Greetings from Milton, Florida
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Southern Raceway
Dirt oval
Lifetime Track #703
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Southern Raceway
Dirt road course
Lifetime Track #2,307
THE EVENT My trackchasing hobby takes me all over the world. Each year I will visit 25-30 American states and several foreign countries. Long ago I moved into the #1 trackchasing position in both the number of different racetracks seen as well as the number of countries where I’ve seen racing. During my media interviews and discussions with friends and fans they often ask, “When did you start trackchasing?” Yes, that’s a question I get frequently. I never know how to answer it. I started out as a “racechaser”. I went to the very best tracks where my favorite drivers were racing. Somewhere along the line I decided I liked seeing a race at a track for the FIRST time rather than the TENTH time. As I went along I learned I liked the CHASE as much or more than the RACE. By the time I started trackchasing more than racechasing I was hundreds of tracks behind the leading trackchasers most of whom started in their 20s. Here’s a list of the number of tracks I had seen by a certain age: Age 5 – 1 track Age 30 – 71 tracks Age 40 – 180 tracks Age 50 – 404 tracks Age 60 – 1,517 tracks Age 68 (today – still a kid) – 2,307 tracks Today’s adventure was one more of the 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! Greetings from Milton, Florida . . From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” . . Southern Raceway Dirt oval Lifetime Track #703 12 to go! PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS After an uneventful night in Ocala, Florida on Friday, we are still trying to trackchase while being mindful of Hurricane Frances. Today we will travel from Ocala up to the Southern Speedway in Milton, Florida. Milton is near Pensacola, Florida in the state’s panhandle. We should still be safe from the storm until at least Sunday. Our plan is to stay in Tallahassee Saturday night. Sunday night is still up in the air. While we’re up in the panhandle area, the hurricane should be moving into and across central Florida. Then on Sunday, when the storm tracks into northwest Florida and the panhandle, we will deftly sneak around the east side of its path and scoot down eastern Florida on our way to Miami. This assumes the evacuation of south Florida is lifted and that every south Floridian is not using I-95 to return to their home. As you know, trackchasing is not easy. If it were, every Tom, Jane, Decahedra and Jose would be doing it (I learned that last line working for P&G). Our drive from the hotel in Tallahassee to the racetrack is 177 miles. The weather is quite beautiful with temps near 90 and an almost cloudless sky. There is very little traffic on the interstate (the skeptical could say, “Gee, I wonder why?”). One very unusual sight is the number of electric power line utility trucks passing us in an eastward direction. It is not an exaggeration to say that we have seen 100 such trucks traveling in packs of five or ten. One convoy of trucks we passed coming home from tonight’s track was from Alabama. The Hertz Ford Taurus Racing rental car is only getting about 22 miles per gallon. The useable size of the tank is about 15 gallons. That gives us a range of 330 miles. There have been severe fuel shortages in Florida. A range of 330 miles is not very good. In racing, there is something called a “fuel window”. A fuel window is the space a racecar is in when it can be refueled without having to stop again before the race is finished. How about an example? Let’s say the racecar has a 22-gallon tank and gets five miles per gallon (a realistic example). That means its fuel range is about 110 miles. Once the racecar is within 110 miles of the finish it’s in its “fuel window”. Therefore, we need to be within 330 miles of Miami to be within our fuel window. We’ll get gas in Tallahassee tonight when we get back from the races. There is no shortage of gas in Tallahassee. However, Tallahassee is still about 480 miles from Miami. We’ll take either the Florida Turnpike or Interstate 95 down to Miami on Sunday. This means we must reach at least Gainesville to get in our fuel window. Gainesville is 150 miles from Tallahassee. I think Gainesville is going to be in the middle of the hurricane on Sunday. This is concerning to me. Weather forecasters are expecting up to 20 inches of rain in some areas from the storm. The slower the hurricane moves, the longer it has to rain on one particular area. Sunday is going to be a tough drive. We have to get as much of the 480-mile drive done on Sunday as we can because the cruise is scheduled to begin boarding at 1:30 p.m. on Monday. As mentioned, we could have travel problems with the hurricane on Sunday. That being the case, we stopped at a convenience store to pick up some emergency provisions. Carol selected some canned sardines, a Hershey bar and some popcorn. I picked up some canned Spam (a childhood staple), brown sugar Pop Tarts and hot & spicy Vienna sausages, also a childhood favorite. We will share our Ritz crackers and bottled water. Hurricane Frances, bring it on! FAMILY NEWS Our son, J.J., came up with a great tech tool for me. As you know, I’m on an airplane or in a rental car often. I’m always using my laptop, on battery power, in these places. J.J. gave me a heads-up on a power cord that works on airplanes or in rental cars. This works great and it didn’t cost much. Now, I won’t have to cut these notes short (yes, I’m kidding here!) because I’m out of battery. J.J., thanks this works great and will make it much easier to get my work done. Speaking of family, we are now an official 100% foreign car owning family. Note to Allan, we still buy our gas in the U.S. Daughter Kristy just purchased a new Honda Civic EX. This is her first new car ever. Congratulations, Kristy! Her Honda joins our Lexus, Jaguar, Toyota and VW bug in the Lewis automobile family. Being of entrepreneurial ancestry, she dumped, no I mean unloaded, no I mean sold her aging 1992 Ford Crown Victoria with 170,000 miles to her boyfriend, James. That’s a sure sign that a nice relationship is about to end. I believe in the phrase, “Never sell a used car to a friend”. I never wanted my neighbor looking at me cross-eyed if he bought a used car from me and the water pump failed after five years of trouble-free use and 150,000 miles of driving. RACE TRACK NEWS: The Southern Speedway is my 770th lifetime track to meet or exceed all current trackchaser rules. It’s my 88th track of the season. Only 12 to go to reach the century mark. This track is my 28th in Florida. Southern Speedway is Carol’s 161st lifetime track and her fifth in Florida. Because of last night’s cancellation, it is most likely that I will have to trackchase during my shoulder surgery rehab period. Until last night’s cancellation, I was hoping my trackchasing would be over by the first weekend of October. As a matter of fact, I moved the surgery back a week to give me one more week of trackchasing over the weekend of October 1-3. As we were driving along on Interstate 10, we came across a most unusual sign. The highway sign read, “You are entering the Central Time Zone”. What? How could we be in Florida and be in the Central Time Zone, we were still 150 miles east of the Florida/Alabama state lines? I have no answer to that question, all I can say is that we were. The time zone got me to thinking. Tonight might be a good time for a blended double. For that to work you need two tracks within 50 miles or less of each other. Quickly, if not deftly, I pulled out the National Speedway Directory. The Flomaton Speedway was just 39 miles away from Milton, Florida. Flomaton raced on Saturday nights. Perfect! However, a quick phone call to Flomaton yielded bad news. They were “taking the night off”. I don’t know if that was because of Hurricane Frances or the fact that they were racing on Monday night, September 6. We also had a second blended double choice. That would be the Deep South Speedway in Loxley, Alabama. A call to their number yielded an answering machine. I reached “Oliver” who did not acknowledge an affiliation with the Deep South Speedway. Nevertheless, I left a message with Oliver. The Deep South Speedway is 54 miles west of Milton. That’s a bit far for a double and would make the drive back to the hotel tonight about 230 miles. Not the best choice. The Southern Speedway turned out to be a relatively well run racetrack. The flagman was excellent. He was slow to throw the yellow and did not waste laps having the cars take another lap before a start or re-start. The track did suffer from too many classes, eight. They ran hobby stocks (17), limited late models (9), vintage (13), trucks (9), street stocks (8), IMCA modifieds (12), hoggs (10) and four-cylinders (10). We stayed for 15 races. I especially liked race #14, a 20 lapper for the 17 hobby stocks, although race #7 had several lead changes over the eight laps of racing. The P.A. system was terrible. It was just about impossible to tell which class was running without a P.A. system. General admission was $12. The nine limited late models time trialed after four heat races of other classes. Incredibly, the nine limited late models were racing for $2,000 to win. Andy Ritter, you need to tow down here and take their money! There was a good amount of seating and a fairly large crowd. They had the best kid’s playground I can recall seeing. We wanted to get back to the hotel by 1 a.m. so we did have a pre-arranged time to depart. We exceeded our plan and left the track at 9:50 p.m. We lost an hour to the time zone change on the drive back. The track did start 20 minutes late at 7:20 p.m. They provided a one-page program that listed car numbers, driver names and current points. RACE TRACK FOOD: I’ve got to give some credit to the Waffle House chain. They have a very good cheese steak sandwich that can be served on Texas toast. I have eaten my share of Philly cheese steak sandwiches and this is a good one. The hot & spicy sausage sandwich at the track was good and spicy. We also sampled the Cajun boiled peanuts. I bet they won’t have these two selections on the cruise ship! RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Hertz Rental Car Racing Ford Taurus is providing the power to my laptop computer. The radio reception I have gotten on my rental Taurus is well below average. ED ESSER & P.J. HOLLEBRAND (above right) UPDATE: As of September 5, 2004, the battle for positions 7-10 in the worldwide trackchaser standings is as follows: P.J. added two tracks to his total since the last update. Come on P.J., you know that every time you add a couple of tracks, it makes me have to get on one more airplane, rent one more car, stay in a few more dingy motel rooms. Have you no mercy? I’d like to take a trackchasing rest for the remainder of the year. If you don’t watch it, you’re going to stir my competitive instincts and make me try to catch you this year. I don’t want to do that. I really don’t. Ed has not added any new tracks since the August 31 update. He had a strong involvement with the Delta Sigma Pi fraternity at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin. Ed, how are those Badgers going to do on the gridiron this year? CUMULATIVE DRIVING DISTANCES: Tampa, Florida Airport – trip begins Milton, Florida – 489 miles Miami, Florida Airport – 1,139 miles (estimated, but will be finalized by 9/6/04) – trip Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Planned new racetracks (on the last day of each racing trip I will post my tentative plans for my next trip) 24-Sep Figure 8s Anderson Spdwy Anderson, IN 25-Sep 3/8M Special Baer Field Speedway South Bend, IN 25-Sep Figure 8s Schererville Spdwy Schererville, IN 25-Sep 1/4M Oval Schererville Spdwy Schererville, IN 25-Sep Regular Program Crown Point Spdwy Crown Point, IN 26-Sep Road Racing Blackhawk Farms Rocton, IL 26-Sep Regular Program Lincoln Speedway Lincoln, IL **Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, June 12 **Charleston Speedway, Charleston, Illinois, May 22 **Sunshine Speedway (oval), Pinellas Park, Florida, April 3 **Central Arizona Raceway, Casa Grande, Arizona, January 20 There was no time to edit this note, what you see is what you get. Yes, that’s what the title says, “Would you pay $100 for five gallons of gas?” I would, I did, and I was happy to do it. For a while I wasn’t sure I was happy I paid that much, but in the end it was worth it. Permit me to explain. We started our trip today on Sunday. The trackchasing part of this effort had already been a bit mixed up. We had started on Friday by flying into Tampa. The two tracks we were originally scheduled to see quickly were changed to two new tracks because of Hurricane Frances. Then on Friday night one of the newly scheduled tracks cancelled even though, the weather in their area was perfect. We did get to see one new track up in the far northwestern corner of Florida, which is called the panhandle. Following that race, we ended up staying in the capital of Florida, Tallahassee on Saturday night. Hurricane Frances was cutting across the central part of Florida on Sunday. Our plan was to drive directly eastward to Jacksonville, then cut down on Interstate 95 southward to Miami. This route would allow us to circumvent the storm, even though it was a bit out of the way. The trip from Tallahassee to Miami computed out at 509 miles. Our 15-day cruise had been delayed from Sunday to Monday making it a 14-day cruise. That was OK. This extra day gave us a little leeway to see a track in the far northwestern corner of Florida. We could make it down to Miami will time to spare, or so I thought. Here’s what really happened. We left the Tallahassee Hampton Inn at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. I had a full tank of gas. The plan was to get to about 30 miles south of Jacksonville. At that point, we would be in our “fuel window”. Being in the fuel window meant that once we filled up the tank we would have enough fuel to make it to Miami. If we filled up before we reached our fuel window, we would have to stop again for gas. The eastern coast of Florida was hard hit my Frances. Gas has been in short supply and we weren’t sure when we could get any fuel. It’s about 160 miles from Tallahassee to Jacksonville. This part of the trip went smoothly. Jacksonville wasn’t having much of a weather problem when we arrived at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. From the interstate it looked like gas stations were open and things were relatively normal. We just had to drive 30 miles south from here on I-95 and we’d be in our fuel window. There was very little traffic and the plan was working perfectly. Little did I know, but things were about to change. Just as we were heading south out of Jacksonville the weather started to turn. You know when you’re on a driving trip and the weather looks good and then all of the sudden it gets bad so quickly that you wonder how it could change so fast? That’s what happened to us. The wind picked up. I would estimate we were being bounced around by gusts up to 50 M.P.H. The rain came in squalls. Then it came in sheets. We were in heavy wind and rain. Even though the weather was bad, we soldiered on. Once we got in out fuel window, I exited for gas. There were three stations at this exit, but none were open. My fuel gauge said I had about 150 miles remaining on our current tank of gas. No problem. We began to stop at each exit on I-95. The exits were anywhere from five to fifteen miles apart. There were no stations pumping gas. The electricity was out in most of the towns. Even though it was daylight the overcast, cloudy and rainy conditions made it seem like dusk. We came across one station that had about 15 cars lined up at the pumps. We pulled in. It was raining and blowing but we were third in line at our pump. The guy at the pump in our line had the gas nozzle in his tank. We were going to get gas! He kept punching a button on the fuel machine. Was he getting any gas or not? The answer was no. The machine was having some kind of a malfunction and was not working. We used the bathrooms and left. We continued down I-95. There were no businesses open at all. There were no restaurants, gas stations or anything else open. It was starting to get dark. Maybe after it got dark, we would be able to see a station’s lights, letting us know it was open for business. We stopped in the town of Melbourne. A policeman was in his car with lights flashing to warn motorists of an intersection where the traffic lights were out. I stopped, rolled down my window in the driving rain, and asked where we could get any gas. He said he had heard that a station in town was open. He also said the lines were long at the station. Hey, any port in a storm! We followed his directions to the Chevron station that he recommended. No gas here. This station was in shambles from the hurricane. The huge Chevron sign was blown down and it obviously had not pumped any gas for a couple of days. That policeman really had his story screwed up. We saw lots of late model cars and trucks parked along the side of the road. I can only assume they were out of gas. The rain got so heavy at one point that we had to pull into a truck stop for about 20 minutes. The weather has to be bad before I pull off the road. We now had 50 miles remaining on our current tank of gas. We had stopped at at least 20 exits over the last 100 miles or so. Absolutely nothing was open. I mean nothing. We drove on. Just as the low fuel light came on in the Hertz Racing Rental Car Ford Taurus we came upon Ft. Pierce, Florida. We had passed Melbourne, Indian River and seen the sign for Stuart, which was just beyond Ft. Pierce. These were all the names of towns I had heard on the weather channel when the storm was making first landfall on Saturday. We had run down to our last few drops of fuel in the hardest hit part of the entire state. How do these things happen to me? I have to tell you that Carol was quite the trooper. She didn’t complain and did everything I asked of her when I needed her support. That cooperation would continue as the trip entered the rough stages. It was now about 9 p.m. It was dark. We saw a Hampton Inn with its lights on. I pulled in. The manager was in the parking lot waving his arms at me and a couple of other cars. “No rooms, we have no rooms”, he said. How could that be, there were lights on and only a few cars in the parking lot of a 75 room hotel? No mind, there was a Day Inn just a half block away. We drove over there. A few of the rooms had lights on at the Days Inn. The entrance to the motel was heavily boarded up. I saw a lady standing in her room’s doorway smoking a cigarette. I asked her where the manager was. “He left two days ago”, was her reply. I asked her how she got her room. “We got here Thursday before the hurricane and have been here ever since. We have no water, the roof leaks, we have an inch of water on the floor and the lights just came back on 30 minutes ago after we lost electricity 48 hours ago. You don’t want to stay here”. Wow. Now that I looked closer I saw how bad the hurricane had damaged the Days Inn. The parking lot was covered with roof shingles, a couple of the room’s windows were missing and many of the other rooms had plywood covering their doors and windows. It seemed like a scene from the Twilight Zone. What do we do now? We have about five miles worth of gas. There are no motel rooms available. There are no restaurants. There is nothing open whatsoever. OK, think. This is where I’m at my best. I absolutely love these situations. Most people wouldn’t, but life for me is usually pretty easy. I look forward to these kinds of challenges more than anyone I know. There must be a way out of here. We sat in the Days Inn Motel parking lot. We had our cell phones. I called AAA. Nope, there service to motorists had been suspended for the duration. I called Hertz, no luck. Running out of gas was not their responsibility and even if it was there was no gas to be had anywhere close to where we were. I walked back over to the Hampton Inn. There was a Steak N’ Shake restaurant between the Days Inn and the Hampton Inn. The Steak N’ Shake restaurant is my favorite. We had eaten at a Steak N’ Shake on Friday night when we arrived. The Ft. Pierce Steak N’ Shake’s windows were covered with plywood. The words, “Go Away, Frances” was spray painted on one of the four by eight wooden panels. There was some activity at the Hampton Inn. Even though their rooms were water damaged they were serving as a motel for emergency workers who were just beginning to arrive. They were not open to the public. A Ft. Pierce policeman was in the lobby. I pulled him aside and tried to bond. Surely, he could help us. I explained our situation. He looked at me with some compassion. I must admit I’ve talked to at least 10 policemen today during our forays into towns looking for gas and none of them showed any interest or compassion in our plight whatsoever. I attribute that to the storm experience they’ve just been through and the fact that they’ve probably been on duty for long hours. The policeman I was talking too told me to wait a minute. He went over and talked to the motel manager. They conferred for a few moments and then the cop came back to me. He had a solution. All right! We could park in the Hampton Inn parking lot and they wouldn’t mind. We were already parked in the Days Inn parking lot! I didn’t think moving to the Hampton Inn parking lot was much of an upgrade! I thanked him for his time. He reminded me that Ft. Pierce was in the midst of a dusk to dawn curfew and that I couldn’t be driving around. I reminded him that I wouldn’t be driving around since I was out of gas! Now I was back in the car with Carol. It was still warm and very humid. It had stopped raining as most of the storm had now passed Ft. Pierce. We sat in the car. I could have gassed up in Jacksonville. Although not in our fuel window, it would have gotten us much closer to our Miami destination. This was bad. We’re still 130 miles from Miami and the cruise leaves tomorrow. What if we can’t get any gas here? We might miss the cruise. I was getting hungry. We had our convenience store provisions. I broke out a can of hot n’ spicy Vienna sausages. It reminded me of eating C-rats in the Marines. We had bottled water. Those Vienna sausages weren’t bad. Carol ate some popcorn. I ate a couple of my brown sugar Pop Tarts. What could I do now? I don’t take no for an answer. I admit I can be a real pain in the ass when I’m trying not to take no for an answer. There must be some other option. Think. What could we do? Time passed as Carol tried to sleep and I tried to think. It was 11:30 p.m. when the winning idea came around. There was very little traffic in the area. There were about 50 cars that pulled in off the interstate to the Days Inn. When they saw the place was boarded up they quickly sped away. I watched this ritual for a long time. Just off in the distance, I saw the silhouette of a taxicab. I saw it for just a second or two but it gave me an idea. Maybe a cab could take me to a place to buy gas. I reached for my cell phone. The phone’s battery was getting low. I called information and got three numbers of the local cab companies in Ft. Pierce. I called the Yellow Cab Company. No luck. They had no drivers on duty and anyway, there was a total curfew in Fr. Pierce in effect and the local police and National Guard were strictly enforcing the curfew. I called Chico’s Cab Company. I left a message on his machine. The final choice would yield pay dirt. I called Cowls’ Cab. A man answered who voice could only be described as Fred Sanford of Sanford and Son’s sit com of a few years ago. I pleaded my case with Fred Sanford, actually Delbert Cowl. Mr. Cowl would like to help me but there was a curfew in effect and he didn’t want to get in trouble. I begged. Then, I pleaded. I told him I would pay him $50 for five gallons of gas. He didn’t seem the least bit interested in the money. He didn’t want to get into trouble. He knew that he were out after curfew that he would get a large fine. I must admit I heard the blackness in his voice. I’m not trying to exaggerate here, but I could here the pain in an older black man’s voice that said, “I’ve had a lot of trouble in my life and I don’t want to make it easy for the white man to bash me again”. Delbert was a good man, but he was afraid. I upped my ante to $100 for five gallons of gas. Now, I at least had his attention. He continued to offer me alternatives that I had either already tried or obviously would not work. I continued to pressure him. I told him he would not get in trouble. I told him I had talked to a Ft. Pierce policeman a little earlier in the evening. I would go back to the Hampton Inn and find that policeman and get his OK for Mr. Cowl to come on into the night and help us. I went back to the Hampton Inn but the cop was gone. I talked to the motel manager. She said that Mr. Cowl should go ahead and help us and if the police stopped him, he should tell them to call the Hampton Inn and she could vouch for him. I called Mr. Cowl back. I explained the situation. Yes, he had five gallons of gas and he would come. It took a while but he did come. He was a large man, probably about six foot five and with skin as black as the dark night. I think he was scared that I might be trying to rip him off. I gave him five twenty dollar bills. I poured the gas from his red plastic gas container into the thirsty tank. I thanked him and we were off into the night again. We were 130 miles from Miami. The gas gauge now said I had a range of 83 miles. We would still have to stop for more gas but at least we would be out of the most hurricane-ravaged part of eastern Florida. The first 30 miles or so south of Ft. Pierce, we didn’t see a thing. I was glad I had not gone further than Ft. Pierce looking for more gas. We continued to drive and there was absolutely nothing. No lights, no nothing. The gas gauge continued to go south. Was I going to run out of gas, after I had paid $100? In south Florida, Interstate 95 runs parallel to the Florida Turnpike. They are very close together. We were driving along I-95 and I could see a semi-truck driving at the same speed we were just a couple hundred yards to our right. He was driving on the Florida Turnpike. I had heard the turnpike had service plazas where they sold fuel. I wasn’t having any luck getting gas on I-95 so I took the exit for the Florida Turnpike. There was virtually no traffic on this road and it was past 1 a.m. They were not charging any tolls because of the hurricane. Hey, I was already starting to recoup my $100 with free tolls! A sign said a service plaza was coming up in seven miles. We had about 25 miles worth of gas left according to the gas gauge. Would the service plaza have any gas? We pulled in. There was a Florida Highway Patrolman’s car and no one else at the gas pumps. We pulled up to a pump. They had gas!!!!! We filled it to the brim. In talking to the attendant, he told me they had gotten a shipment just two hours before after being dry for nearly a day. Wow! Wow! Now we had all the gas we needed. Let’s get a hotel room and call it a day. The gas attendant gave us a list of hotels that were in the area. We started to call. A local Days Inn had a room for $49. The motel had no electricity and the shower only had cold water. We would have taken it but it was 14 miles back in the wrong direction. We called every other motel on the list. The list had more than 10 motels on it. Everybody was full. It seems that since the greater Miami area was without electricity the local residents rented motels for air conditioning and showers at the motels that had electricity and showers. We continued into the Ft. Lauderdale area. We exited on to surface streets and tried to find a motel. We stopped at more than 10 locations from the seediest looking derelict motels to some very upscale Sheridans and Westins. Absolutely full. At a Hilton Garden Inn the clerk told me he had rented his last room to the guy who had pulled in 30 seconds ahead of us. Would we still have to sleep in the car? It was 2:30 a.m. Finally, we came across a Hampton Inn. They had a two-bedroom suite for $98. Sold! Since it was so late, I asked for a late checkout and was granted a 2 p.m. departure. The room was beautiful. Unfortunately, we were too tired to enjoy it to the fullest. We slept til 10:30 a.m. missing their free breakfast. The room seemed a bit dark. Why? The metal corrugated storm shutters were still on all of the windows! We’ve been gone for three days. It seems like we have already experienced a full trip. Actually, out trip is just beginning. The trackchasing part was just supposed to be the tip of the iceberg (probably a poor analogy since we’re going on a cruise ship). Now, our trip begins. We’re going to have a great time. I’m lucky to have such an easy going, cooperative wife. The last 24 hours were bad but it could have been a lot worse without a supportive spouse. I’m lucky in that regard. So from the “active seniors”, Bon Voyage. Greetings from Milton, Florida . . From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” . . Southern Raceway Dirt road course Lifetime Track #2,307 ON THE WAY TO THE RACES SATURDAY This trackchasing trip began on Thursday. I flew into Atlanta, Georgia to get things started. On Friday evening I saw lifetime track #2,305 at the 441 Speedway in Dublin, Georgia. Earlier today, after sleeping for an hour and one-half in a Mississippi rest area, I made a return visit to the NOLA Motorsports Park just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. Their 1.8-mile course would be my 2,306th lifetime track to see. From the greater New Orleans area I had a 3 1/2 hour drive over to the Southern Raceway in Milton, Florida for tonight’s racing. After seeing the stingers on the road course at Southern I might have the opportunity to cap off the night with a new track visit in Alabama. I don’t know that any trackchaser has ever seen racing in four separate states in just a little bit more than 24 hours. To top it all off, if things work well and I don’t fall asleep driving overnight for the second straight night, I could like set another trackchasing record. I’ll be trying for an early morning flight out of Atlanta on Sunday. If I make that flight I could end up seeing five new tracks in five separate states in about 41 hours. As the reader you will have to judge just how difficult it is to see these tracks. I’m going to guess there are about 2,500 racetracks in the world. I’ve already seen more than 2,300 tracks. However, it would be incorrect to assume I only have 200 tracks left to see. Why is that? First, a large number of the tracks I have already seen are no longer in business. Those places are not part of my current estimate of 2,500 tracks. Additionally, “tracks” are opening up all the time. Here’s an example. After this afternoon’s race near New Orleans I have seen 14 tracks in 2017. For three of those tracks I had no idea they even existed at this time last year. Those newly discovered tracks have accounted for 20% of the tracks I’ve seen this year. I have no earthly idea how many tracks I will end up with for the year. However, if I had to guess I would say at least 20% of them will be venues I didn’t know about less than one year ago. Nevertheless, after seeing more than 2,300 tracks I have far fewer opportunities to trackchase than someone who has seen 1,000 tracks or 100 tracks. It’s a lot easier to put multi-track combinations together when a chaser hasn’t seen all that many tracks. That makes sense doesn’t it. It seems as if I am making frequent return visits to tracks when a new track configuration of one sort or another occurs. That is the case with the southern Raceway in Milton, Florida. Back in 2004 Carol and I visited the Southern Raceway for action on their 3/8-mile dirt oval. That was a most memorable weekend. On that weekend some 13 years ago we left the Southern Raceway with a plan to get ourselves down toward Miami. We had seen the racing at Southern on a Friday night. Our cruise was departing on Sunday morning. Under normal circumstances we had all the time in the world to get to south Florida. However, on that weekend we would not encounter “normal circumstances”. However, we encountered hurricane Frances that weekend. I’ve probably told friends and followers the story of our hurricane Frances Florida weekend more than just about any other story. You won’t want to miss my Trackchaser Report from our 2004 trip to the Southern Raceway. You’ll find it under a separate tab on this Southern Raceway page. For tonight’s racing at the Southern Raceway I was interested in seeing a special event. A few days ago I had spoken with the track promoter Tom Lowery. He confirmed they were racing on a track that he called a modified oval. In my terminology I was calling it a road course because the drivers would need to turn both left and right in order to navigate the course. I have a fellow trackchaser Edward Corrado to thank for learning about this special track. I have never met Edward in my life. However about 15-20 years ago I did try to send him several emails. I was inviting him to join the trackchaser group. At the time I never heard back from him. I have no idea if my emails ever reached Edward or not. THE RACING Southern Raceway – Milton, Florida With a perfect weather forecast I projected pulling into the Southern Raceway at a little past 6 p.m. The racing program was to begin at 7 p.m. They would begin with heat races for the four-cylinder cars aka stingers racing on the dirt road course. The track promoter and I had a great conversation a few days ago. He invited me to his track and offered up a complementary pit pass. That was very nice of him to do and I most appreciated it. The weather was “San Clemente perfect” when I pulled in at the Southern Raceway. Despite being here in 2004 I had no memory of the track whatsoever. It should be noted that I have seen more than 1,500 tracks since my very first visit to the raceway. In all that time it’s easy to forget the particulars of a track visit so long ago. I confirmed at the pit tent that promoter Tom Lowery had added me to the guest list. That was a nice gesture on his part. I set out to introduce myself to Tom. I took a walk around the pit area. Tonight was a special event. Normally the Southern Raceway plays home to stock car racing on a red dirt and sand highly banked oval track. However tonight a special road course configuration had been created. No one could remember if anything other than an oval track had ever been used here in Milton, Florida before. The start/finish line was in the same location for tonight’s road course as it was for the oval track itself. However, when the racers got to the middle of turns one and two they made a hard left into the oval track infield. In the infield they made a series of “S” turns. Then they exited back onto the oval pretty much in the middle of turns three and four. Because the drivers had to turn both left and right this created the classic definition of a road course. I attended the driver’s meeting. At the meeting they covered the racing details for the motorcycles, quads and stingers. It was emphasized that this event was not a demolition derby but a race. The car count was lower than expected. There were 12 stingers in the pit area. They drew pills for starting positions. This being race #1 of the three-race stinger road course series they were hoping for more cars at the next event. When the meeting wrapped up I was able to meet, for the first time, the Southern Raceway promoter Tom Lowery. However, at this point I was in for a surprise. I was immediately escorted to a waiting police car. Was this some cruel joke initiated by the Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers? Was I being hauled off to jail for failing to disclose to a motel operator that Carol and I were not married when we came to Florida during spring break in college? What was up with the police car? O.K., already. Yes, I WAS getting into a police car. However, the car was no longer an ACTIVE police car. It had seen its active duty time. It was now a “track packer” and a pace car. Tom invited me to hop in with him. Tom was going to pace the field of four-cylinder stingers in tonight’s heat race. I have been invited to ride in many pace cars over the years. It’s always great fun and was tonight as well. Tonight there were 12 stingers were in the pits. This smaller than expected turnout forced Tom to consolidate the planned two heat races into one. That was a good idea. The fans would have more fun watching 12 cars race in one heat than six cars race in two heats. Most promoters would not see it that way. Maybe that’s why short track racing has so much difficulty attracting a crowd. The stinger heat race would go for ten minutes. Later in the evening, the last event of the night would be a 30-minute race for all of the stingers that were still running. Tom had emphasized at the driver’s meeting that this was not a demolition derby. It was a race. I was very impressed with the speed of the stingers. They got around this dirt road course much faster than I would have expected. The heat race winner was Tom’s own son, Tommy a 20-year-old. He has been racing since he was 15. Tommy drove a powder blue car with a red number 43 on the side ala Richard Petty. It was fun spending some time with Tom Lowery. During my 30-year corporate career I spend a good amount of time recruiting new employees. I am trained through lots of experience to get a “handle” on people quickly. I could tell from our first phone call that Tom was a “stand up good guy”. Being able to judge people quickly is an outstanding skill to have. Tom told me that he was the fourth owner of the track in its 29-year history. He also told me that the track had run on an interrupted basis during its entire history. Not all that many tracks can say that over a period of nearly 30 years. Tom told me he is trying to develop a low-cost racing alternative such as the stinger class. He’s going to hold three events for them this year with tonight being the first. I think he’s on the right track with low cost cars. The drivers can learn their trade at a more modest expense and maybe eventually move up to a higher class later. In the meantime each driver will bring three or four people into the pits with him and maybe a corresponding amount of family members into the stands. Promoter Tom estimated there were 350 people in the stands tonight. There was a good crowd in the pits. He told me he gets 1,000 people on average for his regular weekly stock car shows. He normally gets about 60-70 cars. I told him that in my experience eight or nine tracks out of every 10 I visit don’t come anywhere close to drawing 1,000 people. As I walked around the Southern Raceway I saw they were doing quite a good concession business. At the track I attended last night I’m not sure they had 20 visitors to the concession stand during the entire three hours that I was there. The Southern Raceway has three distinct concession stands. One sells primarily beverages and boiled peanuts. The other two focus on sandwiches and the like. They all seem to be doing a good business even though the crowd was smaller than normal. Tom invited me up into the announcer’s booth as well. The track has a good PA system and a quality announcer. Tonight as part of their special program they also had live music that played both before and after the races. I watched several of the motorcycle and quad races from up in the tower. Tom and I had watched the 12-car stinger race from the track’s dirt infield. Since I had seen all 12 cars compete in the preliminary event I didn’t see a great need to hang around to see the 12-car feature. When the track went to intermission I headed out. I have been at the track for only a couple of hours. However, during that time I had attended the driver’s meeting and ridden in the pace car that paced the field. I had been introduced to Tom’s wife and co-promoter Kim, met several of his friends and made a visit up to the announcing tower. Concession prices were very attractive. I had a huge tasty corndog for just two dollars. A very large fountain soft drink was also just two bucks. I could see why they were doing such a big business at the concession stand. When fans see they can buy quality products at reasonable prices they will drink and eat at the track rather than on the way to the track. I had promised myself that if the show at the Southern Raceway started on time, and it did, and if I saw all of the cars and other racing competitors compete, which I di, then I would give the Deep South Speedway in Loxley, Alabama a try. AFTER THE RACES When I get my Trackchaser Report, YouTube video and Phanfare photo album together I’ll give Tom the promoter a call. He might want to share my experience with others. In the meantime I was off on the 54-mile drive over to Loxley, Alabama. Florida The Gator state This evening I saw my 64th lifetime track in the Gator state, yes the Gator state. I hold the #2 trackchasing spot in Florida. I’ve seen 64 or more tracks in 12 separate states. No other chaser can match those results. 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 Florida definitions: Steering wheel What it usually means: That piece that allows you to control a car. What it means in Florida: A burning wheel of death that’s been sitting in the parking lot for an hour. QUICK 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 575 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 20 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 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. Red dirt road course racing from the Southern Raceway 
Racetracks visited in 2004 (** not the first time to visit this track)
Greeting from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Click on the links below to see the video productions from my track visits.