Greetings from San Tan, Arizona
.
.
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
San Tan Karting Dirt oval Lifetime Track #2,685 THE EVENT Editor’s note: Boy, am I happy I discovered the AZ champ kart racing organization. Following those folks have added two new tracks in Arizona to my totals. There’s maybe even a third and fourth new trackchasing opportunity that might come from the AZ champ karts. Special thanks to Dan Strickler for keeping me up to date. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above with Trackchasing’s First Mother in our home town). 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 2,680 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 Sunday, March 7, 2021. I am constantly running into race fans who look at my hobby and say, “I would love to have your lifestyle. If I had the time and the money I would be a trackchaser.” On the other hand, most of my civilian friends have no idea why I trackchase. I guess that just tells you that some people see things one way and others see it the opposite way! But then you already knew that. Yesterday afternoon, on Saturday, I left the Rochester Fairgrounds up in Rochester, New Hampshire after seeing a full day of enduro stock car racing. I watched the races with my New Hampshire buddy Bruce Spencer. We sat for the better part of four hours in 28° temperatures. We had a good time. Leaving New Hampshire after 4 p.m. I headed to Boston’s Logan International Airport. There were very few people in the stands today in New Hampshire who were going to be at the track I planned to visit tomorrow morning. Where was that? Let me begin to tell you the story. I was going to travel from New Hampshire to see a race on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. at a track called San Tan Karting. San Tan Karting is located in San Tan, Arizona just a few miles east of Phoenix. It was going to be a long haul from New Hampshire to Arizona. In order to make it, I was going to need to fly from Boston to Orlando, Florida. I would be flying on Saturday night the least popular time of the week for people to fly. That lack of popularity when added to the Covid travel slump meant there would be only 20 passengers on my flight from Massachusetts to Florida. I would land in Florida at about 11 p.m. on Saturday night. I was going to be connecting in Orlando to a flight departing for Phoenix at 5:54 a.m. on Sunday morning. I wasn’t sure why they needed to schedule a flight that early but for my purposes, it worked out really well. For the first time in my 2021 trackchasing season, I would sleep overnight inside the airport. I found a sofa-like situation with pretty soft vinyl cushions. Using my cable security system I locked everything up and tried to sleep for four hours. Sleeping was difficult because there was constant music playing songs like the country classic “Down on the Farm” by Tim McGraw. Don’t get me wrong I love country music. I just don’t listen to country music when I’m trying to sleep through the night. I woke up at 4:15 a.m. Eastern time which for you folks who are interested is 1:15 a.m. Pacific time which is the time zone in California. I bought a little breakfast at a Cuban airport eatery and began the start of my 4 miles of walking for the day. By the time I boarded the five-hour flight from Orlando to Phoenix I already had a mile and a half in the bank. My trackchasing plan was to watch the Arizona champ karts compete at the San Tan Karting track. I’ve been trying to see a race at this track for the better part of a decade. In the past, they’ve run pretty much quarter midgets (above) for kids classes only at San Tan. Additionally, I never could get a good race contact from this track. It was very difficult to get anyone to answer my questions about whether or not they would ever have any adult classes racing at this track. I had almost given up entirely on the San Tan Karting track. I’ll take a moment for a side note. Trackchasing success can be as different as night and day based upon the level of cooperation and insight I get from local folks. Most people share what they know more than freely. Others, not very many really, act as if they are doing their customers a favor by answering online questions quickly and completely. I should know. I’m asking folks for information every day of my life. Luckily, I’ve got a really good race contact with the Arizona champ kart series. My buddy is Dan Strickler. Dan is a champ kart racer. He has been very helpful in letting me know when and where the Arizona champ karts will be racing. I will tell you this. After sleeping somewhat fitfully in an airport for four hours and then flying for five hours from Florida to Arizona I was a little “used up”. Nevertheless, I was able to get my rental car and be over to the San Tan Karting track for the 10:30 a.m. start time. I started this message by saying a lot of the racing fans that I meet on the long and dusty trackchasing trail tell me they would love to do what I do. However, they usually only see me at the racetrack. If they saw me at the New Hampshire racetrack yesterday at 4 p.m. would they really wanted to drive an hour and a half down to the Boston airport, take a three-hour flight from Boston to Orlando, sleep four hours in the Orlando airport and then fly five hours from Orlando to Phoenix before renting a car and driving the last hour or so to today’s track? Honestly, I don’t think too many people would sign on the dotted line to do that more than about once or twice…in their lives. I’ve been doing it for 40 weekends every year for a couple of decades. The San Tan Karting track is located on the grounds of the ET Moto Park. From what I can tell the ET Moto Park is a motocross track. They also host sand drags and mud bogs. What’s the difference between a sand drag and a mud bog? Water, I guess. The Arizona Speedway is also located on this property. I went to the Arizona Speedway, a dirt oval, back on New Year’s Day, 2012 with Carol and my brother Mark to see some local stock car racing. At the time Arizona Speedway was my 1,706th-lifetime track where I had seen racing. My good buddy Chris Kearns promotes the Wild West Shootout which emanates from the Arizona Speedway in January of each year. This is a major event that attracts the top stars in late model stock car racing and modified stock car racing. The Wild West special relocated to the Arizona Speedway from down in Tucson two or three years ago. I haven’t seen any of the Wild West Shootout race dates since they started racing at the Arizona Speedway. Today there was no admission price for me to see the races. The only countable class according to trackchasing rules was going to be the ten Arizona senior champ karts. However, there were some very competitive 125 and 250 winged caged karts (above) racing. These classes were limited to drivers 16 years of age and younger. But to simply look at the race itself you wouldn’t know these mini sprint cars were being driven by “kids” as they are considered by trackchasing’s founding fathers. Today’s track was a nearly flat dirt oval racing configuration. I’m going to guess the track was about 1/10 of a mile in distance. It was small. The San Tan Karting track sits just off of turns three and four of the Arizona Speedway. During one of the breaks, I took the opportunity to go over to the big track just take a look. As noted the kid’s classes were fast and very competitive. However, these drivers were definitely lacking experience in the back part of the field. They kept running into each other on the pace lap. Once in a while when there was a yellow flag thrown a car might drive into the pile-up five or ten seconds after the wreck initially began. Some of these drivers were not looking much further out than their front bumper. The track racing officials also had a difficult time getting these guys lined up. They were 10 senior champs in the pit area today. They ran two heat races with five of the racers in each race. In the feature, they started 10 champ carts. During the course of the day, I had a chance to say hi to Dan Strickler and meet several members of his family including his in-laws, Deedee and Steve. They were a nice bunch of folks. Dan drives the pale blue (think Richard Petty very early in his career) #12 senior champ kart. Dan hails from Tucson which is about an hour and a half or so south of today’s track in the Phoenix area. I’m going to tell you that today’s senior champ kart feature race was likely the best race I’ve seen all year. Today I was seeing my 14th new track of the 2021 season. I wouldn’t be surprised if the last seven laps of today’s feature race (which I recorded) were the best seven laps that I will see of racing all this year. We’ll have to wait-and-see on that one. The fast line around the San Tan Karting dirt oval is on the inside groove. The Arizona champ kart group has come up with an outstanding rule that makes for very competitive racing. The leader of the race must drive in the outside lane. This allows the cars following the leader to take the inside track and try to make a pass. If they didn’t have a rule like that all of the racers would simply hug the bottom line and there would be no passing. I only learned about this from Dan Strickler’s mother-in-law, Deedee! In today’s feature race there were three cars battling for the lead. Each time one of the cars took the lead the driver would move up to the high line. One of the two racers on his tail would end up passing this new leader in the very next turn! Three cars pretty much changed the number one spot in every turn for the last seven laps. You have certainly don’t want to miss the video. At the checkered flag, you could have thrown a blanket over the top three racers. Then the guys racing for the next few positions had a major wreck at the start/finish line. I was fortunate to be able to capture all of this on video. My favorite driver Dan Strickler got shuffled around in this last-lap crash at the finish line. Dan ended up hurting his foot in the crash when he was bumped into and then ultimately shoved over the berm just missing the flagman. It was a wild finish to a great race! Along with Dan’s mother-in-law, I helped push his car with him in it back to his pit area. It took Dan a few moments to catch his breath. I knew that he was in some pain. Nevertheless, he had a really positive attitude. You could tell he enjoyed the race even though he sustained an injury. I’ll check with him, later on, to see how serious it is and hopefully, there are no broken bones. Dan bears a striking resemblance to a young Richard Petty and even drives a “Petty blue” colored racecar. Richard Petty was famous for his willingness to spend time with the fans. Today Dan Strickler had been roughed up a good deal in the feature. Nevertheless, when I asked if I could take his photo with his senior champ kart he was more than happy to accommodate. That’s what Richard Petty would have done. Editor’s note. I checked with Dan the next day to see how his foot injury was feeling. He told me he was on crutches and had likely fractured some bones in his foot. I hope he gets back in his racer for next weekend’s outing in Tucson. Here’s the funny thing about the geography of today’s race location near Phoenix. I analyzed the situation and determined that stopping in Phoenix today was more convenient coming from New Hampshire on the way to California than if I had simply initiated a separate trip from California to Phoenix and back. I would spend less time and money going to Phoenix from New Hampshire than from Los Angeles. I know that sounds odd but it’s true. There was another advantage to trackchasing in Phoenix today. Carol’s and my good friends Bev and Mike have a winter home in the Phoenix area. I have known Bev for more than 50 years. Bev and Mike have been guests in our home. We’ve been able to visit them in their full-time residence back in Illinois. By the way, Bev and Mike are both accomplished, long-distance runners! It was nice stopping in to see them today if only for an hour or so. I left with some huge lemons from their lemon tree and some photos of our get-together. They enjoy the warm and sunny weather of Arizona compared to the cold climate back in Illinois during the wintertime. It was fun talking to them about the events of the day on a number of topics of interest. I had a couple of options for getting back to California late this afternoon. I could try to fly. However, flying back to Los Angeles from Phoenix on a Sunday evening is one of the toughest flight combinations in the United States. Because the distances are so short people are finishing up their weekend in Arizona before returning to California. It’s just about impossible to fly back to Los Angeles from Phoenix on a standby basis on Sunday night. I had anticipated this travel challenge in advance. That being the case I rented a car in Phoenix on a one-way basis so that I could drop it off in Los Angeles. It was going to be about a six-hour drive back to the Los Angeles airport from today’s racetrack. But… at least that six-hour drive was a certainty. If I tried to fly back and couldn’t get on a flight on a standby basis that would be a problem. I would incur a Sunday night hotel expense not get back home until Monday. The good thing about driving was that I was in control for the most part of when I would get home. When I returned my car to LAX I needed to get a ride from the rental car center to my parking garage. That required some “special” treatment from the rental car bus driver. He was very nice about my request. He dropped me nearly at the entry point of my airport parking garage. Of course, I gave him a generous tip for his help. Had he dropped me off back at the airport that would have taken me a good 20-30 minutes and more than a mile of walking to get back to my parked car. Once I got my Educational Employees Credit Union sponsored Tesla Model X out of my parking garage I would be looking at a 65 mile drive back to our home in San Clemente from the airport. This was on top of the 482 miles I had driven my rental car after picking it up and 9 a.m. this morning. Still wanna be a trackchaser? Are people constantly telling me they would love to live the lifestyle I live? Yes, they are. In reality, they wouldn’t do it if they could I don’t think. I would say this. Most people are never going to have the option of doing what I do. It takes passion, time, money and a cooperative family. I have all of that. Why do I think no one is ever going to want to replicate my lifestyle? I guess I feel that way because no one ever has. I’ve been on the road for the last four straight weekends. Right now I’m thinking I’ll take it easy next weekend. Carol and I will try to see some racing at a local California track with a first-time visit. That should be relaxing as I get ready to catch a few more new tracks in late March. Once again thanks to Dan Strickler for all of the good information he’s been giving me about the Arizona champ kart series. I hope he recovers quickly from his injury. It was also great to see Bev and Mike in their beautiful winter home. Warm weather normally beats cold weather. Good afternoon from San Tan Karting in San Tan, Arizona. P.S. After today’s racing I posted a video of the last few laps of the feature racing on my Facebook page. There were several likes and comments about that post. One came from a kart promoter in Arizona. He wants the champ karts to come to his track. If they do…I’ll probably be there. I did call this promoter to say hello. Turns out he’s from Illinois and also named Randy. What were the chances? Randy Lewis – 85 countries – 2,683 tracks. Arizona The Grand Canyon State This morning I saw racing at my 47th lifetime track in the Grand Canyon, yes, the Grand Canyon State. I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in Arizona. Arizona ranks #15, amongst all the states, in tracks seen for me in the U.S. Here’s a link to my all-time Arizona state trackchasing list. I have made 42 separate trips to Arizona 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 Arizona sayings: I hate Arizona. It’s always eight hundred degrees outside and everybody’s always saying, “But it’s a dry heat! So’s the inside of my microwave oven” – Joan Rivers 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 795 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. From Boston to Phoenix to Los Angeles with a whole lot in between. 
