow. Let’s talk about where and why I decided which destination might be best for this weekend. Believe it or not, there is a good deal of strategy that goes into this important part of my trackchasing plan. When I first started trackchasing I could go in any number of directions and there would be plenty of tracks racing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons and evenings. Then as I began to see more and more tracks the remaining tracks that I hadn’t visited yet became fewer. As I enter this weekend I have seen racing at 2,652 tracks. My next leading fellow competitor is somewhere down in the 1800s. Another ten people or so have seen racing at more than 1,000 tracks. Trust me when you’ve only seen racing at a thousand tracks the opportunities that remain to see more tracks are much greater than if you’ve already seen racing at more than 2,600 tracks. The difference is humongous. When I was a “racechaser” I simply decided which track was going to have the best racing and the best drivers and that’s where I would go. It didn’t matter if I was going back to the same track for the tenth time or the fiftieth. However, in the world of trackchasing, the quality of the racing or which drivers will be attending is not really a factor. As a trackchaser, I simply want to add one more track to my lifetime accomplishments. Don’t get me wrong. I still want to see fun and entertaining racing. It’s just not an absolute requirement. If I could generalize I would divide racetracks into two categories based upon how often they race. Some tracks race once a week from roughly April or May until September or October. Those tracks might have 20-25 race dates each year. There are a large number of other racing facilities that only race one time a year. County fairs are probably the biggest group in this category. Most county fairs have only one race date each year. In 2020, the year of Covid-19, more than half of the nation’s county fairs canceled their entire fair. There are tracks that fall in between this frequency but for today’s purposes, I will be talking about the weekly tracks and the once a year tracks. For this weekend I needed to decide whether I would go out to the Midwest or trackchase in the far west. Each trip would be quite a bit different than the other. If I went to the Midwest I would see racing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Friday night track was a weekly track. The Saturday track was a once a year track that offered UTVs racing in the woods. Honestly, that’s not my favorite. The venue that would be available for Sunday was also a once a year track. If I went trackchasing in the far west I would only be able to see racing at two tracks, not three. One would be racing on Saturday. That track raced once a year. Then the track that was scheduled for Sunday also was a once a year track. I chose the far west for this weekend’s adventure for no other reason than I really enjoy trackchasing in any of the 13 far western states. Almost every major trackchaser, those with 400 tracks or more, lives in the east or the Midwest. Other than my wife Carol and me there have been no significant West Coast trackchasers. The race tracks that are sprinkled around the 13 far western states have a couple of things in common. Normally one track is located pretty far from the next track. Additionally the vast majority, probably 80-90% of the tracks that race in the far west, race on Saturday nights. Finally, the far west doesn’t have much racing representation at county fairs. All of that means that the trackchasers who are located in the east and Midwest rarely come out to the far west. For this trip, I made the decision to catch a Montana bump n run race on Saturday afternoon in Circle, Montana. Then I would get myself over to Monroe, Washington for a 10 a.m. start at a quarter midget racing facility in the Evergreen State. I would like you to put on your logistical thinking caps. Let’s say that on Friday morning at 10 a.m. I was at my home in San Clemente, California. I would need to be in Circle, Montana on Saturday afternoon for a 2 p.m. race start. Then I would need to get over to Monroe, Washington about an hour north of Seattle for a 10 a.m. start on Sunday morning. How exactly would you make that happen? Hint: There are not a lot of good choices. I decided that on Friday at about noon I would fly from Los Angeles to Seattle and then grab a flight from Seattle to Bozeman, Montana. From Bozeman, I would drive 5 1/2 hours and easily be in the grandstands for the race in Circle, Montana on Saturday at 2 p.m. I figured the Montana racing would be finished by 4-5 p.m. on Saturday. I would then drive 5 1/2 hours back to Bozeman, Montana. I might or might not get back to Bozeman in time to get a hotel. From Bozeman, I would fly on a 7 a.m. flight from Bozeman to Seattle. When I arrived in Seattle at about 8:30 a.m. I would have just enough time to get a rental car and drive 45 minutes up to the quarter midget racing beginning at 10 a.m. in Monroe. When the quarter midget racing was finished I would find a way to get back to Southern California. I don’t worry nearly as much about getting back to my home as I do about getting to the very first track of the trip. I had a workable plan. It looked as if I would be able to get standby seats on the airplanes that I needed to make this work. I had a rental car and I would get hotels when and where I needed them. Everything was looking good. Even the weather seemed pretty decent. It was better in Montana for Saturday than in Washington for Sunday but both looked like they might work. Then this morning I got a phone call that was the beginning of this trackchasing plan unraveling. It was a number that I didn’t recognize from the 406 area code. Nevertheless, I answered. It was the National Car Rental location in Bozeman calling me. They had bad news. The woman told me that even though I had a reservation they did not have a car for me. She even remarked that she “didn’t know how I even got a reservation in the first place”. I was about ready to tell her that I “have my ways”. However, I never want to piss off somebody who might be able to help me out. I reminded the woman from Bozeman that I was an executive elite member in the National frequent renter program. I mentioned that I rent 60-70 cars a year from National. She was not impressed. She continued in her monotone voice to tell me that they had no car for me. I had to ask the obvious question. I asked, “What kind of organization do you have there in Bozeman that prevents someone who has a reservation from getting their car?” She replied honestly, “a pretty shoddy one”. All I could do at that point was agree. We hung up with the common understanding that I would not be picking up a rental car from National in Bozeman. I was now in a problematic situation. A more direct way to say that was that I was, at the moment, screwed. My flight was leaving in about four hours. Ultimately I needed to get to Circle, Montana. If you check out Circle on a map you will see that it is in the far northeastern corner of Montana. It’s not very far from North Dakota or the Canadian border. Another way of describing the location of Circle is to simply say that it was out in the middle of friggin nowhere. Without a rental car, it really wouldn’t matter if I could fly out in the direction of Circle, Montana or not. I checked the nearest airports to Bozeman that had flights coming in where I might be able to rent a car. Those locations were Billings and Great Falls. However, there were no rental cars available from any company in any of those cities. Then I checked out more major city locations where I could fly nonstop from Los Angeles. Each of those prospective locales would involve a much longer drive than the 5 1/2 hours I had expected to experience from Bozeman. I looked at Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City was nearly a 12-hour drive from the racetrack in Circle. I was surprised just a bit to find out that Denver was “only” a nine-hour and 15-minute drive to the Round Town Raceway and Circle, Montana. I tried to get a rental car that I could pick up in Denver and then after the race drop in either Billings or Bozeman. That would create a long drive from Denver on the front end but a shorter drive to either one of the “B” cities in Montana after the races. Nope. Denver had no cars that could be dropped in Montana. Time was clicking away. I had to find a solution and I had to find a solution fast. I decided that I would just bite the bullet and fly into Denver and rent a car there. Then I would drive at nine hours and 15 minutes up to the racetrack and then after the races were over, drive that same nine hours and 15 minutes back to Denver. Then I would try to catch a 7 a.m. flight from Denver to Seattle on Sunday morning. I went to make the reservation. Surprise! The city of Denver, including every rental car company that services the airport, did not have ANY cars to rent. Say what? This is why there was such a shortage of rental cars in Denver. When COVID-19 hit airlines and rental car companies cut back on the number of flights they offered and the number of cars in their fleet. Airline demand at the beginning of the pandemic was only 5% of what it was a year ago. If only 5% of the people were flying then maybe only 5% of the people who needed a rental car were renting a car. Now, in some situations, demand is picking up a little bit. Demand for travel is not increasing gigantically but it’s a lot better than when only 5% of the seats were being filled. Now passengers are filling up 30-40% of airline seats. The rental car companies at some locations seem a little bit slow to react to this increasing demand. When I called the National Car Rental agent and she told me there were no cars in Denver available I simply said, “I would like to speak to a supervisor.” I don’t think she liked hearing that but she did transfer me. I explained to the supervisor that I was a frequent renter with National. I explained that I had received a phone call from the Bozeman National Rental Car office this morning canceling my reservation. This gave me enough “juice” with the supervisor for her to override the system and make a reservation for me. Thank goodness, I guess. I was now signing on for an 18 hour and 30-minute round-trip drive with the car I would rent in Denver. Then I went about buying airline tickets on three different airlines. I would be flying standby. Flying standby is not free it’s just a lower cost. The problem with each of those three flights was they were fully booked. There weren’t very many standby passengers but then there weren’t very many open seats either. I would say this. If making all of these last-minute travel plans with multiple options won’t keep my mind sharp…I don’t know what will. During Covid, some airlines are selling every seat they have on the plane. Other airlines including Southwest, Delta and Alaska are blocking the middle seats. Regardless of all of that, I would need to get lucky to be able to get a seat on any of today’s three airplanes that were booked full. Each of these three planes was leaving about 45 minutes apart. That meant that before I tried to get on the first plane I would need to go to three different terminals at LAX to get my boarding passes printed. If I didn’t do that there might not be enough time for me to check in on flights two and three if I missed flight one. Yep. The amount of travel strategy that goes in the trackchasing can be mind-boggling. As luck would have it I got one of the last seats on my first airplane option. This was good because it would get me into Denver just a little bit quicker. That way I could chew up a little bit more of the nine-hour and 15 minutes one-way drive time on Friday night rather than having to do it on Saturday morning before the race. I would like to say that the plane ride was uneventful. It wasn’t. This airplane experience was being consistent with how this entire weekend was beginning to go. When we began to land and were probably 500 feet above the ground the pilot aborted the landing abruptly. He would come over the PA system and tell us that the tailwind was just a little bit stronger at the field than air traffic control told him it was. We certainly didn’t need a miscommunication on that end! It is very easy to spot an inexperienced flyer. When the plane lands they immediately jump up from their seat and try to get their luggage from the overhead even though the plane might still be taxiing. The inexperienced flyer is going to try to jump ahead by as many rows as they can if people are slow to get out of their seats once the plane comes to a stop. That was the case today. A woman who had all of the demographic elements of an inexperienced flyer jumped ahead about five rows until she came to me. I was standing in the aisle facing forward with my back to her. I wasn’t going to move and she wasn’t going to go past me. That definitely slowed her down. The woman’s behavior also pissed off the guy who was seated in the row behind me. Now this woman was standing in his face and he had no room to get out of his seat or to get his overhead luggage. He asked the woman why she was trying to jump the line. This pissed her off and she immediately flew into a plethora of swearwords with several F-bombs. The guy who was being inconvenienced maintained his cool and simply said, “I’m asking why you’re in my space?” She came back with more uninhibited swearing. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Some people are either ignorant or stupid or both or more. This woman seemed to qualify for this club on all counts. Once off the plane, I hurried to grab the rental car bus for the relatively long ride out to the Denver rental car center. I was in Denver with Carol about two weeks ago. When we tried to get a rental car there wasn’t a single car in the lot. A group of about 20 of us had to wait until cars came back one by one from the car wash. In today’s world, the majority of rental vehicles available are SUVs. I was going to be driving nearly 1,300 miles. I did not need a gas-guzzling SUV on a long drive like that. Additionally, I don’t find many rental car SUVs as comfortable as a passenger car sedan. That comes from a guy who has driven Lexus and now Tesla SUVs since 2013. I was shocked and surprised to find a Toyota Camry sitting out on the lot amongst its much bigger SUV brothers and sisters. That would be perfect. I got all of my gear in the car. Then I noticed some handwritten writing on the back window. Much of the writing was scratched out. This is the kind of writing that the rental car people do to tell the repair shop what is wrong with the car. Even though I was in a rush I stopped and asked the rental car agent if renting this car was going to be acceptable. He looked at it and saw that the writing was mainly scratched out and said, “Yep, it’s good to go.” I must admit that I am a trusting soul. I got in the car and exited the rental car lot. Today’s temperature when I arrived in Denver was 88°. Denver has some of the most variable weather temperatures of any city that I visit anywhere in the world. Denver can be 81 one day and 35 the next. Once I was out on the road I noticed that my rental car’s air conditioning system wasn’t working. That was pretty obvious when the outside temperature was 88° and the air-conditioning fan was blowing hot air at me. I knew it was going to be a hassle to return the car at this point. I gave serious thought to just trying to live with it since much of my driving would be at night and I might not need air conditioning. However, my mind overrode that decision. I made a U-turn and returned the car. It’s a little bit of a hassle to drive a rental car into the return lot that you only picked up 10 minutes ago and explain the whole situation. Nevertheless, that worked out reasonably well. Then I went over to the area of the rental car lot where I could pick up another car. I explained my dilemma. Rental car agents don’t want to hear stories like mine. They just want to get me in a car and get me on down the road. The guy looked at his lot and asked if that BMW “over there” would work for me. I told him it would not. I didn’t want a gas-guzzling BMW for a 1,300-mile ride either. I told him I wanted a Toyota Camry, my current rental car favorite. He made a couple of requests on his radio and within about two minutes a shiny black Toyota Camry appeared. I was all set even though the rental car experience for the entire weekend had been rough. Now I had exactly the car I needed. The automobile did have 20,000 miles on it which is a little bit more than normal but beggars can’t be choosers right? The air conditioning worked well also. Off I went headed almost straight north from Denver to Circle, Montana. Much of the drive would be on Interstate 25. As luck would have it interstate 25 is undergoing major renovations. Carol and I discovered this on our recent trip up to Torrington, Wyoming last month. I had no idea where I would be staying the night. I was going to get as much of the 65-mile drive out of the way tonight as I could. The more I drove today the less I would have to do tomorrow before the race. I would end up staying in Broadus, Montana. I did a little bit of internet researching while I was making the drive north. I found the Sagebrush Inn and Suites. There wasn’t a lot to choose from. Some of the small Montana towns that I went through every 30-40 miles didn’t have any lodging whatsoever. The Sagebrush it would be. I’m always looking for the unique aspects of travel. I usually don’t have to look very far to find them. I made my reservation with the Sagebrush over the phone. The young woman who made my reservation told me about their unique check-in process. Each room had a computerized lock. I was going to arrive at about 1 a.m. She mentioned that there would be no need to check-in at the front desk or anything like that. I just needed to use my four-digit computer lock code that she gave me. When I arrived the code worked exactly as the hotel rep said it would. I had driven 433 miles from Denver up to Broadus. Getting a good night’s rest was important because tomorrow night I expect an even longer drive. SATURDAY I had a choice when I woke up this morning. I could go back to sleep which seemed like a pretty good option. Or I could go on a walking tour of this small town that I had stayed overnight in Broadus, Montana. The town of Broadus is home to just 468 people. All the way back in 1865 the U.S. Army was fighting battles with the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors near Broadus. Can you imagine the country was coming off a Civil War at one end of the U.S. and fighting Indians in what would become the other end of the country? Oh yeah, Jess Lockwood, the 2017 and 2019 Professional Bull Riders champion went to high school in Broadus. I chose to go for a morning walk today. Sometimes I can’t devote a continuous hour or more to walking exercise. On those occasions, I find that if I get a couple of miles out of the way in the morning then knocking out the rest of my four-mile daily goal is a pretty easy thing to do. That’s what I did today. I think you might find the photos that I took in downtown Broadus during this morning’s nearly one-hour walk entertaining. Broadus has a bowling alley but it is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. What was up with that? One store was closing early because of a volleyball game. It was interesting to walk by the elementary school, the high school and the courthouse building. My adventure was definitely entertaining and enjoyable. I got a little physical exercise benefit out of the walk and saw several deer grazing in town. I did have two people who appeared to be citizens of the town stop to say hello. They were friendly folks. I suspected that my wearing board shorts and Sketchers and an all-black outfit indicated to them that I “wasn’t around here”. When I returned from my walk I went into the hotel’s breakfast room. They were serving a complimentary continental breakfast as part of my room rate. They didn’t have a whole lot. There was a box of various kinds of donuts, some bananas, granola bars and the like. No one else was in the room. I sat down in an overstuffed sofa chair and just relaxed eating what we used to call a “float” when I was a boy. I had only been seated for five minutes or so when another hotel guest came in. This woman was probably my age or so. She was carrying a mask. I wasn’t. She caught me a little bit by surprise. The woman was from Missoula, Montana but was making a drive with her three dogs all the way to Durham, North Carolina. She told me she would be there for five months visiting a sick relative. As we talked I learned that she had picked this particular hotel and all of the hotels along her cross-country driving route by researching county Covid websites. The woman wanted to stay where Covid cases were the lowest. She seemed to think this was the solution to avoid being an active part of the pandemic. To my way of thinking, although well-intentioned, her approach was not likely to yield a better or worse result than if she had thrown a dart at a map of the U.S. I try to do the best I can with Covid prevention. I wear a mask when I’m around others. I’m very good at social distancing. I never noticed until the current COVID-19 situation came along that a big part of my everyday life has me being more than six feet away from others. I certainly wash my hands more than I ever did nowadays. I just can’t imagine that researching Covid statistics and going to places where the disease seems to be a little bit less would be statistically meaningful. I don’t think that the contagiousness of the disease is that precise that it can be avoided by looking at statistics by county. It did remind me of one thing that I actually think about just about every day. People aren’t as concerned about what they hear, read or see. They are concerned about what they believe. If people believe something then normal data or personal experience is not going to change their minds. I think the vast majority of people in America act that way. From Broadus, it was going to be a 173-mile drive up to Circle, Montana. I was headed there to see the Montana Bump n Run racing series. They were scheduled to begin racing today at 2 p.m. at the Round Town Raceway. I have a pretty strong history with the Montana Bump n Run group. Here’s a list of the tracks that I’ve seen with this racing organization. Rosebud County Fairgrounds – Forsythe – 2009 Intermountain Off-Road Raceway – Acton – 2009 TARA Motorsports Complex – Baker – 2010 Sheridan County Fairgrounds – Plentywood – 2014 Central Montana Fairgrounds – Lewiston – 2017 Ekalaka – Ekalaka – 2018 Round Town Raceway – Circle – 2020 A few years ago I met my Montana BnR race contact in the person of Casey Schladweiler. Casey is the president of the group. He’s been nice enough to share with me race dates over the years. Casey also drives the #1 blue and yellow Chevy in the limited class. The Round Town Raceway was originally built as a weekly racing facility here in the town of Circle. Today I met up with Doug, who is the race director for Montana BnR. He gave me the complete history of the track. Doug and some of his friends built the track when he was a senior in high school back in 1979 and 1980. By the way, this information does not match up with what is published in the History of American Speedways resource book. I suggest the authors get in touch with Doug! For about 10 years the track raced on a regular basis and drew as many as 70 cars to their events. They would actually qualify each of those cars. Time trials would begin as early as 9 o’clock in the morning. The track doesn’t have lights today. I’m assuming it never has. During the summertime, it stays light in Montana until 10 o’clock and sometimes later. No need for lights up here especially when their racing season is a little bit shorter than normal because of the northern climate. The fans have a unique view of the race track. The track, a quarter-mile dirt oval which features high-banked turns of 15°, sits down in the bottom of what used to be a hillside. This gives the fans an elevated view of the racing action. I parked the National Car Rental Racing Toyota Camry against the fence overlooking turn number one. From this position, I could see most of the racing from inside my car. It was a warm day with temperatures of 80° but with a strong breeze blowing all day. I stopped in at the concession stand for a late lunch. I went with the cheeseburger and fries combination at nine dollars. Initially, I thought that was a little expensive. Then I saw the size of the burger and the size of the portion of fries that I got which were doused in a cheese whiz type sauce. All very good and reasonably priced. Many of the fans were watching the races from their cars or the bed of their pickup trucks. They did have a couple of grandstand seating options which is what I went with. I grabbed a seat in the top row of the grandstand. From there I took some good photos and videos for your viewing pleasure. Later I made the long walk down into the pit area. I wanted to say hello to Casey and thank him for keeping me up-to-date on the Montana BnR racing schedule which has been dramatically affected by COVID-19. It didn’t take me long to find him. Actually, he found me. It was nice seeing Casey again and hearing about what the group has been up to. They’ve made a few rule changes. One of which is that a full driving suit is now required. We walked over to get a look at the start of the next race and that’s when Casey introduced me to Doug today’s race director. I had met Doug at the racing in Ekalaka, Montana. All of these people up in Montana are very friendly. Even though Doug was busy with his race directing chores he gave me the overall history of the Round Town Raceway and what was going on today. Today also featured a special treat on the track. The schedule included an 11-car demolition derby. They had a special demolition pit inside the track’s infield. I watched the demo from up in the grandstand. It was entertaining but didn’t last all that long. There were lots of strong hits. Do you know that I have seen racing at more than 2,650 different racetracks? In all of those trackchasing visits, I’ve never seen anybody do what the Montana BnR guys do. They have a special “Calcutta” event. Here’s how it works. Montana BnR runs two different classes. They’re called limited and modifieds. The Calcutta format allows fans to “buy” a driver. They have an auction of sorts and the highest bidder gets that particular driver in the main event. If that driver wins then a major portion of all of the funds collected from the Calcutta goes to the person who invested in that driver. The club gets a little bit of money and everybody has a good time. I noticed that one driver had his bidding driven all the way up to $525. The racing was good. They call this bump and run racing but compared to all of the bump and run events I’ve seen across the country this is more upscale (much better racing) than the junk car events that I see at county fairs all over the Midwest. I would almost call these cars street or hobby stocks or something of that nature. Some of the cars are very fast and some a good deal slower. I have now seen racing at 17 tracks in Montana. Seven of those have been with the Montana BnR organization. They still have a couple of locations that appear on their schedule that I hope to see in the future. Coming up to Montana, which is a long trip for me, is made well worth it when I can see entertaining racing at a grassroots level like these guys and gals put on. Today’s racing started promptly at 2 p.m. Even with the Calcutta, some big wrecks, the demolition derby and the two A main events that followed several heat races they were still wrapped up by 5 p.m. The announcer told the crowd that the Circle High School football team had their game tonight starting at six. I really wanted to stay and see some of the game. However, I had a 260-mile drive in front of me that would get me over to Billings. That would be followed by a 7 a.m. flight tomorrow morning that I hope to catch for a ride to Seattle. The first part of this trip to Montana had not gone well. Today the logistics of things started to improve. I was supposed to be driving my car after the races today back to Denver. That was a nine-hour, 15-minute drive covering a 608-mile drive. I figured I might as well call National just for the fun of it and see if they would let me drop my car in Billings, Montana rather than Denver. My AT&T cell phone reception out in these parts of Montana is nonexistent. When I did finally get in touch with a National representative he was very cooperative. I would be allowed to take the car back to Billings rather than Denver. This would save me six hours of driving over a distance of about 400 miles. National was going to charge me $83 for the privilege but that came down to closer to $60 when I figured the gas I would be saving. It was also going to be a nice benefit not to have to drive through the night over two-lane roads in deer infested country. It is true that the Montana BnR racing is not going to give the Daytona 500 any competition all that soon. However, I really like going to their unique venues. I like traveling through the state of Montana just because of its beautiful scenery. The people are nice and if you hit it on the right time of the year the weather will be good as well. I made my way over to Billings, Montana after the races. I drove through several rainstorms to get there. Along the way, I made my hotel reservation. I chose the Vegas Hotel in Billings. That seemed like an odd name for a hotel in Billings, Montana. With an early morning flight, I would have only a few hours of sleep in this hotel. Why did I pick the Vegas Hotel? It was the cheapest! With only about five hours to sleep, I strongly considered just grabbing an overnight nap in my rental car. In hindsight, I wished I had done that. I’m not much into politics. I don’t want anyone else’s politics thrown up in my face. I felt the Vegas Hotel was showing off their politics and I didn’t care for that. I’ve never met the owner of the Vegas Hotel. However, I have a picture in my mind of what he might be like. When I checked in the clerk was not wearing a mask. Yes, I know that masks have been politicized to the nth degree. Do masks work? I’m not an epidemiologist. Most folks reading this aren’t either. However, it does seem like Covid-19 is a virus transmitted from a person’s nose and mouth. What could wearing a mask really hurt? Some folks think their civil liberties are being abused by the request/requirement to wear a mask. Really? What do these folks think when they see a sign at 7-11 that reads, “No shirt. No shoes. No service.”? Is 7-11 denying you your rights? I am perfectly willing to wear a mask if it might help YOU from getting any disease I might have during this relatively short timeframe until we find a solution to Covid. Would you do the same for me? Outside of the Vegas Hotel were a couple of flagpoles. The hotel was flying the U.S. flag and on another flagpole the Trump flag. What was up with up? I don’t want to stay in a hotel that flies the Trump flag OR the Biden flag (he has a flag right?). Just do your hotel business right and don’t tell me about your politics. I had a blast meeting the people of Montana and seeing the Montana BnR racing. I can’t wait until I can do it again. I’ll get back as soon as I can. Good evening from Circle, Montana Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,653 tracks. Montana The Treasure State This afternoon I saw racing at my 17th-lifetime track in the Treasure State, yes, the Treasure State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Montana. Missouri ranks #33, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Montana state trackchasing list. I have made 14 separate trips to Montana seeing these tracks. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member Montana sayings: Never squat with your spurs on. JUST THE FACTS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are: Total lifetime tracks seen Total “trackchasing countries” seen Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results Total Lifetime Tracks There are no trackchasers currently within 780 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries My nearest trackchasing competitor, a native of Belgium, has seen racing in more than 30 fewer countries compared to my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. An all-around outstanding trackchasing adventure to Montana and back 
