GREETINGS FROM MEXICO
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Triovalo Bernardo Obregon
Asphalt oval
Tiajomulco de Zuniga, Jalisco, Mexico
I’ve done quite a bit of trackchasing down in Mexico. Click on the links below to be directed to my Trackchaser Reports for each individual Mexican track visit. . Triovalo Bernardo Obregon – Tiajomulco de Zuniga, Jalisco, Mexico – Track #1,281 . Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez – Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico – Track #1,319 . Grand Prix – Tijuana – Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico – Track #1,506 . Ensenada Grand Prix – Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico – Track #1,599 . Mexicali Grand Prix – Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico – Track #1,651 . Autodromo Monterrey – Apodaca, Nuevo Leon, Mexico – Track #2,304 . Streets of Tecate – Tecate, Baja California, Mexico – Track #2,312 . Baja International Short Course at Estero Beach – Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico – Track #2,437 . Autodromo Miguel E. Abed – Amozoc, Puebla, Mexico – Track #2,595 . Ovalo Aquascalientes Mexico – Aquascalientes, Aquascalientes, Mexico – Track #2,598 . Autodromo de Yucatan Emerson Fitipaldi – Merida, Yucatan, Mexico – Track #2,609 MEXICO We live in San Clemente, California. We are just 74 miles north of the Mexican border city of Tijuana. Nevertheless, it took me until 2007 to see my very first race in Mexico. It always seemed as if it was difficult to get racing information from south of the border. That situation has changed! I have now seen Mexican racing in more than 10 locations across several Mexican states from Baja California to Yucatan. Despite the reported dangers of visiting Mexico we’ve never had a problem when visiting these Mexican tracks. The people and food are wonderful. NASCAR has a major racing series in the country. That series will provide several future trackchasing trips to Mexico. As you read along you might find something that reminds you of a similar experience you have had or provides some stimulus for you to take a trip to these parts of the world. I think you will find the scenery interesting and the people most friendly. Mexico was the 10th different country where I have had the opportunity to see racing. RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Lifetime Trackchasing Countries # 1 – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Peoria Speedway (Mt. Hawley, oval) # 2 – CANADA – Cayuga Speedway (oval) – Track #174, Nelles Corner, Ontario, Canada # 3 – AUSTRALIA – Parramatta City Raceway (oval) – Track #180, Granville, New South Wales, Australia # 4 – UNITED KINGDOM – Northhampton International Raceway (oval) – Track #378, Northhampton # 5 – NETHERLANDS – Driesum Racetrack (oval) – Track #839, Driesum # 6 – BELGIUM – Bellekouter oval (oval) – Track #841, Affligem # 7 – FRANCE – Circuit de Croix en Ternois (road course) – Track #843, Saint-Pol sur-Ternoise # 8 – GERMANY – Nurburgring (road course) – Track #844, Nurburg # 9 – NEW ZEALAND – Western Springs Speedway (oval) – Track #1,134, Western Springs # 10 – MEXICO – Triovalo Bernardo Obregon (oval) – Track #1,281, Tiajamulco de Zuniga, Jalisco DAY 1 – BURRITO 600 MEXICAN TRACKCHASING TOUR This was our first ever trackchasing trip to Mexico. I have tried to give you a complete explanation of what the trip included. It was a fun time for everyone. TODAY’S HEADLINES What is one to do when they show up at a racetrack and no tickets are being sold?………………..more in “Race Review”. Do you remember Lewis and Clark? How about “Lewis and Carol”. They were the first true trackchasers to ever go trackchasing in the interior of Mexico. …………..details in “The Objective”. What would the real estate taxes on a $345,000 home near Guadalajara, Mexico be? …………..details in “The Trip”. BUENAS DIAS FROM TIAJOMULCO de ZUNIGA, MEXICO. We work up in Guadalajara, Mexico this morning. We went to sleep in the same place that evening before returning to San Clemente, California on Monday. This is what transpired during the trip. PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS The Objective Today was a historic trackchasing day for Carol and me. This was also one of the most enjoyable trackchasing trips we have ever had and we’ve had a huge number of fun trips. Actually, I can never recall a trip where we didn’t have fun. This was our first ever trackchasing visit to Mexico. Does that surprise you? We live just 74 miles from the Mexican border. We live closer to Mexico than we do to 99% + of all the racetracks in the United States. Actually, this trip had more than one statistic of historical significance. Back in 2004, I had rotator cuff shoulder surgery. During my six-month recuperation period, I was not allowed to play golf. Up to that point I was seeing about 50-75 new tracks each year and playing golf more than 100 times a year. With no golf to be played because of my shoulder surgery, I decided to pick up the trackchasing pace. I guess I have done that. Since that shoulder surgery (I have been fully recuperated since 2004), my golf has never surpassed the time I’ve spent trackchasing. Moreover, as you, the loyal reader of the Trackchaser Report, have come to recognize, I have been trackchasing vigorously. Today marked the 600th track I have seen since the beginning of 2004. This covers a period of three years, nine months and 14 days. I’ll try to put that number in some perspective. Only 15 worldwide trackchasers have seen 600 tracks in their entire lives. The most tracks that any other trackchaser has seen in a full four-year period is 451 tracks (Ed Esser 2002-2006). This means I have averaged 150 tracks for each of the last four years. The average for all top 20 trackchasers (excluding my totals) over the past four years is 37 new tracks each year. Today’s visit to Mexico was a first of sorts as well. Not very many people on the trackchasing list have ever made it to Mexico. Only nine trackchasers have seen a track in Mexico. None of these folks has seen more than one track here. Six of those nine people were professional race drivers. Another is the owner of the most popular national racing paper (National Speed Sport News) in the United States. That means that up until now, only two true trackchasers, Will White and Guy Smith, have ever trackchased “south of the border”. They only dipped their toe in the country by driving a few miles across the Texas border. Carol and I were the first true trackchasers to ever visit the interior of Mexico for a trackchasing visit. Specifically, I’m talking about the state of Jalisco. The track we saw today is more than 1,300 miles southeast of Los Angeles. It’s not easy to get here and once you get here, it’s not easy to communicate. I’ll tell you more about how all that went in “The Trip”. We were fortunate enough to have our own special Mexican guide (son J.J.) and the services and support of Roger Ward (no, not THAT Roger Ward, winner of the 1959 and 1962 Indy 500s). I’ll tell you more about J.J. and Roger’s contributions in “The People”. By the way, Mexico was my ninth foreign country to trackchase in. This was Carol’s sixth foreign country. We both trail Roland Vanden Eynde’s career foreign country total of 36. Of the U.S. trackchasers, we trail only Will White’s 18 foreign country visits. We may also trail some professional race drivers in this pursuit. I put those folks in their own special group since they are working at the same time they are “trackchasing”. Another interesting fact regarding foreign trackchasing is that none of the U.S. based top 20 trackchasers (other than Will White and Carol and me) has ever trackchased in a country where English is not the official (or co-official language) of that country. Why would that be? From my experience, it’s a whole lot easier to trackchase in countries where the signs are in English and you can stop and get directions in English! Of the foreign countries where English is not the national tongue, I have been trackchasing in Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and now Mexico. Carol has Germany, Netherlands and Mexico in this category. However, it is important to note that each time we have visited these non-English speaking countries, we have had a friend help navigate the local landscape. Without that support, our trip would have been much more difficult. Actually, the trip might have bordered on the impossible or at the very least uncomfortable. The Trip Saturday – Los Angeles This trip to Guadalajara had been in the rough planning stages for months. If everything worked out properly our son, J.J. would join Carol and me for the trip. J.J. has to “bid” his flying trips a month in advance. He was able to get the requisite days off so we could spend two days in Mexico. I had checked with Mexicana Airlines a few days ago. I was speaking to a customer service agent for the carrier who seemed to be much more comfortable speaking Spanish than English. I hate trying to communicate with people whose first language is not English in English. I just never feel like they are really “tracking” with the conversation. The bottom line to our discussion was that slightly more than 50 seats were open on a 138-passenger airplane for our early Saturday morning planned departure. We were going trackchasing in Mexico! We left the house at 5:45 a.m. on Saturday. We then picked up J.J. at 7 p.m. at a friend’s house near LAX. The next step was to drop Carol and J.J. at LAX. They would handle the ticketing process while I parked the car at a remote parking lot. Everything was running smoothly. Too smoothly. When I returned to the terminal, I was in for some shocking news. The plane that had 50 open seats just three days ago was now overbooked by 20 seats. That was not good news. However, I did not get in my current trackchasing position without having a backup plan…..or two. We could fly two hours later non-stop into Guadalajara on Aero Mexico. We waited to see if somehow a large number of people would not show for the Mexicana flight that was now overbooked. At the very last minute, the agent held up two fingers. He had two seats but we were a threesome. We put our heads together. Carol and I would go now. J.J. would take the flight two hours later. That way the ranked trackchasers would be sure to be in Guadalajara with plenty of time to spare. Saturday – Guadalajara, Mexico Carol and I landed on time in Guadalajara. There are 31 “states” in Mexico. Guadalajara is the capital of the state of Jalisco. Guadalajara is the second-largest city in Mexico with more than three million residents. The city is located about 330 miles to the Northwest of Mexico City. We had chosen to come to Guadalajara because they were holding a NASCAR sanctioned stock car race on Sunday afternoon there. When we landed, we deplaned from both the front and rear doors of the jet via the old jet stairways that take passengers outdoors. Carol and I were some rows apart since we had gotten the last two seats on the plane. After we reached the tarmac, all passengers boarded two shuttle buses that would take us to the terminal. As luck would have it, we each boarded a different bus. Carol might have been feeling a little bit of angst about being all alone in a foreign country. She should never have worried as I always have my eye on her and her well-being. We had completed our immigration forms for review by the Mexican country official. However, we had forgotten to complete one small section of the form. We were sent to the back of the line to finish our “homework”. That line had some forty people in it! Finally, when the paperwork was corrected, we cleared customs. We had checked just one small duffle bag. The bag carried only eight bottles of bottled water. You can’t drink the water in Mexico. At least, you don’t want too or you will be sorry. We were planning to have a fourth person join our weekend party. J.J.’s friend, Roger Ward, a pilot for Express Jet, the commuter arm of Continental Airlines was waiting for us when we landed. We would enjoy talking with Roger throughout our travels. I wanted to get our rental car and visit the racetrack before J.J. landed in two hours. I only had the name of the track. I had no directions whatsoever. I figured I would simply ask the National Rental Car people how to get there. Not! The first young man from National that I ran into was operating out of a small stall about four feet wide. Even with me giving him hand gestures of a racecar driver with a pushing racecar, he couldn’t help me with directions. After taking the National Rental Car shuttle bus, the young woman checking me in could not help with directions. As we drove away from the rental car lot, we had absolutely no idea where the racetrack was! I was generally pleased with the Guadalajara drivers. I guess I’ve been driving in L.A. long enough with similar motorists to have gotten used to it. By the way, I used my MasterCard to provide auto insurance for my rental car. My own personal car insurance does not cover me in Mexico. The National Rental Car collision damage waiver was more expensive than the MasterCard insurance. It also came with a $1,700 deductible. MasterCard’s deductible was zero. Carol, Roger and I drove around for a bit but then decided to return to the airport to wait for J.J. Roger waited inside the terminal while Carol and I waited in a temporary parking spot near the terminal’s front. From time to time, the Federales would come along and move us out of our squatter’s position. My first purchase in Mexico was two scoops of ice cream for both of us. The ice cream cost 116 pesos. Currently, one U.S. dollar will buy about 10.8 Mexican pesos. That meant our two ice cream treats cost about $10.75. That seemed pricey. I attributed the higher than expected cost to the shop being in the airport. We had a quick way of translating the cost in pesos to the approximate cost in U.S. dollars. We simply moved the decimal one place to the left. In the above example, 116.00 pesos became 11.6 dollars. We weren’t too far off with this conversion method. Soon J.J. landed on his Aero Mexico flight. J.J. brings many skills to the party. The most important one for this trip would be his Spanish language skills. He scored the maximum score back on his high school Advanced Placement test in Spanish. His linguistic skills would save us more than one time on this trip. It wasn’t long before J.J. had spoken to someone in Spanish, bought a map of the area and found the location of our track. The NASCAR website calls the track’s location, Guadalajara. In point of fact, the track is located in Tiajomulco de Zuniga, about 30 minutes to the south of Guadalajara. We headed out to the track. Before we could get there, we all agreed we needed a snack. We stopped at one of the little roadside stands that serve chicken, beef and pork on spits just a few feet from the highway. Soon we were eating chicken tacos and sitting around a small outdoor table while our hosts stamped and cooked fresh corn tortillas. Our Mexican culinary delights were just beginning. We arrived at the racetrack at about 4 p.m. They had just finished practice for the day. We could only get as far as the front gate. J.J. asked in Spanish what time tomorrow’s race was scheduled to begin. He received answers of 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. My website info had told me the race would start at 1:30 p.m. This amount of confusion was only the beginning of what we were going to be in for. Our next stop would be our hotel for the two nights we would be in Guadalajara. As you know, I am quite content to stay in Super 8s and Motel 6s when I travel by myself. I figure that I often get into the hotel very late and leave very early. I rarely even turn on the TV when I stay in a hotel room. However, when Trackchasing’s First Mother is with me, the standard of care rises dramatically. You see, I would like her to WANT to come on another trip and then another trip. I have to treat her well in order to avoid burn out. I had a minor “ace up my sleeve” for the hotel. Airline crews get very nice discounts when they stay overnight on their trips. Roger was able to book us in the Presidente InterContinental Hotel Guadalajara. This is one of the best hotels in town. It’s similar to a Hyatt or Marriott with the large open atrium that spans the hotel lobby. There was white marble everywhere. We were even upgraded to some very large rooms with excellent views of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Yes, it pays to know people. After a very short late afternoon nap, we were ready to go out on the town. Rather than battle the heavy downtown traffic for the evening, we “cabbed it” for our sightseeing and dinner plans. The weather for the evening was absolutely gorgeous. The temperature was near 75 degrees. Cabs are inexpensive in Guadalajara. Our hotel was about 15 minutes from the “Centro” of downtown. It was Saturday night and people were about. There are a large number of old Gothic Roman Catholic churches in the center of town. They are exquisite inside. We entered several of them. One wedding was in progress as tourists like ourselves peeked in and took photos. About every half block, there was one form of music or another. There were Mariachi bands, wind instrument bands and break-dancers seeking a few pesos for their efforts. By the way, did you know that Mariachi music began in Guadalajara? Guadalajara is not a resort city. It is not near the ocean and doesn’t get the tourist trade that Mexico City does or those locations located on the water. During the entire two days, we were in the area, we heard only one person speaking American English. We ended up touring his home! I’ll tell you more about that later. Our walk into town took us past some hotels that were frequented by what you might call “women of the night”. They did not leave much to the imagination. I only saw one beggar (and he wasn’t very aggressive) during our entire trip. After some quality time spent in downtown Guadalajara, it was time for dinner. When I travel to foreign countries, I want to eat what the locals eat. I also want to eat in the very best places. There are no American fast food places for me when I travel internationally. My one exception to the rule is that if I’m eating several meals in a foreign country, I will sample a McDonalds just to see what unique menu items they might offer. They always offer something I’ve never seen in a Mcdonald’s before. J.J. had received three restaurant recommendations from the hotel. Of course, we were only in the market for Mexican food. Carol and I eat sitdown Mexican food at least once a week in local San Clemente restaurants. By the way, I do NOT consider Taco Bell to be Mexican food. Even though our cabbie got lost (not a problem since we were traveling on a fixed fare), we finally found the Santo Coyote restaurant. It’s located at 2379 Lerdo de Tarjeta in Guadalajara. As a point of reference let me share this with you. During the first 15 years of my business career, I ate in the finest restaurants our nation had to offer. Restaurant bills including drinks would frequently touch $100 per person and this was in the 70s and 80s. I have a good deal of experience eating in upscale restaurants of nearly all ethnicities. With that as background, let me say that I have never ever eaten in a Mexican restaurant that comes close to the overall dining experience at the Santo Coyote. You’ll want to go out and get some Mexican cuisine for dinner tonight. Finally, the pictures do not do this experience justice. The restaurant has what I would call indoor/outdoor dining. We were greeted by the most friendly and beautiful hostess in the restaurant lobby. The restaurant’s courtyard, which must have been the size of two tennis courts, had huge trees sheltering the diners. In the trees were several large pineapple-shaped amber lights. It was beautiful. We were soon seated at a table for four just under one of the rooflines. There were balconies where other guests looked over the entire scene while they ate their dinner. When we arrived at our table, the table next to us was being serenaded by a 10-piece Mariachi band. I don’t know how long they had been playing at that table before we arrived, but they played for 45 minutes after we sat down. Normally, I wouldn’t like that much Mariachi music that close by for that long, but the restaurant was so expansive it didn’t bother us. Soon we were being served some of the most beautifully prepared and delicious Mexican foods I have ever eaten. We started off with salsa and chips. The chips were right out of the fryer. The salsa was prepared to our taste (spicy) at our table from a series of ten dishes that contained peppers, onions, and lots of other tasty spices and vegetables. Next, came the soup and salads. I ordered the tortilla soup. My bowl was presented with just dry tortilla chips in it. The server came along and poured the liquid tortilla soup broth that brought the chips alive. Carol and J.J. shared shrimp fajitas. The shrimp were absolutely huge. I had a shrimp dish as well. Those shrimp were nearly the size of hot dogs! Of course, we had the requisite Corona beers and Mexican coffee to wash it all down. The courses were not served rapidly. We did not have to be anywhere anytime soon. Every few minutes Mexican dancers came out on the dance floor in at least three different locations to entertain us. We finished off our meal with a beautiful looking Mexican dessert (from a choice of ten). The dessert featured a brownie-layered bottom, topped by a Mexican flan and nuts. Deeeeelicious. I don’t want to be crass and ruin your vision about our dining experience with very much talk about the dinner’s cost. However…..we had 3-4 drinks per person, the appetizer’s, huge entrees and dessert for a cost of just over $30 per person. That meal would likely have cost twice as much and not been nearly as good at home and we have great Mexican food in SoCal. This meal was the highlight of the trip. It was now midnight. A cab was waiting to take us back to our luxury hotel. Tonight we were experiencing what European trackchasers get to have all the time. We were getting to eat and entertain ourselves in the evening with our races being run during the day. Normally, American trackchasers have no time for a quality meal in the evening because we are sitting through some mindless delay of late starts and yellow flags. Our day was now complete. It had been a marvelous success and not a racing wheel had been turned……yet. Sunday morning – Guadalajara, Mexico Today’s race was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. That gave J.J., Carol and I time to go to Catholic Church services at a church just a few blocks away. Obviously, we were the only Americans in the church. I was surprised that the congregation did not sing any hymns during the service. Following church, we stopped off at a Mexican pastry shop. We filled a bag full of special treats and made our way back to the hotel. We did pass through a traditional shopping mall and noticed several American branded stores. You just can’t get away from those Americans! Sunday afternoon and evening – South of Guadalajara, Mexico Following the race, which ended just before 3 p.m., we had more touring to do. We wanted to find the “pyramids” that were in the area and possibly visit the town where tequila was invented. We never found either but we did come across some interesting sights. The first was a small Mexican village that was having their annual festival. This village was definitely third world with brick pavers used for the town’s street surfaces. We parked and nosed around a bit. We ended up having some most unusual and tasty Mexican ice cream cones. As we drove on, we came upon Lago de Chapala (Lake Chapala), the largest lake in the state of Jalisco. We saw a few real estate “open house” signs and decided to go take a look at what a Mexican home would look like from the inside. The home we looked at was situated on a hillside overlooking the lake. The home was part of 45 sites where primarily Americans lived. The owner, a native of Virginia, was trying to sell his house on his own. He and his wife had lived there for three years. The owner told us his house was 2,700 square feet in size. “They measure all surfaces that are under a roof including the patios” in the square footage number, he told us. This was a nicely appointed, mainly brick two-bedroom home. The asking price was $345,000. The owner told us his annual real estate taxes were just $62!! He also employed a gardener for five hours each week at a cost of $26. His maid worked for even less. We spent about 30 minutes in this fellow’s home and he proudly told us about his Mexican residential experience. He also pointed out that “there’s a Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam’s and Sears, all within a few miles as well as a McDonalds and Burger King”. I guess you might forget you were living in central Mexico with such an American influence. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a Pemex gas station to fill up our Dodge Avenger. In this part of Mexico, they fill the tank for you. The receipt says we got 33.8 liters of gasoline at an expense of 237.60 pesos. I think that’s about 8.9 gallons for $22 or a charge of $2.47 per gallon. We returned to the hotel on Sunday evening at 7:45 p.m. We had time for one more local Mexican food dinner. Again, we relied on the hotel staff for a dinner recommendation. They did not disappoint. The restaurant was within walking distance of the hotel on another beautiful weather evening with temps in the low 70s. J.J.’s Spanish skills smoothed the way for our dining enjoyment. We were served plates of “Asada” (beef) and an unending supply of corn tortillas, beans, onions and guacamole. We ate until we burst and then walked back to the hotel. It was one fine meal. Monday morning – Leaving Guadalajara, Mexico On Monday morning, J.J. and Roger had to leave early to begin their flying workdays back in Florida and Texas respectively. Carol and I had a more leisurely wake-up call at 5:45 a.m. (3:45 a.m. San Clemente time) for our 7:40 a.m. Guadalajara time Delta Airlines departure. It was eerie driving in the dark to the airport. The Mexican culture walks much more than we Americans do. Even at this early hour they were walking along the sides of the roads and waiting at bus stops as their week’s workday was about to begin. I dropped Carol at the airport so she could begin the line manipulation while I returned the rental car. It’s really great to have such an independent spouse who can navigate on her own. That way, we can both be “multi-tasking” to make the trip go smoother. In no time, we had cleared Mexican security and were rewarded with first-class seats on our way home to Los Angeles on Delta Airlines. Clearing customs back in the U.S. was a snap. It took us less than one minute in fact. This was a great trackchasing trip. The actual racing was the lowlight, but the rest of the adventure was some of the best touring (for only two days) that we had ever done. The People We were fortunate to have our son, J.J. and his friend Roger Ward accompanying us on this trip. It’s fun as a parent of adult children to know that they don’t might “hanging out” with their parents from time to time. Our kids have always been great about this. J.J.’s presence was especially valuable on this trip. The official language of Mexico is Spanish. Carol and I don’t speak Spanish although I did take it in high school. I graduated from high school in Illinois in 1967. At the time, I had never met a Spanish-speaking person and didn’t think I ever would. Therefore, I didn’t put much time into my Spanish studies. Our semester grading period was broken down into three six-week periods. One semester my first six weeks grade was an “F”. The basketball coach explained to me that I would not be playing any basketball for him if my Spanish grade did not improve. With this extra motivation, I improved my second six-weeks grade to a “B”. I played basketball. The third six-week grading period would end after the basketball season was finished. Therefore, from my point of view, there was no need to study any more Spanish! This resulted in my third six weeks grade being an “F” again. They felt sorry for this jock and gave me a numerical grade of 70 for the final semester grade, the lowest of “Ds” that a student could get. Fortunately, J.J. took after Carol when it came to getting good grades. His high school language was Spanish. He ended up getting a score of five on the high school Spanish advanced placement test (score range 1-5) and getting college credit for his Spanish. J.J.’s Spanish ability really added to the enjoyment of everyone’s trip this weekend. J.J. invited a friend along. His friend’s name was Roger Ward. My racing readers know that the name “Roger Ward” is famous in Indy racing circles. “Our” Roger Ward is a pilot for Express Jet, the commuter airline for Continental Airlines. Roger was a student of J.J.’s back when J.J. was instructing at flight school. This weekend’s track was the first one we had ever seen in Mexico. This weekend’s track was the first auto race that Roger had ever seen in his life. That just goes to show you how competitive trackchasing can be. Even though I have 1,281-lifetime tracks, Roger, after seeing only one track, is tied with me in Mexico!! Roger’s primary background is with the U.S. Army. He only recently retired as a captain in that branch of the service. Roger is very much looking forward to his commercial flying career. It was fun listening to J.J. and Roger talk “airline shop”. We also enjoyed being able to ask questions of Roger about his military experience in Iraq. He served a 2-year tour over there and has a good deal of experience with the Iraqi people. Roger, it was great having you along for the trip. I hope you enjoyed yourself. STATE RANKINGS This was Carol’s and my first ever trackchasing trip to Mexico and therefore our first ever visit to the Mexican state of Jalisco. We are both tied with nine other trackchasers for the country lead, but as no one has ever trackchased in Jalisco, we are the proud state leaders in Jalisco! Carol increased her lifetime percentage of foreign tracks seen. She has now seen 54 foreign tracks out of her 345 total lifetime tracks on foreign soil. This gives here a fantastic 15.6% of her overall tracks seen in a foreign country. By comparison, I have now seen 9.99% (128 of 1,281) of my tracks outside of U.S. borders. Yes, Carol gets all the exotic trips. RACE REVIEW TRIOVALO BERNARDO OBREGON, TIAJOMULCO, de ZUNIGA, JALISCO, MEXICO – TRACK #1,281 (CAROL’S TRACK #345) Alas, I must admit that that racing portion of this trackchasing trip was the least enjoyable aspect of our adventure. It is probably also true that the racing portion of many trackchasing trips just doesn’t meet or exceed the expectation. Let me tell you why this was the case today. Today’s racing involved NASCAR’s Mexico division. This division was started only recently as a means to add to the ethnic diversity of NASCAR. I had visited the NASCAR Mexico division website to learn more about this race. For some reason, the site’s results had not been updated since the middle of August in this 14-race series. There was no absolute confirmation from the NASCAR site that today’s race was even happening. I certainly did not want to come all the way to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico for the weekend without a prospect of seeing a race. I called NASCAR’s office in Daytona Beach, Florida. They directed me to their office in Los Angeles, California. The woman I spoke with called Mexico and confirmed they were racing. The entire thing seemed a little suspect until we rolled in on Saturday afternoon. At that point, we could see there actually was a track. They had just finished their practice session. This was a very good sign. According to the website, the race was to begin at 1:30 p.m. All of the series’ races are scheduled for 90 minutes of race time. We arrived at the track an hour early on Sunday afternoon. The access road to the track was your typical two-lane pothole-filled highway frequently found in Mexico. After nearly 20 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic, we reached the dusty parking lot. Our plan was to buy tickets at the track’s ticket office. You can imagine my chagrin when we walked up to the ticket booth and found they were not selling tickets!!! That’s right. There were no tickets being sold at all. Fans had ALL purchased their tickets from Ticketmaster. Now, let me try to set the scene for you. This was my 1,281st-lifetime track, albeit my first in Mexico. Never in my life have I arrived at a track where you needed a ticket to get in and there were no tickets being sold! However, I am not easily deterred as my East coast trackchasing competitors will begrudgingly acknowledge. I had a secret weapon. That weapon was J.J. and his Spanish language skills. I issued directions to J.J. and he translated those directions into Spanish. My request was simple. I told J.J. we needed to talk to someone who could get us tickets. Yes, I try to keep things simple whenever I can. Soon J.J. was talking with a young security guard. The security guard seemed to think he might be able to come up with some tickets. Si, Senor. Now, we’re talking. Heck, I didn’t even think we needed tickets. I figured if we simply slipped the guard the right amount of pesos, he would look the other way and let us in. We waited for what seemed like a long time. Finally, the guard came back. He had tickets. However, according to J.J.’s translation, he was afraid his boss might see him. Finally, after pacing around all over the entrance grounds, the “exchange” was made. I think the guard thought he was charging us a “king’s ransom” for the tickets. Coming into this show, I had absolutely no idea what the tickets would cost. I was estimating something in the range of $10-25 but would not have been surprised if they had been higher. The guard mistakenly gave us six tickets when we only needed four. We paid 400 pesos for the lot. That was a little bit less than $40 for all the tickets. Of course, I wanted to sell our two extra “free” tickets, but J.J. counseled against that. This track has been here for a very long time. The grandstand looked to be more than 50 years old. The asphalt tri-oval track was about 0.9 miles in length. I had no idea that Mexico had such oval tracks in existence. I wonder what they have been racing on these types of ovals all these years. The poured concrete grandstand was both off-limits for the type of tickets we had and it was jammed packed with “20-something fans”. The grandstand was large. I estimate it sat 3,000 fans. Our only recourse was to walk around the track and sit on the backstretch. There was no formal seating on the backstretch, just a small dirt hillside. We found a seat about 100 yards before turn three on the backstretch. The best we could do was sit down on the dirt with the sun shining directly into our faces on what turned out to be a much hotter than expected afternoon. I estimate the temperature was near 90 degrees. There were 32 stocks cars racing in today’s race. The cars had almost all been brought to the track on open-wheeled trailers. Nevertheless, they resembled NASCAR Cup cars or at the very least really good-looking late model stock cars. Of course, on the backstretch, there was no P.A. system. That wasn’t a major drawback since the P.A. that did exist was in Spanish. Now let’s stop and think about this for a moment. We were lucky to even get into the track since they were not selling any tickets today. Then we had to sit on a dirt hill on a 90-degree day facing directly into the sun with no P.A. to tell us what we were watching. All of the conversations around us were in Spanish. This does not make for a perfect racing experience. They started 15 minutes late, after what I presume was the singing of the Mexican national anthem. There was also no formal food or drink concessions being sold on our side of the track. There were a couple of hospitality tents set up (Corona beer is the series sponsor). They were serving their guests all the beer they could drink and having a real Mexican fiesta. We watched the first 45 minutes of the race from our most uncomfortable position. I did find a beer vendor that sold us four Coronas for just 50 pesos (about 5 bucks). There was also an entrepreneurial vendor selling sombreros. J.J. who was hatless up to that point soon shelled out 40 pesos for one. The only other vendors on our side of the track were fellows selling kid’s suckers and nuts from a box. One other vendor had French fries and some pinkish looking meat (we think). We guessed it might have been squid but we didn’t know for sure. The race wasn’t much. This was a definite tri-oval track. I guess that would make six turns in total. There was also a significant elevation change. I estimate the track dipped down some 30-40 feet in the turn that led into the front stretch. As one point one of the Motorcraft sponsored cars dumped the race leader. This action really got the crowd into it. When the cars drove past the main grandstand under the caution flag, we could hear their reaction all the way on the backstretch. When the cars came around to our side the crowd seemed to be chanting the Mexican equivalent of “bull shit” and giving the offending driver the one-fingered salute. We weren’t getting much entertainment on the backstretch. It was at this point that I made the executive decision to try to crash the fortified main grandstand seating area. What was the worst that could happen to us? Yes, we could end up in a Mexican prison where the U.S. Embassy might work for years trying to secure our freedom. Nevertheless, it was worth the risk. We walked around the outside of turns one and two until we reached the grandstand. From our first encounter at this area of the property, I knew that we could enter the first barrier to the grandstand if we told them we were going to use the porta-potties. This is what we did. From this point, we made a “break for it” and scurried into the main grandstand seating area. By this time a very few seats were opening up from fans leaving early. What I had not noticed from the backstretch was that all of the fans in the main grandstand were STANDING. Well, it was a NASCAR race, so I guess that could be expected. Carol and I decided to split up from the boys. We found a seat about six rows up and they went the opposite direction. The place was packed and everyone was standing. This wasn’t really any better than the backstretch. At least we had a P.A. at our new seating location. The announcer was most enthusiastic. Of course, it was 100% in Spanish and we couldn’t understand a word. At just about 90 minutes after they had started (109 laps according to a five-position electronic scoreboard), the checkered flag was displayed. Mexico was in the books. Our issues with congestion were not over at this point. The crush to have 3,000 fans leaving through a 10-foot wide tunnel was frightening. I can see how these stampedes come about at soccer matches in this part of the world. We were in “a$%hole to belly button” conditions (yes, an old Marine Corps expression) for about 15 minutes. There was no need to try to walk, the momentum of the crowd moved us along. It was indeed scary. After a few minutes, we were reunited with J.J. and Roger. It wasn’t too bad leaving the parking lot. We turned right when everyone else turned left. We were in search of the “pyramids” and the rest of our weekend adventure. I was happy to finally get a new track in Mexico. I’ll need to come back here in the not too distant future so that I can gain sole possession of the Mexican trackchasing lead. RENTAL CAR UPDATE Guadalajara – Saturday-Monday It was an adventure picking up the rental car. Both of my National Rental Car contacts spoke very little English. We rented a vastly underpowered 4-cylinder Dodge Avenger. The car was in good condition, it just wouldn’t go very fast. I drove the Dodge 211 kilometers. I paid an average price of 70.1 pesos per liter. It was impossible to accurately compute the car’s exact mileage. I picked it up with ¾ of a tank, and then filled it up and drove about 30 miles. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser Everything I know, I learned from someone else. What it took to get there AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – Guadalajara, Mexico – 1,305 miles RENTAL CAR Guadalajara International Airport – trip begins Tiajomulco de Zuniga, Jalisco, Mexico – 87 kilometers Guadalajara International Airport – 211 kilometers – trip ends AIRPLANE Guadalajara, Mexico – Los Angeles, CA – 1,305 miles Total Air miles – 2,610 miles (2 flights) Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 2,742 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Triovalo Bernardo Obregon – 100 pesos (about $10 U.S.) Total racetrack admissions for the trip – 100 pesos RANKINGS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: There are no trackchasers currently within 100 tracks of my lifetime total. 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,281 Other notables These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total. 27. Ken Schrader, Concord, North Carolina – 352 28. Max Allender, Des Moines, Iowa – 349 29. Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 345 2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 143 2. Roland Vanden Eynde, Vilvoorde, Belgium – 97 2. Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 97 4. Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania – 80 5. Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania – 60 6. Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 54 7. Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 51 8. Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 50 9. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 39 10. Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 34 LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS Results current thru 10/14/07** 1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 6.65 2. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 6.69 3. Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 7.69 ** Results are unofficial. UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS Next week is the fourth of six UCLA football games that I have contracted to attend with Carol. You might imagine that it’s difficult, but not impossible, to go trackchasing on a home football weekend. Therefore, I will attempt the impossible. Click on the links below to see a photo album from each of my trackchasing trips to Mexico. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. Tiajomulco de Zuniga (near Guadalajara) One of our best trackchasing trips for big-time Mexican oval racing and dining. A great trip to Guadalajara PLUS dining but what about race tickets?
While I’m searching for that next Mexican adventure you can check my Trackchaser Reports, photos and videos from the tracks I HAVE visited in Mexico. In those visits, we’ve seen lots of the country and eaten some outstanding Mexican food. We even stop at roadside “restaurants” when we come south of the border.
Editor’s note: 
