San Antonio Speedway

 

 

God bless our United States Marines……………more in “The Details”.

 

 

What have I been doing for 52 of the last 55 nights?……………more in “The Details”.

 

 

Pay by mail? …………..more in “The Details”.

 

 

Jalapeno bottle caps…………..more in “Attractions”.

 

 

Racing and rain, that don’t work………..details in “Race Review”.

 

 

There was a solution, by rule, that made this dilemma less daunting………..details in “Race Review”.

 

 

Randy Lewis?  Randy Lewis?………..details in “Race Review”.

 

 

The hamburger of Texas………..details in “Race Review”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God bless our United States Marines.

I woke up this morning at home in San Clemente, California.  I went to bed in Austin, Texas.  This is what today looked like.

 

Today is day #1 of an 11-day trip.  For the past two months Carol and I played host to two young U.S. Marine officers who are living with us.  One of them is our nephew, Joe, son of Carol’s brother Mike.  They’ll both be shipping off to Afghanistan shortly.  It’s fun having young minds in the house.  We also did some grandbaby babysitting for our two twin grandchildren, Astrid and Mitch.

 

 

What have I been doing for 52 of the last 55 nights?

When this trip is finished I will have been away from San Clemente for 52 of the last 55 nights.  I’m trying to make hay while the sun shines.  However, somewhat incredibly I will still meet my goal of taking 23 full weekends off from trackchasing.

 

  

Today I had an early morning departure from LAX to Austin, Texas.  I’m bound for the San Antonio speedway some 80 miles south of Austin.  I chose Austin as my arrival point today because it was the best airport to depart from tomorrow morning on my way to the Northeast. Yes everything in trackchasing is about strategy, planning and logistics.

 

 

Express Deals are the way to go.

I used Priceline.com for an Express Deal option.  They gave me an inexpensive hotel near the Austin airport for 20% less than the going price.  When I only get a 20% savings from Priceline I’m disappointed.  Normally the price reduction is 50% or more.

 

 

Priceline for hotels; Yelp! for restaurants.

I consulted both roadfood.com and Yelp! to find a good local Texas restaurant for lunch.  The recommendation was Ross’s café in Austin.  No, I’m not very smart…but I know a lot of smart people.  I’ll tell you more about Ross’s behind the “Attractions” tab.

 

 

National Car Rental for rental cars.

Of course I chose a Hyundai Sonata to rent from National Car Rental for two reasons.  First, I wanted to get excellent gas mileage.  More importantly I was looking for Sirius/XM satellite radio with the NASCAR channel.

 

Hot, dry and windy.

San Antonio is hot this time of year. The high temperature will be nearly 100° at 7 p.m.  At race time the temperature is expected to be 92.  That’s toasty although it is dry.

 

 

Pay by mail?

I’m using my iPhone as my GPS unit.  However I do carry my Garmin as a backup just in case I can’t get a phone signal for my iPhone.  I was directed onto a toll road that goes from Austin, south to San Antonio.  The only two options for paying the toll was with a toll pass (which I did not have) or they would mail be a bill!  I used this toll road a few months ago when I visited the Circuit of America’s road course track.  I never did get a bill for that trip and maybe I won’t this time.  I sure hope not!

 

Pedal to the metal.

What’s the speed limit on this toll road?  A whopping 85 M.P.H.  Everything is bigger in Texas.  Where in America have you seen any speed limit signs for 85 M.P.H.?

 

 

At first I incorrectly entered “San Antonio Raceway” when I should have said “San Antonio Speedway”.  The raceway is a drag strip and not the place I wanted to go.  Of course the drag strip was 30 minutes closer to my departure point in Austin.  Racing at the “Speedway” was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. When I discovered my error the new arrival time to the track would now be 7:30 p.m.

 

 

No rain.  No way.

The weather forecast called for a zero percent chance of rain.  However, I will never forget, or be allowed to forget the 0% rain forecast in Wheatland, Missouri.  Carol was with me on that night when it began to rain hard enough to delay the program for several minutes.  I hear that story from her each time I attempt to convince her that all will be good with a zero percent chance of precipitation.  As you might guess tonight’s weather would be problematic.

 

 

 

 

ONE CANNOT LIVE WELL OR SLEEP WELL IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL

 

 

Ross’ Café – Austin, Texas

 

 

Jalapeno bottle caps.

I consulted both roadfood.com and Yelp! to find a good local Texas restaurant for lunch.  The recommendation was Ross’s café in Austin.

 

They specialize in chicken fried steak.  I couldn’t remember the last time I had one of those. I walked into the great-looking joint and the service was fantastic. I ended up getting the chicken fried steak, onion rings and something I never tried before, Hollywood jalapeno bottle caps.

 

 

Jalapeno bottle caps are jalapeno peppers in a fried batter.  They’re spicy and crunchy, excellent when used in a dipping sauce of ranch dressing. I’ll try to make this my only meal of the day so as not to exceed by anymore my calorie allotment for the day.  Fat chance of that happening.

 

 

Here’s an excellent Yelp! review of Ross’s to give you some additional perspective from this fun Texas eatery.

 

 

“Ross is a fourth generation Austinite, who has feet planted in the food industry.  From the early 1900’s Ross’ mother was affiliated with the Maerki Bakery on Congress, which was next door to the original state capitol building.  This is now a registered landmark.  In the 1930’s Maerki Bakery moved to sixth street.  It later became Butterkrust, and, then moved on to become Katz’s.

After Ross Sterzing and Sandy married in the 60’s, they, along with some in laws. opened the first cafeterias in Austin.  Known as Milam Cafeterias and were located in the first strip centers in Delwood, Allendale, and, Twin Oaks.  They are also known to have owned Big Tex Sirloin, G&M Catering, and, Mucho Bueno Mexican Restaurant, among others.

Since 1993 Ross has owned the Old Austin Cafe on N. Lamar, and, it is a hidden divey jewel.  Service is down home friendly slow, medium, wanna be fast.  It’s never a disappointment dining here.  Whether you come here for breakfast, lunch, or, supper, You are gonna leave satisfied.  And, you will feel like you are part of the crew/family.  For instance, today I ran out of coffee, my waitress was in the kitchen, so I got up to get my own.  She busted me, but, insisted I serve everyone else!  Which I did!!  That was cool.  We had a good laugh.

You can pretty much get it all American with a little Tex-Mex for the mix.  It’s all spot on dive bar grill top food with fresh salads, beer, and, live music.  Ross’ is a true gem.  I would normally give a place like this no more than three stars (cause it truly is a dive), but, because they offer actual fried potatoes (instead of frozen hash browns), they’re clean, and, the place itself has a special warm personality, they deserve a hot five stars.  Good job Ross!!!”

 

 

 

San Antonio Speedway – San Antonio, Texas

 

 

Racing and rain, that don’t work.

Tonight’s racing was day one of a two-day weekend special.  The speedway’s support classes were running actual races.  The late models, the track’s premier division, would be having time trials only.

 

 

 

On the drive down the track I could see dark clouds off in the distance.  However the rain forecast for San Antonio was 0%. I felt secure.  Wrong feeling.

 

 

This all seemed a bit odd.

I paid my $15 general admission price and entered the grandstand at 7:30 PM.  Off to the east clouds were getting very dark.  The wind was blowing strongly from East to West. That seemed like an odd direction for the wind to blow.

 

 

I found a seat in the grandstand under gale force conditions.  The wind was so strong it blew my seat cushion from the rather tall grandstand onto the ground.

 

 

Would my inattention to delay cost me?

With my late arrival of 30 minutes I would come to find out that I had missed the charger division heat race.  When I arrived they were racing the street stock group.  With the green flag they raced down in the turn one for the start of the race.  As luck would have it the race was called back by a yellow flag restart.

 

 

However, before they could restart, the race situation was changed from a yellow flag delay to a red flag stoppage.  The track’s management was going to wait to see what the weather was going to do.  Skies were extremely dark the wind was blowing hard but there was no rain yet.

 

 

This was truly a dilemma.

Now I had a dilemma. If somehow the races were called at this point would I be able to count the track?  I had missed the first race because I had incorrectly operated my GPS unit.  Then I had seen the cars in the second race take the green flag starting the race.  However, they only made it down to the first turn before the yellow flag was unfurled.

 

 

There was a solution, by rule, that made this dilemma less daunting.

I felt that I could count this race because I seen “green flag” racing.  However, the racing I had seen was only for a quarter of a lap!  It is exactly these ethical dilemmas that make trackchasing what it is.

 

 

Why did I think that I could ethically count the track?  It was simple.  I abide by current trackchasing rules.  The rules say that once you have seen competitive racing then the track is fully countable.  I had seen competitive racing albeit not much competitive racing.

 

 

By the way, I can’t promise I will always do that in the future.  If the current trackchasing group were to pass some “stupid” rule addition I might just ignore the change.  Then I would just go with the rules as they existed when I tried unsuccessfully with Guy Smith to have me deleted from the group’s rankings and database.  As you all know Guy went back on his promise to allow everyone to make their own decision to be part of his group or not.  I’ve come to expect behavior like this from Mr. Smith.

 

 

Like many dilemmas they become moot at some point.

The ethical dilemma was made moot when the track decided to continue racing even though the winds had not died down much.  The San Antonio Speedway was now in the books as lifetime track #1,906.  I breathed a little bit easier.

 

 

Randy Lewis?  Randy Lewis?

The track announcer walked up and down in front of the grandstand doing a great job of describing the action. All of a sudden he asked, “Is Randy Lewis here with anyone?  Does anyone know where Randy Lewis is?”  This must have come from a conversation I had with Deb, my San Antonio Speedway contact from a couple of days ago.  She is the Operations Director at the racetrack.  Deb had answered the phone when I called to ask about race day particulars.

 

 

We talked for a long time and she recommended that I speak with the announcer when I arrived at the track. She also told me she would alert the announcer to my coming tonight.

 

 

The announcer makes the show.

The announcer, Rodney Rodriguez, is a street stock racer at the central Texas speedway.  Rodney does a very good job of color commentating with the racing action.  He knows all the drivers and cars since he’s been around the sport for nearly his entire life.

 

 

Rodney and I sat in the grandstand during a delay for an on track racing accident.  We talked about my trackchasing hobby.  Like any good announcer Rodney was enthusiastic about my presence and my hobby.  You can listen too much of our interview on the YouTube video produced from my visit to the San Antonio Speedway.  You’ll find it behind, where else, the “Video” tab.

 

 

The track.

Following the street stocks another lower cost class of stock car raced and then the pick up trucks. Each division tonight averaged 8 to 10 cars or so.  The track itself featured long straightaways with high-banked turns dominating the asphalt oval.

 

Draft beer night!

Tonight was $.25 draft beer night.  For $.25 you got an 8 ounce glass of draft beer.  A can of beer went for three dollars.  I bought a track hot dog.  It was very tasty for three dollars.

 

 

The recent history of the San Antonio Speedway.

The San Antonio speedway opened in 1977.  It closed about five years ago and remain closed until late 2012.  They ran a “re-opening race in 2012.  That race drew a huge crowd in their very large grandstand.  Rodney was telling me that tonight’s show was about their fourth night of racing since they’ve reopened.  I thought I had missed the San Antonio Speedway when it closed in 2007 or so.  Many tracks that close like that don’t reopen although several do.  I would’ve liked to have been at the track for one of their better racing nights and not just a qualification night.  Nevertheless, I know that over the years they have had some huge late model races.  However, you get what you get in this business.

 

 

Zero percent chance of rain?  It rained.

Later on the program when the lower-level stock cars were racing it began to spit rain. They attempted to run despite the wet weather.  However one car soon drove down into turn one and pretty much tore the wall down!  Racing in the rain doesn’t work for Americans.  Unfortunately even though the rain was light it stopped the rest of the program.

 

 

Don’t miss the photos and video of the San Antonio Speedway.  It’s a good track.

 

The hamburger of Texas.

After the, race even though I wasn’t hungry, I stopped for a Diet Coke and Whataburger hamburger. Whataburger is somewhat like In and Out Burgers from back home.  Whataburger is special to Texas and the surrounding area. I’m a big fan and wanted to get a couple of bites since I didn’t know when I would be visiting Texas next.  I enjoyed my double meat Whataburger Jr. sandwich and it’s 500 calories.

 

No rest for the weary.

I got up this morning at 4:20 a.m. Pacific time.  Tomorrow morning I’ll be up at about 3 a.m. Pacific time.  Later in the trip I may be able to sleep in the morning or two. I sure hope so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

STATE COMPARISONS

 

Texas

 

The Lone Star (not the Longhorn) State

This evening I saw my 58^th lifetime track in the Lone Star state, yes the Lone Star state.  I remember when I had more than 70 tracks remaining to be seen in Texas.  Now that number is down to eleven.

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

 

Randy Lewis

World’s #1 Trackchaser

Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member

Texas sayings:  How’s mama and them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What did it take to get there?

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Austin, TX (AUS) – 1,241 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR #1

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport – trip begins

San Antonio, TX

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

San Antonio Speedway – $15

 

 

 

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 350 tracks of my lifetime total.  Don’t blame me.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,906

 

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 65

 

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.10

 

 

 

That’s all folks!  Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report