Greetings from Ft. Worth, Texas
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Texas Motor Speedway
½-mile permanent dirt oval
Lifetime Track #409
Texas Motor Speedway
1.5-mile paved oval
Lifetime Track #411
Texas Motor Speedway
Permanent full asphalt road course
(infield long course)
Lifetime Track #968
Texas Motor Speedway
Lil Texas Motor Speedway
1/5-mile permanent asphalt oval free standing
Lifetime Track #983
Texas Motor Speedway
¼-mile permanent asphalt oval
at the 1.5-mile track
Lifetime Track #984
Texas Motor Speedway
Temporary dirt road course
at the ½-mile dirt track location
Lifetime Track #1,282
Texas Motor Speedway
permanent full asphalt road course
(infield short course)
Lifetime Track #2,071
THE EVENT XX I have seen racing at seven different tracks at the Texas Motor Speedway property. Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I sauntered down to Texas and saw seven tracks in a single day permit me to explain. Actually it took me seven DIFFERENT days to see those seven tracks. I first showed up at TMS in 2000. My latest and seventh addition occurred in the spring of 2015. Yep. It took me 15 years to see seven tracks at the Texas Motor Speedway. I guess I have Bruton Smith of Speedway Motorsports to thank for this trackchasing productivity. I’m seen a similar amount of tracks at two other Speedway Motorsports locations in Charlotte and Las Vegas. Thanks Bruton! To see how each one of these trips worked out you can simply click on the appropriate tabs. Hope you enjoy reading, listening and seeing my experiences at TMS. Texas Motor Speedway ½-mile permanent dirt oval Lifetime Track #409 I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until about track #430. As you can see that was just after I saw racing at the permanent ½-mile dirt oval at TMS. However, I can tell you this. I saw Danny Lasoski (#83) win a World of Outlaws feature at the TMS dirt track on Thursday night, March 30, 2000. This was one of the first facilities to offer a first class permanent short track at an existing NASCAR Sprint Cup track. Other Speedway Motorsports locations have done the same thing at both Charlotte and Las Vegas with even greater success than what’s happened at Texas. Texas Motor Speedway 1.5-mile paved oval Lifetime Track #411 I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until about track #430. As you can see that was just after I saw racing at the permanent 1.5-mile asphalt oval at TMS. Two days before I saw racing at the BIG track I had seen the World of Outlaws sprint cars race on the ½-mile dirt oval. In between that race and seeing the NASCAR, then Winston Cup, boys race I popped into the Outlaw Speedway in Grand Prairie, Texas to see Ricky Brown win the feature. The big oval at TMS was my 411th lifetime track. On Saturday, April 1, 2000 I saw Mark Martin in the #60 pick up one of his many Grand National checkered flags. To see that race I had to endure a 4 ½-hour rain delay. I would return in 2005 to see Carl Edwards win the November 6 Winston Cup race. After that race I stayed over to watch the “Thunder Roadsters” compete on the ¼-mile asphalt oval that sits along side pit road of the NASCAR track. Texas Motor Speedway Permanent full asphalt road course (infield long course) Lifetime Track #968 Reprinted with permission from my October 15, 2005 Trackchaser Report. On that day the Texas Motor Speedway was the first half of a trackchasing day/night double with the Lawton Speedway in Lawton, Oklahoma. GREETINGS FROM FORT WORTH, TEXAS AND THEN LAWTON, OKLAHOMA CORRECTION! Of course, yesterday’s Trackchaser Report came from Greenville, Texas NOT Coronado, California. It’s sad when the brain starts to go. PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS With UCLA playing on the road at Washington State it was a good weekend to go trackchasing. The opportunity to get five tracks in three days combined with a round-trip airfare of only $178 sealed the deal. Also, with a three-day rental car rate of just $79 I decided I could not afford to stay home. I flew Air Tran Airways for the very first time. I’ll just say they attract an “eclectic” type of passenger and leave it at that. I did join the Air Tran frequent flyer program. Fly eight segments and you earn a free ticket. That’s not bad. During my business career, I traveled nearly every week for almost 30 years. I topped that off by traveling just about as much on a personal basis. There aren’t many places I haven’t seen in the U.S. and I’ve seen many areas time and time again. Nevertheless, and regardless of how many times I’ve been somewhere I look forward to returning to most places as if it’s the first time I’ve ever been there. That line of thinking applied to today’s tourist visit in Dallas. I am fascinated by major news stories such as earthquakes, hurricanes, fires and riots and in today’s case assassinations. You all know that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. You probably know where you were when you first heard the news. I was in freshman English class at East Peoria Community High School. Note to Don Baker: Mr. Wilson was serving as my classes substitute teacher that day and broke the news to our group. Today, I visited the “Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.” This building is the former “School Book Depository” where Lee Harvey Oswald shot the president (unless you believe in a conspiracy theory). Carol and I have been in this area a couple of times before but we haven’t been to this museum since it opened a few years ago. Most of the museum is housed on the sixth floor of this infamous building. It’s a very eerie feeling to look out nearly the same window that Oswald did as he shot three times down into the President’s motorcade. For some reason, photography is not allowed in the museum. There are multiple signs telling patrons that photography will not be tolerated and ushers are there to enforce the rules. Rules are fine. However, I have a responsibility to each of my loyal Trackchaser Report readers. If you promise not to tell anyone, I have a secret to tell you. I have been able to secure a photo of exactly what Lee Harvey Oswald saw that day when he peered behind a stack of book boxes and fired a rifle he had purchased from a Chicago mail order house for just $12.78. I highly recommend this museum. The admission fee is $10 or $13.50 with the audio tour. I always go first class and you should too. Go with the audio tour. JFK was the fourth U.S. president to be assassinated while in office. During his 1,000-day presidency, his popularity ratings ranged from 57-83%. When he was killed, his most recent popularity rating was 59%. Things were different back in the early 60s. As an example, there were only 4,200 computers in the entire United States then. JFK was the youngest president ever when he was elected at age 43 after spending 14 years in congress. At the time of his death it was not a federal crime to assassinate the president, it was a local crime. That being the case, the Dallas authorities wanted to do an autopsy. Jackie Kennedy did not want that to happen. She convinced secret service men to forcibly remove the body and return it on Air Force 1 with the newly sworn in President Lyndon B. Johnson. Lee Harvey Oswald, a native of New Orleans was himself killed just two days later by Jack Ruby. Ruby was convicted of murder and died four years later in prison. If you get to Dallas, I highly recommend a visit to the “Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.” The interstate road system in Texas is unlike any I see in any other state I visit. The on and off ramps are about 15 yards long. I have never seen on and off ramps this short anywhere else. When you exit an interstate, not only do you have just a few yards until you’re on a frontage road, but you have traffic decisions to make. There are no stoplights at the end of the ramp. First, you encounter oncoming traffic that must yield to you as you exit the freeway. You also have traffic that is coming from the same direction you are, except that traffic is on the frontage road. It’s very confusing and it looks rather dangerous as well. RACE TRACK STATS: TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY – ROAD COURSE, FT. WORTH, TEXAS -TRACK #968 This Texas track is my 20th countable track to see in the state. This is my second visit to Texas this year and my third new track to see in the state this year. I am ranked #2 in Texas. John Moore leads the state totals with 29 tracks. LAWTON SPEEDWAY, LAWTON, OKLAHOMA -TRACK #969 This Oklahoma track is my 11th countable track to see in the state. This is my second visit to Oklahoma in 2005 and my fifth new track to see in the state this year. I’ve move up from 9th place to 6th place in Oklahoma this year. Ed Esser leads the state totals with 23 tracks. RACE TRACK NEWS: TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY – ROAD COURSE, FT. WORTH, TEXAS Visiting these major NASCAR tracks on a non-NASCAR weekend is like visiting Yankee Stadium on the day the Lion’s Club rents the place for their annual softball game. You get to walk around and inspect every nook and cranny. Most of the places I visited today at Texas Motor Speedway would be forbidden territory on a NASCAR weekend. Before I entered the “big” track, I scoped out the Legends asphalt oval (where I have not seen racing) and the Texas Motor Speedway dirt track (where I have seen racing). I hope to make a return visit to the legends track, possibly even this year. Many of the Bruton Smith owned NASCAR tracks (Charlotte, Las Vegas, Texas) have built smaller tracks on the property of their big NASCAR ovals. Usually there is a short track in dirt and asphalt as well as a road course. Think of it as Wal-Mart adding groceries, an optical shop and a fast food restaurant to their main store. As they say, the rich get richer and I have no problem with that. This is America! I was greeted at the south tunnel entrance to the infield of the Texas Motor Speedway with a sign that read, “This is a private event.” The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) sanctioned today’s racing. Normally, they do not limit admission to their members but some road racing tracks and sanctioning groups do run races that are not open to the public. In the back of my mind, I secretly wished this were a private event today. If it was, I could get to use my ingenuity and persuasiveness to talk my way in. When I pulled up to the guard at the gate, I was refused admission because I did not have the required wristband. I was directed to the SCCA trailer where I could and did acquire a wristband for the reasonable price of just $5. By the way, I was talking to a reader just the other day who said he reads the Trackchaser Report just to see if I’m offering a prize to people who have read this far. Today, I am. The first two people to respond to me via email will win a $5 gift certificate to a surprise location. Good luck! Once I got into the infield, I began my detective search of the entire area. I went inside the pit garages, which are large and new. The pit garage area can probably handle more than 100 race teams. Having a covered garage to work on the cars is a major advantage when the temperatures exceed 100 degrees as they often do in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Next, I went over to the staging area on the front straight. This is what is called the “pit wall” area during a NASCAR race. I had a pink wristband and most everyone in this area had an orange wristband. I sensed I was not supposed to be here, but I would need to hear that from someone else other than me. In life, you don’t want to limit yourself by your own expectations. While I was in the “pit wall” area, a tour bus stopped and several fans unloaded to get a view of the action. They had to stand behind a large black wrought iron fence to view the folks inside who were working. Of course, that included me at this point so I put on my professional face as the tour bus took photos of a “working photographer” for viewing by their kids and grandkids back in Reading. The TMS oval track is 1.5 miles long. The asphalt road course is 2.3 miles long according to the National Speedway Directory. Since the road course track used 98% of the oval and then does some back and forth turns in the infield the 2.3 miles sounds about right. The viewing area of this road course is one of the worst I’ve seen. There are only two small five-row high aluminum grandstands in the infield. Since the elevation of the entire place doesn’t vary by more than a couple of feet, you can see less than 50% of the track from your normal infield viewing position. This is my one beef with road racing. You can’t see the cars race all the time any time you want to see them. I have come to accept that. Road racing has other advantages. I think road racing is like a Super Bowl party from a spectator point of view. Everyone is having a good time, but no one could tell you the score of the game at any particular time. There’s nothing wrong with that. LAWTON SPEEDWAY, LAWTON, OKLAHOMA I had called ahead today to find out what time the Lawton Speedway would start their races tonight. They would be running the second day of a two-day show. Only “B” mains and “A” mains would run tonight. I was told the racing action would begin at 8 p.m. My drive from the Texas Motor Speedway took me through Wichita Falls, Texas on the way to Lawton. Wichita Falls seemed like a good place to stay for the night so I made a reservation at the Kings Inn, which was right next door to the Motel 6. Wichita Falls might be a rough town. When I checked into the hotel, the diminutive hotel clerk told me that I could park my car in front of the hotel if I didn’t “feel safe” parking my car out back where my room was. Of course, that little tidbit of info didn’t make me “feel safe”. The hotel sported a prominent sign on the front window that read, “Nite Owl rate – check-in between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. and checkout by 12 noon – $34.95”. I believe that is exactly what the couple in the room next to me did! After checking in to the Kings Inn I was off to Lawton. Lawton was just 45 minutes up the road. I arrived at the track 10 minutes late. I was able to see just one “B” main and that was for the sprint cars. By 8:25 p.m. they were done with “B” mains. I don’t know if they started earlier than I was told or if they didn’t have enough cars to support any more “B” main events. Tonight’s general admission price was $12. The senior rate (again without any ages associated with the title) rang up my cash register for just 7 bucks. That’s a nice discount for us poor folks living on a small fixed income. Secretly, I’m waiting for someone to say, “Hey wait a minute, you don’t look old enough to get the senior rate.” Alas, no one has been willing to say that yet. Honestly, I won’t be offended if they do, I will accept the compliment and happily pay the full rate. A prominent sign just outside the ticket booth read, “No pets or bicycles.” This wouldn’t work in Belgium. Bicycles are one of the primary means of local transportation for many spectators. Tonight was the last race of the season for Lawton Speedway. Most tracks are closed by mid-October, but southern Oklahoma’s somewhat milder climate allows them to run longer into the year. Tonight the temperature was in the low 70s as late as 10 p.m. In a first for me, I was able to see the season long awards presented to each competitor. The track’s management rolled out a flatbed semi-trailer and proceeded to recognize each class’ top 10 driver. This process took more than 45 minutes. I passed the time away listening to the Angels get their butts beat (again) by the Chicago White Sox. I also listened to the UCLA-Washington State football game on XM radio at the track. The only feed I could get was the broadcast by the WSU announcers. It was fun to hear them moan and groan about every call going against the Washington State Cougars. It was not fun to hear that UCLA was down 28-7 when the Bruins were a 6-point favorite. Fortunately, very fortunately, the Bruins came back to win the game 34-31 in overtime and remain undefeated after six games Finally, at about 9:15 p.m., the first of five “A” main events took to the track. The announcer was good but somewhat unorthodox. He roamed the infield with a handheld microphone. There was only a photog or two in the entire infield so he was out there by himself for the most part. At one point in the racing program a large piece of metal debris about three feet square came to rest in turn one. Rather than have another time consuming caution flag delay the announcer decided to take matters into his own hands. While the cars were racing, he ran into turn one, and without breaking stride picked up the large piece of metal and continued running until he reached safety on the outside of turn one. The oncoming race traffic got to the spot where the announcer picked up the trash less than two seconds after he had departed. This was the most exciting action of the night! The Lawton Speedway has some of the best lighting I have seen anywhere especially on the front straight. The grandstands are large and metal, again great for my magnetic XM satellite radio antenna. The restrooms are pre-historic. The men’s restroom (the one I use most often) was from the dark ages. The “receptacle” was a simple concrete floor with a four-inch block border around the “aiming” area. It reminded me of Chinese sit-down toilets. The one and only toilet bowl sat by itself over in the corner with no privacy at all. That reminded me of my Marine Corps basic training barracks where 18 toilet bowls were lined up in a row with no walls for privacy at all. Tonight I did my business and moved on. The track started 20 or more cars in the factory, mini, modified and sprint mains. I didn’t stay for the cruiser feature. The racing was O.K. but they had a good deal of caution flags. The track surface was smooth and there wasn’t any dust. Overall, the racing was not very good. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Budget Rental Car Racing Mercury Marquis needed fuel while I was driving on the Oklahoma toll road between Wichita Falls and Lawton. I thought since that they had a captive audience they might try to rip people on the prices. I was pleasantly surprised, no I was shocked, to see a gallon of regular going for only $2.39. That’s the lowest price I’ve seen in months. LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. Other notables 2005 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS * Trackchasing “New Tracks in One Season” record Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21st century I trackchase for the event not the outcome. Remember, it only costs about 85% more to go first class. CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES: Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas Airport – trip begins Greenville, Texas – 81 miles Fort Worth, Texas – 173 miles Lawton, Oklahoma – 371 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Superbowl Speedway – $5 Texas Motor Speedway – $5 Lawton Speedway – $7 October 16 – Abilene Speedway, Abilene, Texas October 16 – Red River Speedway, Wichita Falls, Texas “TRACKCHASER CHEESE CHALLENGE 2005 PACE OF THE RACE REPORT BROUGHT TO YOU BY FRONTIER AIRLINES” This is a comparison of how many new tracks Ed Esser has seen in 2005 and how many tracks I saw through the same date in 2004 on my way to seeing, at then a record, 127 tracks. In order for Ed to win the “Cheese Challenge”, he must see 128 new tracks. Through October 13 – Ed – 117 tracks Randy – 100 tracks* Prize: If Ed sees more than 128 new tracks in 2005, he wins a round-trip domestic airline ticket to anywhere Frontier Airlines flies. If he cannot see at least 128 new tracks then I win 10 pounds of the Wisconsin cheese of my choice. ** Great Yarmouth Stadium (oval), Yarmouth, England, March 27 ** Tucson Raceway Park (outer oval), Tucson, Arizona, April 30 ** U.S. 30 Speedway (outer oval), Columbus, Nebraska, May 26 ** Rocky Mountain National Speedway (oval), Commerce City, Colorado, May 28 ** Hawkeye Downs (outer oval), Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 3 ** 81 Speedway, Wichita, Kansas – July 21 ** Spartan Speedway, Mason (oval), Michigan – August 7 ** Galesburg Speedway (oval), Galesburg, Michigan – August 14 Texas Motor Speedway Lil Texas Motor Speedway 1/5-mile permanent asphalt oval free standing Lifetime Track #983 Reprinted with permission from my November 5, 2005 Trackchaser Report. On that day the Texas Motor Speedway 1/5-mile asphalt track was the last half of a trackchasing day/night double with the Motorsports Ranch road course in Cresson, Texas. GREETINGS FROM CRESSON, TEXAS AND THEN FORT WORTH, TEXAS PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS This morning was getaway day for my new “open-jaw” trackchasing flying strategy. I didn’t get to the motel in Atlanta last night until 1:30 a.m. On a normal round-trip flying trip, this morning I would have probably slept in and driven a few hours to the next new track. With the “open-jaw” strategy being employed on this trip, yesterday I flew from Los Angeles to Atlanta. This morning I fly from Atlanta to Dallas. The morning trip was not without its obstacles. First, after a 7 a.m. wakeup call, just five and one-half hours after I checked in, it was time to begin the day. Next, the interstate onramp near my motel was closed for construction. This surprise put me about 25 minutes behind schedule but I still made my Air Tran flight for its 9:10 a.m. departure. I have no status with Air Tran. I am a peon. No one likes to be a peon but some deserve it. With American Airlines, I am a king, but with Air Tran it’s “What have you done for me lately?”. My peon status landed me in a middle seat. Air Tran middle seats are small. Imagine watching a holiday parade where a Shriner is riding along on a miniature tricycle. Yes, that was me with a middle seat. After I had stowed my luggage and wedged myself into seat #12E, the passenger ahead of me reclined his seat. The law of Lewis says that if only one passenger on the entire plane reclines his seat, he will be sitting in front of me. Just as I was bemoaning my seat fate, the captain came over the P.A. with this announcement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I have noticed two items on our plane’s computer that will prevent us from using this airplane today. I really don’t know what the company is going to do with you. While they decide, I will ask that everyone gather their belongings and leave the plane.” Surprising to me, Air Tran came up with another plane at the next gate and we were delayed only 30 minutes. It’s been so long that I can’t remember the last time a flight delay or baggage problem caused me to miss a race. That record is still intact as I arrived into the Dallas airport with plenty of time to spare. I spent some time talking to the Air Tran flight attendants. They saw my 201 Speedway racing shirt and struck up conversations. One had “photographed MGs at Atlanta Speedway.” She is writing a children’s book and encouraged me to write a book about my trackchasing exploits. Actually, several people have suggested this. Believe it or not, I am actively considering it. I just wouldn’t want the project to be like traditional work. The other flight attendant lives near Atlanta. Her husband died six years ago, but not before he was able to attend a sprint car driving school at the Devil’s Bowl Speedway near Dallas. They went to Knoxville for the sprint car nationals for many years. I met up with a young Brazilian woman at the Thrifty Rental Car counter. She talked me into renting a Chrysler Sebring convertible. I have not had a convertible in a long time and today’s weather, in the mid 80s, was perfect for this car. Although I prefer the smooth and quite ride of Japanese luxury cars, I was up for a little windblown driving for this weekend. Driving with the top down as opposed to having a hardtop is like walking a golf course rather than riding a golf cart. You just see and hear so many extra sights and sounds along the way. The downside is after a few hours in the hot sun, it wears you out. For me, a convertible for a couple of days once a year is all I need. RACE TRACK STATS: MOTORSPORTS RANCH, CRESSON, TEXAS -TRACK #982 – 11/5/05 This Texas track is my 23rd countable track to see in the state. This is my third visit to the Longhorn state this year. I am in second position in the Texas state rankings. John Moore leads the state totals with 29 tracks. LIL’ TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, FORT WORTH, TEXAS -TRACK #983 – 11/5/05 This Texas track is my 24th countable track to see in the state. RACE TRACK NEWS: MOTORSPORTS RANCH, CRESSON, TEXAS I’ve been trying to get a daily race schedule for this weekend’s NASA action at Motorsports Ranch for more than three weeks. The NASA website kept saying the schedule was “coming soon.” It never did appear before I left on this trip. I corresponded with the NASA secretary and she promised to phone me with the schedule if it was not posted before I left Los Angeles. She never did. The daily schedule was important to me. The expected program had lots of non-countable activities such as qualifying, practicing and lapping. They would also have a few races that would be countable. If I could see a countable race on Saturday afternoon or early Sunday morning, I could attend Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race at the Texas Motor Speedway. I ended up calling the Motorsports Ranch itself on Friday and was happily surprised to get the schedule info I needed. I could see several countable races on Saturday afternoon. That meant I‘d go Nextel Cup racing at TMS on Sunday. It won’t be a new track, but it will be entertaining to be amongst 200,000 of my closest racing friends. Today’s road course is a bit unusual. This is an auto racing road course “Country Club.” It’s a private facility that leases the track to different sanctioning groups a few times each year. Think of it as the Pacific Golf Club renting out the facility for a private golf tournament. Today the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) is sanctioning the races. The weather is great. The temperature is in the 80s, there is not a cloud in the sky and a good sized Texas breeze is blowing. This place has been around for 10-15 years now. The property is relatively flat. Remember, we’re in Texas. Spectators can roam the grounds and have free reign inside the paddock area and the starting grid area. Spectators can also see virtually the entire road-racing course. This track is not that visually attractive. I’ve been to several large road courses this year. Many including the Reno-Fernley Raceway (sno-capped mountains), Nurburgring (historic with its own hotel on site), Grattan Raceway Park (rolling hills and forests) and Pacific Raceways (elevation changes and northwest evergreen trees) are much prettier than the Motorsports Ranch. That is hardly a tree on the Motorsports Ranch property. The grass is brown due to the season. The wind blows the dust around and the sun bakes you. Nevertheless, today’s afternoon road course will be the first half of my 60th trackchasing double of the year. Twenty-three of those doubles have been day/night affairs, my most preferred and frequent form of trackchasing doubling. The first countable race began at 3 p.m., about an hour after I arrived. The races were also 25 minutes behind the printed schedule. It’s unusual to be off the printed schedule for road racing. I saw three feature events and called it an afternoon. The race schedule did have something that I see in golf but I have never seen in auto racing. The starting times were not rounded to the nearest five or ten minutes. Group C’s race #1 was scheduled for a 3:02 p.m. start for 30 minutes of racing. Group D would begin their race at 3:39 p.m. for 30 minutes. This type of scheduling is a bit different than last night’s racing where it was very uncertain as to when the actual racing would begin. The oval track folks could learn a lot from the organization of the road course people. LIL’ TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, FORT WORTH, TEXAS Trackchasers should bow down to Bruton Smith owner of Speedway Motorsports and the Texas Motor Speedway. TMS is located in Fort Worth, Texas. It is a trackchaser’s dream. There are five countable tracks on the property. Seeing the Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway tonight gave me four of the five tracks at TMS. I will see the fifth tomorrow. The jewel of the Texas Motor Speedway complex is the 1.5 mile asphalt oval. The NASCAR Nextel Cup is the prime tenant for this track. They draw nearly 200,000 spectators for the NASCAR dates each year. TMS operates a 4/10-mile dirt oval that is state of the art. The track is located outside of turn 2 of the big track and has its own grandstand, which can seat upwards of 5,000 people. The World of Outlaws sprint cars race here. Just a few weeks ago, I saw the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) race on the infield road course. The track is made up of parts of the 1.5-mile oval and that oval’s infield. The fourth track is a ¼ mile asphalt “inner” oval. Part of the big track is used for this track’s front straight. They don’t race here much. From what I can tell, they race here just twice a year. The racing on this track starts on Sunday night just 30 minutes after the cup race ends. Finally, we come to the 1/5-mile asphalt oval built between the big track and the dirt oval. This place is called Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway. For what it is, it is the perfect track. This is where I went trackchasing tonight. Apparently, my money is no good at NASCAR tracks. I’m having a hard time spending it! For tonight’s racing action there was no admission price whatsoever. That seemed odd, but the 300-400 people in the 75% packed stands liked it. I can see where traffic on a cup weekend in Texas could be bad. Today I had the perfect plan. I finished up at the Motorsports Ranch about 4:30 p.m. It was an hours drive or so to TMS. By the time I got there, almost all of the Busch race fans (more than 100,000) had left. There were still a TON of fans in campers and cars in the parking lots. I can’t recall ever seeing so many campers in my life. This is a big event. By the time I leave the Lil’ Texas track tonight there will be no traffic at all. This logistics plan worked perfectly today. I had a chance to wander around the big track before going into the little track tonight. I stopped by the race scanner trailer and asked if the radio frequencies from the cup race at Martinsville that I saw just two weeks ago would still be valid. The guy told me only two drivers had changed frequencies. He wrote them down for me at no charge. I can’t seem to spend any money here. There was no charge to get into the races tonight. There was no parking charge for my spot just yards from the entrance of the Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway. I couldn’t spend any money at the race scanner store. Where could I spend some money? I wasn’t very hungry, but I thought I should get something so I wouldn’t GET hungry. This is my one life strategy that doesn’t seem to work that well. I shelled out four bucks for a rather mediocre hot dog and four bucks for a 20 oz. plastic bottle of Diet Coke. That seemed a bit on the high side. I asked the server if he thought I was get a “good price.” I often ask this question just to see what the server will come back with. Tonight, he just rolled his eyes. Tomorrow we will have a full pricing survey from the “big track.” Hotel prices in and around NASCAR Nextel Cup tracks are noted for jacking up their prices during a NASCAR weekend. I checked a few Super 8 motels in Dallas and found their rates as high as $170 per night. They normally go for $40-60 per night. I kept searching and found a Motel 6 in Anniston, about 30 miles from the track, for just $37 per night for Saturday and Sunday nights. This Motel 6 is actually in a rather upscale area. It is surrounded by several higher end casual dining spots such as Joe’s Crab Shack, Macaroni Grill, and Ruby Tuesdays, etc. I have never seen more restaurants of this caliber in any town I have ever visited than what is in Dallas. There were six classes racing tonight including the Bandolero Bandits (10), Bandolero Young Guns (2), Thunder Roadsters (6), Legends Semi-Pro (28), Legends Masters (11) and Legend Pro (9). Fans were given a FREE program that listed each driver’s number, name and hometown. The program also listed a schedule of events by time. The racing stared at 6 p.m. and the 14th and final event of the night, the 30-lap legends pro feature, was set for 8:40 p.m. They were within five minutes of being on time all night. Excellent! The facility itself is top notch. They had a 15-row aluminum grandstand that runs the length of the front straight. There were also several hundred people watching beyond the turns, as there is no elevation change anywhere on the track. The catch fencing, flag stand and announcing booth are first class. There was absolutely no delay from one race to the next. The announcer was professional and knew what he was talking about. The young flagman was one of the best at twirling the flags (dual checkers) and keeping the program moving. Lights and sound were perfect. In a way, this is a mini-Irwindale. The racing highlight of the night for me was the NBC Challenge. The NBC television network is broadcasting the Cup race tomorrow. Tonight several of their pit reporters including TV broadcaster Wally Dallenbach ran a 15-lap legends race. If you watch Nextel Cup you will be familiar with Alan Bestwick, Marty Snyder, Matt Yokum and Dave Burns. Dallenbach started last in the 12-car field. He was passing cars like crazy until he reached second place and tangled with a lapped car. This brought out a yellow flag and sent Wally to the back. Never fear, he again passed all the cars to take the lead with a couple of laps to go. For some reason, he pulled off to the side on the last lap and Matt Yokum was declared the winner. Following the race, all of the drivers parked on the front stretch and greeted the fans. This was a fun event. Today was a full day of racing in the sun, especially after getting just five hours sleep last night in Georgia. There was only one downside to the day. I listened to the UCLA-Arizona football game on XM radio. The Bruins were an 8-point favorite. They fell behind 7-0, then 21-0. They have had a great comeback ability in several games this year. I expected them to fight back. They didn’t. I turned off the radio with UCLA getting shellacked 45-7! Oh well, they’re eight and one. No one could have predicted that at the beginning of the season. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Thrifty Rental Car Racing Chrysler Sebring convertible is a fun car. I’ll probably have a sunburned head tomorrow, but I’m living for today. I wouldn’t want a convertible all the time but for this weekend, it’s great. LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. Other notables 2005 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS * Trackchasing “New Tracks in One Season” record ** Trackchasing “New Tracks in One Season” record for women Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21st century I trackchase for the event not the outcome. Remember, it only costs about 85% more to go first class. CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES: RENTAL CAR Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Intl Airport – trip begins Phenix City, Alabama – 114 miles Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Intl Airport – 266 miles Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas Airport – trip continues Cresson, Texas – 316 miles Fort Worth, Texas – 364 miles AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – Atlanta, GA – 1,941 miles Atlanta, GA – Dallas, TX – 712 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: East Alabama Speedway – $20 Motorsports Ranch – Free Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway – Free November 6 – Texas Motor Speedway – inner oval, Fort Worth, Texas “TRACKCHASER CHEESE CHALLENGE 2005 PACE OF THE RACE REPORT BROUGHT TO YOU BY FRONTIER AIRLINES” This is a comparison of how many new tracks Ed Esser has seen in 2005 and how many tracks I saw through the same date in 2004 on my way to seeing, at then a record, 127 tracks. In order for Ed to win the “Cheese Challenge”, he must see 128 new tracks. Through November 1 – Ed – 125 tracks Randy – 107 tracks (in 2004) Prize: If Ed sees more than 128 new tracks in 2005, he wins a round-trip domestic airline ticket to anywhere Frontier Airlines flies. If he cannot see at least 128 new tracks then I win 10 pounds of the Wisconsin cheese of my choice. ** Perris Auto Speedway, Perris, California – February 5 ** Great Yarmouth Stadium (oval), Yarmouth, England – March 27 ** Tucson Raceway Park (outer oval), Tucson, Arizona – April 30 ** U.S. 30 Speedway (outer oval), Columbus, Nebraska – May 26 ** Rocky Mountain National Speedway (oval), Commerce City, Colorado – May 28 ** Hawkeye Downs (outer oval), Cedar Rapids, Iowa – June 3 ** 81 Speedway, Wichita, Kansas – July 21 ** Spartan Speedway, Mason (oval), Michigan – August 7 ** Galesburg Speedway (oval), Galesburg, Michigan – August 14 ** Peoria Speedway, Peoria, Illinois – September 5 ** Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Virginia – October 23 ** Texas Motor Speedway – 1.5M oval, Fort Worth, Texas – November 6 Texas Motor Speedway ¼-mile permanent asphalt oval at the 1.5-mile track Lifetime Track #984 Reprinted with permission from my November 6, 2005 Trackchaser Report. On that day the Texas Motor Speedway 1/4-mile asphalt track was the last half of a racechasing “day” and trackchasing “night” double with the Texas Motor Speedway 1.5-mile oval. On that day I saw Carl Edwards with the Nextel Cup race. GREETINGS FROM FORT WORTH, TEXAS TRIP ENDING SUMMARY I would like to tell you that I have discovered some miraculous self-discipline that will keep me off the road and help me cut back on my trackchasing. Obviously, this has been my busiest and most productive trackchasing season ever. This trip completes my 21st airline round-trip trackchasing adventure in 2005. I have seen 168 of my 174 total tracks after flying to the local area. I have averaged eight new tracks for each of the 21 trips I’ve taken by airplane. On the other hand, I have seen only six new tracks when driving from home took me to the local area. I’ve had five driving trips this year, which yielded just over one new track per trip. It’s pretty clear why, as a trackchaser, I fly to the races, isn’t it? Today I will announce that I will severely cut back my trackchasing over the next 4 months. I am not cutting back because of a lack of interest, burnout or a desire to give my trackchasing competitor’s a break. I’m going to limit my future near-term trackchasing for one simple reason. There are almost no new tracks to visit between now and the end of February. I have seen only 64 new tracks in the past 25 years from November through February. That is an average of less than three new tracks annually during this four-month period. So yes, I will be cutting back, but only because there are so few new track opportunities available. As I write this, I have 1,206 new tracks in the United States and Canada that I have not seen. That’s pretty amazing considering I HAVE seen 984 tracks to date. I would guess that less than 50 of the 1,206 tracks I have not seen have any scheduled races between now and March 1. Therefore, I’m not cutting back I’m being cut back. It’s beyond my control. If many tracks were racing over the next four months, you can bet I would be there. Don’t worry though. You’ll still get a Trackchaser Report now and then. Of course, you won’t want to miss my 2005 Annual Trackchaser Report recap. That will come your way in early January. I still have a few new tracks up my sleeve for the balance of the year. I don’t think I will get any more than two tracks in a weekend anywhere but that will be two tracks more than most of my competitors will get. There will definitely be slim trackchasing pickings until the beginning of next spring. I know you’re getting tired of hearing this, but the weather forecast for both Atlanta and Dallas was good 10 days ago and it remained so throughout the entire weekend. My consecutive streak of trackchasing days without a rainout now stands at 95 days. During that time, I have seen 144 new tracks. I have not been rained out since May 7 in Beervelde, Belgium. Roland that was a long time ago wasn’t it. I believe in global warming! This was another quick trip, out Friday and back Monday. This is the last of four consecutive trackchasing weekends sandwiched in between UCLA football home games. I’ve seen 18 new tracks from October 14 through November 6. That’s an unmatched achievement by any trackchaser this late in the year. I saw gasoline as cheap as $2.19 per gallon in Alabama and the Dallas area. I was surprised to see that diesel fuel was between 50 cents and a dollar more expensive that unleaded gas. Back in 1980 I had a diesel powered Cadillac Sedan Deville. I recall diesel being cheaper per gallon than gasoline then. The Thrifty Rental Car Racing Chrysler Sebring convertible gave me just 21.9 miles per gallon with an average cost of $2.48 per gallon. It would have been cheaper except I filled up at the DFW airport gas station. My average miles per gallon for both rental cars on this trip was 24.8 at an average cost of $2.35. PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS All right, already, I admit that I am the luckiest trackchaser alive. Today I am part of the most well attended sporting event in the world. That would be the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at the Texas Motor Speedway. Approximately 195,000 race fans will watch today’s races. I didn’t have time for breakfast, but I wanted to eat “healthy” today. I figured that I could buy some fruit at a local grocery store and be on my way. I stopped at an Albertsons. I quickly picked up two Granny Smith apples and an orange. I headed for the checkout. On the way out the deli counter caught my eye. Somehow I zeroed in on the chicken wings. When the clerk told me he could “fry them up in just five minutes” I was hooked. While I waited for the wings, the baked beans jumped up in front of me. Soon, I was leaving with my wings, beans, apples and orange on my way to a “healthy” breakfast. I must give a shout out to the employees of Albertsons. The store’s employees were outstanding. I was looking in a cooler trying to find a Cherry Diet Coke. The clerk noticed I was having trouble finding my selection and came over and sorted through the bottles for me. The deli clerk told me, “If you see anything you like, just let me know and I’ll give you a tasting sample.” Finally, at checkout the clerk asked me if I had an Albertson’s preferred shopper card. No, I did not. He said, “No problem. I’ll see if I can save you a little money.” He ended up giving the preferred shopper discount anyway. Way to go Albertsons! I was livin’ the life. I had my convertible top down on a warm sunny day and the country music blaring. Soon I was out in the Texas countryside flippin’ used chicken wings out of the car. Carol would not have liked the littering but I thought I was feeding the birds! I am a lucky trackchaser. Many complain about the crowds and prices at NASCAR races. As you know from reading these words in the past, I’m a planner, analyzer and negotiator. It’s just what I do. Sometimes stereotypical feelings like those that NASCAR is crowded and expensive are simply myths. Sometimes they are not. Let me share my experience, which might not be your experience with handling today’s mega sporting event. First, I had to fly into Dallas. The Dallas-Los Angeles portion of my ticket cost $238. Next, I needed a rental car. Thrifty let me drive their Chrysler Sebring convertible for just $16.20 per day plus tax. The rental agent told me that business travelers commonly pay as much as $100 per day on Monday or Tuesday during the start of a workweek. Hotels at NASCAR events notoriously jack up their rates around race time. They usually set minimum stays of 3-4 days at these high rates as well. I paid only $36.99 per night for my modern and large room at the Motel 6 just 30 miles from the track. When I arrived at the Texas Motor Speedway there was no friendly parking attendant like the one they have at Angels Stadium charging me $10 to park. The Rose Bowl neighbors get $30-40 to park cars. Parking was FREE at the Texas Motor Speedway. Next, I needed a ticket to this very popular event. Two weeks ago at Martinsville’s Nextel Cup, I decided not to let Carol see any carnage and bleeding. I simply paid the face value asking price for two outstanding seats. Today, I am by myself. I don’t have to be on my best behavior as I am with Carol. There will be bleeding today. Although I had my patent pending paper plate that read “Need 2 Tix”, with me I would not be using that advertisement. I came up with a new creative tagline that simply said, “Need One.” Before I had even parked my car, I had a bite from the strategically placed car window sign. It turned out the seller’s brother could not make the race. Pity. This fellow was a season ticket holder. That meant he had purchased his tickets nearly a year ago. Season ticket holders are also required to buy tickets to support races at TMS in order to get the NASCAR Nextel Cup race seat. He showed me the seat location. The seat was in row 24 on the front stretch just as the cars entered the pit lane. I compared it with my preprinted seat chart to confirm its location. This looked like a good place to watch the race from. Next, came the always delicate discussion of value. As I held his ticket in my hand, I asked him what he wanted for the ticket. Editor’s note: This question signals to the seller that I will not be paying face value. It also forces the seller to speak first. The seller asked me what the price on the ticket read. “Ninety Seven dollars”, I said. “How much do you want for it?” I repeated. “How about $75? the seller offered. “How about $50?” was my reply. “O.K.” the seller told me. So there you go. You don’t have to buy your ticket a year in advance. You don’t have to pay top dollar for a ticket if you show up at the track without one. Nearly half price for one of the most popular events on the NASCAR circuit? I’ll take that as a reward for sitting through days and days of negotiating training. I know that you the reader are probably an even a better negotiator than I am. However, you weren’t here to help me so I had to do it all on my own. I hope you think I got good value for my money on all of the above purchases. It was still more than two hours before race time. I had found a good race ticket much quicker than I expected. I had some time on my hands. Why not put it to use. I had an idea. Since I had bought my ticket for a low price, I would use my extra time to try to upgrade. My plan was to sell my $50 seat for a profit. I would then take that money and “reinvest” it in a better seat. Son, J.J., and I once did this at the Major League baseball all-star game in Anaheim. By the time we finished “investing and then re-investing”, we had two excellent seats and nearly $500 in our pocket. They were paying us to see the game! What was the very best part of that day? The life lessons that J.J. learned and continues to employ to this very day. Today I would not have as much success. There were far more sellers than buyers. I tried unsuccessfully to sell my ticket, but never really got an offer. It seems like Texans don’t come to the race without their tickets. We need to educate fans that they don’t need to buy tickets in advance. You can get better and cheaper seats the day of the event. It also gives you the flexibility to change your plans at the last minute without fear of having tickets you won’t use. I told you at the beginning that I am one lucky trackchaser. Buying good stuff cheap was not what I was talking about when I said I was lucky. I am a trackchaser. I see new racetracks. The 1.5-mile asphalt oval that the “Cuppers” will race on is not a new track for me. I was here in 2000 for a Busch race. It just turns out that following the Nextel Cup race, the Lone Star Legends of Texas are going to run a race on the Texas Motor Speedway inner oval. Can you believe it? I get to watch a NASCAR Nextel Cup race and then while the massive post-race traffic jam clears out, the promoter is nice enough to run a race on a new track for me! I am a lucky trackchaser. Heck, I won’t even have to move from my Nextel Cup seat to see my new track. There will be no additional ticket charge to see this extra track. By the time the legends show is finished the majority of the horrendous NASCAR traffic should have cleared out. The weather is absolutely gorgeous. It’s in the high 70s with not a cloud in the sky. The only thing that could possibly make this any better would be if Carol were with me. However, I know she’s having a wonderful time in Rhode Island with niece, Katie. I have to go to the race now. I’ll return with my track concession analysis (see below). RACE TRACK STATS: TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY – INNER OVAL 1/4M, FORT WORTH, TEXAS -TRACK #984 – 11/6/05 This Texas track is my 25th countable track to see in the state. This is my third visit to the Longhorn state this year. I am in second position in the Texas state rankings. John Moore leads the state totals with 29 tracks. RACE TRACK NEWS: TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY – INNER OVAL 1/4M, FORT WORTH, TEXAS The NASCAR Nextel Cup race finished at 6:15 p.m. The race on the inner oval was scheduled to begin 30 minutes following the cup race. They did start hot lapping at 6:45 p.m. but the first race did not begin until 7:15 p.m. an hour after the cup race took the checkered flag. The same six classes that raced last night at the Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway were racing tonight. There was one major program change tonight. This evening would be a “features only” program. I liked that and wish more tracks would adopt it. I saw all six classes run their features. The quarter mile inner oval uses the big track’s asphalt front straight for its straight. The Nextel Cup concrete pit lane is used for the quarter mile’s back straight. The two quarter-mile straights are connected by flat concrete turns. This track is actually a full sized quarter mile if not bigger. The racing wasn’t as good tonight as it was on the smaller Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway last night. There were many more spins tonight although the flagman did a good job of withholding the yellow to see if the cars could get started. I left the racing action at 8:30 p.m. It was now more than two hours after the cup race had ended. I was hoping the traffic would be clear by now. Wrong NASCAR boy! I would estimate that two-thirds of the massive crowd was still in the nearly pitch black parking lot. I had watched the traffic leaving the track during the legends races. It looked to me like many cars had already left the parking lot from my grandstand view. I’m guessing one-third of the parking lot cars were waiting in line to leave with their engines running and their lights on. Another one-third was just parked. Fans had portable lights and tables and were doing a little after the event tailgating. The dirt parking lot is uneven with lots of potholes. This made it difficult to walk through in the dark. At first, I couldn’t find the Thrifty Rental Car Racing Chrysler Sebring convertible. After about 10 minutes of searching, I stumbled upon it, and I do mean stumbled. When I reached the car, I discovered that I had another car blocked in. I know that I had not blocked this car when I originally parked, but someone had parked on the opposite end of the now blocked car. I hope this guy had not been waiting for more than two hours since the race ended. I quickly moved my car to a safe spot and the blocked car drove away without comment. I’m glad that car was not filled with a bunch of drunken yahoos! I sat in the dark in the parking lot for another hour. The wait was no problem for me, other than the fact that I was hungry. I am often stuck in airports or at racetracks. I have learned to take the extra time to work on my laptop. The laptop is the most used and valuable piece of entertainment equipment I have. BONUS COVERAGE! TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY – OUTER OVAL 1.5 MILE OVAL, FORT WORTH, TEXAS EDITOR’S NOTE: I am providing a recap of my visit to Texas Motor Speedway, a track I have been too previously. Normally, my Trackchaser Reports stick to my new track visits only. I thought some might be interested in my TMS experience. Therefore, it is included below. I was at this track back on April 1, 2000 to see Mark Martin win a NASCAR Busch race. That race was preceded by a four and one-half hour rain delay. No such problems today. Before I get started on the racing action, let me provide some more data around NASCAR concession pricing. Recall these were the prices on a few items at Martinsville just two weeks ago. Martinsville Speedway 12 oz. beer – $3 12 oz. canned soda – $2 BBQ sandwich – $3 Popcorn – $2 Bologna sandwich – $3 These are the prices I found on several food and drink items at the Texas Motor Speedway Texas Motor Speedway Bratwurst – $5 20 oz. soda and bottled water – $4 Lemonade Regular/Large – $4/5 Jumbo pretzel – $4 Corn dog – $5 Curly Q fries – $5 Gourmet coffee – $2 Funnel cake – $5 Steak pita – $7 Fish basket – $8 Grilled chicken sandwich – $7 Fried green tomatoes – $7 Domino’s Pizza slice – $4 Chopped brisket sandwich – $7 Speedway dog – $3 Cheeseburger – $6 Popcorn – $3 Chips – $2 M&Ms – $2 Margarita* – $7 Domestic beer* – $5 Premium beer* – $6 *No alcohol sales with less than 64 laps to go in the race. I would definitely say that the Texas Motor Speedway has higher prices than Martinsville. On the other hand, I don’t consider these prices out of line with other major sporting venues. I visit the Rose Bowl, Angels Stadium and the Staples Center, all in the Los Angeles area, most often. I would say than TMS pricing is just a bit less expensive than those three places. My first food purchase was the chopped brisket sandwich. It was a bit disappointing. I would liken it to a local track BBQ sandwich, which normally sells for $3 or $4. Later I went with a 32 oz. lemonade for $5. That seemed like a good value. I saw the largest lemonade (64 oz.) I’ve ever seen selling for $15 at a Michigan county fair this summer. I finished off my TMS experience with the chili cheese nachos. This was a healthy serving (with extra chili) for a reasonable price of $5. Speaking of healthy, I just got my annual cholesterol reading of 159. I am a lucky trackchaser. Editor’s note: Ten years later (2015) my cholesterol level was 137! Yep. Pretty lucky. On my way into the track, traffic wasn’t too bad considering 195,000 people wanted to do the same thing. I drove the posted speed limits up until about the last five miles on the way to the track. From that point, it took me 45-60 minutes to be parked. The ticket acquisition process was detailed above. The lower tier of seats are rows 1-28. I was in row 24. The lower tier seats are all aluminum bleachers with seat backs. The upper tier seats go from row 29 to about row 60. These seats are all plastic theatre style seats. In hindsight, I would have preferred to sit higher, although I could see the backstretch fine from my seat location. The race started around 3 p.m. The setting sun on a warm day went down at my back. That’s good planning. At lap 77 of the 334-lap race, we were in the shade. The track has lights. This was supposed to be a race that started in daylight and finished at night. There were so few caution flags that only the last 50-60 laps were run without natural light. I enjoyed the night racing more than the day racing. The cars really sparkle under the track lighting. It’s just my personal opinion but I don’t know how anyone can maximize his or her enjoyment of a NASCAR race without a noise canceling headset and race scanner. These races are LOUD. Earplugs help, but my noise-canceling headset really keeps the worst of the sound out. The race scanner is equally valuable at these long NASCAR events. A properly programmed scanner, like mine, allows me to listen to the TV and radio broadcasts of the race. With just a touch or two, I can tune into the race communications between any driver and pit crew anytime I want. I like to check out what the driver and crews are saying just as their car is coming onto pit road and after spins and crashes. Even though a large number of fans in the stands are listening, the driver candor is there for all to hear. When Casey Mears was leading the race, Ryan Newman, a lapped car, nearly wrecked him on the front stretch. Casey was livid. “I’m going to wreck that c…….” Expletive leaders were Mr. Mears and Greg Biffle today. Biffle was the first lapped car (the “Lucky dog”) nearly all day. With so few cautions, the “Lucky dog” award didn’t come often. Biffle was heard to say, “We’ve been the lucky dog for three hours and we don’t get a caution. Jimmy Johnson is the lucky dog for three seconds and he get a debris caution.” Avid NASCAR fans will understand all of the above. I preferred the racing at Martinsville Speedway to TMS. Nevertheless, I had a good time and being able to stay and see a new track while the worst of the after race traffic cleared out was a big plus. As my trackchasing continues, it is going to be harder and harder to find new tracks to visit on Sunday afternoon. This will open up the opportunity to see more NASCAR racing then. I hope to see 1-3 NASCAR races each season in the future. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Thrifty Rental Car Racing Chrysler Sebring convertible is a fun car. I’ll probably have a sunburned head tomorrow, but I’m living for today. I wouldn’t want a convertible all the time but for this weekend, it’s great. LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. Other notables 2005 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS * Trackchasing “New Tracks in One Season” record ** Trackchasing “New Tracks in One Season” record for women Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21st century I trackchase for the event not the outcome. Remember, it only costs about 85% more to go first class. CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES: RENTAL CAR Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Intl Airport – trip begins Phenix City, Alabama – 114 miles Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Intl Airport – 266 miles Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas Airport – trip continues Cresson, Texas – 316 miles Fort Worth, Texas – 364 miles Fort Worth, Texas (again) – 448 miles Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas Airport – trip ends – 525 miles AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – Atlanta, GA – 1,941 miles Atlanta, GA – Dallas, TX – 712 miles Dallas, TX – Los Angeles, CA – 1,256 miles Total Airline Miles – 3,909 Total Frequent Flyer Segments – 3 Total Rental Car and Airline Miles – 4,434 TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: East Alabama Speedway – $20 Motorsports Ranch – Free Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway – Free Texas Motor Speedway – 1.5M oval – $50 Texas Motor Speedway – inner oval – Free Total Racetrack Admissions – about $70 November 18 – Spring Mountain Motorsports Park, Pahrump, Nevada “TRACKCHASER CHEESE CHALLENGE 2005 PACE OF THE RACE REPORT BROUGHT TO YOU BY FRONTIER AIRLINES” This is a comparison of how many new tracks Ed Esser has seen in 2005 and how many tracks I saw through the same date in 2004 on my way to seeing, at then a record, 127 tracks. In order for Ed to win the “Cheese Challenge”, he must see 128 new tracks. Through November 1 – Ed – 125 tracks Randy – 107 tracks (in 2004) Prize: If Ed sees more than 128 new tracks in 2005, he wins a round-trip domestic airline ticket to anywhere Frontier Airlines flies. If he cannot see at least 128 new tracks then I win 10 pounds of the Wisconsin cheese of my choice. ** Perris Auto Speedway, Perris, California – February 5 ** Great Yarmouth Stadium (oval), Yarmouth, England – March 27 ** Tucson Raceway Park (outer oval), Tucson, Arizona – April 30 ** U.S. 30 Speedway (outer oval), Columbus, Nebraska – May 26 ** Rocky Mountain National Speedway (oval), Commerce City, Colorado – May 28 ** Hawkeye Downs (outer oval), Cedar Rapids, Iowa – June 3 ** 81 Speedway, Wichita, Kansas – July 21 ** Spartan Speedway, Mason (oval), Michigan – August 7 ** Galesburg Speedway (oval), Galesburg, Michigan – August 14 ** Peoria Speedway, Peoria, Illinois – September 5 ** Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Virginia – October 23 ** Texas Motor Speedway – 1.5M oval, Fort Worth, Texas – November 6 Texas Motor Speedway Temporary dirt road course at the ½-mile dirt track location Lifetime Track #1,282 Reprinted with permission from my October 19, 2007 Trackchaser Report. DAY 1 – BUY ONE GET ONE FREE TEXAS TRACKCHASING TOUR TODAY’S HEADLINES What does sushi have to do with this week’s trackchasing travel?……………….more in “The Trip”. Today’s trackchasing visit gave me the #1 U.S. based ranking in one important trackchasing category. …………..details in “The Objective”. How could one fellow racechaser’s generosity almost get me arrested? …………..details in “The People”. What racing organization has the best and most entertaining racing in the entire world? …………..details in “Race Review”. GREETINGS FROM JUSTIN, TEXAS. PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS The Objective Today was another historic trackchasing day for me. As you know, in trackchasing we count three different kinds of tracks: ovals, road courses and figure 8 tracks. This evening’s track was my 118th lifetime road course to see. I now hold the road course lead amongst all U.S. based trackchasers. My next objective is to overtake the two remaining foreign born (to me anyway) trackchasers who have more road courses than I do. Stirling Moss currently has 135 lifetime road course visits. Stirling is a retired race driver. I have seen 19 road courses in 2007. Therefore, I might expect to catch up with Mr. Moss in about a year. It will take me considerably longer to catch Roland Vanden Eynde of Belgium. Roland has currently seen 347 road courses. The Trip Ah, for the leisurely life of simply driving to a racetrack like almost all of my fellow trackchasing competitors do. When you drive yourself to the track, you’re in control. If you want to go north, you head north. If you want to go south the car will do that too. Today is my 34th trackchasing flying trip of 2007. When I fly, I lose a bit of control. Today I wanted to fly from Orange County (aka John Wayne or Santa Ana) to Dallas, Texas. The primary airline offering non-stop service on this route is American Airlines. They have about eight flights each day. However, I do not have much standby status with American. I guess I would have to call them an “associate” trackchasing sponsor. My status with them is so low, that I opted to fly on United Airlines from Orange County to Denver and then on to Dallas. My 6 a.m. driveway departure was going according to plan up until United cancelled my flight from Orange County to Denver. I was just saying to Trackchasing’s First Mother over a dinner of Dim Sum at the China Well restaurant in San Clemente last night that my flights are never cancelled or delayed. I should have kept my mouth shut. This flight cancellation put my entire trip in doubt. The passengers from the cancelled United flight would now be put on the remaining United flights to Denver removing the United option from my arsenal. I would have to try flying American Airlines. As a “civilian”, I have earned more than six million frequent flyer miles on American. However, all of that loyalty counts for “zip” in the standby game. I ended up missing three American flights before I finally snagged a seat. My computer and executive flight guide were being given a work out searching for options before I was finally able to grab a seat. Long-time Trackchaser Report readers will recall the days when I used to publish my future trackchasing plans. However, competitive pressures from my East coast counterparts forced me to abandon that practice. Publishing my plans in advance also became a security issue. I will make an exception to my policy. I have what some might be called an “ambitious” travel schedule over the next ten days or so. Also, bear in mind that the trackchasing season is winding down and I’m trying to cut back on my travel schedule. This is what I will be doing over the next few days. Thursday, Oct. 18 – At the last minute I cancelled a trip to Tennessee because of a bad weather forecast. I think the track was still able to get its program in. Friday, Oct. 19 – Fly Orange County to Dallas – trackchasing event Saturday, Oct. 20 – Fly Dallas to Orange County – UCLA game at the Rose Bowl Sunday, Oct. 21 – Fly Orange County to Denver – trackchasing event Sunday, Oct. 21 – Fly Denver to San Francisco – repositioning Monday, Oct. 22 – Fly San Francisco to Negayo, Japan – trackchasing pre-decision trip Thursday, Oct. 24 – Fly Negayo, Japan to San Francisco – trackchasing pre-decision trip conclusion Thursday, Oct. 25 – Fly San Francisco to Orange County – return home temporarily Friday or Saturday, Oct 26 or 27 (depending how comatose I am) Fly Los Angeles area to weekend trackchasing trip to possibly include international destination Monday, Oct. 29 – Return from possible international destination to Los Angeles Tuesday, Oct 31 – Show up on the first tee at 8 a.m. for play with the Tuesday/Thursday golf group who will be none the wiser that I’ve been traveling down the trackchasing road over the past several days. However, several members of that golf group are also avid readers of the Trackchaser Report. I will offer the first fellow golfer who mentions this mention a triple reimbursement on their next Whataburger meal. The People People are funny. I’ll just leave it at that. I was just speaking with a fellow about his retirement investing strategy. He has someone managing his money professionally. My friend’s advisors have his money invested 40% in cash, because they think the market is overpriced. This fellow probably thinks this is a safe strategy, when it could be exactly the opposite. It’s either a very good strategy or a very bad one. It’s similar to playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun. The outcomes can be very, very different. Based upon my reading, I don’t believe in market timing. I’m a “buy and hold” guy just like Warren Buffett. Speaking of money, you all know I have seven trackchasing expense categories. These include hotel, rental cars, gasoline, airfare, food, race tickets and airport parking. By the way, this listing is in the order of how much I have spent on each category in 2007. I am always trying to spend my money wisely. I feel that I have a responsibility to my shareholders (that would be my family) to spend my money “like it was my own” as one of my old bosses used to say. Here’s what this strategy looked like as I tried to spend the money on this trip “like it was my own”. Rental Car Check out the rental car section to see how I ended up in a Kia Spectra. This was a small car. As my stepfather always says, “Little cars are great, you just need one for each foot”. Race tickets I pay full fare at each racetrack that I visit. I feel this allows me to provide a totally objective analysis of the program. With this policy, no one can say I was influenced by the existence of a free ticket. At the same time, I have a number of readers who “watch my back”. For that, I am eternally grateful. I would do anything to help these folks should they ever need it. Dale Terry, from down in Georgia was aware of my trackchasing destination today. Many in my inner circle can have access to that info anytime they want it. Dale is the author of the Georgia Short Track Racing internet newsletter. In his weekly blog, he covers all racing that is racing in the Peach state and the surrounding areas. This is the most comprehensive racing report for an individual state that I have ever seen. Dale took it upon himself to do some research on my behalf. He came up with a “buy one get one” free ticket offer for tonight’s event. Tickets at the gate went for $25 today. With the coupon provided by Dale, I paid $25 and received two tickets. Here was my plan. I figured I would sell my extra ticket. I was certain I could find some young mother who had been standing in line with a babe in arms and a set of twins tugging at her dress. Maybe they would look like they had not eaten in a couple of days. I would come to their ticket rescue by selling my extra ticket at a minuscule discount. O.K., I’m exaggerating here. I did not sell my ticket to such a woman. However, I did sell my ticket for $20 to a man who looked like he could afford it. What was the benefit to him? He didn’t’ have to wait in line to pay $25 for this ticket. He received a 20% discount. I looked at this as a “win/win”. Thank you very much, Dale. However, the transaction was quickly rescinded. A local security officer saw me selling the ticket and immediately rushed to my side to tell me that I could not sell my own personal property (the extra ticket) on his property. He told me I could not sell the ticket for ANY price. I could not even GIVE it away. He did not seem in a mood to debate the topic. Rather than risk arrest, I returned my buyer’s money and entered the gates. Note to self: Yes, I had a good idea. Did I properly prepare myself for the transaction? No. Would I do it again, only under more of a cloak of secrecy? Yes. You see my potential ticket-buying friend now had to pay five dollars more for his ticket than he could have from me. I feel bad about that. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION #1 Whataburger, Fort Worth, Texas My personal favorite hamburger joint in California is In N’ Out by far. However, In N’ Out only operates stores in California, Nevada and Arizona. I had not seen any other hamburger chains that can match In N’ Out with the possible exception of Whataburger. Whataburger’s store colors are orange and white. They seem to be all over the southwest. My experience with them has been excellent. I’m giving Whataburger a RANLAY Racing Money Back Guarantee for any trackchaser who visits one of their outlets. Simply send me a copy of your race ticket and your Whataburger receipt. You will be fully reimbursed for your meal up to $15.00. This offer expires on December 31, 2007 at midnight. Please allow six weeks for your refund to be processed and for me to scare up the funds to pay you. I will say that I was disappointed in the slowness of tonight’s Whataburger drive-thru. Nevertheless, my “double meat” cheeseburger was about the size of the saucers in your china cabinet. Not only was it large, but with several ounces of mustard and an entire onion, it was tasty. The French fries were moist and salty just like I like them. Whataburger rocks! STATE RANKINGS This was my 30th lifetime track to see in the Lone Star state, home of the state bird, the Mockingbird. I now hold sole possession of the trackchasing lead here. This is the only state outside of the 13 Far Western states where I am in the #1 spot. John Moore trails in second place with 29 tracks in Texas. Entering tonight’s trackchasing action, the third place chaser in Texas was Wisconsin’s own Ed Esser with 25 tracks. Who should I find at tonight’s track? Mr. Esser. He was seeing his 26th lifetime track in Texas. He had plans to see two more Texas tracks this weekend. That would increase his total to 28 tracks. Was Mr. Esser trying to take over my #1 spot in Texas? I would have to say that he was. However, I will be able to hold him off for at least a little while longer. Ed (Mr. Switzerland?) and I had a cordial time watching the races together. We discussed the dramatic reduction in 2007 of trackchaser productivity from the top 20 trackchasers of the past few years. Several different hypotheses were mentioned as reasons for this change in behavior. Ask him about his attic insulation the next time you see him. When I bade Mr. Esser farewell, I checked for my money clip. I still had it. That made me feel good. Somewhat incredibly, this is my sixth countable track at the Texas Motor Speedway in Justin, a suburb of Dallas/Ft. Worth. Here is a review of the previous five tracks I have seen: March 30, 2000 – Texas Motor Speedway 4/10 mile dirt track April 1, 2000 – Texas Motor Speedway – 1.5 mile paved oval October 15, 2005 – Texas Motor Speedway – 2.3-mile permanent paved road course November 5, 2005 – Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway – 1/5 mile paved oval November 6, 2005 – Texas Motor Speedway – 1/4 mile paved oval All of the above are permanent tracks. Today, I added my sixth countable track at TMS to my lifetime total. It is the first TMS track that I have seen that falls into the temporary category. October 19, 2007 – Texas Motor Speedway – temporary dirt road course I have heard that some people are critical of the trackchasing rulebook that allows more than one track to be counted at an individual facility. Although I have now seen six different countable tracks at TMS, I had to go there on six different days to do it. My philosophy regarding trackchasing rules is very simple. “Rules is rules”. I always believe that everyone should play by the rules. In the past, we’ve had some of those dodgy East coast trackchasers criticize even those of us when we are playing by the rules. That’s harsh. I would say that if you don’t want to play by the rules, then don’t play. However, trackchasing is like the mafia. Once you’re in, you’re in and there is no going back. Therefore, there is really no option of quitting, even if you don’t want to play by the rules that have been voted upon by trackchasing’s opinion makers. Since the option of quitting is not really as option, then I recommend all trackchasers participate fully and play by the rules. RACE REVIEW TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (TEMPORARY DIRT ROAD COURSE), JUSTIN, TEXAS – TRACK #1,282 I will simply say this. The racing action at a C.O.R.R. short track racing event is second to none. This is not “traditional” racing in the road racing or oval sense. Nevertheless, by any objective standards it is the best. I will discuss the major downer of the program first, so that I can get it out of the way. The program fell 90 minutes behind schedule because they screwed around waiting for Robbie Gordon. Some of you may not know Mr. Gordon. First of all, Robbie is not related to Jeff Gordon, my favorite driver in NASCAR Nextel (soon to be Sprint) Cup. Robbie Gordon gained his fame in the off-road racing circuit. He was a winner of the Baja 1000 (not trackchasing countable and don’t even try to discuss this with the Eastern elite) and other such events. Some NASCAR car owner thought that off-road racing skills might translate to the NASCAR circuit. They do not. Robbie Gordon crashes much more frequently than he ever comes close to winning a race. When Robbie does not crash, he usually crashes someone else. Then, in true Tony Stewart fashion, he blames it on another driver. Now that I have offended the Eastern elite, NASCAR car owners who have hired Robbie Gordon and all Tony Stewart fans let me tell you why this relates to tonight’s program. The “Pro 2 Cup Qualifying Race” was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. This race was to follow the “Opening Ceremonies” at 7 p.m. Mr. Robbie Gordon was flying in to Texas following his NASCAR qualifying effort in Martinsville, Virginia. Conveniently, (not), Martinsville had a two-hour rain delay. This meant Mr. Gordon would be delayed getting into Texas. While the fans sat in falling Texas autumn temperatures for Mr. Gordon, the clock continued to tick away. The announcer told us at 7:51 p.m. that Robbie “had landed and was just 10 minutes away”. About thirty minutes later, the announcer had Robbie on the phone talking to all of us over the P.A. from his rental car. Finally, at 8:32 p.m. (92 minutes behind schedule), the National Anthem was sung and Mr. Gordon appeared in a golf kart to fan’s yelling “Robbie, where have you been?” and other non-PG expressions. Maybe, Robbie stopped at a Whataburger. I wouldn’t blame him if he did. This was really the only downside of tonight’s program. C.O.R.R. racing is simply better than any other racing currently being offered in the United States and possibly the world. Let me explain why such an outlandish statement could be true. Let’s take the Pro 2 Cup race. They started 16 trucks on what was described as a 0.6 mile dirt road course. The road course was located in front of the grandstand of the Texas Motor Speedway dirt track. Had the road course been located in front of the grandstand of the NASCAR 1.5 paved oval, it likely would not have been countable for me. It would not have been countable if there had been any overlap between the permanent asphalt road course and the temporary dirt road course. However, the change of surface rule (dirt vs. asphalt) might have trumped the overlap rule. Maybe the Trackchaser Commissioner will give me his view on this. Sixteen trucks on this type of track is a good number. That number beats several of the feature events I have seen this year with less than ten cars. There are very view yellow flag stoppages in C.O.R.R. racing. They do have a full course yellow flag if vehicles wreck on the first lap. Otherwise, unless there is a flip, a “corner yellow” is used for cars/trucks stopped on the track. This procedure tops all of the lame yellow flag delays that our nation’s ovals have. C.O.R.R. normally has a “competition” yellow flag about midway in each race. Traditionalists will recoil at such a procedure as this type of yellow flag delay is meant to bunch all of the cars up and even the playing field. These same folks are probably quite happy with the U.S. tax system that offers the same benefits as a “competition” yellow. Both systems take from the “bright and the strong” and redistribute to the “less bright and strong” also known as ner’do’wells. The C.O.R.R. fans seem to like this procedure as it promotes close racing. This is road racing. With C.O.R.R. road racing, you can see all of the track (except for one short distance at the Chula Vista track). This tops all of those lame road racing venues where the cars go out of the spectator’s sight for 30-70% of each racing lap. Could you ever imagine watching a football game where you can only see the action on your side of the 50-yard line? These cars/trucks are fast. There is no lame 20 M.P.H. figure 8 racing “action”. The course has several jumps. Tonight’s jumps weren’t as severe as I’ve seen. There were about eight jumps that did allow the racer’s to fly through the air. This certainly adds to the excitement for the fans. There is always a good deal of side by side racing. It was not unusual to see three trucks flying through the air all nearly equal as they passed over a jump. These guys actually pass each other. They’re not like those lame winged sprint cars that more often than not have their winner come from the first row. Tonight, the aforementioned, Mr. Robbie Gordon started in eighth place. That was about the middle of the pact. I doubt, with his NASCAR commitment, he had ever seen the track configuration before. By just past the middle of the 22-lap race, he was leading! The battles he and his fellow drivers had were ferocious. However, Robbie Gordon always crashes or crashes somebody else. In one turn, Robbie slid high and lost the lead. In the next corner, he made a Bonsai move and regained the lead only to lose the truck in a spectacular rollover. The truck landed on its top and burst into flames. In true Tony Stewart fashion, he stood at the edge of the track and pointed a finger at a fellow competitor. From what I could see, Mr. Gordon flipped all on his own. This is also one of the positives about C.O.R.R. racing. Their guys “crash and burn”. The fans love to see a little bit of C&B. Of course, they don’t want to see anyone get hurt, but these drivers are well protected. There were several flips tonight. It is not unusual to see the race buggies/trucks losing several of their body parts. It’s called the “Jeffrey Dommer” effect. The fans love it and there are no lame NASCAR yellow flag “debris” stoppages in C.O.R.R. racing. Add the fact that your ticket includes admission to the pits, you get a free program, and this solidifies the notion that C.O.R.R. racing is the most entertaining race going now. I won’t even mention that the announcer seemed to have a continuous I.V. of caffeine stuck in his veins and could probably have a heart attack at any moment as he describes the action. So……let’s recap. C.O.R.R. brings solids car/truck counts to each race. They don’t have a number of yellow flag stoppages. You can see the entire track. The racers are fast, they race side by side and they pass. They crash and burn. They let you in the pits. They give you a free program and an announcer who tells you what’s going on. I challenge any trackchaser to tell me what track or group is doing all of the above. Nevertheless, I did not stay for the entire program. I felt the 92-minute “Robbie Gordon delay” was an outrage. I had arrived at the track at 6 p.m. for a tour of the pits and picture taking. This allowed me to see the main events for the single buggies and then the super buggies. Following their long break, I enjoyed the Pro 2 Cup Qualifier and the Pro 4 (four wheel drive) feature event. I had been at the track for more than four hours when I exited the Texas Motor Speedway parking lot at 10:01 p.m. Four hours is more than enough for me to get my money’s worth. The promoter may have been feeling the same as I was about tonight’s long delay. An announcement was made that any fan staying until the end of the event would be given a free ticket (wristband) to tomorrow night’s C.O.R.R. racing. This was a great P.R. move on his part. This is something that never would have happened at your local short track event if they had taken a delay as C.O.R.R. did tonight. C.O.R.R. rocks! RENTAL CAR UPDATE Dallas – Friday/Saturday I made my reservation like I always do with National Rental Car. I checked three rates, corporate, AAA and Emerald Leisure. I ended up with a price of $54.33 by using my AAA card. Slightly more than $20 of this fee was taxes! Once I knew that I had a confirmed reservation, I then went to www.priceline.com and tried to beat this rate. I asked for a compact sized car. On a normal trip, I never would consider such a thing. However, on this trip I expected to drive about 50 miles. Even I can stand a compact car for such a short distance. Well, at least I thought I could. I shamelessly bid just $13 per day for my one-day rental. Those crazy guys and gals over at Priceline accepted my offer! However, those tax crazy Texans who I am certain are “taxing without representation” charged $20.92 in taxes for my one-day rental. I hope you enjoy your new stadium or whatever you’re buying with my retirement dollars!! This brought my net price from Priceline to $33.92. Net savings – $20.41 I drove the my Kia Spectra (or is it a Spectra Kia) 58 miles. I paid an average price of $2.80 per gallon. The Spectra gave me 32.0 miles per gallon in fuel mileage at a cost of 8.7 cents per mile. The car cost a whopping 58.5 per mile to rent, all taxes included. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser If you can’t tell it like it is, you shouldn’t tell it. AIRPLANE Orange County, CA – Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas – 1,205 miles RENTAL CAR Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport – trip begins Justin, TX – 29 miles Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport – 58 miles – trip ends AIRPLANE Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas – Los Angeles, CA – 1,205 miles Total Air miles – 2,410 miles (2 flights) Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 2,468 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Texas Motor Speedway – $25 Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $25 RANKINGS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: There are no trackchasers currently within 100 tracks of my lifetime total. Other notables These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total. 2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS Tracks have been reported by 40 different worldwide trackchasers this season. LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS Results current thru 10/14/07** ** Results are unofficial. 1,139. Meremere Dirt Track Club, Meremere, New Zealand – January 1 1,140. Meeannee Speedway, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand – January 1 1,141. Top of the South Speedway, Richmond, New Zealand – January 2 1,142. Woodford Glen Speedway, Christchurch, New Zealand – January 3 1,143. Robertson Holden International Speedway, Palmerston North, New Zealand – January 5 1,144. Taupo Motorsports Park, Taupo, North, New Zealand – January 6 1,145. Waikaraka Park International Speedway, Auckland, New Zealand – January 6 1,146. Angels Stadium of Anaheim (inner oval), Anaheim, California – January 13 1,147. Angels Stadium of Anaheim (outer oval), Anaheim, California – January 13 1,148. West Valley Speedway, Surprise, Arizona – January 14 1,149. Sandia Motorsports Park (road course), Albuquerque, New Mexico – January 28 1,150. Grand Prix De Lanaudiere, Lavaltrie, Quebec, Canada – February 3 1,151. Ste-Eulalie Ice Track, Eulalie, Quebec, Canada – February 4 1,152. St Guillaume, St Guillaume, Quebec, Canada – February 4 1,153. Caldwell Rodeo Arena, Caldwell, Idaho – February 10 1,154. Balsam Lake Ice Track, Balsam Lake, Wisconsin – February 18 1,155. Northeast Pond Ice Track, Milton, New Hampshire – February 24 1,156. Lee Pond Ice Track, Moultonborough, New Hampshire – February 25 1,157. New Hendry Country Speedway, Clewiston, Florida – March 3 1,158. Florida Sports Park, Naples, Florida – March 4 1,159. Honeoye Lake Ice Track – Road Course, Honeoye, New York – March 10 1,160. Houston Raceway Park, Baytown, Texas – March 16 1,161. Houston Motorsports Park, Houston, Texas – March 16 1,162. Dawgwood Speedway, Chatsworth, Georgia – March 17 1,163. Toccoa Speedway, Toccoa, Georgia – March 17 1,164. Tazewell Speedway, Tazewell, Tennessee – March 18 1,165. Malden Speedway, Malden, Missouri, Tennessee – March 23 1,166. Dacosa Speedway, Byhalia, Mississippi – March 24 1,167. Swinging Bridge Raceway, Byram, Mississippi – March 24 1,168. Florence Motor Speedway, Florence, South Carolina – March 25 1,169. Foothills Raceway, Easley, South Carolina – March 30 1,170. Mileback Speedway, Gray Court, South Carolina – March 30 1,171. Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Florida – April 1 1,172. Vegas Grand Prix, Las Vegas, Nevada – April 8 1,173. Huntsville Speedway, Huntsville, Alabama – April 13 1,174. Low Country Kartway, Aynor, South Carolina – April 14 1,175. Dillon Motor Speedway, Dillon, South Carolina – April 14 1,176. Valley Dirt Riders, Berthoud, Colorado – April 15 1,177. Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, Lancaster, California – April 22 1,178. Sertoma Speedway, Tularosa, New Mexico – April 27 1,179. Sandia Motorsports Park (outer oval), Albuquerque, New Mexico – April 28 1,180. Sandia Motorsports Park (inner oval), Albuquerque, New Mexico – April 28 1,181. Hollywood Hills Speedway, San Felipe Pueblo, New Mexico – April 29 1,182. Meridian Speedway, Meridian, Idaho – May 11 1,183. Diamond Mountain Speedway, Vernal, Utah, Idaho – May 12 1,184. Rocky Mountain Raceways (oval), Salt Lake City, Utah – May 12 1,185. Rocky Mountain Raceways (figure 8), Salt Lake City, Utah – May 12 1,186. Modoc Speedway, Modoc, South Carolina – May 18 1,187. Possum Kingdom Super Speedway, Belton, South Carolina – May 19 1,188. Laurens County Speedway, Laurens, South Carolina – May 19 1,189. Fairplex at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, Pomona, California – May 20 1,190. Lowes Motor Speedway (inner oval), Concord, North Carolina – May 24 1,191. Lowes Motor Speedway (road course), Concord, North Carolina – May 24 1,192. Madison International Speedway (inner oval), Oregon, Wisconsin – May 25 ** Madison International Speedway (outer oval), Oregon, Wisconsin – May 25 1,193. Thunderbird Stadium (figure 8), Bremerton, Washington – May 26 1,194. Thunderbird Stadium (oval), Bremerton, Washington – May 26 1,195. Whispering Pines Motorsports Park, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada – May 27 1,196. Magic Valley Speedway, Twin Falls, Idaho – May 28 1,197. Owyhee Motorcycle Raceway Park, Boise, Idaho – June 1 1,198. Race City Motorsports Park, Calgary, Alberta, Canada – June 2 1,199. Edmonton International Raceway, Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada – June 2 1,200. Castrol Raceway, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada – June 2 1,201. Hidden Valley Motorsports Park, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada – June 2 1,202. Boyd’s Speedway, Ringgold, Georgia – June 8 1,203. Fayette County Fairgrounds, Washington Courthouse, Ohio – June 9 1,204. Brush Creek Motorsports Park, Pebbles, Ohio – June 9 1,205. Brown County Speedway, Russellville, Ohio – June 9 1,206. Vinton Speedway, Vinton, Ohio – June 10 1,207. Hilltop Speedway, Millersburg, Ohio – June 10 1,208. I-70 Speedway – dirt (outer oval), Odessa, Missouri – June 13 1,209. L A Raceway, La Monte, Missouri – June 14 1,210. Valley Speedway, Grain Valley, Missouri – June 22 1,211. Jamaica Raceway, Jamaica, Iowa – June 23 1,212. Calhoun County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Rockwell City, Jamaica, Iowa – June 23 ** Hamilton County Speedway, Webster City, Iowa – June 23 (new for Carol only) ** Iowa Speedway (outer oval), Newton, Iowa, Iowa – June 24 (new for Carol only) 1,213. Butler Motor Speedway, Butler, Missouri – June 24 ** Peoria Speedway, Peoria, Illinois – June 25 1,214. Kart Kanyon Raceway, Aztec, New Mexico – June 30 1,215. Aztec Speedway, Aztec, New Mexico – June 30 1,216. Sunvalley Speedway, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada – July 1 1,217. Georgetown Speedway, Georgetown, Delaware – July 6 1,218. Delmarva Motorsports Park, Middleford, Delaware – July 6 1,219. Hunterstown Speedway, Hunterstown, Pennsylvania – July 7 1,220. Shippensburg Speedway, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania – July 7 (Randy only) ** Hagerstown Speedway, Hagerstown, Maryland – July 7 (new for Carol only) 1,221. Blanket Hill Speedway, Whitesburg, Pennsylvania – July 8 1,222. Lincoln County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Troy, Missouri – July 13 1,223. Pike County Speedway, Pittsfield, Illinois – July 13 1,224. Iowa Speedway (road course), Newton, Iowa – July 14 1,225. Mitchell County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Osage, Iowa – July 14 1,226. Scott County Fairgrounds (oval), Scottsburg, Indiana – July 15 1,227. Barry Expo Center (figure 8), Hastings, Michigan – July 16 1,228. Lycoming County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Hughesville, Pennsylvania, Michigan – July 17 1,229. Delaware County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Muncie, Indiana – July 18 1,230. Delaware County Fairgrounds (oval), Muncie, Indiana – July 18 1,231. Van Buren County Youth Fairgrounds (road course), Hartford, Michigan – July 19 1,232. High Banks Speedway (oval), Philpot, Kentucky – July 20 1,233. High Banks Speedway (figure 8), Philpot, Kentucky – July 20 1,234. SOIL MX, Bone Gap, Illinois – July 21 1,235. Western Kentucky Speedway, Madisonville, Kentucky – July 21 ** Windy Hollow Speedway (oval), Owensboro, Kentucky – July 22 1,236. Windy Hollow Speedway (small figure 8), Owensboro, Kentucky – July 22 1,237. Teton County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Jackson, Wyoming – July 26 1,238. Gallatin International Speedway, Belgrade, Montana – July 27 1,239. BMP Speedway, Billings, Montana – July 28 1,240. Sweetwater County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Rock Springs, Wyoming – July 31 1,241. Washington County Fairgrounds (oval), Washington, Kansas – August 3 1,242. Maxville Fire Department Figure 8 Course, Maxville, Iowa– August 4 1,243. Carroll County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Coon Rapids, Iowa– August 4 1,244. Iowa Speedway (temporary inner oval), Newton, Iowa– August 5 1,245. Sarpy County Fair & Rodeo Arena (figure 8), Springfield, Nebraska – August 5 1,246. Newaygo County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Fremont, Michigan – August 6 1,247. Newaygo County Fairgrounds (road course), Fremont, Michigan – August 7 1,248. Shiawassee County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Corunna, Michigan – August 8 1,249. Tioga County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Wellsboro, Pennsylvania – August 9 1,250. Coopersville Festival Grounds (road course), Coopersville, Michigan – August 10 1,251. Winston Motor Speedway, Rothbury, Michigan – August 10 1,252. Jackson Speedway (dirt oval), Jackson, Michigan – August 11 1,253. Springport Motor Speedway, Springport, Michigan – August 11 1,254. Double X Speedway, California, Michigan – August 12 ** Thunderhill Speedway, Mayetta, Kansas – August 13 1,255. RPM Speedway, Hays, Kansas – August 14 1,256. KAM Raceway, Hastings, Nebraska – August 24 1,257. Motorsport Park Hastings, Hastings, Nebraska – August 25 1,258. Boneyard Park (figure 8), Edgar, Nebraska – August 25 1,259. Lincoln County Raceway (inner oval), North Platte, Nebraska – August 25 1,260. Lincoln County Raceway (outer oval), North Platte, Nebraska – August 25 1,261. Dirtona Raceway, Hugoton, Kansas – August 26 1,262. Paris Fairgrounds (figure 8), Paris, Ontario, Canada – August 30 1,263. Autodrome Edelweiss, Cantley, Quebec, Canada – August 31 1,264. Barrie Speedway, Barrie, Ontario, Canada – September 1 1,265. Sunset Speedway, Stroud, Ontario, Canada – September 1 1,266. Kinmount Fairgrounds (figure 8), Kinmount, Ontario, Canada – September 2 1,267. Orangeville Fairgrounds (figure 8), Orangeville, Ontario, Canada – September 2 1,268. Warren County Prime Beef Festival (oval), Monmouth, Illinois – September 5 1,269. Warren County Prime Beef Festival (figure 8), Monmouth, Illinois – September 6 1,270. Camden Speedway, Camden, Tennessee – September 7 1,271. 24 Raceway (dirt oval), Moberly, Missouri – September 8 1,272. Westby Nordic Raceway, Westby, Wisconsin – September 9 1,273. Noise Park Raceway, Idaho Falls, Idaho – September 14 1,274. Northport International Raceway, Northport, Washington – September 16 1,275. Summit Raceway, Elko, Nevada – September 21 1,276. Champion Park Speedway, Minden, Louisiana – September 28 ** Victorville Auto Raceway, Victorville, California (oval) – September 29 (new for Carol only) 1,277. Victorville Auto Raceway, Victorville, California (figure 8) – September 29 1,278. Chula Vista Off-Road International Raceway, Chula Vista, California – September 30 1,279. Mid-America Speedway, South Coffeyville, Oklahoma – October 5 1,280. River’s Edge Road Course, Mission, British Columbia, Canada – October 7 1,281. Triovalo Bernardo Obregon, Tiajamulco de Zuniga, Jalisco, Mexico – October 14 1,282. Texas Motor Speedway (temporary dirt road course), Ft. Worth, Texas – October 19 Texas Motor Speedway permanent full asphalt road course (infield short course) Lifetime Track #2,071 Editor’s note: My weekend adventure to the Infield – Short Course at the Texas Motor Speedway also included a Friday night stop at the Timberline Speedway in Corley, Texas AND a Friday and Saturday afternoon visit to the Mud Creek Off-Road Park in Jacksonville, Texas. Below are the links to the Trackchaser Reports from Timberline and Mud Creek. Note my Trackchaser Report for all of the tracks listed above will be identical. However, the photos and videos will be unique to Timberline, Mud Creek and TMS. XXX XXX THE EVENT THURSDAY BEFORE THE RACES I was in for quite an unusual trackchasing adventure. I woke up this morning at home in the “little city by the sea” San Clemente, California. I went to sleep in Irving, Texas. On Friday afternoon I went trackchasing in Jacksonville, Texas. I returned on Saturday for racing on a second track at the Mud Creek Off-Road Park. This is how those two days turned out. Jacksonville, Texas The small town of Jacksonville has a bit more than 14,000 residents. Jacksonville is located in the rolling hills of east Texas. The town is known as the “Tomato Capital of the World”. The Jacksonville high school known as the less than politically correct “Fightin’ Indians” plays their football games in the “Tomato Bowl” built as a WPA project in the 1930s. Jacksonville is home to country music artist LeeAnn Womack. Her hit “I hope you dance” is one of my all-time favorite songs. Let’s wrap up the first quarter and get on with the year. This will be my last big trackchasing weekend of the first quarter in 2015. Following this weekend Carol and I will head out to Maui, Hawaii for the next 10 days or so, covering two weekends. I always take time during this vacation to begin my planning for my summer trackchasing schedule. I’ll research the track schedules for every track that races weekly. There are not that many of them left for me to see! Doing all of this from a California base adds to the challenge. This weekend was going to be busy. I began by taking a nonstop flight on Spirit Airlines from Los Angeles to Dallas. As you may know Spirit is a no-frills ala cart pricing airline. You will pay extra to board the plane early or to have Spirit print your boarding pass or to get a special seat on the plane. I like the challenge of paying only the base fare and then trying to make the entire trip without paying them an extra penny. Thanks Mrs. Claus. Carol bought me a special present for Christmas. It’s a rolling carry-on bag that meets Spirit Airlines’ requirements for a complementary carry-on bag. This bag must fit in a bag sizer that is 16″ x 14″ x 12″. Check your travel bags at home. Can any of them meet this requirement? I didn’t think so. I will be gone for five nights. I had fresh socks, underwear and shirts for the entire six-day five-night trip. All of my clothes went into my small bag and in my army field jacket. That’s right. I make it a common practice to stuff the sleeves of whatever jacket I’m wearing on the trip with extra clothes. Seeing a race on Friday afternoon is atypical. My first race on this trip is scheduled to start on Friday at 2 p.m. I couldn’t leave California on Friday morning and make it to the track on time. Therefore I left Los Angeles as late as I could on Thursday without having to take a redeye. My schedule had me landing in Texas at midnight on Thursday. How many Motel 6 properties have an airport shuttle? I have a favorite Motel 6 near the DFW International Airport. It’s a remodeled hotel where the rooms seem like European boutique spaces. The hotel, unlike many Motel 6 properties, has an airport shuttle. The only problem with the shuttle is it takes a while for it to come around to each terminal. I hate to be penny wise pound foolish. Sometimes I am. In order to save about $50 on my rental car expense I waited an extra 30-40 minutes to be picked up by the shuttle. Then it took me an extra 30-40 minutes on Friday morning to catch the shuttle back to the terminal. Once at the airport terminal I had to hop on the rental car bus to start my rental car contract. Thinking about retiring? Listen up. Here’s something for you future retirees to think about. When you retire you’re no longer working for the man but you are not cashing the man’s checks either. The way to “earn” money in retirement is not through a paycheck but through a reduction in expenses. My strategy of not getting a rental car when I landed on Thursday night took about 1 1/2 hours of my time. It saved me $50 in cash. Was it worth it? FRIDAY My ‘go to’ Whataburger location. Once I picked up my rental car I stopped at the Whataburger location less than a mile from the rental car center. This location has become my “go to” Whataburger store. However I have come to find out that Whataburger is a bit on the expensive side. A double meat burger with cheese and a large Diet Coke goes for about $10 USD. That same amount of food at McDonald’s would be about half that price. THE RACING Mud Creek Off-Road Park – Jacksonville, Texas Muddacross! I have never heard that term. This afternoon I would have a very unusual trackchasing experience. What I was about to see I had only seen one other time. That experience was in Florida. I was going to be going to the High-Lifter Mud Nationals in Jacksonville, Texas. I had called ahead to get information about this event. I needed to confirm the racing and that the track would be countable for trackchasing purposes. Once I got the go-ahead I began to make my plans. When a promoter gets 10-15,000 customers to pay $75 each that promoter is doing pretty well. In reading some background information on this event I learned that there would be 10-15,000 spectators. I also found out that the admission price was $75 per person. That seemed like a very high price. The event would run for five days from Wednesday through Sunday. The $75 admission price was charged only once whether you came for one day or all five days of the extravaganza The High-Lifter Mud Nationals laid down the welcome mat for the World’s #1 Trackchaser. Initially I was planning to come to the Mud Nationals in Jacksonville for just one day, Saturday. I was very hesitant to pay $75 to see a single UTV/SXS race. During my phone contact I told the race organizers a little bit about my trackchasing hobby. I would be less than sincere if I told you the title of “World’s #1 Trackchaser” doesn’t garner some extra attention. They were impressed enough to give me a complementary media pass. That solved the $75 admission problem. I came for one track; I came away with two tracks. As I began to research the event further I discovered there might be an opportunity to see two different tracks. Wow! That turned out to be the case. After getting some more info from the folks who ran the nationals it looked like there would indeed be racing on two countable tracks. I would see one on Friday and one on Saturday. I was ready to have my mind boggled. This morning I made the 2+ hour drive from Dallas up to Jacksonville to the Mud Creek Off-Road Park “dirt” oval. What I was about to see would boggle my mind. This was an event for both ATV riders and you UTV drivers. The overall Mud Creek grounds went on seemingly forever. I have never seen so many UTVs in one place in my life. If I saw one I saw a thousand. It seemed as if just about everyone who had an ATV was riding it around the grounds. I felt a little self-conscious driving the National Car Rental Racing Hyundai Sonata in this environment. I certainly looked out of place. I was told in advance that today’s dirt oval racing would be for ATVs and UTVs. The track and the competitors were most unusual. This wasn’t Eldora. Frankly I wasn’t expecting Eldora. May I be direct with you? This wasn’t “exactly” a dirt oval like fans are used to seeing at Eldora or the Peoria Speedway. It was much more like what I saw back in 2007 at the Florida Sports Park in Naples, Florida. The actual track configuration was more of a square with rounded corners. I called it an oval. The track’s distance was maybe 1/7-mile. The competitors raced with their tires on dirt, very muddy dirt. However, there was also 6-18” of WATER on the track. That’s right. The water was kept on top of the racing surface by dirt mounds on the inside and outside of the racing area. As I frequently say “Don’t miss the pictures”. There would be two general classes of racing machines today. The main class with the most competitors was for the ATV (all-terrain vehicles). This is not a trackchasing countable class. The second racing class, which WAS trackchasing countable was what most people call UTVs (utility terrain vehicles). UTVs are commonly called SXSs (side by sides). However, in Jacksonville, Texas they call the UTV/SXS racers “RUVs”. According to Wikipedia a “RUV” is a “Recreational Utility Vehicle”. Today’s RUVs looked exactly like UTVs/SXSs. I was the first to discover these types of racers for the hobby of trackchasing. After talking to one of the official race photographers I learned that this is a permanent dirt track. It’s in the same place each year. As part of its preparation, just like at the Eldora Speedway the track is watered. They just water it a little more here! The moat. In point of fact there was a minimum of 6 inches and as much as 18 inches or more of water in a canal of sorts around the entire track. In essence the competitors were racing in a “moat” of sorts. It was nearly identical to that race in Naples, Florida that my stepfather and I took in back in 2007. Those swamp buggies raced on a fully countable track as I was seeing today. Just barely meeting the rules. In advance of coming I was told that the RUV racers would have three machines in each race. The winner from each heat would transfer to the main event depending upon the class. It was sounding more like the World 100 at Eldora all the time. Yep, it was just like your typical Saturday night oval racing program….or not. Trackchasing rules say that a race cannot be limited to less than three competitors. I think if I were writing that rule I would have said a race doesn’t count when it is limited to two or less competitors. Nevertheless they were going to have three racers in the races I would see today. That made that aspect of the racing “trackchasing countable”. The weather was just right. The weather was ideal. Temperatures were in the high 60s with lots of sunshine and a breeze. I talked to “Bobby” a fellow member of the press. He told me this was the coolest whether he could ever remember this race being run in. By the way Bobby was a very active ATV rider. He had just come back from the ATV winter tour that races in conjunction with the countrywide Monster Truck series. The racing program called for ATVs to race first. Their races consisted of 2-4 competitors racing for 2-3 laps each. The winners of each race advanced to the championship rounds. I am not crying ‘wolf’. I know you have heard me say this before. I do not want to cry “wolf”. Nevertheless today’s racing created some of the most unusual images and best video in terms of unique racing that you’re ever going to see. I implore you not to miss it the photos and videos. It was wild! Actually the ATV racing took a lot longer than I was expecting. I had an outside hope that I could make it down to Houston to see UCLA play Gonzaga in the NCAA basketball tournament. However those plans were soon dashed when the ATV racing lasted more than two hours. Finally the UTV/SXS/RUV racers hit the track. The first couple of RUV heats had two racers in each. I couldn’t tell if the race was being limited to two competitors or if two was a better increment than three based upon the number of racers in each class. Moot at the moat. Nevertheless that point was made moot a little bit later when three separate races started three competitors each. The track might’ve been countable with two racers as long as the event was not limited to two racers. But when three racers came onto the track and competed that made the track fully countable. I was at the track watching racing for more than three hours. That’s a long time to stand up. There were no grandstands. Fans watched mainly sitting on their own ATV or UTV machines. The track was surrounded on one side by a steep hill. There was row after row of fans catching a glimpse of this most exciting action. I’ve seen various forms of autocross. However, the official name of today’s racing was “muddacross”. This was my first ever official muddacross racing adventure! I had a great time. I expect to be back here tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be “RUV” racing on an “endurance” track through the woods. Hopefully that track will end up as a countable track. Track number 2,069 was in the books. However my trackchasing day was not complete. I was planning to drive a couple more hours up to Corley, Texas. There I would be seeing racing on a traditional dirt oval at the Timberline Speedway. THE RACING Timberline Speedway – Corley, Texas Timberline Speedway next up in the batter’s box. Timberline’s racing was to begin at 7:30 p.m. However I had not had a good meal all day. I stopped along the way at a local Mexican restaurant. There I had a nice plate of carnitas, green peppers and eggs. The restaurant owners were kind enough to put the UCLA-Gonzaga basketball game on the TV for me. It was all good. I continued to listen to the rest of the game on satellite radio once I got back on the road. When I get home I’ll watch the game again on a recorded basis on TV. Want to know who won the game? Google it. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. It was minorly difficult locating the Timberline Speedway. By the time I got there it was dark. They had no lights whatsoever on their entrance road or track sign. I found that rather surprising. However, I could see the track lighting in the distance. I followed those lights. I arrived about 45 minutes past the original starting time. They were in the midst of heat racing. I paid the $10 general admission price. I asked them if they have a senior discount. “Not tonight” was the reply. Did that mean that they sometimes have a senior discount? There is always room for one more. A very large crowd for an opening night on a Friday in cool weather was on hand. I nudged my way into an extra parking space near the track’s entrance. I find that when I’m driving a rental car I can always find that “extra spot”. I was a good 75-100 yards closer to the entryway than people parked at the back of the lot. Why such a nice crowd? I would soon find out why this track, built in 2012, had such a good crowd. They knew what they were doing. Snookered. As soon as one race finished the next one pulled onto the track. There were very few yellow flag delays. When one driver spun out he waited for the yellow to fly. Like at most tracks the flagman waved the yellow flag. Then as often happens the driver immediately started his car and pulled away. However the flagman then withdrew the yellow and went back to green without affecting the rest of the competitors. I’ve never seen this done but it really snookered the driver who thought he was snookering the flagman! Nice job Mr. Flagman. I watched the remainder of the heat racing straight through until intermission. Then I watched four of the feature races. The modifieds were good. The super stock feature was a good one as well. I hate to burn up Friday night traditional oval tracks but I had no choice today. AFTER THE RACES This was definitely a full day in Texas. My first day in Texas was a full one. I ended up driving almost 400 miles. I was at two different race tracks for nearly 6 hours. Nevertheless it was productive. I added two tracks to my burgeoning lifetime track list, which now credits me with 2,070 tracks. At little past midnight I pulled into Greenville, Texas. For the second straight night I had a Motel 6 waiting for me. Motel 6 is my “inexpensive – not staying there long” default motel. I stay there mainly when I’ve arriving late and leaving early. Tomorrow will be a big driving day as well. However there’s a possibility I could score three tracks. We’ll see how that goes. SATURDAY BEFORE THE RACES Texas….then Louisiana. I woke up in Greenville, Texas. I went to bed in Bossier City, Louisiana. I had a rather busy day. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. This was going to be both an unusual and productive trackchasing day. The weather was perfect. Today’s race schedule also was perfect. That doesn’t happen often. I was planning to see a race in Fort Worth, Texas that began at 9 a.m. Then I would return to yesterday’s venue in Jacksonville, Texas for a 3 p.m. start. My “nightcap” would be over in Leesville, Louisiana. They planned to begin racing at 7 p.m. It was an 82-mile drive over to Fort Worth from Greenville, Texas. I was going to be going to the Texas Motor Speedway, which is most famous for hosting two NASCAR Sprint cup races each year. THE RACING Texas Motor Speedway – Ft. Worth, Texas I have quite a track chasing history with the Texas motor Speedway. What is my ‘history’ at TMS? This morning I saw my seventh different track there! Here are the details from those seven tracks. Texas Motor Speedway ½-mile permanent dirt oval Lifetime Track #409 Texas Motor Speedway 1.5-mile paved oval Lifetime Track #411 Texas Motor Speedway Permanent full asphalt road course (infield long course) Lifetime Track #968 Texas Motor Speedway Lil Texas Motor Speedway 1/5-mile permanent asphalt oval free standing Lifetime Track #983 Texas Motor Speedway ¼-mile permanent asphalt oval at the 1.5-mile track Lifetime Track #984 Texas Motor Speedway Temporary dirt road course at the ½-mile dirt track location Lifetime Track #1,282 Texas Motor Speedway permanent full asphalt road course (infield short course) Lifetime Track #2,071 SATURDAY BEFORE THE RACES Texas….then Louisiana. I woke up in Greenville, Texas. I went to bed in Bossier City, Louisiana. I had a rather busy day. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. This was going to be both an unusual and productive trackchasing day. The weather was perfect. Today’s race schedule also was perfect. That doesn’t happen often. I was planning to see a race in Fort Worth, Texas that began at 9 a.m. Then I would return to yesterday’s venue in Jacksonville, Texas for a 3 p.m. start. My “nightcap” would be over in Leesville, Louisiana. They planned to begin racing at 7 p.m. It was an 82-mile drive over to Fort Worth from Greenville, Texas. I was going to be going to the Texas Motor Speedway, which is most famous for hosting two NASCAR Sprint cup races each year. THE RACING Texas Motor Speedway – Ft. Worth, Texas I have quite a track chasing history with the Texas motor Speedway. What is my ‘history’ at TMS? This morning I saw my seventh different track there! Here are the details from those seven tracks. Texas Motor Speedway ½-mile permanent dirt oval Lifetime Track #409 Texas Motor Speedway 1.5-mile paved oval Lifetime Track #411 Texas Motor Speedway Permanent full asphalt road course (infield long course) Lifetime Track #968 Texas Motor Speedway Lil Texas Motor Speedway 1/5-mile permanent asphalt oval free standing Lifetime Track #983 Texas Motor Speedway ¼-mile permanent asphalt oval at the 1.5-mile track Lifetime Track #984 Texas Motor Speedway Temporary dirt road course at the ½-mile dirt track location Lifetime Track #1,282 Texas Motor Speedway permanent full asphalt road course (infield short course) Lifetime Track #2,071 Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. I didn’t get to bed last night until nearly 1 a.m. In order to see the start of the Chump Car sanctioned event at TMS I would have to get up at 6:30 a.m. Today’s Chump Car endurance race was running from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. I didn’t see any need to give myself less than six hours sleep when I was going to be doing a lot of driving for the rest of the trip. I slept a little later and still arrived into Fort Worth by 10 a.m. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was no admission price to for today’s race. I recall having to pay 20 bucks for a Chump Car race at the Michigan International Speedway last year. Just like the big boys. To get into the infield of the Texas Motor Speedway I drove through the tunnel that runs under turn one of the 2.0-mile oval. Yep. It’s the same tunnel all of the great NASCAR haulers drive through. When I reached the infield road course the gate attendant told me to park my car near the media center. Maybe that thought came to him because I was wearing my press pass lanyard from yesterday’s High Lifter Mud Nationals. He told me not to worry about any signs that might say a spot was reserved or that parkers could be towed away. I took his message to heart. I parked in the spot reserved for the famous Eddie Gossage general manager of the Texas Motor Speedway. I was a little disappointed that Mr. Gossage would have a reserved parking space right next to the front door of the media center. That doesn’t sound like good leadership to me. Chump Car just what the traveling trackchaser ordered. The Chump Car racing organization is unique. They’ve been around for about 10 years now. They take low dollar cars and race them on some of America’s most famous road courses. Both Chump Car and the 24 hour of Lemons race groups are competing sanctioning bodies. They each run the same kinds of events. There are very few permanent road courses in the U.S. that have not hosted one or both of these groups. Yesterday, Friday, the Chump Car group ran a six-hour endurance race. Today they were running another six-hour endurance race. Each race was separate. First the big ‘en then the little ‘en. Back in 2005 I had seen racing on the outer road course at the Texas Motor Speedway. My memory of that race makes it seems like it were only last year. I was most surprised to learn some time ago TMS would be having a race on the smaller infield course. Up until I saw that notice I didn’t even know that track existed. Mums the word. By the way even though I knew they were going to have a race on the smaller infield road course I couldn’t tell any of my fellow competitors. Why? First of all, I had never seen any racing there. Would you recommend a restaurant to someone if you have never eaten there? I doubt it. Once I have attended a racing event at a certain venue I will cover my visit in detail. Of course, my famous Trackchaser Reports will be featured on the most popular website in trackchasing, www.randylewis.org. It gets more than 12,000 views each month. Secondly, I will produce one and sometimes two YouTube videos for each event I attend. My videos have been viewed more than a half-million times. Finally, I will provide a Picasa on-line photo album. Most of my albums have 100 or more photos. Does any other trackchaser share information like this? No. Why? Ask them. Once I share information about a new track find in such detail will the next trackchaser offer up any appreciation for what I have provided? It really depends on the character of the trackchaser. Heck, I once attended a half-day seminar just on the art of saying “Thank You”. I’m pretty good at it. I don’t care much for road course racing. Typically I don’t care for road courses because I can’t see the racing. I’m all about having my eyes on the car for a full and complete lap. However today’s infield road course was so small that I could easily see the cars at every point on the track. Lap times were around 48 seconds. That’s really quick for just about any type of road course. There were 15 Chump Car competitors. That seems like a reasonable amount on a course like they had today. Unfortunately the paddock area faced into an eastern rising sun at this time of day. That made getting good video and photos more difficult. Editor’s note: It looks as if I lost all of the video clips from today’s visit to TMS. Where did they go? If I knew I would go there and get them. Busy. Busy. The Texas Motor Speedway was busy today. They must have quite a promotions department. On one part of the property they were having a major gun show. On another part of the racetrack area they were having two forms of autocross. I didn’t care much for the “racing” part of those two events. However the cars that were competing were far superior to the Chump Cars racing on the infield road course. I also spent some time touring the NASCAR garage in the infield. Once of the real benefits to seeing an amateur road race at a big NASCAR track is the accessibility compared to visiting on a NASCAR weekend. Managing intentions. When I go to a six-hour endurance race I have absolutely no intention of being at the track for six hours. My plan for events like this is to explore every nook and cranny taking video and photos for your viewing pleasure. That normally takes some 1-2 hours. After I have done that I will normally head for the exits. That’s what I did today. THE RACING Mud Creek Off-Road Park – Jacksonville, Texas Back to the High-Lifter Mud Nationals. I was probably at the track for an hour and a half or maybe more. Then I headed out on a 145-mile drive over to Jacksonville, Texas where I had spent much of yesterday. Recall yesterday I had seen lifetime track #2,069. That track was a permanent square or oval if you will with rounded corners. I had to wait through well over two hours of ATV racing to get down to the relatively small amount of RUV/SXS racing. Nevertheless it was a most unique day at the races. Today I was back at the High-Lifter Mud Nationals at the Mud Creek Off-Road Park. Side-by-side racers would be racing on a much larger dirt road course. The race was labeled as an “exhibition” race. However a rose by any other name is still….a rose. This course wound in and out of the trees. Tie dirt road course had several major elevation changes. The ‘land rush’ start a critical trackchasing element. I have been told that today’s RUV race would feature a “land rush” start. A land rush start simply means all of the competitors begin racing when the green flag drops. However I have found that it’s very difficult to count on a land rush start simply because someone tells me that’s the way it will be. You see folks who work with racing bodies are not trackchasers. A trackchaser lives and dies with the land rush start. A race promoter does not. I really wouldn’t breath easy until the green flag did drop on the event today and all of the side-by-side racers roared off the starting line…at the same time. Admission to the High-Lifter Nationals is $75 per person. When you buy a ticket you can stay for one day or five days or any amount in between. Of course I had a press pass so there was no admission charge for me. I appreciated the generosity of today’s promoters. They recognized the exposure that could come their way by hosting the World’s #1 Trackchaser. The fans loved these RUV races. Just like yesterday’s racing today’s racecourse was ringed with young people sitting on their parked side-by-side units. Until three or four days ago I had never ever heard of the High-Lifter Mud Nationals. If they can get 10,000 people to pay $75 per person they’ve got a pretty good business model. What does that say to you the reader? Maybe you should make your way down Jacksonville, Texas next year! You’ll have fun if you do. Well-behaved fans. I was impressed that with this large number of young people who attended the event. They were probably 75% male. It was nice to see they were so well behaved and generally polite and quiet. Mind you I was at the track on both days in the middle of the afternoon. I have no idea, and I’m not sure I wanted to find out, what everyone’s behavior was like at 11 p.m. I do know there were quite a few plastic necklaces being bandied about. I know what those are used for in New Orleans. Jacksonville, Texas isn’t that far from Louis Armstrong’s hometown. These racers were exciting! Like yesterday the ATVs raced first. These guys raced at some fantastic speeds over the hills and all the jumps. Mind you this is one video you don’t want to miss. I’d like to know what kind of training it took for these guys to be so brave when taking these jumps. I couldn’t do it. The RUV/SXS/UTV field was small. There would be just three side-by-side racers competing in today’s race. Two of the drivers were from North Carolina. They entered this race on a lark. One driver told me that he had not raced in 25 years. Each contact breeds more new tracks. He also told me they do this kind of racing a lot in and around North Carolina. He promised to email me with details. If he does I’ll go visit the track, give you a review, and then you can decide if you want to go to North Carolina for side-by-side racing. I didn’t breathe a collective sigh of relief until the green flag dropped on this race and all three side-by-side machines took off a racing. The larger dirt road course might or might not be a permanent track. In terms of counting two tracks at the Mud Creek Off-Road Park the permanency of the tracks was not an issue. One of the tracks was an oval. The other was a road course These Jacksonville tracks will go down as lifetime tracks #2,069 and #2,072. I had seen two other Texas tracks in between my visits to Mud Creek. The Mud Creek events were separated by last night’s oval racing at the Timberline Speedway and this morning’s Chump Car racing at the Texas Motor Speedway. AFTER THE RACES When I left this afternoon’s rural raceway my trackchasing weekend was not finished. All four of the track’s I had seen up to now were in Texas. During the next 24 hours I would end up trackchasing in two more states. I typically visit 25-35 states in any given year. I’ve been doing that for 15 years or more. Texas The Lone Star state Both yesterday and today I had seen four new Texas tracks. That brings my state leading total to 71 Texas tracks. I’ve seen 70 or more tracks in 10 different states. No other trackchaser comes close to that level of penetration in that many states. Here’s a list of the states where I’ve seen 70 or more tracks: California Illinois Iowa Indiana Michigan Minnesota Ohio Pennsylvania Texas Wisconsin Some trackchasers have seen a large number of tracks in their home state. Sometimes their penetration spills over into tracks that border their home state. Take a look at the list above. See how far most of these states are from my home state of 35 years, California? 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: She speaks ten words a second, with gusts to fifty. QUICK FACTS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Dallas, TX (DFW) – 1,235 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport – trip begins Jacksonville, TX Corley, TX Ft. Wayne, TX Jacksonville, TX TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Mud Creek Off-Road Park – oval – Press Pass Timberline Speedway – $10 Texas Motor Speedway – Ft. Worth, TX – No charge Mud Creek Off-Road Park – dirt road course – Press Pass 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 450 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me. Total Trackchasing Countries There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total. Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Photos from the Texas Motor Speedway – infield short course Chump car racing from the Texas Motor Speedway infield short course….and more
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
Racetracks visited in 2005 (** not the first time to visit this track)
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
Racetracks visited in 2005 (** not the first time to visit this track)
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
Racetracks visited in 2005 (** not the first time to visit this track)
I woke up in San Clemente, California this morning and went to sleep in Irving, Texas. I then returned to San Clemente, California on Saturday. This is what transpired today.
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
It’s time to try to gain the #1 trackchasing spot in one more Far Western state. Then it’s sushi time!
RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2007 (** not the first time to visit this track)
