Greetings from all over the United Kingdom
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From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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My travels have taken me to 63 tracks all over the United Kingdom. As you read through my reports you will see…..I love U.K. racing. To see those reviews click on the tabs below my U.K. track list.
U.K. Overview I have now made nine separate trackchasing trips to the United Kingdom. I first started going there to see their racing in 1999. I returned in 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013 and most recently in 2016. You will be able to read all about the tracks I visited and the things I’ve seen and experienced all over the United Kingdom. I’ve done my share of driving on the “wrong side of the road”. However, I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until I had seen about 430 tracks. That means I have no formal notes from my 1999 and 2000 U.K. trips. Ya, I know. I bummed about that too. As you will read throughout my U.K. Trackchaser Reports I love so many things about the racing in this country. Almost no rainouts, inverted starts, lots of contact and few yellow flags. They know how to handle their racing in the United Kingdom. I have now seen racing at more than 2,600 tracks in 85 different countries. These many trips have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. I’ll try my best to respond. Thanks! Editor’s note: There are no Trackchaser Reports from my 1999 and 2000 racing visits to the United Kingdom. Greetings from Standlake, England This trip was a spur of the moment (sometimes the best kind) trip to London. The primary reason for the trip was to visit my son, J.J., who lives there. Carol elected to stay back and work on Christmas chores. As with most spur of the moment ideas you sometimes need flexibility to enjoy them the fullest. It turned out that on the weekend I wanted to visit J.J. He already had two guests coming for the weekend to his one bedroom apartment. No problem! I would just catch a couple more U.K. tracks until his guests departed. There are lots of great airfare deals to Europe now. I ended up paying $380 round-trip for a non-stop flight from Los Angeles. That’s not the best price I’ve seen for this itinerary but it’s a good one. I also earned 22,000 frequent flyer miles. Since you can get a free domestic ticket for just 25,000 miles, in effect I was paying $380 for a trip to Europe and getting an almost free domestic ticket. Not a bad deal! My ticket was booked in coach. I was interested in upgrading to business class. But, when I was told the upgrade fee was $3,279 I decided to curl up in coach and ride it out. Even in coach I had my own personal video screen and a choice of four movies at no extra charge. I also had three seats to layover and catch some shuteye. The tailwind-aided flight to London took just 9 hours and 10 minutes. I landed at London’s Heathrow airport at about 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Customs clearance was absolutely no problem. After I got my one checked bag I handed my passport over to the customs agent and was cleared in less than 30 seconds. Using computer driven driving directions I headed out to the Oxford, England area. I stopped at a Welcome Break (rest area) on the way. I was able to go up to the Burger King restaurant and pay for my meal with exact change in English pounds and pence. I must admit I had to take the English money Carol had given me over to a corner location in the store. With my reading glasses, I examined each coin closely so I could confidently pay for my meal. Welcome breaks in England are very nice for the traveling motorist. They are similar to some of the rest areas on the Ohio Turnpike. They usually have 3-4 restaurants in addition to gift shops and a convenience store. The most unusual item I saw was a machine that takes your photo and transfers your picture into a computerized charcoal drawing. The product was very unique and cost just three pounds ($4.20). I did this and was very pleased with the result considering what they had to work with! The winter U.K. temperatures were about 45-55 degrees Fahrenheit. It was cloudy most of the time with light rain sprinkles some of the time. For the first time I can ever remember I drove the 75 miles or so directly to the track without any backtracking or getting lost whatsoever. Since the race at Standlake Arena was not until Sunday at noon I needed to find a hotel. I ended up with a nice place in Abington for 70 pounds that included breakfast. I must ask my English friends, “What is going on with the shower controls in the bathrooms?” They seem to have four controls that 1) control the volume of water, 2) the heat of the water and 3) whether the water comes from the showerhead or the bathtub faucet. How many permutations are there from four controls and three options? Whatever the number it took a long time to get 1) the right amount of water with 2) the proper temperature and 3) the water coming from the showerhead. A mighty challenge indeed. Where was Carol when I needed her to help me take my shower? The Standlake arena is a 380 metre concrete oval that’s been racing since 1972. Actually it looked older. There are no grandstands at this track. Fans can park their cars around the outside guardrail and watch the races from there. Admission was just 6 English pounds ($8.40). I got there at 11 a.m. for the noon start that provided plenty of time to tour the pit area. Most U.K. tracks do not have an additional charge for entering the pit area. Virtually every U.S. track does charge extra for pit admission. In the U.K. even small children are allowed in the pits that is normally a major no no in the U.S. Several of the racecar haulers are like flatbed trucks with cranes attached. They use the cranes to lift the racecar up into the air and lower it gently to the ground. This is unique to the U.K. The Standlake arena is the 545th racetrack I’ve been too. It was also my 16th United Kingdom racetrack giving me the lead in this category among all worldwide trackchasers (Guy, yet another first). It is unique in one way from any other track I’ve ever seen. The original value of the racecars in the pits is probably greater than any track I’ve seen. The Banger class had several Jaguars (above), a Mercedes and even a Bentley. The Banger class is really fun to watch as they try to complete their race around the oval while actively trying to wreck anybody they can. In the U.K. they call this “full contact” racing. In the U.S. it’s likely to be called a demolition derby. The most unusual car I saw was the “big Russian” car. This was a four-door sedan that would make a Ford Expedition look like a Yugo. It was big. Unfortunately, I screwed up an entire roll of film or I would attach a photo. I did get some video of this behemoth. It was so huge the 8-inch tires looked like bicycle tires. I stayed for two hours of racing that featured five Banger heats, hot rod class heats and some metro racing. I was the only person at the track wearing shorts (aka golfing trousers). The weather had started to turn cold. Being able to retreat to the car to watch the races was helpful. The public address system was a little weak. The announcer did spend a little time talking about my trackchasing hobby. Refreshments were served in a small portable trailer. Since I had had a big English breakfast at the hotel I passed on the track food. Bathrooms were a bit on the primitive side. Overall, Standlake was a fun place to watch U.K. Banger racing. They race on selected Sunday afternoons and have a comprehensive web site. Rental Car update: My Hertz rental car was a four door, automatic transmission, Ford Focus. The gold/copper color was really bright and strange looking. The car smelled heavy of smoke which I was reminded of on every inhale. Of course, the steering wheel was on the right and they drive on the left. This little car cost about $55 a day and rode and drove really well. Greetings from Wimbledon, England The second half of my U.K. racing double took me to Wimbledon Stadium. Wimbledon is a suburb of London on its Southside. Many of you may recognize the name as the location of the famous Wimbledon tennis tournament. My drive took me about 75 miles from Standlake to Wimbledon. Curiously, the English measure their road distances in miles not kilometers. The drive to London was at freeway speeds. I had a driving plan when I arrived in London at about 3:30 p.m. for the 6 p.m. start. Unfortunately, driving in the heart of London while it was rainy and turning dark with super heavy city traffic, I was quickly lost. After several stops at petrol stations and one long talk with a London cabbie I arrived at 6:20 p.m. Take my word for it wasn’t easy. I needed my trusty navigating companion, Carol, for help. Following the race I was able to meet up with my son, J.J. for some London entertainment and sightseeing. His weekend guests had decided to stay over one more day. J.J. and I ended up sleeping on air mattresses in the living room while the visiting couple got the bedroom. It reminded me of college all over again! J.J. and I rode the subway all over London, Christmas shopped at the world famous Harrods Department Store and saw the play, “Stones in his pockets”, in the London theatre district followed by dinner at the world famous London Noodle House. On this trip the racing took second place behind having a chance to spend time with J.J. The trip home was relatively uneventful with a minor exception. I took the Heathrow Express train from J.J.’s flat in London to the airport. While having a bit of breakfast in the airport a very loud alarm began to sound. Security personnel immediately signaled people to leave the area. Nearby stores began to shut their electronic gates. The airport was being evacuated. I immediately thought, “Bomb scare”. It turned out to be nothing serious as one guard told me the alarm was for a small fire in the restaurant. Wimbledon Stadium is a unique racing venue. The racing surface is tarmac (asphalt) and 390 meters in length. They also have a “figure of 8” track but were not using it on this night. This sight also houses a permanent dog-racing track. In talking with the manager of the facility he informed me the stadium has been in this location since 1928. The front stretch area was bombed during World War II. Wimbledon has a covered and glass enclosed grandstand around the entire track. When you’re inside the glass enclosed area you have an excellent view of the cars racing but can’t hear the engine sounds. The grandstand has bars, seats with backs and tables to accommodate their dog racing patrons. The MAJOR drawback to watching here was the heat and heavy smoke from the smokers in the audience. General admission was 10 English pounds ($14). Uniquely, this price did not include admission to the pit area. That was a little unusual. Most U.K. tracks allow you into the pit area at no extra charge. Refreshments were unusual. I had a potato jacket with beans and cheese and lemonade. Lemonade in the U.K. is similar to a 7-Up or Sprite. Later I went with a Jack Daniels and lemonade for two pounds, sixty pence ($4.00). The English serve their mixed drinks in a tall class with one ounce of liquor and about one ounce of mix which only fills about 1/3 of the glass. That seems unusual. They also offered seafood that included ocean sticks, jellied eels and cockles. I passed on this! I was lucky to be in the covered grandstand as a steady rain persisted all night. I received a nice mention from the track’s commentator. He even sent me this email following the race: Hello Randy, Wow!! What a guy, 536 tracks, I am very impressed. I hope you enjoyed your brief visit to Wimbledon Stadium last Sunday. It’s a pity you did not come over to my announcers box as we could have given you a ride on the back of the pace car as I am sure the crowd would have loved to see & cheer you. I have no idea where you are now, probably trackchasing back in the states but once again thanks for visiting Wimbledon & let us know when you are next in London. Have a great Christmas & best wishes for 2002 Yours… Lee Canderton, Commentator/presenter Wimbledon Stadium I have found the U.K. folks to be very friendly and accommodating on each of my three racing trips to this area. I very much enjoy the friendship of several folks I’ve met and been able to correspond with. I was disappointed not to meet Colin from the U.K. Colin, hope you’ve recovered from your fall. Arriving late I missed the first two events of the 12-race program. Racing classes included the metro Bangers, hot rods and V8 stock cars. They had some huge crashes in the Banger class. It seems to me that Bangers are only built for one race. They could be demolished and never see the track again. Two separate incidents saw major fires in the rear of the car after racing impacts. In each case the driver didn’t realize his car was ablaze and continued for a couple of laps as the fire got bigger and bigger. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Another front wheel drive metro Banger was crashed into so hard that the rear wheels were knocked away from the car. The rear wheels trailed the actual car body by about five feet connected only by a single cable. The car was front wheel drive. It could continue to go forward even though the rear of the frame dragged on the ground with the rear wheels flapping in the wind. The crowd loved it! Another exciting event was the metro Banger chain race. This involved three Bangers being chained together for a race of 10 laps. Five teams participated and it was a wild event. Wimbledon will be racing January 1, 2002 so any of you trackchasers may want to give it a go. Rental Car update: My Hertz racing rental Ford Focus ended up with 206 miles on it. I had a 360 mile limit so I came in well under that number. 482 Savannah Speedway, Savannah, MO (no web site) 492 Painesville Speedway – (oval track), Painesville, OH (http://members.tripod.com/pspeedway/) 493 Painesville Speedway – (figure 8 track), Painesville, OH (http://members.tripod.com/pspeedway/) Retroactive figure 8 tracks Greetings from Bovingdon, near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, Now I don’t think most trackchasers determine where they travel based upon input or actions from their in-laws. But of course, on occasion I do. Here’s how it worked out. Wife, Carol, decided to meet Saratoga, Wyoming based and teacher sister, Patty, at their parent’s house in Las Cruces, New Mexico during Patty’s teaching spring break. Patty’s spring break occurs this year over the Easter holiday. Since I can’t follow Carol on every visit to her parent’s house (my words) that left me with an Easter weekend free. I immediately went to my trackchaser race date database (which I have spent countless hours compiling) to develop a trackchasing plan. What did I find out? There is virtually no racing in the United States on Easter Sunday. My database showed absolutely no new trackchasing opportunities. The “Racing Around America” website also showed nary a U.S. race operating anywhere. The only event they did show was a road-racing event at the Thruxton Raceway in England. England. Huh? Maybe I should check out another trip to the U.K. That is exactly what I did. I must say I have my in-laws to thank for my fourth racing adventure to the land of Big Ben. I was somewhat surprised to find out there is tons of racing in the U.K. over the Easter weekend. The entire country of England is not that big. I found 20-30 tracks racing over the four-day holiday that I had not been too. Surprising to me was that Saturday was the least popular day for tracks to race. There were several events to choose from on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The most popular race day was the Monday after Easter. Some of you may have noticed that I occasionally run into travel problems on my race trips. Yes, that’s what makes them interesting! The prep for this trip started out with a call to American Airlines. I secured a fare from Los Angeles to London for $592. That’s not the best fare I’ve ever gotten to London by a long shot. One benefit is that I will earn almost 25,000 frequent flyer miles for this trip. American charges 25,000 miles for a free domestic round-trip ticket. That means for $592 I will get round-trip airfare to London AND a domestic round-trip ticket for future use. That made the airline ticket purchase a little more reasonable. Just before I was leaving for the trip, I learned that London is now considered the most expensive city in the world! This is because the value of the U.S. dollar has been falling against almost all currencies, most notably, the British pound and the Euro. That’s both good and bad news. It’s bad news for this trip because things are going to be expensive. It good news for the Procter & Gamble (I’m retired from P&G) stock shares I hold. When the U.S. dollar declines, Procter & Gamble’s earnings from their overseas operations become more valuable raising the stock price. The stock price gain will far outpace the 5-day pain of high prices in the U.K. As they say, “You’ve got to spend money to make money.” Our flight path took us from New York over Nova Scotia, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Greenland. We had a huge screen at the front of the plane that showed a map with a small figure of a plane making its way toward England. We flew at 38,000 feet, with an outside temperature -85F and airspeed of 566 M.P.H. I had an emergency exit row seat on the plane that was located next to one of the lavatories. The door to the lavatory stuck badly and people had a difficult time opening it. Seeing people struggling with this door for six hours in the dark reminded me of a Candid Camera stunt. A couple of people spent more than five minutes trying every which way to open the door without success. Then they walked away. Yes, on a long flight you try to find whatever you can to pass the time. Now I must announce my “mystery racing guest” for the U.K. Easter Tour. Allan Brown is the man. As many of you know, Allan is the publisher of the National Speedway Directory. The NSD lists almost all racetracks in the U.S. and Canada in a pocket sized paperback book. It is considered the bible for any serious trackchaser. Editor’s note: This metaphor is not meant to be sacrilegious on Easter weekend, as I don’t need that burden as I’m flying at 38,000 feet! Allan and I met up at New York’s JFK airport. From there we would catch a flight to London’s Heathrow airport. I had forgotten how out of date, crowded and generally dirty JFK was. Nevertheless, after a five-hour flight from LAX to JFK, we jetted an additional six hours from JFK to Heathrow and landed bright and early at 7 a.m. on Good Friday morning. London is eight hours ahead of Los Angeles which meant I landed to a rising London sun at 11 p.m. my time. I was the only person in the entire London Heathrow airport wearing shorts! Customs was a breeze. After we picked up our bags, I had to make a stop at a cell phone store in the airport called, “The Link”. At this store, I bought a European “SIM” card by Virgin. This will allow me to use my U.S. phone in England. This will pay big dividends as we call to confirm races at various tracks, etc. Special thanks to son, J.J. for turning me onto this idea. One of the first people we encountered at the Bovingdon track was one Colin Herridge. Colin is a member of our trackchaser email conference. As I was taking track photos, he came up to me and with a British accent asked, “Are you Randy?” He knew I was coming to England and was gracious enough to look me up. Allan and I had a nice chat with Colin before we headed off to our next track. Colin has 97 lifetime tracks and will probably reach 100 on his vacation next month in Florida. Nice meeting you, Colin! I must say that if Will White were British, he would be just like Colin Herridge. Of course, I mean that as a compliment to both gentlemen. Car mileage when I entered these states/provinces during the trip: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) RACING NEWS: The Bovingdon Raceway is my 689th track. It is also my 18th United Kingdom track, which gives me the lead among U.S., based trackchasers for tracks seen in the U.K. The Bovingdon Raceway website gives this description of their facilities: “The track is a 300 meter tarmac oval with an armco barrier. The spectator can get close to the action at Bovingdon due to the close proximity between the racing and the spectator. The facilities include hot dog/hamburger stalls, grass banking ideal for picnics on those hot summer days, although if wet, take your umbrella, as there is no shelter. There are also toilets and ample car parking.” In the U.S., we have racing “classes”. The classes are made of the different types of racecars based upon engine size, body style, cost, etc. In the U.K. the different types of racecars are called, “Formulae”. Here’s a list of the different formulae that race at Bovingdon: Stock cars 2.0 Hot Rods Ministox Super Stox Rookie Bangers V8 Stock Cars Stock Rods Lightning Rods Rookie Rods Bangers We arrived at the track at 10:30 a.m. This was three hours before the scheduled start time. We were the third car in the parking lot. I am the driver on this trip. Allan is the navigator. Since we landed at 7 a.m. (11 p.m. my time), my body said, “Even though the English day is just starting, I’m your body and you need some sleep”. This seemed like good advice. I hopped in the back seat of our Saab and took a one-hour nap. Allan, like any good navigator, continued to study our maps. When I awoke, it was time to go into the track. While I had been asleep, Allan had met with the promoters of the track and convinced them to let us in free. This saved us nine pounds or about 16 dollars. Nice job, Allan! Upon entering the track, we were given a quality promotional piece. This booklet listed the entire 2004 fixture list for the Spedeworth promotional group. They promote the Yarmouth, Ipswich, Swaffam, Arlington, Wimbledon and Bovingdon tracks. The weather was sunny and in the mid-fifties. This was better than the forecast. This was also Bovingdon’s opening day. They had 82 rookie bangers, about 25 junior mini-stox and around 20 formula 2 stock cars. The first race on the track was a 25 car, 16-lap junior mini-stock race. This class is defined as follows by the track program: Ministox: This junior formula is the ideal training ground for the Stock Car, Hot Rod or Banger driver of the future. All cars are based on the 998cc Mini, the engine is virtually standard and has a restrictor plate. The cars are fully “ironed” for driver protection. The drivers range between 11 and 16. This formula provides all the thrills and spills of traditional stock car racing. The junior mini-stox put on a fine race with a good deal of beating and banging. Next up were the formula two stocks cars. These were the only racers at the track to race in the American style counter clockwise direction. The last class to race was the rookie bangers. I am a big banger fan. They started almost 40 cars in their race. Suffice it to say, this created a lot of mayhem and the crowd loved it. Speaking of the crowd, there were many people on hand for a facility with very few creature comforts. There are no bleachers or any formal seating at this track. The fans sit on a grassy hillside. That was fine on today’s sunny day. I am not sure what they would do on a rainy afternoon. There are no lights at the track. Just off the backstretch is a men’s prison. Since a spectator mound has been built up, prisoners can no longer see the racing action. We were told the prisoner’s had filed a lawsuit claiming the racetrack noise disturbed them! The announcer was very enthusiastic and entertained the crowd with his antics. I asked Allan what his impression of the track was. His reply was, “It’s a real dump”. He wasn’t being critical. Besides being located on a WWII runway the track appeared to be located at a REAL dumping ground. Anyway, this was a nice way to start our trip with a planned itinerary of eleven tracks. RACE TRACK FOOD: We ate at the track’s “Burger Diner”. Allan went with the hot dog and chips (fries). I had the cheeseburger and chips. We were tired and hungry and they tasted good. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: I will be driving the Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab. It is a right side steer car. I will drive it on the “wrong side” of the road. More on this later! Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Mildenhall, England, Although the area has been inhabited since Neolithic times, Mildenhall is probably better known today as being the location of RAF Mildenhall. This was one of the United States Air Force’s major bases in the UK. The Mildenhall Air Show, the largest military organized air display in the world operates here as well. Certainly, as you wander around the town, you cannot help but notice the accents of our American cousins, and the occasional low flying aircraft. I was able to meet three employees of the Mildenhall racetrack. First, I renewed my acquaintance with Kath Lomax, the track scorer. I had met Kath a couple of years ago the Swindon Abbey track. I also met Mike, the announcer, who I had corresponded with via email. Mike, stated that I was “one crazy …. …..”. He’s probably right. Finally, I met Charlotte the race starter. Charlotte is a good friend of my racing friend and Cowdenbeath Racewall, starter, Graham Alexander. Of course, all of the folks were very friendly and it was nice to see and meet them. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) RACING NEWS: Mildenhall Stadium is my 690th track (#19 in the U.K.). This info came from the Mildenhall website, “The Mildenhall Raceway features a 280 yard banked shale track with concrete terracing around half the track and grass banking around the rest. The home straight has a large covered grandstand with a tea bar. On the pit turn there is a large licensed bar and the best stadium food in the country.” Additionally, there is a dog-racing oval track that touches the outside boundaries of the racing oval. The main attraction today will be bangers. There are 28 teams of six cars each. Each team has a common paint scheme and there own team name. Some of the more unusual names are twisted metal, wonder bras (of course this was an all lady team!), scrap yard dogs and condoms. Remember, I don’t make the news I only report it! The Mildenhall program was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. We still managed to see all four of the scheduled racing features. By arriving late we avoided the nine-pound ($16) admission fee. Net, we didn’t pay anything today to add two new tracks to our lists. As most know, there is no free lunch. Even though I got the double bed and Allan got the hide-a-bed, no good deed goes unpunished. Allan can snore! RACE TRACK FOOD: Allan and I acted on Colin Herridge’s dining recommendation. We both had the fish and chips and enjoyed them very much. I also tried the 10-pack of mini donuts (Yes, the Atkins Diet is temporarily in my rear view mirror!) smothered in sugar with black cherry dipping sauce. I recommend it! RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Our Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab started with only a quarter tank of gas. We must return the car with at least a quarter tank of gas. This necessitated an early stop for petrol. Alan, sprung for the first tank. The regular petrol price was 82 pence per liter. For the math challenged that’s about $7 per gallon! The bill was a little more than 47 English pounds. That translated to about $75 for the tank in a relatively small car!! Randy Lewis P.S. As you might imagine a person can spend a lot of money when they’re out trackchasing. Actually, the money I spent isn’t that important to me. It seems to be more important to the people I owe. That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Silverstone, Northhampton, United Kingdom, As most of you know these trip reports are meant to both summarize the racing facts at a particular track and give you a feel for the human-interest aspect that accompanies each and every trip. The information is designed to be of interest to both the hardcore trackchaser and the casual race fan or just someone whose email I happened to snag somewhere along the line. With that being said, we continue. When I left San Clemente with a slight push from Carol at the front door, she said, “Be safe and don’t get in trouble”. Little did I know that might be harder to do than expected. Carol and I have visited England a few times. Each time we have a little currency left over and usually just put it away for our next trip. That being the case, she gave me $130 English pounds in bills and about 25 pounds in coins. Little did I know that some of this money was no longer legal currency in the United Kingdom. The question is did Carol know this when she advised me not to get “in trouble”? It turns out that sometime during the past couple of years the U.K. has changed both their five and 10-pound notes to make it harder for criminals to pass counterfeit bills. The new bills have a bright silver seal on them and the old bills do not. I found out about this the hard way. While in line to buy a few things at a convenience store, I unknowingly tried to use the outlawed currency. In short order the clerk picked up on my mistake and made a big scene. She informed me that my money was not legal tender. I could go to jail if I tried to pass these bills into the system she told me. The people behind me in line looked me up and down as if I had been caught shoplifting. After that embarrassing scene I began to wonder how much of my funds were not going to be accepted. Never being known as a shrinking violet I decided to challenge the system at the Silverstone Circuit. The daily admission to the Silverstone Circuit was 10 pounds. There were only a few cars waiting to get in the main gates when we arrived. Now would be a good time to risk it all. With a 10-pound note craftily crumbled up, a chipper smile and a hearty good morning to the female ticket taker (all to create the appropriate diversion), I was able to pass the contraband along to the next unsuspecting soul. Allan allowed that he had never seen an international currency smuggler before. Then we were safely in the Silverstone Circuit compound. Once we were inside the confines I purchased a program for two pounds. It was about 45 degrees and windy. The first race was to begin at 1:30 p.m. This gave us a full two hours to explore this large road course facility. We also had time to lunch at the paddock diner. Road course facilities almost always cater to the “wine and cheese” set rather than the rough and tumble stock car or sprint car fans. This means a little more in the way of “racetrack cuisine”. DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 RACING NEWS: The Silverstone Circuit is my 691st racetrack. I am not much of a formula one fan. I must admit that I didn’t even know the F1 raced here. Allan knew this was a first class facility with a long and storied racing history. The track opened for business in 1948. They have grandstand seating for 60,000 and an overall capacity of 90,000. The main grandstand seats are a British racing green. Each seat is a theatre style seat. When no one is occupying the grandstand you can see in huge white block letters the word, “Silverstone”. The look is similar to a card section at a football game. Today’s races were operated by the MG Car Club and also featured the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club and the TR Register. I would estimate there were about 80-100 cars at the track. There weren’t any famous drivers in attendance today, but some big names such as Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fittapaldi have won here in the past. We stayed for one race on the 1.639-mile course. The formula one course is just over three miles long, so today’s racing was only about half of the F1 length. The race we saw was for 15 minutes plus one lap. The race was called the MGCC Total Butler Championship. There were 26 entrants and they drove MG Midgets with a few Austin Healeys thrown in. The average speed for the fastest car was 69.81 M.P.H. There were three classes of cars in the race with engines sizes ranging from 1,380 CCs to 3,948 CCs. We would have liked to have stayed longer. However, the weather wasn’t good for staying outside. Since we had visited the media center, the pit garages, the paddock diner as well as a major part of the road course racing area it was time to boogie….and we did. RACE TRACK FOOD: Lunch for Allan and I was the peppered chop steak, chips and beans. This was our best racetrack meal of the trip. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Many road courses let you take your passenger car out on to the track during the lunch break for a few under control laps. I was ready with the Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab but the on track offer was never extended. Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Skegness, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, A few weeks ago, I invited Allan Brown to accompany me on this trip. Allan is the #2 trackchaser in the world. Allan has driven to more tracks in the United States than anyone ever. He has personally visited more than 2,000 tracks (both active and inactive). I figured he could fill the job of navigator for this trip better than anyone could and he did. Allan was able to use our traveling technology to the max. He had the A to Z Great Britain Road Atlas for mapping. Additionally, I provided him with AA.com’s point A to B driving directions (similar to Map quest) for each of the 11 tracks we would visit. Many people have the best golf clubs and can’t play golf worth a lick. Allan was able to take these logistical tools to a new height of traveling efficiency. In the United Kingdom, the “roundabout” or “traffic circle” is the way virtually all highway intersections are handled. There are very few stoplights. As you approach an intersection, you enter a circular ring. As you go around the circle, in a clockwise direction, you are given options to turn off the circle in different directions. You may recall Chevy Chase in the movie, European Vacation and his famous line, “I can’t get left, I can’t get left!” I am not exaggerating when I say we exceeded 1,000 traffic circles during the trip. I did all the driving (a little more than 1,000 miles). Allan did the map reading. I have never had a better map-reader in my life. Allan could tell me about an approaching traffic circle and the direction we needed to head with uncanny accuracy. To think I purchased an in car navigation system for thousands of dollars in my personal vehicle. I should have just hired Allan. Now my readers know that I am required by literary standards to be honest and direct with you. Of course, none of these words is meant to offend anyone (not even Guy Smith). It’s possible Allan has these map reading skills because he is a man (I said it’s POSSIBLE). Recall, Rosanne Barr, a woman in her own right, said there are three things women can’t do. According to Rosie, women can’t 1) read a map, 2) pee in the snow and I can never remember #3 (if any readers know what number three is please let me know). I contend, in defense of women, that they don’t need to know how to do these things! I normally force the navigational duties on my wife, Carol. As I said, Allan is the best navigator I’ve ever seen. That being said why not just replace Carol with Allan? As we all know, no one is perfect. What is Allan’s Achilles heel so to speak? Allan snores. Yes, that’s the best way to describe it. I had to decide if I wanted to visit 11 tracks and never get lost, (this would be a first) and not got any sleep OR be a well-rested trackchaser who never knew where he was. Some folks may have seen me draped over a table inside the Belle Vue Greyhound track fast asleep. This was despite a P.A. system’s sound that exceeded all public safety decibel levels. People should know I was not exaggerating about my sleep deprivation. Of course, when I give it some thought, even though Allan kept me awake at night, Carol has been known to keep me awake at night as well for much more pleasant reasons. Before your prurient mind takes over you should know I’m referring to Carol making a mean cup of late night hot chocolate. Net, net even though Allan is a great navigator, I prefer to keep Carol, assuming she agrees after reading this paragraph. Carol is always fond of saying that she can’t wait until I get Alzheimer’s so the kids can hear the strange things I tell her! Before I leave Allan and his snoring, I must tell you that he was very apologetic for his nighttime noise. He tried everything to minimize it, even putting a large blanket over his head in a warm hotel room. Nevertheless, in the middle of the night, a loud gust removed the artificial sound barrier. We were back to square one. All this said, Allan was a fine travel companion. I would do the trip all over again with him if given the opportunity. Allan and I also ran into Colin Casserly. Colin was taking photos professionally for a racing publication. I had met Colin previously as Swaffam Raceway. All of the photographers are required to wear fluorescent yellow coats while in the infield or the pit area. This helps the drivers see them better so we have the same number of photographers at the end of the evening as at the beginning of the race night. Colin’s a very friendly chap. It was good chatting it up with him. DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking RACING NEWS: Like any upstanding organization, the trackchasers have a set of rules by which tracks are counted. Near the bottom of the title page is a link to the rules. I just filed my income taxes. I view the trackchaser rules as somewhat open to interpretation, similar to the IRS tax rules. The federal government has the IRS to enforce its rules and we have our unofficial “commissioner”, Will White, to enforce our rules. Will looks upon individual creativity the same way the IRS does. I won’t elaborate. I know that we have a few CPAs reading these reports. Just curious, does anyone you work with replicate the entire federal and state tax return in Excel? I do. My spreadsheet has 439 rows to it and goes out 30 years into the future so I can project cash flows. My tax accountant says I’m the only “non-engineer” to do such a thing. If I’m going to fund the “stay ahead of Ed Esser” project, some thought has to be given to positive cash flow. Anyway, back to the trackchaser rules. For the most part track surfaces are either pavement or dirt. Pavement tracks can be called asphalt, tarmac or concrete. Dirt tracks are called clay, shale, grass, or, as you might imagine, dirt. From time to time a track may change its racing surface from asphalt to dirt or vice versa. When the trackchaser rules were first devised it was decided that once you had seen a track with one type of surface you could count it again if it changed surfaces. I don’t really agree with that type of thinking. However, it’s printed that the trackchaser rules making is a democracy (it’s really controlled by just a few Pennsylvania based power brokers) so I do my best to go along. Here’s how the track surface rule reads: “Tracks that change between a paved surface and a dirt surface can be counted once for each surface. Changes between different types of pavement (asphalt, concrete, etc.) or different types of dirt (dirt, clay, shale, grass, gravel, etc.) surfaces only count once. Ice tracks formed over an existing paved or dirt track cannot be counted as an additional track, but they can be used to count the track once. Ice tracks held on a body of water are countable. European style rally cross courses, and other tracks which consist of alternating sections of paved and dirt surfaces, can be counted as a second track if part or all of it is also used as a completely paved or dirt track.” As you can see trackchaser rules really are like the IRS (Combine lines 7b and 16 and enter the result. If a loss, enter -0- on line 17b and go to line 18. If a gain, enter the gain on Form 1040, line 13a, and go to line 17b below). Today I stood to benefit from a rule I don’t really support. The Skegness Stadium opened in 1977 as a tarmac (asphalt) track. From 1998-2003 it raced as a dirt track. On a beautiful Wednesday evening, June 30, 1999, I visited Skegness Shaleway and counted the track as dirt. Editor’s note: This was the night before I played the Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s British Open golf course, which ranks as the number one golf course I have ever played. The Skegness Shaleway changed its name and racing surface this past December. The track is now called Skegness Stadium and has a tarmac-racing surface. As a special treat to folks who have read this far I invite you to listen to the music played on this site. British tracks play a lot of American rock and roll music during breaks in the action. Allan is a rock n’ roll officiado and can “name that tune” pretty well. Surprisingly, no very surprisingly, Skegness played rap music during its racing breaks. This seemed most unusual, as some of the lyrics would be to strong for even this forum let alone a PG crowd at the track. The Skegness Stadium is my 692nd lifetime track. In addition, I became the first American to be able to count a foreign track with both a dirt and asphalt surface. Allan called this the dustiest asphalt track he’d ever seen do to the oil dry that flew throughout the night. The P.A. system was outstanding even though it blasted rap music. The starter was also the pit announcer. I’ve never seen that before. Overall, I’d have to say that if Skegness facilities were upgraded 100% the track’s status would improve from dilapidated to just “run down”. A bulldozer could plow the entire place under in just a few hours. The main racing attraction was the BRISCA Formula 1 stock cars. This would be their first appearance of the year on tarmac. The track also had a full field of saloon stock cars. Tonight I think I preferred the relatively high-speed saloons with their full contact approach to the top-rated F1 stock cars. This is a description of saloon racecars: “National Saloon Stock Cars: They may look like a normal road car with big bumpers, but when you see the action, you know they’re something special. Built like tanks and used like tanks, driven by drivers who go through the opposition rather than round it. Drivers are licensed by the Saloon Stock Car Association of which RDC are one of the principal promoters.” We got to the track early and had to decide if we wanted to go into town for some decent food or snag one of the last parking spots where you could watch the races from the comfort of you own car. Skegness is located near the sea and can get a bit chilly at night. We elected to forgo good food and get one of about 15 car parking spots above the F1 turn one and two area. By the way, stock cars race in the counter clockwise direction in England. All other formulae race in the clockwise direction. Allan and I discussed whether seeing cars race in both directions could count as two tracks. I’ll leave that argument for another day with my trackchasing buddies. RACE TRACK FOOD: You know you’ve been going to too many tracks when you begin to recognize the cooks at the track’s food trailer. I was in line to order a loaf of bread and two hamburgers (in the U.K. they call this a cheeseburger) when I noticed a previous antagonist. The cook was in a very heated discussion with the fellow in front of me regarding whether or not the sausages that were being fried were really done. This brought back memories of my video taping this guy’s food trailer at Swindon. That cook gave me the finger and told me to stop videotaping. Yes, both cooks were one and the same! As Dr. Phil says, “Don’t mess with people who make your food!”, I kept my head down and ordered my double cheeseburger. By the way, the hamburger at these tracks tasted like fried Spam. Don’t get me wrong, I like Spam and I like the Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota even more. I just don’t like my hamburger tasting like Spam. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Sitting in our Saab to view the races was just the right ticket on a very chilly evening. Randy Lewis #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Hunmanby, North York, United Kingdom, Our hotel stays in England were, for the most part, uneventful with one minor exception. Being a risk taker, I prefer to make my hotel commitment at the latest time possible. My theory here is that if the race plan changes a locked in hotel reservation won’t prevent me from driving, on a moment’s notice, to a new destination. This plan worked well except for one night. Following the Skegness races on Saturday night, we had a 107-mile drive to Hunmanby for our autograss race on Sunday morning. We drove for a long time before we came across a perfect looking little English pub and inn that advertised accommodations. We stopped and entered the pub. It was just like an English pub you might see in the movies with everyone drinking and having a merry old time. Unfortunately, they were full for the night but did direct us to a hotel a few miles up the road. I should stop right here and remind everyone that England’s English is not United States English. Normally, about 15 seconds into an Englishman’s two minute spiel on directions you have absolutely no idea what words are being spoken. For the remaining one minute and 45 seconds, I’ll listen politely and thank them for their help. Then Allan and I would agree we had absolutely no idea what had been told to us. Speaking of accents, I’ve come across a website dedicated to people with different accents speaking the English language. This site examines the accented speech of speakers from many different language backgrounds reading the same sample paragraph. They have more than 300 people from various locations around the world. They even feature a “Pennsylvanian” speaking English! You might want to give it a try at: http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/ If we had 15 miles to go, each person’s direction would get us about three miles down the road until we would have to stop and get three more miles worth of direction. It took a little longer this way but we always felt we were advancing. The next hotel we located was a beautiful and quaint old resort hotel located directly on the north sea. Unfortuately, the hotel’s rate was 90 pounds. That’s $180 U.S. That seemed a bit pricy for what would amount to a 10 hour stay. Although I would have loved to have checked into a place like this for a couple of days with Carol. We trudged on with the clock showing only about 11 p.m. The next hotel was a modern looking Marriott Courtyard type place with a sign that said “Rooms for 49 pounds”. Perfect. Well, not so perfect since they were full. The desk clerk did give us some more directions, in what was totally non-understandable English. Finally, he put us on the phone with a desk clerk in the city of Hull. She confirmed they did have room for two. It was only a 15-minute drive. As you might expect we got lost. It took us about 40 minutes to find the place. They didn’t have any onsite parking so I left Allan with the car and I went in to get our room. The car was parked just outside of a disco with music blaring and a lot of people activity. There turned out to be one major drawback to this hotel. Their room for two had only one bed. That didn’t seem like a workable idea. I returned to the car. Allan mentioned that while I was away five police cars had stopped a motorist for some unknown infraction. This would not be the last of the police sirens we would hear throughout the night. Fortunately, another hotel, our 5th stop for the night, would have a room for just 39 pounds. Later in the trip, our English trackchasing counterparts would tell us that the town of Hull was voted the worst town in all of England. It didn’t look too safe but sometimes you have to take what you can get. What’s up with the bathroom showers in English hotels? It’s nearly impossible to figure out the controls so you can take a shower. Some of them have about seven knobs which must create about 2,000 permutations. The Hull hotel shower had only three knobs and it was impossible to get the shower to work with hot water. I ended up filling the bathtub with hot water and taking a bath rather than submit to an ice cold shower. Just as I had completed my bath I made once last stab at the shower controls. Low and behold hot shower water rained down upon my head. It is not difficult to ask for directions and understand them or get a bathroom shower to work. However, it is almost impossible to find a place for breakfast on a Sunday morning. We drove for several miles through four towns and could not find one restaurant serving breakfast at 9 a.m. in the morning. Finally, we stumbled across a “Little Chef” restaurant. Little Chef’s are somewhat similar to a Denny’s. This place had seating for about 30-40 people. We had a little more than an hour before the 11 a.m. races began. We were within 3 miles of the track. Perfect. Well, not so perfect. Allan ordered the apple and cherry filled pancake which looked delicious in the picture on the menu. I ordered the traditional English breakfast which is a fried egg, sausage, ham, beans and chips (French fries) as well as the advertised half-priced “pudding” which was really chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream (you never know when you’ll get your next meal!). Well, we waited and we waited and then we waited some more. Finally, after nearly an hour I was served my English breakfast. I had completed eating my breakfast (I think Allan gave me permission to go ahead and eat). Allan was yet to be served. When Allan finally collared the waitress she told us she hadn’t served Allan’s pancakes because it was a dessert. She was waiting to serve it when my pudding was served. I guess we didn’t understand the serving protocol. The bill for my breakfast was about 9 pounds ($18 U.S. dollars). Can you imagine paying $18 for breakfast at Denny’s? How can I ever hold off Ed Esser if my racing funds are being consumed at this pace? DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 RACING NEWS: The Hunmanby Raceway, run by the East Coast Autograss Association, was my 693rd racetrack. Some may recall that I was invited to participate in an Autograss race in Tirley, England a few years ago. I had a blast doing it. Today’s track was similar to the track I raced at. In addition, I was able to pass my last five-pound contraband note to an unsuspecting ticket taker. The track itself was a dirt oval and about one-quarter mile in length. Spectator seating was on a terraced hillside. Folks either watched from their cars or sat in lawn chairs. Each race of the 52 scheduled races started 6-8 cars. Autograss racing has a very unusual starting procedure. The cars are lined up side by site just a few yards outside of the oval itself. When the starting flag drops, they race from a standing start onto the front straightaway and the race is underway. The races are short, only about five laps. The Hunmanby Raceway has 10 meetings scheduled for this season. Today’s events were supported by about 100 cars in the pit area. You will see a lot of unusual racing machinery in an Autograss pit area. I am impressed by the brightness of most cars’ color schemes. By the way, I am in the process of putting together a photo album of our trip to England that I will share with you online. Look for it to appear in the next couple of days. We took a tour through the pit area and examined the cars. We then stayed for about 15-20 races before heading off to our next track. If I lived in England, I would probably be an Autograss racer. There are several man and wife combinations. Each person drives the same car but in a different class. Here is a listing of the different Autograss car classes: Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5 Class 6 Class 7 Class 8 Class 9 Class 10 Class 11 Class 12 Class 13 Class 14 Junior Racing RACE TRACK FOOD: The Little Chef was our food for the morning. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab got a bit muddy in the Autograss parking lot but continues to be a very comfortable road car. Randy Lewis #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Blyton, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom Our ride from Hunmanby to Blyton was only 75 miles. Blyton is 153 miles north of London. With an excellent navigator (Allan) and a European veteran racer of grass track venues (me) driving, we made it in very good time. We arrived about 30 minutes before the program started. This allowed us to pay our six pound admission price and roam the pit area. The weather was good with blues skies, white puffy clouds and temps in the 50s. Allan’s comment was that Bovingdon “looks like a super speedway” compared to Blyton. Bovingdon is no super speedway. Blyton is no Bovingdon. Everything’s relative. It’s just like in golf. There’s always someone you can beat and there’s always someone who can beat you. Although Blyton was rural and rundown, it would still be better than the track that would come the next day, Brampton. Yes, it does see like every run down track starts with the letter B. I would liken this track to Glad Rag Speedway in Saratoga Springs, New York. You should know that Glad Rag ranks as my all-time worst racing venue in the U.S. During our drive to Blyton we did make a stop at McDonalds. When I’m traveling in foreign countries I do my best not to stop at chain restaurants. You can always go to a McDonalds. One of the main reasons to travel is to see and experience things you do don’t normally get to see and do. However, I had a special reason to visit McDonalds today. I was there to purchase McDonald’s kids toys. No, I don’t collect them but Lillian at our golf country club does. She always gets excited when I’m able to bring back some foreign toys for her collection. Since Lillian pours the drinks at the club it’s good to have her on your side. During the trip Allan and I were always trying to figure out the conversion amounts between liters and gallons as well as Fahrenheit and Celsius. I wish we had access to the website linked below. It converts all kinds of things easily and quickly. Now I know that it’s about 3.8 liters to the U.S. gallon. At 80 pence per liter that made the cost of a gallon of petrol about 3 pounds, 4 pence. At an exchange rate of almost two dollars to the pounds, our petrol was costing us about $6 a gallon. Now, regular gas at just over $2 per gallon in the U.S. doesn’t sound so bad does it? Here’s the link to the converter website: http://www.onlineconversion.com/ Of course, there’s no extra charge from me for the knowledge you’ll gain from the information provided in these reports. It’s all part of the reward you get from reading this far! Be sure to check out the racing food section of today’s report. DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 RACING NEWS: The Blyton Raceway is my 694th track. It is also the 6th track for Allan and I to see racing at during our planned 11 track United Kingdom Easter Racing Extravaganza. The Blyton track is located in a very rural area. Like the Bovingdon track it is also built on an old airport runway. I had corresponded with the track’s webmaster who also doubles as a banger formulae driver. His name is Eric and this is what he had to say about there track layout: “There are 3 tracks at Blyton; a grass track tri oval, a short circuit tarmac oval and a long circuit super moto track”. I believe it was Spike Rixon who said he had been to Blyton earlier this year and was able to see racing at two of Blyton’s countable tracks. Our plan calls for seeing 11 tracks in England on this trip. If we make that number my overall total will be 699 tracks. It would be great to squeeze in one more somewhere along the line to reach the 700 plateau while I’m in England. We’ll see. I must standout physically in some way when I attend the racetracks I visit. Maybe it’s the shorts. Although I wear shorts more than 95% of the time in my life, that trend has not yet caught on in the U.K. Maybe it’s because it’s April and the temps are about 50. But, even when I go to the south, I get that, “Boy, you ain’t from around here are you”, look. Nevertheless, Eric, the webmaster and banger driver discovered me before I discovered him. We had a nice talk. He provided me with some new information about his racing program. He drives a Russian made car. I got a great picture of Eric in front of his red and white #51 banger, which I have already forwarded, to him. Before I leave next Thursday for my Syracuse, New York based racing trip I’ll forward to each of you an Ofoto.com U.K. racing trip album. Eric told me he paid 50 U.K. English pounds for his car. It took him another 15 pounds and some free work traded to complete the car. Frequently, a banger car only lasts for one event because of the hard contact the cars have with each other. Eric said this car was on its eighth meeting. Frankly, it looked like it had been through the wars. Unfortunately, for Eric, he crashed during the first lap and was unable to continue. In addition to bangers the track also raced Formula 2 outlaw stock cars and hot rods. The hot rods are a fun class to watch. Here’s a program description of the hot rod class: Hot Rods: Up to 1600cc front wheel, drive non-contact formula. A budget formula aimed for newcomers to get into the sport but also features a number of experienced racers who enjoy the division. The cars are all small family cars, like Ford Fiestas, Ford Escorts, Vauxhall Novas plus the odd Mini and Metro and others. All cars are fitted with a roll cage and smartly presented. I spent some time talking to one of the F2 outlaw stock car drivers. By the way, everyone we ran into in the pits at all of our tracks was more than willing to talk to us and answer all of our questions. The English are very friendly people and seem too really like “chatting it up” with Americans. The stock car driver said they bought all of their overhead wings from the U.S. The outlaw F2’s are a cheaper version of the BriSCA F2 class. Actually, they’re very similar to the modified stock cars my uncle used to race around the Danville, Illinois area in the 1950s and 60s. RACE TRACK FOOD: Here are just a few of the items on the restaurant menu (priced in English pounds): Pie & peas 2.20, jacket potatoes 1.80, milk flavoured .60, cans (not sure of what!) .60, crisps .35, lollies .05, strawberries & cream .75. When I took a photo of the food menu this evoked curiosity from the lady working in the food trailer. We got into a nice conversation and she mentioned she had been to the U.S. and always found Americans very friendly. Later in the meet I treated Allan and me to chocolate and raspberry sundaes, which were very tasty. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Our Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab started with only a quarter tank of gas. We must return the car with at least a quarter tank of gas. This necessitated an early stop for petrol. Alan, sprung for the first tank. The regular petrol price was 82 pence per liter. For the math challenged that’s about $7 per gallon! The bill was a little more than 47 English pounds. That translated to about $75 for the tank in a relatively small car!! Randy Lewis #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Sheffield, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, A very special treat at the Sheffield Stadium was to meet up with several of our U.K. trackchaser brethren. Allan and I had scarcely been in the Stadium for two minutes before a big Englishman was yelling my name out. Turns out I was recognized as the only person in the entire stadium wearing short pants (the English call shorts, “Golfing trousers”.). In no time we were able to meet Spike Rixon (if that’s not a rugby player’s name I don’t know what is), who was the big Englishman, his wife Linda, Mark Kelly (I forgot to ask him if he was Irish) and their friend Tony. Both Spike and Mark are part of our trackchaser email group. We had a lovely time comparing trackchaser stories. All of the U.K. fellows had been to the U.S. to see many tracks. They liked Kokomo, Eldora and Knoxville. They were also very interested in which tracks we liked the best on our trip. This gave us lots of useful hints and other tracks to visit in the future. Spike and Linda will be coming to the U.S. to see racing at Talladega in a couple of weeks. By the way, Spike is looking for a Sunday night race following the afternoon Nextel Cup race at Talladega. Spike said he will be using the, “Guy Smith 50/50 rule”. As I understand it, this rule, possibly it’s only a guideline, says that when Guy and his wife Pam go on a vacation 50% of the days are reserved for Guy’s preferences and 50% for Pam’s. Gee, I never knew I could expect 50% of the vacation time available (just kidding, Carol!). Spike’s plan was to allow Linda to have both airplane travel days, where she could be watching an airplane movie, as part of her 50%. Of course, Spike was just kidding….. I think! Nevertheless, as an advocate for the disenfranchised I tried to get Linda’s tourist time up to 65%. She seemed to like that idea. I’m sure they talked about it on their ride home. Mark, Tony, Spike and Linda, it was great meeting you all! From the Sheffield city web site: Sheffield looked safe enough to me, although my son, Jim, says the Cutco cutlery he sold during college can cut circle around any cutlery from Sheffield. Note to Bev Herrin: We saw the name Hallam frequently throughout our U.K. travels. The races were held at Sheffield Stadium, which is located in the middle of this good-sized city. The stadium is also home to greyhound racing and speedway motorcycle racing. You can checkout the activities at the track from www.sheffieldspeedway.com. We did have some trouble finding this track. We used our “stop at a convenience store and ask for directions” mapping plan once we got inside the city of Sheffield. It was necessary to stop several times before we literally ran into the stadium itself. Arriving after the first couple of races started allowed us to skate in without paying an admission fee. DRIVING LOG: Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free RACING NEWS: The Sheffield Stadium was my 695th track. This stadium like several of the better tracks in the U.K. is also a greyhound dog racing track. The dirt auto racing oval is located just on the inside of the dog track. Sheffield Stadium is host to speedway motorcycles each Thursday night. The main attraction tonight was the BriSCA Formula 1 stock cars. This class totally inverts the racing field for each race. Most major U.S. sanctioning groups start the fast guys in the front. Often in this format the winner comes from the front row and you never get to see winner pass anyone for position. The U.K. racers in almost all divisions are “graded”. Their grade is based upon the points they’ve earned from previous finishes. The best drivers are rated either superstars or stars and their car’s roof is painted red. The next best group have blue roofs, then yellow and finally white. The white roofed cars are positioned at the start/finish line. The other colored grades start their race about 50-100 yards behind the grade in front of them. It’s just about unheard in the U.S. to have America’s leading drivers passing more than a few cars for an actual racing position. In the U.K. Frankie Wainman Jr. is the Jeff Gordon or Steve Kinser of BriSCA F1 stock car racing. BriSCA F1 heat races are 16 laps long and start about 25 cars. The feature is 20 laps long and starts around 30 cars. Each driver also races in two heat races, whereas in the U.S. a driver races in only one heat race. Can you imagine Steve Kinser starting at the back of two 25 car heat races and then starting at the back of a 30 car, 20-lap feature event? You’ll never see it! Frankie Wainman Jr. starts every race in the back row nearly three-quarters of a lap behind. He does this for three or four races each night and probably passes 40-60 cars for position in one evening. Another Formula 1 feature called the “all comers” event capped the evening’s activities. Fortunately, the U.K. gang gave us some information about this race. The feature winner from earlier tonight starts in the pole position of this race. He gets extra points and prize money for any car he can lap in the 20 lap race. Tonight’s winner started on the pole, with about 25 cars in the race and lapped all but about eight or nine cars. Surprising to me was the very low prize money offered in this class. I believe Mark told us the winner might get only 200 or 300 pounds for winning. This is the top class of open wheeled racing in the U.K. The top class of open wheeled racers in the U.S. (World of Outlaws) get anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 for most of their races. Several of the drivers I talked to during the trip that race in lower level U.K. classes said they get no prize money whatsoever. I must add one comment that somewhat justifies this handicapping system. In the U.K. most racing classes (formulae) are allowed contact with each other. This means the car can legally and without penalty run into the car ahead and gently or not so gently punt them out of the way. Although in America, for the most part, this is not allowed, in the U.K. it’s part of the racing action. When cars crash and spin out on the track, normally a yellow flag is NOT dropped. The cars just continue to race around the cars and debris that litter the track. Of course, if the track is totally blocked they will yellow or red flag the race and remove only the cars that are directly blocking the race course. In my last racing report of this trip I’ll be providing my comparison of the pros and cons of U.K. vs. U.S. racing. I’ll also be giving you an “Ed Esser Update” as I will do in the last race report of each racing trip I do. Of course, I publish my racing itinerary in advance. This itinerary is based upon hours and hours of pouring over schedules and putting the race dates into a queue designed to yield the most race tracks for the time and money available. Some have asked why I publish my race plan in advance when others can simply copy it without putting much work into their own racing plan. I’m all for sharing as much racing information as I can. When I share my plan, others have some idea where I’ll be and frequently I get the chance to meet up with them. That’s exactly what happened today in Sheffield and as they say, “It was all good!” One of the best parts of the greyhound type of track is the enclosed seating areas. These parts of the grandstand have liquor bars, dining rooms, slot machines and lounges where you can watch the races indoors behind a large glass window. I spent some time roaming around this track, which turned out to be the largest “short-track” facility we would visit. You can also hear the public address announcer much better from inside. The folks who view the action from “outdoors” must stand or sit in a lawn chair. RACE TRACK FOOD: We decided to forego any track food so we could have dinner in a true English pub. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Enterprise Rental Racing Saab continues to motor on. Randy Lewis #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from York, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Following the Sheffield Stadium race we had our first opportunity for a sit down English pub dinner. We chose the Red Lion Inn in Sheffield. Here, Allan and I dined on some authentic English food and ale. The building was constructed of old English grey stone with steeply pitched roofs. The restaurant service was not very good although we enjoyed the break from racetrack burgers. My son, J.J., lived and worked in England for two years. He told me the wait staff in English restaurants would not bring our check unless we asked for it. It would be considered rude for the restaurant to bring your check as if the establishment was asking you to leave. We only had about 60 miles to travel tonight to get to York. The York racing would be begin at 11 a.m. This was our last full racing day of the trip. We figured we would drive up to York, get our hotel, and then be able to sleep in. That planned worked well. It was about 10 p.m. when we passed the York Autograss racetrack. There wasn’t much activity going on but there were many campers in the grass field parking area. It rather reminded me of seeing the campers in the fields near Eldora. Less than a mile past the racetrack we came across a bed and breakfast with the same name as our dinner restaurant…..the Red Lion Inn. We stopped and they had a double room, which included a full English breakfast for 60 pounds. As they say, “Location, location, location”. We could almost walk to the track from the hotel. Other than an unspecified plumbing problem our room was fine. We awoke in the morning for the fourth and final full day of our racing trip. Days 1 and 2 called for seeing two tracks each day. Day 3 had three racetracks on the schedule. Today, day four, would have four tracks to see to complete our planned 11 track, four-day total. The hotel’s full English breakfast was very good. We started with juice, coffee and cereal. We were then served our hot breakfast that consisted of toast, fried eggs, beans, sausage and bacon. Soon we were on our way to complete a very busy but satisfying day of trackchasing. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles York, North York, U.K. – 59 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free York – 5 RACING NEWS: Admission to the York Autograss Club event was five pounds. This price also included a very nice 28-page program. We arrived early to a very wet grass and mud pit area. I’m not sure if it rained overnight or not but the cars had a very difficult time driving from the pits to the race starting area. There were tons of racecars. I’d estimate at least a hundred. I grew up near Peoria, Illinois, which is the worldwide headquarters of the Caterpillar Tractor Company. There was one grass track racer with a beautiful black and yellow car sponsored by Caterpillar with the number ST121. The letters in a grass track racer’s car number indicate the club they belong too. When I raced in Tirley, England my car’s number was B106H. My car was registered at the Breden Hill Autograss race club. Today’s event at York was sanctioned by the largest Autograss club in England, the York Autograss Club. They race at this venue once a month from April (today is opening day) through October with no racing in August. We attended the driver’s meeting before the racing began. The issues were similar to a typical U.S. short track driver’s meeting. The stewards criticized the driver’s for not helping to work the track and for aggressive driving. They also mentioned that people had been seen “tampering” with competitor’s cars. They said anyone caught doing this would be banned from all U.K. Autograss racing. We’re in Northern England, very near the North Sea. The accents up here are a bit different. I can detect a much stronger Scottish brogue, which at times is very difficult to understand. We stayed for about 20 of the programme’s 54 scheduled races before heading out. Most tracks in England use the Union Jack flag to mark the midpoint in the race. At York they use the Union Jack flag to start the races. The York Autograss facility was by 696th track to visit. RACE TRACK FOOD: I downed a hot chocolate on a cool and cloudy morning. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab was parked just off one of the racetrack’s turns. From the pit area it looked like it wouldn’t take much for an out of control racecar to flip over into our Swedish chariot. It did give me some pause for thought. Allan advised there was much more space between the track and the rental car than I was projecting. Since it was my credit card on the line with Enterprise, I continued to keep an eye on that part of the track for the rest of the day. Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Buxton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, One of the things common to all of the U.K. tracks is a noticeable lack of souvenir merchandise at U.K. tracks. The merchandise that is there looks like its been sitting on the shelf for 20 years. Fans don’t wear much in the way of local driver hats and shirts like they do in the U.S. I think I saw more U.K. fans wearing U.S. related fan wear than anything else. The best souvenir I came across was a British racing green Jaguar shirt. This was perfect for Carol since she drives an “S” type Jaguar. Of course, we may have to get rid of it if more funds are required in defense of my ranking race with Ed Esser. At least she’ll have the shirt as a Jaguar remembrance. Speaking of Mr. Esser, my “Ed Esser” update will appear in tomorrow’s last and final U.K. race report. I will provide an Esser update on the last day of each complete race trip I do. I appreciate the words of support that I’ve received, especially from Connecticut (proving that East coast bias does not permeate the entire area). It seems that Ed is now being viewed as the next “Wal-Mart” of trackchasing. The town of Buxton is famous for Buxton Spring Water. Buxton is located at the highest elevation in all of England. The Buxton weather station is at an elevation of 1,100 feet although it seemed we were much higher. I do know it was cold and windy. This area was definitely the most picturesque of everywhere we went in England. The roads were narrow and winding and the hillsides green and rocky. Once we got to the track (our third track of the day) I was lucky to get a prime parking spot. The racing program was already underway for more than two hours when we arrived. We parked near the first turn where we could watch the races from inside our Saab. Allan and I drank Fanta orange soda and munched on pretzels while the bangers banged. The programme mentioned that last year’s Easter races were nearly cancelled by fog. Last week’s event was run in the rain and snow. Even though rain was forecast for our entire trip we did not use our windshield wipers even one time for rain. We watched four or five feature events before we headed off to our final and 11th new track of the trip. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles York, North York, U.K. – 59 miles Brampton En Le Morthen, South York – 54 miles Buxton, Derbyshire, U.K. – 42 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free York – 5 Brampton – 5 Buxton – 2 pounds, 50 pence RACING NEWS: The Buxton Raceway is my 698th track. The track was formerly called High Edge Raceway. It’s listed as a 380-meter tarmac oval with Armco fence. The facility also has a traditional figure of 8 track. I was hoping that Buxton would race on the figure 8 configuration that would allow me to get track #700 before I left the U.K. However, that did not happen. They do have figure of 8 races scheduled about four times during their season. Buxton also has another oval track just behind turns one and two. I’m guessing it’s used for speedway motorcycles. We arrived at the track at 3:30 p.m. The racing program had started at 1 p.m. Allan was able to use his superior negotiating skills to get the admission price reduced. I think the original charge was 10 pounds, but we both got in for 5 pounds in total. I think since Allan rarely has to pay to attend a race in the U.S. that U.K. ticket takers are no match for this fast talker from Michigan. Since we arrived late we missed, “Chris Clough’s Amazing Domino Stunt”. I would have liked to have seen this. Apparently this fellow lines up old junk cars in a vertical position and knocks them over like dominos. I guess I’ll just have to come back again to see this. We did get a chance to see the children’s running race. They had two classes of kids, upper class and lower class……no, I’m just kidding! One group of children completed an entire lap of the speedway and the other ran one-half of a lap. There were a few children who crashed and burned (fell down) in what turned out to be a fun race to watch. They had a huge crowd at the Buxton Raceway. There is no formal seating although part of the track has a roofed in area. The temperature was about 45-50 degrees with a piercing 20-25 M.P.H. wind. The program started at 1 p.m. and we left about 5 p.m. The hour and a half we spent at the track was mainly inside of our warm car. I did take a walking lap around the track and spent some time in the pit area. I can’t imagine the normal fan STANDING for four hours in windy and cold weather. During the down times between races they played American rap music. One of the racing formulae today was the rookie banger class. They have an unusual rule regarding contact. This class is only allowed to “nudge and spin” another car after three laps of non-contact racing. The track also ran the hot rod class. We only saw the hot rods at a couple of tracks and their racing was very good. This racing trip has taken place north of London. I think stock cars are more popular in the north of England and hot rods are more prevalent in the south of England. I think I may make another U.K. Easter run in 2005 in the southern part of the country. RACE TRACK FOOD: Pretzels in the car were the extent of our food consumption at the Buxton Raceway. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Fortunately, we were able to use Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab as a windbreak at today’s races. Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Brampton En Le Morthen, South York, United Kingdom, Not much happening on the people/travel news front. This track was just 54 miles from York. It was our third track of the day and our 10th new track for the trip. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles York, North York, U.K. – 59 miles Brampton En Le Morthen, South York – 54 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free York – 5 Brampton – 5 RACING NEWS: The Brampton Raceway was my 698th track. Both Allan and I agreed it was probably the worst of the 11 tracks we would see. Today’s event was for the banger class only. There were two or three banger classes and about 40-50 cars in total. Brampton was the most rural of all the tracks we saw although many of the tracks were in rural locations and quite run down. The racing surface was a very muddy shale. We did get just a minute or two of light showers while at the track. This would be the only rain we saw during the entire trip. The track was nearly a quarter mile in length. The inside and outside, “walls” were large rubber tractor tires buried in the ground. I have a great picture of Allan standing atop a large tractor tire. The tire is partially buried in the ground but still get A.B. about 10 up in the air. The remainder of the crowd stood just 20 feet from the racing surface and beyond the tractor tires protected only by a thin wire fence. If you want to imagine what grassroots stock car racing was like in the U.S. in the 50s all you have to do in go to Brampton Raceway today. We did not see a set of bleachers at any track during the entire trip. Silverstone was a first class facility with chair-type seating. Both greyhound tracks, Sheffield and Belle Vue had classy indoor seating areas where food and drink was sold and patrons sat at tables. Outside of the above everyone either brought their own chairs or stood. When we visited with our U.K. friends we stood for the entire meeting. We were also able to sit in our car at two of the tracks to view the action. Fortunately, for us we were able to be in the car at the two tracks where the weather was coldest. RACE TRACK FOOD: Except for the greyhound track facilities all of the track concession stands were simply trailers. For the most part they sell hamburgers, hot dogs, chips (fries) and occasionally fish. Having just come off the Atkins Diet eating bread is a bit foreign to me. I had to get over that quickly! All of the hamburgers we ate came with a bun the size of a small loaf of bread. I switched to eating double cheeseburgers so I could tell there was some meat in the bun! The hot dogs at Brampton were the size of a thick pencil and the hot dog bun the size of my forearm. Speaking of arm size there was a huge English woman serving the food in a sleeveless blouse. She had a tattoo on the outside of her left bicep made up of several Chinese letters. I asked her what the tattoo meant. She smiled a one-tooth grin and said she wouldn’t be able to tell me. I can only imagine how that tattoo got there and what it means! RENTAL CAR UPDATE: Our Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab was parked next to the one porta potty in the parking area. This made a good landmark so we could find the car upon our exit. Randy Lewis That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. Greetings from Belle Vue (Gorton) Manchester, United Kingdom, Editor’s note: This is the last report from my 11-track United Kingdom Easter race tour. I have never seen this many tracks in such a short time so I apologize if I have inundated you with emails! That being said, I already have an eye on a 2005 Easter U.K. trip if I can get Carol shipped off (invited) to her parent’s house again over Easter. Tomorrow, it’s away to Syracuse, New York for a planned seven track, four-day trackchasing trip. The Belle Vue Greyhound track was our last, and 11th track of the trip. Following this race our attention turned to efficiently getting out of the country. We said good-bye to Mark, Tony, Spike and Linda, who were also at Belle Vue and left this venue at 9 p.m. We drove a little more than 100 miles to junction 10 on the M40 where we found a Travelodge in Cherwell Valley. By the time we got to bed it was nearly midnight. Our plan called for a 7 a.m. wakeup call and we were on the road by 7:30 a.m. This was the first workday after the four day U.K. Easter holiday. We were concerned about traffic as we approached London’s Heathrow Airport. Fortunately, there was very little traffic. We arrived at the Enterprise Rental Car lot earlier than expected. A very competent young woman named, Sam, inspected our car inside and out (like she was buying a used car) and pronounced it fit and unworthy of any extra charges. Allan and I then hopped on the rental car bus. We had a nice conversation with a U.K. born, now living in Holland truck driver. Like most he was amused at our trackchasing hobby. He was on his way to join a skydiving group for a few days in Florida. Upon arriving at the airport I was able to show Allan the benefits of frequent flyer membership at an advanced level. I’ve flown almost 6 million miles on American Airlines. This entitles me to a few perks. Think of it as similar to the Winner’s Circle program in NASCAR. When we entered the airport the line to get a boarding pass was about 100 people long. I get to check in at the first class counter regardless of the class of service I fly. This line had only two people in it. In no time we were having breakfast near but not at the Burger King at the American terminal. The last time Carol and I were at Heathrow we were eating at the Burger King. All of a sudden the entire area was evacuated for a bomb scare. Following breakfast it was time to go through airport security. No problems here. Security was much less time consuming than in the U.S. They did not require me to take my laptop out of my briefcase. They didn’t ask us to take off our shoes. We breezed through in less than a minute. How can U.S. security be so different than U.K. security in they both have the same effectiveness? After security at Heathrow there is lots of shopping for that tourist who hasn’t found just the right gift for that someone back home. Of course, at the current exchange rates you won’t get a bargain. The exchange rate is near two U.S. dollars per English pound. Therefore, when you see a price in pounds simply double it and you’ve got the U.S. price in dollars. Obviously, you will pay a lot for this mathematical simplicity. I checked out the gold Rolex presidential model watch. It could have been had for just 9,285 English pounds with no VAT tax. I settled for some therapeutic massage oils for Carol. They were priced less than the Rolex and could kill two birds with one massage bar. More information on these products is available at www.lush.co.uk. (Spike, I recommend these highly). After security we were off to the American Airlines Admirals Club. This is a private club where travelers can relax while they wait for their flight. We’re talking free booze and food, mahogany paneled walls, internet access, TV, etc. It seemed like Allan could relate to the atmosphere almost immediately (similar to the way Will picked up on the drinking margaritas idea). My remembrance of Allan is with him relaxing in a recliner with his feet up with a drink in one hand and a cookie in the other. He looked comfortable! My flight would take me directly from London to Los Angeles. The flight’s duration was about 11.5 hours. Allan would go from London to New York’s JFK to Cleveland and then on to Grand Rapids, Michigan (delays would force Allan to stay overnight in Cleveland before finally getting to Grand Rapids). My flight on the way home was flown entirely in the daylight. We flew for a couple of hours over Greenland. It was clear and the sight was beautiful. You could see the sparkling white ice flows in the sea. Everything looked crystal clear and pristine. I didn’t see too many good places for an emergency landing! While at my departure gate, I did have the occasion to talk to an old woman with a cane who sat down next to me. Although now a resident of the Los Angeles area, she was just returning from Budapest where she had grown up. She spoke in a Hungarian accent. She mentioned she had lived on the east coast prior to moving to LA. I asked her where on the east coast she had lived. Her answer, “Chicago”. Based upon her “East coast” experience I asked her if she had ever heard of “East coast bias”. In a smiling Hungarian reply, she said, “Of course, I have!” I rest my case. DRIVING LOG: London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.) Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, U.K. – 51 miles (Yes, they say miles not kilometers in England) Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. – 78 miles Silverstone, Nhants, U.K. – 90 miles Skegness, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 109 miles Hunmanby, North York, U.K. – 107 miles Blyton, Lincolnshire, U.K. – 75 miles Sheffield, South York, U.K. – 38 miles York, North York, U.K. – 59 miles Brampton En Le Morthen, South York – 54 miles Buxton, Derbyshire, U.K. – 42 miles Belle Vue (Gorton), Manchester, U.K. – 25 miles London, Heathrow Airport – 204 miles – trip ends TRACK ADMISSION PRICES (English pounds): Bovingdon – free Mildenhall – free Silverstone – 10 Skegness – 11 admission & 3 parking Hunmanby – 5 Blyton – 6 Sheffield – free York – 5 Brampton – 5 Buxton – 2 pounds, 50 pence Belle Vue – 13 Total – 60 pounds, 50 pence (about $120) RACING NEWS: It’s hard for me not to want to compare racing in England with racing in the U.S. So, here’s what I see as the plusses of each country’s racing. UNITED KINGDOM The fields are handicapped with the fast cars staring in the back They have very few interruptions (yellow flags) during each race There is no charge to enter the pit area from the spectator grandstands There are plenty of cars in each racing class The heat races generally run 10-16 laps, which are about twice the distance of heat races in the U.S., and heat racecar counts are two-three times those in the U.S. They race rain or shine UNITED STATES The creature comforts are much better including seating areas, bathrooms and, for the most part, concessions and souvenirs The Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium was my 699th track. Only one more to go to reach the 700 plateau. Belle Vue racing action was run over a 290-meter shale oval. The track was narrow. It was difficult to pass. The track was also very wet and the cars were covered in shale after only a few laps. BriSCA Formula 1 stock cars were the featured class. They also had some banger racing. This was our third consecutive night of seeing the F1 stockers. Allan and I grabbed a seat in the glass enclosed indoor seating area. Belle Vue is primarily a greyhound-racing track with pari-mutuel betting. Their indoor seating area is very comfortable. I’m sure I looked a little odd leaning over our table and taking catnaps, but I was beat. The indoor public address system was excruciatingly loud. There also are a lot of smokers in the U.K., many more than in the U.S. and California in particular. I took a tour of the pit area. For some reason the pits were very muddy. There was a 75-yard one-lane dirt (mud) stretch that the racers had to use to get from the pit area to the racetrack. This lane was also used by spectators to roam the pits. The narrowness of the road made for some close calls between the pedestrian traffic and the racecars. Our U.K. friends, Linda, Spike, Mark and Tony attended. I believe they follow the F1 stock car circuit. It was a pleasure meeting these folks on the trip as well as the two Colins, Herridge and Casserly. If I can be of any help to you on your trip to the U.S. please don’t hesitate to call. Parking at the track was tight. There was a very large crowd and all of the facilities parking spaces were full. We ended up across the street and parked at a bingo casino. After the races, we tried to go into the bingo parlor for a look around. We were stopped at the door and told this was a private club and no non-members could come in. RACE TRACK FOOD: It was double cheeseburger time again. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: I put a little more than 1,000 miles on the Enterprise Rental Car Racing Saab. We only used about 2.75 tanks of gas. At about $75 per tank, it was good that we didn’t use more. The car ran flawlessly and except for a close call on a winding mountain road near Buxton raceway, everything with the car was great. Randy Lewis ED ESSER UPDATE: As you may recall I’m trying to keep Ed from passing me in the trackchaser standings during 2004. I started the season at 682 tracks and a 54-track lead over Ed. The U.K. trip raised my 2004 total to 699 tracks. But Ed now has 28 new tracks this year and an overall total of 656 tracks posted. This gives me a 38-track lead over the Wal-Mart of trackchasing. I compare Ed to Wal-Mart because he has a commanding take no prisoners style that allowed him to dominate the annual trackchasing standings for the past year and a half. His total of 114 in 2003 stands as a reminder of the power that Ed can wield behind the wheel of his Chevy Blazer. You might think a 38-track lead would be safe during 2004. My lead will not be considered safe until I pop the cork on a bottle of Champaign this coming New Year’s Eve. You see there are really two obstacles I must overcome before I can declare victory over Ed. First, I have several personal non-racing trips scheduled during the year. I’ll only trackchase one or two weekends a month through September or so. Ed will go EVERY weekend and during the summer nearly every night. It doesn’t take long for Ed to erase any lead a competitor may have. My wife Carol and I have a beautiful cruise through the Panama Canal planned for the first two weeks of September. Early September is still prime trackchasing time. By that time I will also know what it’s going to take to stay ahead of Ed in the trackchaser standings. I really don’t want to have to break the news to Carol after she’s already got her bags packed that, no she won’t be going on the cruise, because I have to go out and protect my lead. Ed, you’ve met Carol. You wouldn’t want to see her disappointed would you? On a more positive note, I’ve sold by 1999 Lexus LS 400. I felt I could better use the funds to finance my defense against Ed Esser. San Clemente has a fine city bus system should I need a transportation lift. Secondly, and more importantly, Ed has some special “help” in the form of a racing manager. His manager is also a cheese head (oops) I meant to say resident of Wisconsin. Actually his manager is the 6th leading trackchaser in the world. These two conspire to research every known countable racetrack at every county fair in the country. I think they even get a little help from rural Indiana to uncover every trackchasing rock. Like Wal-Mart they sometimes are a little hesitant to share their competitive advantage until after the races has been run. My plan is to take the funds from the Lexus sale and hire Ed’s manager away from him. I’m sure a signing bonus, possibly a dental plan and even a few cases of 3.2 beer will do the trick. So, I say to Ed’s manager, give me a call, and let’s talk. That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average. **Sunshine Speedway (oval), Pinellas Park, Florida, April 3 **Central Arizona Raceway, Casa Grande, Arizona, January 20 PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS I first started going to England for trackchasing back in 1999. The trip I have just completed in my fifth visit across the pond in the past seven years. I do not want anyone to get the misimpression that I only go here for racing. Carol, the kids and I have spent several vacations in the United Kingdom. We have had the opportunity to experience London theatre, see Big Ben and all the other tourist activities. We even traded our timeshare once for a week’s stay in the English countryside, which was great. Son, J.J., lived in London for a year and a half. Therefore, the Lewis family has strong ties to the U.K. and I am guessing (although I have never taken the time to research it) that our family name is Welsh. However, this trip is not about seeing the typical sights in England. This trip is about trackchasing in England. The Easter holiday is good timing for such a trip for several reasons. First, this is a four-day holiday in England that means more tracks will be racing. Secondly, Carol often visits her parents in New Mexico over Easter. Being the loving husband I am, I think it’s important that she can spend some quality time with my in-laws without me (this is my description of it anyway). Finally, there is not much racing activity in the United States during the Easter weekend. With all of these factors going for me, I began planning this trip more than two months ago. Believe it or not, there is a ton of planning required to make the trip a trackchasing piece of art. The first item of business was to get a reasonable airfare and schedule for the trip. It is not cheap to fly to Europe, even when traveling in the non-peak months of the year. Airfare was right around $700. The hidden plus to that price is that with my American Airlines platinum status, I earn enough miles for a free domestic ticket to be used on another trip. The next item of business was to get a rental car. I found a car from Dollar Rental Car at 24 pounds a day. Right now one British pound equals about two U.S. dollars. That meant I would be paying about $48 a day for my rental car. That is about twice what I normally pay. I learned, again, that just about everything I bought in England cost about twice what I would pay back in the states. I could have saved about 50% on the car if I had been willing to rent a stick shift car. Considering I would be driving on the opposite side of the road to what I am accustomed too and that I would be driving a right side steer car, the idea of also shifting gears as we careened around the English roundabouts, seemed like a bit much. An automatic transmission is was. Now that the airfare and rental car reservations were behind me, it was time to plan where I would be driving my rental car. Coming into this trip, I had already been to 28 tracks in the U.K. That knocked those tracks off the potential list of new track possibilities. By checking websites, I came up with a plan to see eight tracks over the four-day trip. I use the English version of AAA, called AA, website for travel directions. If you are planning a driving trip check out this site: http://www.theaa.com/travelwatch/inc/planner_places_redirect.jsp, this site will give complete driving directions from point A to point B. One of the greatest things about English racing is that events are rarely cancelled by inclement weather. I have now been to 36 straight tracks and have never been cancelled even though had the English weather been the same in the states about half the tracks would have cancelled. When I know the tracks will not cancel, I can make a hotel reservation without fear. In the U.S., I can’t make a hotel reservation is advance when I’m trackchasing. If I did it would “lock me in” to a certain location for the entire evening. A trackchaser has to be flexible. If the planned track rains out at 6 p.m. it just might be necessary to make a U-turn and drive 200 miles in some other direction to see a track where the weather is better. I almost never make a reservation in advance because of this need for flexibility. I was able to find the Travelodge chain of hotels for England. Many of their hotels are located in “Welcome Breaks” (aka rest stops) along British motorways (aka interstates). I would need to stay in four different hotels on four different nights. I was able to book the hotels at an average cost of about $75 per night. In England, that’s not a bad rate for a hotel that might cost $40-50 in the U.S. Let me make a brief comment about Welcome Breaks along British motorways. These places are really convenient for the traveler. A Welcome Break always has a petrol station and sometimes a hotel. A Welcome Break is also sort of a mini-shopping center. They will normally have one fast food restaurant (KFC, Burger King, McDonalds) as well as a sit down restaurant. There’s a convenience store with snacks, gifts, music, etc., as well as slot machines, video arcades and more. These Welcome Breaks are placed every 30-50 miles along the road. They are so far superior to rest areas on American interstates it’s not really fair to mention them in the same sentence. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the “dirty dozen” of U.K. friends who helped me plan the trip. I got input from Colin H., Paul H, Rick Y., Roland V., Colin C., Dave C, Spike R. and many others. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out. Thanks guys, you made the trip all the better. Now I had an airplane ticket, rental car, trackchasing plan, driving plan and hotel reservations. What else did I need? How about a trackchasing companion? Of course, Carol is the best racing buddy a guy could have, but she wasn’t available for this trip. I was lucky to make arrangements with P.J. Hollebrand of Webster, New York to come along for the ride. P.J. ranks just one spot behind me in the worldwide trackchaser standings in 8th place. P.J. comes from a very rich racing background. He and his family owned a NASCAR champion race team back in the 70s and traveled all over the east coast to more than 100 races each year. Today, P.J. is a letter carrier for the U.S. post office and also owns and operates one of the leading racecar collectibles businesses along the east coast. When you spend four full days within less than 10 feet of one individual, you get to know them pretty well. All I can say about P.J. is that he is one nice guy. If everyone were like P.J., we’d have a much better world. Now I know most of P.J.’s innermost secrets, both trackchasing and non-trackchasing, but am sworn to secrecy so no matter how much I am paid I can never share what I know. Of course, P.J. entered the trip with the normal (don’t know if it is more inherited or more from the environment) east coast skepticism. This is a common foible from folks of this area. Comments such as “Are you sure they never cancel?”, “Is there really enough time to get all of these tracks in?” etc. are common symptoms. Of course, in addition to dealing with east coast trackchasers, I must deal on a weekly basis with east coasters such as Lenny Miller and Jimmy Shapiro at the golf club so I have come to know what to expect. I just keep reminding myself that they don’t mean anything by it, that’s just the way they grew up. I’ll let P.J. tell you if any of the tracks cancelled, if we had time to make our complete race plan or if any other perceived catastrophic event, real or imagined, occurred. All I can say is that it was a pleasure to go trackchasing with P.J. Hollebrand. Flying to the U.K. always presents a challenge because of the time change. The U.K. is eight hours ahead of Pacific Time. P.J. and I met up in Chicago. From there we flew to London’s Heathrow Airport to start our day. We landed at 7 a.m. (11 p.m. Pacific). It was now time to START my day, but it was 11 p.m. my time! No one said trackchasing would be easy. My first stop in the London Airport was to get my cell phone working in Europe. The last time I bought a cell phone, I made sure it had GSM capability that would allow me to use it in Europe. A simple purchase of a “SIM” card gave me a new phone number for my U.K. stay. This phone strategy would end up paying huge dividends during the trip. P.J. and I would get to meet up with several of the U.K. race fans and trackchasers. The first folks we met up with at our first track, Ringwood Raceway, were Spike (Steve) Rixon and his lovely accomplice, Linda. Spike and Linda were operating the track merchandise stand at Ringwood and doing a brisk business. Spike and Linda surprised us with a beautiful memento of our trackchasing trip. They gave P.J. and me each a lovely Lucite piece with the names of each of the eight tracks we had on our trackchasing plan encased with the British flag. I will value this custom gift forever and it will have a place with my most valuable artifacts. Thank you very much Spike and Linda. What you did was very thoughtful indeed. I also learned of the somewhat unusual occupation that both Spike and Linda share in their civilian lives. Any Yanks care to guess what that might be? We also had the opportunity to meet and talk with Paul Huggett and his wife Stella. Paul is the Associate Editor of the glossy racing magazine, Short Circuit. Both he and Stella are former race drivers and Stella is a former autograss champion. Paul had a lot to say about both the racing and political landscape. I very much enjoyed our conversation. We saw Colin Casserly taking photos from the Ringwood infield, but unfortunately did not get a chance to say hi in person. Our second track of the day took us to the Wheels Raceway in Birmingham. Dave Carter, a long-time reader of the Trackchaser Report, works in race control at the track. Dave had arranged for complimentary admission for P.J. and me. That was a very nice gesture on Dave’s part. Thank you! I got to meet Dave up in the control tower and he also arranged for a great interview with the announcer and meeting with the track promoter. As we continued on the trackchasing trip other tracks gave us free admission, programs, racing magazines and recognition. Just before going to bed on Saturday night I picked up a text message on my cell phone. It was from Colin Herridge. He was reminding us that British Summer time (aka Daylight Savings Time) would take effect over night. Had we not gotten that message, we might have missed the action at our first Sunday track. The event at Yarmouth was special. Please make sure you read about it in the Yarmouth track section. For the first several races of the trip, P.J. was content to operate behind the camera while I took the point in sharing the trackchasing story with as many people as possible via track interviews and personal meetings. By the time we reached Yarmouth on Easter Sunday it was time for P.J. to take what he had learned and go in front of an estimated 2,000 people. The occasion was P.J.’s 800th lifetime track and he did a great job in a personal interview with the track commentator, Jim Gregory. Our last day, Monday, had us meeting up with the aforementioned and certainly famous Colin Herridge. Colin joined us for the Grove Farm autograss program and then led us over to the Grimley Raceway banger fixture. These two races raised Colin’s U.K. total of tracks to 100. Congratulations Colin on reaching the century mark. Thanks also for your heads up during the trip via your text messages. Good luck following May 13 and again, Happy Birthday! Just a couple of things to wrap up the “People/Travel” section of this report. First, petrol (aka gasoline) is expensive by American standards. In the U.K. petrol goes fro between $6.00 and $6.50 per gallon. Next time you fill up for gasoline in the U.S. don’t worry too much that it’s costing you about $2 per gallon. We drove nearly 1,000 miles on the trip. We only filled up twice. However, when we did fill-up, a tank of cost $84 the first time and $96 the second time! Our French Renault Megane, in addition to looking like Gary Balough’s outlawed Lincoln, got more than 37 miles per gallon. It also had a credit card shaped key and a push button on and off button for the engine! This trip was pretty much drive, eat, race and sleep. We did have a complete afternoon to tour Oxford, England home of the very famous university. We had a very delightful lunch in an outdoor café where P.J. and I dined on marinated garlic cloves before our Italian lunch was served. P.J. hosted our Easter Sunday supper at a very quaint restaurant a few miles from the Yarmouth track. P.J.’s three pork chops were huge and I enjoyed a delicious steak dinner. I was able to introduce P.J. to the fine world of crème brulee, which we enjoyed for dessert. Finally, on our last evening at the Reading Travelodge we asked the clerk if there was a local English pub where we could share our last supper. Recall, now that the Travelodge is located in a Welcome Break along the interstate in a relatively remote area. The clerk told us the pub was just a 10-minute walk or so from the hotel, although it might be a “little dark” on the walk back to the hotel after eating. This was one of our wilder adventures of the entire trip. It was nearly dark when we began our walking journey for some English pub food. First, we had to walk through what seemed like a garbage dump. We then came upon a two-lane road with a surprising amount of vehicular traffic. We had to walk along this curving road for almost two miles. There were no sidewalks and each time a car came by we had to step into the bushes. I could only imagine the hotel clerk being on his cell phone to his buddies waiting in these bushes to remove what few valuables we had (Editor’s note: I can think “East Coast” when I have too). We finally made it to the restaurant where P.J. enjoyed a traditional fish and chips dinner. The walk back to the hotel in total darkness with right out of Laurel and Hardy. With the cars driving on the opposite side of the road from what we were used too, total darkness and only wet underbrush to hop into to avoid becoming a flattened bug, we worried the calories off. On Tuesday morning, we returned our car to the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel drop point. From that point we upgraded to having a private driver take us to the airport rather than riding a public bus as we had done at the beginning of the trip. Because P.J. had picked his travel partner wisely, he was seen bypassing the long line of harried coach passengers and checking in at the first class desk. Shortly P.J. was leaning back in a leather chair in the American Airlines Admirals Club. After a couple of drinks with shortbread cookies we parted ways for our respective homes back across that big old pond. An outstanding time was had by all. Thanks to P.J. for being a great trackchasing companion. Thanks to our U.K. friends for helping make the trip so much more enjoyable and thanks to readers of the Trackchasing Report for coming along on this word picture. RACE TRACK NEWS: RINGWOOD RACEWAY #817– RINGWOOD, ENGLAND We arrived at Ringwood exactly at the 2 p.m. start time. I had left home at 4:30 a.m. Pacific time and was arriving at 4 a.m. Pacific time exactly 23.5 hours later. I think I slept about 2 hours during this period and had to stay up an additional eight hours to watch the race and get to our first night’s hotel. The Ringwood Raceway was one of the best racing venues from a facilities point of view of any we saw on the trip. Directions to the track were very well signposted (American tracks could learn a lesson here). We were somewhat surprised at the 12-pound (as in British pounds) admission price. That is about $24 U.S. with an exchange rate of one British pound for two U.S. dollars. It would not be the first time we would be shocked and dismayed, yet happy to be on the trip, during our visit. This is what was printed about the beginning of the Ringwood Raceway in a local piece, “The first cars to compete on the new Speedway track were the Midget racers on August 20th 1950. Four years later when the sport of Stock Car Racing first arrived in England, from France via the USA on Good Friday 1954 at New Cross Stadium in London. During the remainder of the 1954 season, the new sport spread like wildfire across the UK and events were held in every available stadium, as well as a few farmers’ fields, Ringwood staged its first official meeting during October. The 10,000 people that did manage to see those first races that day were the lucky ones, many thousands of other prospective viewers never arrived at the Stadium…they were caught in miles of bumper to bonnet queues of traffic that clogged all the approach roads!” During 1958, the track surface was tarmacked, and now enters the record books as the longest running tarmac oval in the UK. In fact, the only other Stadium still running as long as Ringwood, on a continuous basis, is Coventry. Today there was a large crowd on hand. The weather was mostly sunny with a temperature of about 55, which made for a nice afternoon. There were four formulae (classes) racing. These included the Formula 2 stock cars, stock rods, saloon stocks (P.J.’s favorite and one of mine) and vintage cars. The car counts we experienced at each of our eight tracks dwarfed those of their American counterparts. There were about 60 F2 stock cars, 35 hot rods, 30 saloon stocks and about a dozen vintage cars. The formulae were handicapped for each race. Cars are staggered at the start and don’t all cross the starting line at the same time (similar to outlawed west coast off-road racing – but I will leave that discussion for a later time). The slower cars start up front (also different from the track’s American cousins…..and better). The cars have their roofs painted based upon their grading. The slowest cars have white roofs, followed by yellow, blue and red. The “superstars” start behind the red roofed cars. Superstars have red roofs and flashing lights on their roofs and/or wings. The seating was in the form of poured concrete “steps” that you could sit on. P.J. and I sat on three legged collapsible golf stools. They were light to carry and very effective. The program ran smoothly. There was no interval (intermission – again beating their American cousins), very few yellow flags (continuing to beat their American counterparts!) and they started on time (now beginning to smother those damned Yanks). There were about five “corner” flagmen stationed around the oval. If a car spun and came to a stop on the track, a corner yellow was thrown but the overall race was not stopped. The drawbacks I noted is that many of the audio speakers didn’t work well. The announcer sounded good on the few speakers that worked but overall the sound system was a disappointment. This nullified the effect of his trackchaser mention. The track could have used a lap counter. Surprisingly, there was no admission to the pit area from the grandstand. In my entire 36 U.K. racing venues, this is a first. One person did tell me this limitation was not being enforced but we didn’t push the idea of getting into the pits. We stayed for the entire program from start to finish, as this was our only location to visit on Good Friday. Heat races started some 25 cars and ran 15-20 laps. The action was close in all classes and it was an excellent beginning to the trip. WHEELS RACEWAY #818– BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND This might have been my favorite track of the trip. There were three formulae racing including Lightning Rods, 2.0-liter bangers and Incarods. The racetrack facility itself is a bit rundown. This track, like many others, has a pace car. What’s most unusual about this pace car is that the pace car driver leads the racecars out of the turn at full speed and with the racecars only one-car length behind the pace car! At the very last moment, the pace car pulls into the infield and the race is on. Most all of the racecars have the driver’s name in huge block letters printed across the top of their windscreen. This is a helpful touch that makes everything a bit more fan friendly. The track sits on a hill and offers a city lights view of the second largest city in England, Birmingham. This was P.J.’s first opportunity to see the banger formulae, one of my all-time favorites. The bangers did not disappoint. They delivered some horrific crashes. We were sitting in the turn just a few feet from the track’s racing surface. In banger racing, full contact is encouraged. The fans love it when one driver wipes out another. The worst crash happened when one car, at the mid-point in the straightaway, rammed into a car and kept pushing until both cars crashed into the first turn wall. We guessed they were both running about 60 M.P.H. at impact. In banger racing, this is called a “follow-in”. This maneuver is supposed to be illegal. The pushing car is supposed to let up before the first car makes contact with the wall. If the pushing car does let off the gas, the first car has some recoil from its impact with the wall. That didn’t happen here so the first car’s front end collapsed after hitting the wall and the rear end of the car collapsed from the force of the pushing car. That didn’t leave much room for the driver of the first car, whose vehicle was now about 5 feet long! I had an excellent interview with the track’s announcer. He was very interested in my telling the crowd about our trackchasing hobby. P.J. got it all on video for me. The announcer allowed that trackchasing “was perfectly fine” and that traveling all over the world to these tracks is “brilliant”. I couldn’t agree more. Following the interview, I had the opportunity to talk with track promoter, Philip Bond. Philip attends the promoter’s meetings in both Reno and Daytona Beach. That surprised me a bit since I didn’t know foreign promoters went to these meetings. He is also the promoter at the Hednesford and North Hampton tracks, which I had seen on previous visits. Philip knows the Deerys of Rockford Speedway and John McCarns, former ARTGO promoter. He also told me he collaborated with Allan Brown to get some English tracks inserted into the National Speedway Directory a few years ago. Mr. Bond surmised that he “must not have bought enough books” because the U.K. insertions were eliminated the next year. Mr. Bond told me that racecar drivers do not have to pay any track entry fees since they were the “entertainers”. They also get two free tickets to each event and a fully paid insurance program. He told me track insurance costs about 25% as much as it does in the United States for a similar race program. Apparently, this is due to our lawsuit happy American consumer. We stayed for the entire 10-event program, as this is also our only event of the day. It was an enjoyable event, on a cold evening. I thank Dave Carter and Philip Bond for making it a special evening. I don’t know if I was talking to commentator, Mark Bond or Jonathan Palmer, but whichever commentator I got did one of the better jobs of making the hobby sound interesting of the more than 100 track interviews I have had. BOILING WELLS FARM #819– SLEAFORD, ENGLAND Our first event on Easter Sunday was an 11 a.m. Autograss race event. The word, “Autograss” makes it sound like the cars were racing on grass. They weren’t. They were racing on a permanent track in a large farmer’s field at the Boiling Wells Farm. This was P.J.’s first autograss event. I got a kick out of seeing his reaction to each of his first time U.K. racing experiences. As a veteran European autograss racer (my words), I especially enjoy the autograss events. New readers may not know that I made my competitive racing debut at the Hilltop Raceway in Tirley, England back in 2000. Of course, videos of my race are available for a handsome fee. Admission to today’s event was a mere 5 pounds. We estimated there were between 150 and 200 racers on hand. There were 10-12 classes. Each heat of the 36-race program started 8-9 cars. The cars all start side by side. When the green flag drops, each driver hits the gas and they are off for what is normally a five-lap race. The course today was a flat nearly half-mile oval. This was the longest autograss track I have seen. There are virtually no yellow flags and each race only takes 2-3 minutes. In an hour, you can see 12-15 races. This is the sixth and final year of racing at the Boiling Hills Farm. There are plans for a new venue near Newark. The sanctioning group is in final talks with the local council and farmer to get the new track going. Everyone we met during our entire U.K trip has been overly friendly. P.J. and I each ordered our breakfast from the track caterer. P.J. was given a free sample of a French fry with curry but declined this culinary specialty. The food server noticed we were Americans and graciously gave each of us a 2005 National Fixture list for all tracks (about 50) that are members of the National Autograss Sports Association. On the way out, I stopped at the press box to say hello to the track commentator. If you imagine an ice-fishing hut, you will have a rough idea of what the “press box” looked like. I talked with “Dave” who had emailed me some information about today’s event. We talked briefly over the P.A. The track secretary then gave me two copies of the Supergrass magazine, which is the official magazine of the British Autograss Series. I kept the one with the photograph of the “tits r us!” banner which was supplemented with four healthy young ladies holding the aforementioned banner. SNETTERTON CIRCUIT #820– SNETTERTON, ENGLAND In mid-afternoon, we found ourselves at the first road course venue of the trip. Racing was scheduled to start at 1:15 p.m. and continue until almost 6 p.m. The first race meeting at Snetterton was arranged in 1951 by the Aston Martin Owner’s Club. The track had been cobbled together from a network of runways, which formed the wartime base of the 96th US Air Force Bomber Group. The circuit configuration has changed greatly since then, shortening a lap to just under two miles, but the layout still includes two of the longest, fastest straights in the UK, linked by quick corners and a couple of mind-concentrating chicanes. It was cold and sprinkling rain from time to time. We initially pulled into the nearby flea market thinking we had reached the track. We quickly corrected our mistake and paid the surprisingly high 12-pound admission price. This was a road course where a spectator could see very little of the actual racing. Therefore, to entertain ourselves, I began P.J.’s “Introduction to the Media 101” training course. P.J. would soon come under the microscope of the media glare and I wanted him to be prepared. We approached the media center and began a discussion with the elderly man at the desk. In no time, we had talked out way into a full tour of the second floor V.I.P. media center. This was a great place to take pictures from and relax. Our tour guide also was proud to explain the beginnings of the Snetterton Circuit and it’s tie-in to World War II. Whenever I have the opportunity to speak with locals about their feelings on the issues of the day, I take that opportunity. Our private tour guide was a farmer when not helping out at Snetterton. I asked him what he thought the feeling of the English public was toward our involvement in Iraq. His reply was “some and some”. Some people thought it was a good idea and some didn’t. He’s a grain farmer and is very much disappointed in Prime Minister Tony Blair. Seems Mr. Blair will not support the addition of grain to petrol like the one we have in the U.S. Suffice it to say, that our farmer friend will not be voting for Tony Blair in the upcoming election. In America, a common phrase is “breakfast, lunch and dinner”. Our guide used a similar phrase, but changed it just a bit to, “breakfast, lunch and tea”. We watched a few races from different vantage points around the track. You could see so little that this was probably my least favorite track of the trip. We were only 30 miles from our 7 p.m. Sunday venue, so after we could no longer stand the cold we headed out for a very nice Easter dinner. GREAT YARMOUTH STADIUM #821 – YARMOUTH, ENGLAND The highlight of this evening’s show was seeing P.J. attend his 800th lifetime track. When anyone sees this many tracks, they should be properly recognized and P.J. was. I had written to tell the track we were coming. I asked about starting times, directions and the like. I would never ask that we be given free tickets but occasionally the track does offer complimentary admission. That was the case tonight. Of course, as a retired pensioner living on a small fixed income the track’s generosity was much appreciated. Back in the year 2000, I met the track commentator, Jim Gregory. Jim invited me down to the track then for an interview in front of the summertime crowd. Even though it was summer, it is always cool at Yarmouth since it faces the North Sea on the eastern edge of England. Jim had kidded me about wearing “golfing trousers” (shorts) to the event and said I looked like a typical American. During that trip, I was off to play the Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s Golf Course, a frequent British Open venue. Jim reminded everyone this must be an enviable lifestyle if one can get it, and of course, it is. I had ascended the death-defying catwalk to enter the third floor press box. P.J. declined the offer sighting a “fear of ladders”. During my meeting with the commentator, I reminded him that this was a very special evening for P.J. with regard to his 800th lifetime new track. Later during the evening P.J. and I were invited down to the track’s racing surface for an interview. Before the interview could start, I had to pick a winner of a brand new car out of a large bucket of hopeful entries. Following a brief reunion interview where Jim Gardner reminded the crowd that I had visited Yarmouth in 2000, it was time for the spotlight to shine on only a minorly reluctant P.J. Hollebrand. Before the interview with P.J. ended, the flash bulbs were popping and the large crowd was cheering and giving P.J. a standing ovation. I even got in a picture of the two of them having a very happy interview on such a momentous occasion. The timing of P.J.’s media schooling at Snetterton could not come at a better time as he represented all worldwide trackchasers very well indeed. By the way, this was P.J.’s first ever trackchasing media interview. The racing at Yarmouth was very good. This facility also functions as a dog-racing track during three days a week. That means they have a nicely heated indoor grandstand and other amenities. One of the most unusual luxuries, for a short track, was the three flat screen TV monitors that broadcast the racing action on a live time basis. The track scoreboard kept track of the first six cars and recorded car numbers up to three digits. There were several formulae including rookie bangers, mini-stox, legends (that’s what I called them) and figure of eight racing. P.J. got to count the Yarmouth oval and figure eight tracks (numbers 800 and 801), while I added the figure of 8 track for my 821st new track. The first race was a 24 car, 18-lap heat race. I would estimate that 90% of the feature events in the U.S. do not start 24 cars. I would also estimate than 50% or more of U.S. features do not run 18 laps or more in length. This is just an example of the car count and entertainment value of English racing. It’s going to be tough to go back U.S. racing with 4-6 car heat races for six laps that have 2-3 caution flags each. The figure of 8 race was one of the best I have seen anywhere. First, they started 33 cars. Secondly, no one backed off at the “X” as is commonly done in the states. There were about three high-speed T-bone crashes. These were some of the hardest hits I have seen in figure 8 racing. There were no yellow or red flags following these hits, they just kept on racing. I would like to see the P.A. system be a little stronger at some points around the track. We viewed the action are the start/finish line at an elevation about the same as the track’s elevation. This didn’t give us a great view, but it kept us in from the cold. There is not a short track in America that would have run on a night-light tonight. It was about 45 degrees, very windy and rained off and on. They don’t cancel oval events, or virtually any events, for that matter because of weather, (U.K. beats U.S. again). I have now been to 36 U.K. tracks and have never had one track cancel the program. That’s a pretty good record. Maybe that’s why Yarmouth had a large crowd on a raw weather night, because they knew they could come to the track and not worry about the promoter canceling. It was a special night at Yarmouth. I wish all of you reading this could have been there to see P.J. receiving his well-deserved recognition. THE GROVE FARM #822 – MONKLAND, ENGLAND On the Bank Holiday Monday, we found ourselves at another autograss morning event. This meeting also had a large number of cars just like Boiling Hills Farm did. We estimated about 150 racing machines. Admission was 5 pounds. The track was about four tenths of a mile in distance over its oval course. They were out of complimentary programs when we arrived. The track itself had a significant slope to it. Turns three and four were probably 30 feet lower in elevation than turns one and two. A highlight of the day was having the now famous Colin Herridge meet us at the track. Colin lives about 40 miles north of London and is a frequent contributor to the trackchaser email group. The three of us chatted in the pit area while the autograss racers went at it on a sunny and relatively warm day. We were a bit worn out from the constant pace we have been maintaining so after seeing virtually the entire 150 cars race we headed out to the Grimley Raceway. GRIMLEY RACEWAY #823- GRIMLEY, ENGLAND The Grimley Raceway is only about 30 miles from the autograss track we had just left. We agreed to follow Mr. Herridge through the English countryside at what turned out to be a rapid pace. Colin’s Vauxhall handled the curving up and down terrain like a champ and our French Renault Mirage was not far behind. I only heard P.J. gasp for air a time or two and mutter something about how we might be driving too fast. Fortunately, the Dollar Rental Car Company did not charge me for the fingernail impressions that P.J. made in the passenger side armrest! The Grimley Raceway is a very rural tarmac oval. P.J. was treated to the Randy Lewis method of getting V.I.P. parking in the soggy, tree lined nearly full grass and mud parking lot. He said we had the “Donald Trump” parking space. That’s all I need is to stir up those who feel I am the Donald Trump of trackchasing. Admission was 7 pounds. A race program cost an additional one-pound. There was not a whole lot of good going on at this track. First, the P.A. system either didn’t work or was rarely used. We really couldn’t tell what was going on. Secondly, there was a delay between each race like no other we had seen on the trip. Finally, the car counts were the lowest of any track we had seen. Was the Grimley promoter trained in America? Some of the banger racing wasn’t too bad. The outlaw Formula 2 stock cars could muster only four machines. I will say the double cheeseburger I had was very tasty. Colin, P.J. and I all enjoyed an ice cream treat. I offered P.J. some “candy floss” aka cotton candy but he declined. There was absolutely no formal seating at the track. The lion’s share of the crowd sat on a banked grassy hillside along the backstretch. The very muddy pit area was housed just beyond the front stretch and to the starter’s right. The formula two stock cars allow for full contact. That means it’s OK to push a driver who might be ahead of you out of the way. In the formula two feature event, the second place driver conveniently punted the leader into the third turn wall on the last lap and went on to win. In the U.S., there would have been a major confrontation. Here it’s all accepted as the way to do business. Soon thereafter, P.J. and I parted company with Colin. It was great seeing you buddy and we’ll look forward to the next time. CASTLE COMBE CIRCUIT #824 – CASTLE COMBE, ENGLAND The drive to the Castle Combe Circuit was about 80 miles. I’ll admit I was starting to drag at this point. I perked up a bit when I saw an “R. Lewis & Company LTD” truck parked along side the road. Seems like “R. Lewis” is an electrical engineer. I plan to check out the company’s website at www.rlewis.co.uk to see what this fellow’s first name is. We arrived with three full races still remaining on the program. Fortunately, they were no longer charging admission. We ended up paying 41 pounds ($82) for our nine track entries. That wasn’t too bad. Here’s some background on the Castle Combe Circuit: Castle Combe Circuit opened just 18 months after Silverstone in the summer of 1950, making it one of the longest established circuits in the UK. Until 1999, the circuit followed its original layout, around the perimeter of the old air base. In that first year, a young Stirling Moss won a race and over the next few years, names like Mike Hawthorn, Colin Chapman, Les Leston, Roy Salvadori and John Surtees thrilled huge crowds. By the 60’s, several planning constraints had seen the circuit become run down and although the old Brands Hatch company, Motor Circuit Developments tried hard to develop meetings in the early 70’s with Formula 5000 and other major events, planning problems prevented long term development. However in 1976, the circuit lease was obtained by the current owners and the long road to developing the circuit as a modern national racing venue began. Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, and David Coulthard all won races in the 70’s and 80’s, and by the 90’s, the circuit hosted rounds of most of the national championships. Today, the circuit boasts modern facilities for competitors and spectators, and the resurfaced and now reshaped circuit providing what is generally recognized as providing the closest circuit racing in British Motorsport. Castle Combe Sporting Highlights: We much preferred Castle Combe to Snetterton. The weather was better. The viewing was better and the racing was better. You could actually see about 75% of the sloping somewhat oval shaped track. The highlight was race #6 for pre ’60 European Historic Touring cars. The race was won by a Lotus Elite that averaged 73. 42 M.P.H. Other historic cars in the race included: Triumph TR2, Volvo Amazon, Alvis Grey Lady (my favorite), Austin A40, Jaguar Mk7, Ford Anglia 100E, Sunbeam Rapier, Riley 1.5, Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ, Morris Minor, Lancia Aurelia B20 GT and a MG Magnette. These were beautiful cars and they raced hard. We estimate we saw more than 1,000 different racecars race during our four day, eight-venue trip. The weather was better than expected. The friendliness of our U.K. hosts was outstanding. Other than a Chicago based American Airlines flight attendant we never saw anything but smiles. This was my fifth trip to the United Kingdom for racing. I’ve enjoyed every one. I’ll be back again. Cheers! Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis The #1 trackchaser living west of the Mississippi That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, all of the children are above average and the real estate prices are way above average. THE TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: The battle for positions that could change in the near future is as follows: April 1 – Boyd Raceway, Boyd, Texas The rest of the weekend is currently TBA ** Great Yarmouth Stadium (oval), Yarmouth, England, March 27 Greetings from Ballymena, Northern Ireland and then several points in England, PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12 I first started going to England for trackchasing back in 1999. The trip I have just completed is my sixth visit (third straight trip over the Easter holiday) across the pond in the past eight years. I started coming back to England over the Easter holiday because there is so little racing on Easter weekend in the United States. Carol prefers not to torture her body on a long trip for such a relatively short duration. She will head out to visit her parents in New Mexico. With all three of our children living on their own, this makes it a perfect time for me to spend five days in the United Kingdom. I will be flying solo on this one. One of the highest-ranking U.S. trackchasers in the world was scheduled to come along but had to cancel due to illness at the last minute. I was sorry to see that happen. Nevertheless, I will meet up with fellow trackchasers from England and Belgium along the way. I have also corresponded with local people about the racetracks I plan to visit. I hope to meet up with some of those folks and make some new friends. International travel is a bit of a challenge. First, it’s a long flight from Los Angeles to London. Fortunately, I’m flying non-stop, but the flight is still 10 hours long. There is an eight-hour time change. When it’s 8 a.m. and time for breakfast in the United Kingdom, my body will be on “California” time, which will be midnight. I have been to Europe more than 15 times. I have discovered, the hard way, that the secret to success is staying awake the first day until it’s time to go to bed on European time. Many times international flights land in the morning. Morning in Europe is time to go to bedtime in California. It’s very difficult to stay up, but if you don’t the time zone will be a problem during the entire trip. I’m somewhat lucky on this trip. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30 p.m. Pacific time and due to a delay actually didn’t get off the ground until around 10 p.m. I won’t land in London until 4 p.m. (the new day) local time. All I need to do is stay up until about 10 p.m., go to bed dead tired and sleep 8-10 hours and I will be pretty acclimated to the local time zone. The perks for the frequent traveler can make or break a trip. When I traveled on business I had just all the perks you could think of based upon my traveling frequency. I don’t have as many of those perks in retirement but I have some. My preferred airline for all these years has been American Airlines. I am a lifetime Platinum frequent flyer. Platinum flyers get the use of the private Admiral’s Club both coming and going on international flights. Although I am no longer a member of the Admiral’s Club (annual membership $300-400), it great to be able to use the club’s facilities on a trip like this. The funny thing about the Admiral’s Club on this trip is that I asked the gate agent who checked my bag, if she would be giving me a pass to the Admirals Club. She told me, “American doesn’t do that.” That didn’t sound right. I simply walked into the Admiral’s Club, showed them my boarding pass and was immediately admitted and even given two free drink coupons. I often find that customer service people don’t know their product or the rules and regulations that govern their offers. I suspect they are not motivated enough to “Study up” on things, which just leads to a poor customer service experience. I like to “Push the envelope” and I’m not shy in asking for what I think I should get, in a polite and courteous manner of course. I will be flying coach. Many of my friends would do just about anything to avoid having to fly coach on a flight of this length. I really don’t mind. I have never paid for or used frequent flyer miles to upgrade to first or business class. Although it is definitely a nice experience, and I’ve flown first class and business class to Europe before, I don’t think it’s worth paying for. As it was, my Platinum status got me one of only four exit row seats available in coach. There is no seat in front of me and I can stretch out as much as I want. My Platinum position also allows me to board the plane before any other coach passengers. This is more important than you think. I always have two pieces of carry on luggage. Getting overhead luggage space above my own seat makes the trip go much smoother. Once I get past the agony of this flight, I will be ready for another great time in England. THURSDAY, APRIL 13 During my past Easter racing trips to the U.K., I’ve flown into London on Good Friday. That plan worked because I always had a flight that landed in the morning so that I could make an afternoon race within 3-4 hours or less of London. Now that I’ve been to the U.K. several times, it’s getting a bit tougher to find tracks that race on Good Friday here. Since I started to plan the trip a few months ago, I just went ahead and booked a Thursday arrival, since I didn’t know where I would be trackchasing on Good Friday. It turned out that my best bet was the Ballymena Raceway in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. The best way to get there after I landed in London was to drive to Liverpool, stay overnight there, and then fly from Liverpool to Belfast, Northern Ireland. In trackchasing, you do what you have to do! I didn’t think I slept much on the overnight flight, but when I did wake up I was surprised to learn we had only two hours more to go. American Airlines served both a hot meal for a late night dinner and a continental breakfast just before we landed. It’s been a long time since I’ve actually been served a full meal aboard an airplane. I had booked my airfare several months ago. I rarely use my frequent flyer miles to get a “Free” ticket, but I did this time. American requires only 40,000 miles to London from the U.S. during the “Off” season. That seemed like a worthwhile trade for a ticket that was going for about $700. After I landed and before I left the Heathrow Airport, I made a quick stop at a store in the airport called, “The Link.” These folks sell cell phones and related paraphernalia. I needed a U.K. “SIM” card. The SIM card will allow me to use my U.S. cell phone in the U.K., which is pretty cool. They were having a special from Virgin Mobile. For just five pounds, I could get 50-75 minutes of talk time within the U.K. That should allow me to make emergency calls to hotels, racetracks and underground trackchasing members who have helped me with this trip. I can also call back to the U.S. for about 35 cents per minute. One really nice feature is that ALL incoming calls are free. I was also surprised at how reasonable rental car rates were. Historically, rental cars in Europe cost nearly double what they do in the states. Currently, the conversion rate of U.S. dollars into British pounds is about 1.75 to 1. That means you need $1.75 U.S. to buy one British pound. Last Easter I paid 24 British Pounds per day. That converted to about $48 U.S. per day for the rental car. For this trip I would be paying only 15 pounds per day. With the better exchange rate, that meant my rental car would cost only $26 dollars per day plus taxes of about $12 per day. That price is not to far from what I normally pay back home. I had to ride an airport bus over to the Sheraton Heathrow Airport Hotel to pick up my Thrifty Rental Car. They offered an upgrade to a Jaguar S-type for just 10 pounds more per day. That seemed reasonable, but since Carol has the very same car, it didn’t seem that unique to me. I had reserved a full-size car with an automatic transmission. Most rental cars in Europe come with standard transmissions. I know how to use manual transmissions and actually like them. However, it seemed like enough to take on with a right side steer car and driving on the left side of the road that I didn’t need to be trying to shift with my left hand in heavy traffic. I picked up the car at about 5 p.m. I had a drive of nearly 200 miles up toward Liverpool to make. That will be my longest drive of the trip. I expect to drive only about 750 in England during the five-day vacation. That’s pretty light driving for me. In England the motorways (AKA freeways or interstates) have Welcome Breaks. Welcome Breaks are like interstate rest areas in the states on steroids. My first stop was at the Oxford Welcome Break. I love Welcome Breaks. They are mini-shopping malls right off the motorway. The Oxford break had 4-5 restaurants, including KFC and Burger King along with a couple of sit-down choices. They also have a large store with gifts, candy, magazines, etc. Couple all of this with game rooms, slot machines, etc. and you have a mini-shopping mall every 30-50 miles along the freeway. I had about 55 pounds left over from my last trip to England. Carol keeps track of this and gives me our leftover foreign currency, from whatever country we’ll be visiting, in a plastic bag. I plan to charge as much as I can, but I will need to make at least one stop at an ATM. The Welcome Break ATM would not accept my Citibank ATM card. I’ll try again in the Liverpool Airport. In the U.S., I don’t normally reserve hotels in advance. In the U.K., I don’t seem to “See” hotels quite as easily. Therefore, I am prone to booking hotels over the internet in advance. For this trip I’ve book three of my five nights in advance. I’ll just “Wing it” in Northern Ireland and for my Saturday night stay in England. I’m partial to Travelodges in the U.K. I use www.AA.Com to plan my driving directions from point A to point B during these trips. That website also directs me to budget hotels such as Travelodge and Days Inn. Hotels in England are expensive. It’s not unusual to pay $100 a night for something that’s the equivalent of Super 8. Travelodge has a program that offers significant discounts for booking a non-refundable stay. I booked two nights at just $26 pounds per night (about $45). That’s pretty good. The Travelodges are recently built, clean and comfortable. However, my hotel tonight does not do wake up calls. I’m glad I brought my alarm clock, because I have an early start on Friday morning. I figured I saved more than $1,000 off what the normal tourist would pay for airline tickets, car rental and hotels. I enjoy the challenge of trying to get the best deal possible. That being said, there is only so much time that can be spent in that endeavor. I will give myself a certain amount of time trying to get a best price and then move on. My objective is not to buy cheap things, but to buy expensive things cheaply. There’s a huge difference between those two financial objectives. One other unusual thing about the Travelodge. Although I had paid for tonight’s room in advance, all that was required was for me to give them my name verbally. There was NO paperwork whatsoever to fill out. It was simply, “I’m Randy Lewis,” from me and “Here’s your key,” from the desk clerk. I liked that system. The logistics of this trip were going well. I had scored good deals on my airline ticket, rental car, hotels and cell phone. I guess my business traveling experience is paying off in retirement. FRIDAY, APRIL 14 (GOOD FRIDAY) I went to bed last night at midnight. I set my morning alarm for 7 a.m. I figure seven hours of sleep would get me back on track. At about 4:30 a.m. I heard some activity in the halls. These Brits get up early! I tried to go back to sleep but without success. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, my body was telling me that four and one-half hours of sleep was enough for the night. I don’t know why I was getting this message, because I like to sleep a full 7-8 hours each night. The morning plan is to drive about 15 miles over to the Liverpool Airport and fly out at 9:25 a.m. to Belfast, Northern Ireland. I have never been to Ireland before. I have flown out of Liverpool though. Back on July 31, 2000, I flew from Liverpool to the Isle of Mann. The IOM is just off the Northwest coast of England. That evening I took in the action at the Onchan Raceway, my 449th track. I’ve seen a few since then. I was traveling with the entire family on that trip. They let me go off on that mini-trip to the Isle of Mann for the day. Oddly, the Isle of Mann races their weekly program on Monday nights. I have never known any other track to do that. Another notable feature of my trip to the IOM was that I was able to play the famous Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s Golf Course in Blackpool. The Lytham course is my favorite golf experience of anywhere around the world I have ever played. First, the course is home to the British Open every 4-5 years. Secondly, my own golf club at home, the Pacific Golf Club, has three nines. They are named after the course architect, Gary Player’s, three British Open venue wins. Those would be Muirfield, Carnoustie and Royal Lytham. Having lunch in the clubhouse (no shorts allowed) was an absolute sports highlight for me. Beating Mr. Ed Penney of England, in our own self-described “Ryder Cup” was also memorable. Yes, the Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s golf experience was topped by none other. Alas, there will be no golf on this trip. I will have to park my London based Thrifty Rental Car at the Liverpool Airport. I will then rent another car in Belfast for just one day. I was not as lucky with rental rates in Belfast. I opted for a manual transmission to cut down on expenses. I figured I needed to try out my ability to shift left handed even though I am left handed in some things I do (eating/writing). My daily rate was 35 pounds and with taxes, brought the total to 48 pounds (about $84 U.S.). That’s rather expensive for a one-day car rental. Since I had a few minutes at the Liverpool Airport, I decided to have breakfast. There weren’t many places to choose from, so I chose a cafeteria-style restaurant. Little did I know that the cost of an English breakfast could add up so quickly. While I was waiting in line for hot food, I picked up a Danish for 1 pound, 79 pence ($3.13). My next selection was a large plastic bottle of orange juice at 2 pounds, 99 pence ($5.23). I was hungry so I went with the full English breakfast for 6 pounds, 99 pence ($12.23). The full English breakfast comes with an egg, two large bangers (sausages), bacon, potatoes and some kind of buttered and fried crispy toast. I skipped the tomatoes. The server asked if I wanted toast with my breakfast. I was thinking the toast came with my breakfast. Nope! Add one pound, 19 pence to the toast ($2.08. My “Full English breakfast” ended up costing me 12 pounds, 96 pence or $22.68!!! I flew easyJet (that’s the way they spell it) Airlines from Liverpool to Belfast. They are the Southwest Airlines of Ireland and parts beyond. Their fares are very reasonable. I paid only $114 to fly round-trip. They also offer open seating ala Southwest Airlines. I sat next to a Scotsman and we enjoyed sharing our cultural experiences and opinions during the short 35-minute flight. I struck up a nice conversation with the two young women at the National Rental Car counter. I loved their Irish accents. They took pity on me and upgraded my car rental reservation. I ended up with a Vauxhall Zafira Peugeot five speed. The vehicle is a smaller SUV. This car is the easiest shifting manual transmission I’ve ever driven. My new Irish friends send this message over their radio describing me to the attendant where I would be picking up the car, “He’s a real tall American with a real big camera around his neck.” Ya, I guess I looked like a tourist. The rental ladies recommended I book a room early since it’s the Easter weekend. I took their advice and had the “Accommodations” desk at the airport make a reservation at a Ballymena bed and breakfast hotel. I don’t stay in bed and breakfast places nearly as much as I should. I now had the entire afternoon to tour the Northern Ireland countryside. Northern Ireland is not very big. It has only six counties in the entire country. I spent most of my time along the Ocean Road in Antrim County. The Ocean Road has a lot in common with the road to Hana in Maui, except it’s narrower and they drive a lot faster here. I was surprised by the amount of sheep grazing along the roadway and hillsides. Although there was a lot of blue sky, it was cool (about 50 degrees) and windy. I stopped along the most beautiful and rugged golf course overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. These people were playing in a wind chill of about 40 degrees and didn’t seem to mind a bit. I would recommend the Ocean Road drive to anyone visiting the area. I had also planned, based upon a great recommendation from Brian, a Northern Ireland email contact I made along the way, a visit to the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery. Unfortunately, they emailed me back saying they would be closed while I was in Northern Ireland on Good Friday. Bourbon Whiskey is my favorite liquor and I was hoping to add some Bushmills to my liquor cabinet. The Ballymena Raceway is located near the city centre of Ballymena. Ballymena is a good-sized town. My B&B is just a couple of miles from the track. That’s convenient. There was a McDonalds located between the track and the B&B. As a worldwide traveler, I do not endorse eating at McDonalds or any other American fast food operator while traveling in foreign countries. You’re there to experience a different culture, not simply mimic the one you just left. Having said that, I have an obligation to Lillian who works at our golf club. She collects McDonald’s toys and I always try to pick her up some when I’m doing some international travel. Even though I normally reject American fast food when traveling, I must say the best meal Carol and I had during an 8-day visit to Russia was at McDonalds. Boy, did that taste good. I stayed at the Beechfield Guest House in Ballymena. I’m on the second floor (room #6) is what looks like a stately old, but upscale two-story manner. I don’t stay in places like this much because they are much more difficult to find than chain hotels. Unfortunately, I have an early flight tomorrow morning and won’t be able to stay for breakfast. Nevertheless, the hotel owner showed me around the kitchen so I can make my own continental breakfast tomorrow morning. Remember, I’ll have pictures of nearly everything I’m describing on this trip at www.ranlayracing.com. SATURDAY, APRIL 15 All right! It’s Saturday, how’s the trip going so far? Well, to look at the numbers one might say, “Not very good.” I’ve flown 5,447 miles from Los Angeles to London, then driven 223 miles to Liverpool, flown 184 miles from Liverpool to Belfast, then driven 133 miles in Northern Ireland, then flown 184 miles back to Liverpool from Belfast and finally driven another 23 miles to Little Budworth, England. In addition to this amount of travel, I’ve slept overnight for one night on an airplane and stayed two more overnights in a hotel and bed and breakfast. So with all of this moving around, how many new tracks have I seen? One! That’s right, just one. Maybe you think I’m losing my trackchasing magical logistic touch. You might be right! On the other hand, don’t give up on the RANLAY. My track production is likely to pickup. Nevertheless, I am now sitting trackside at Oulton Park. This is a road course in Little Budworth, England. It’s Saturday and the first countable race does not start until 4:30 p.m. I’m not sure if I remember it that way. If I did, then why did I leave my Ballymena, Northern Ireland B&B at 6 a.m. to make an 8:45 a.m. flight to Liverpool? That’s a very good question. Although the weather wasn’t that great, I was sad to leave Ireland. I’ll likely be back with Carol one day and hope to replicate Belgium trackchaser, Roland Vanden Eynde’s weeklong Ireland intierary in the future. Turning in my National Rental Car was a real trip. Just a few miles from the airport, I filled up my Vauxhall Zafira. When I converted liters to gallons and pounds to dollars, I learned that my rental car had given me 33.6 M.P.G. at a cost of $7.30 per gallon. I don’t want to hear any Americans complaining about high gas prices. We haven’t seen high gas prices and I hope we don’t. I had parked my London originating rental car in the Liverpool John Lennan Airport’s long stay (long term) parking lot when I flew to Belfast. I had no idea what it would cost to park there. I figured the long stay lot would be less expensive than the short stay lot. The lot offers a self-serve checkout procedure. Without any live bodies around, you simply input your parking ticket, then your credit card and then you receive your receipt. I had parked in the lot for 24 hours. What was I charged. How about 25 pounds or $43.75 for one stinking day! England is a very expensive country for American tourists. Remember, I make these trips so you don’t have too. I have one U.K. electrical converter. My only appliance that works with it is my Dell laptop computer. I also brought along car battery charger adapters to power my computer while I’m parked in the car and my cell phone. I was in for a surprise when I learned the cigarette lighter/power source in my rental car doesn’t work! Now I will have to baby my one single charge on the cell phone for the entire trip. I guess the rental car people don’t want folks smoking in their cars, but with the advent of all forms of electronics that suck the power, they are short changing their customers in this area. The last half of my 2006 England Easter trackchasing trip report will continue in Part 2 which follows this Trackchaser Report. RACE TRACK NEWS: BALLYMENA RACEWAY, BALLYMEDA, NORTHERN IRELAND – TRACK #1,019 – 4/13/06 The first new track of my 2006 United Kingdom Easter tour is in the books. It was another cold trackchasing evening, like so many have been this year. Admission to the Ballymena Raceway was 8 pounds. That’s 14 bucks U.S., a little on the expensive side, but then everything in the U.K. seems expensive. The program started on time at 7:30 p.m. Unlike the states, there were no national anthems played to begin the program. As part of my admission price, I received a small program that listed the track’s 2006 fixtures (schedule) as well as the order of events for tonight’s racing. Tonight is the first night of the season for the Ballymena Raceway. According to the promoter’s daughter who was also a ticket seller, the track even began a website (www.ballymenaraceway.com) to celebrate the beginning of the season. The track itself is a nearly flat quarter mile asphalt oval. The track has fixed fencing around the entire racing surface. The pit area, where all spectators are permitted to roam free of charge, is located beyond turns three and four. The infield of the track houses a beautifully maintained soccer field complete with nets. Tonight there were three sports car and one stock car class competing. These included Lightning Rods, Stock Rods, National Hot Rods and Stock Saloons (one of my favorite U.K. classes). The track races mainly on Fridays but has a few other odd dates thrown in including a Thursday. They also include as part of their 2006 fixtures list an event on January 1, 2007. I receive some of my most special trackchasing welcomes from commentators in foreign countries. This has been especially true in the U.K. and Canada. For some reason, they seem to have a deeper appreciation for someone who is both willing to travel long distances as well as visit their little part of the world. Tonight was no exception. It was starting to get really cold as I occupied a plastic stadium folding seat in the covered grandstand. The temperate was in the high 40s but a chilly wind made it seem much colder. All of a sudden, I heard the track’s commentator talking about a trackchaser who had come all the way from San Clemente, California to visit the Ballymena Raceway. I just don’t know where these folks come up with their information. Well, yes I do! The commentator’s invitation to join him in the booth was too much to resist on such a cold evening. I went to the glass enclosed, and heated, officials’ tower and met “Big D”, Derek Mason. Derek is a senior commentator whose first love is watching “Bikes” as in motorcycles race. We spent the next 5-6 races talking about racing and travel. We did a short trackchasing interview and then, whenever there was a break in the action, Derek would lay down his microphone and we would chat about Ireland. Both Derek and others in the booth had such strong Irish accents that I had to concentrate to understand them. One driver’s wife came up to the booth to complain about how her husband had been treated on the track. By the way, this happens all the time in the states. Her accent was so thick I could hardly understand a word she was saying. Suffice it to say, she was hot. After she had said her piece, she marched out of the room and the all male “Sounding board” all looked at each other at the same time exchanged those knowing smiles regarding this woman’s behavior. It doesn’t seem that Ireland is nearly as politically correct as the United States. In some ways, that is good. At one point, our commentator said when describing an on track competitor, “Yes, he’s just like a woman driver with the top half of his body slumped over the steering wheel while he drives.” That line might not work as well at Irwindale. Tonight’s racing competitors all race in a clockwise direction. As a general rule, the stock car classes in the U.K. race in the counter clockwise direction and the sports car classes race in the clockwise direction. The track schedule showed that each class would run two heat races, but only three classes had a final (features) scheduled. The missing finals class was the stock saloons. The same program is scheduled at the track tomorrow night. This track is fast. It looked to me as if every car in each class raced in that classes heat race. It was fun to see nearly every race starting 20-25 cars for a 12 lap event. There were some very hard crashes and one driver even flipped his car hard into the track’s outside barrier. It was a fun night of racing, but it was just too cold. OULTON PARK, LITTLE BUDWORTH, ENGLAND – TRACK #1,020 – 4/14/06 There were very few trackchasing choices for me today. The only tracks I found that were racing, and that I had never been to before was a road course in Wales, another track in the Channel Isles and the Oulton Park road course in Little Budworth. Based upon these track’s locations I would not be getting a U.K. double today. I chose Oulton Park as my Saturday option. I arrived at Oulton Park at 10:30 a.m. I was hoping to catch a few early afternoon races and then get on my way for today’s 180 mile drive down to where my Sunday tracks will be. That did not happen. When I entered the grounds, I asked for a racing schedule. Yes, I was surprised to learn there were just two countable races today and the first one did not start until 4:30 p.m. I’ve sure I looked at the track schedule in advance, but the starting times must have alluded me. I now had six hours on my hands before the first race, would begin. That race was a long one by most road course standards at 60 minutes. With no power source in my rental car, my options for entertainment for the next hour became more limited. I decided to begin my six hour wait with a nap! I love European cars. They handle well and they’re really quick. On the other hand, often they are not that well-equipped or comfortable. The driver’s seat back would only go back about half as far as my personal car does. That made sleeping a little less restful. Next, I spent about an hour touring the pit area. Today’s Brookson DWF British F3/GT (I’m reading from my ticket) event is a large event. The entire Oulton Park layout is huge and there are race fans dotting the landscape as far as you can see. It’s difficult to estimate, but if I had to guess I would say there are 4-5,000 people here. There are several elevations to the track. Unfortunately, there is no where that I found where you can continuously see the cars for more than 10 seconds before they leave your sight around a bend or over a hill. I don’t like that aspect of road racing. I spent another hour walking the track. Road racing is a lot like watching a golf tournament live. You can get fairly close to the competitors and walk all over the place. I like that part about road racing. I watched a lot of different classes practice during the afternoon. Once they get started you really can’t differentiate a practice session from a race. The track boldly displays their website as oultonpark.uk.co. The track’s facilities are first class. They have speakers located about 30 yards apart around the entire track. They have two large multi-story permanent buildings that house scoring/commentating and a restaurant. The large pit area is paved. There must have been 300 marshals working the event. All in all, today’s racing was more like a walk in the part than the racing I grew up with. The one countable race I did see started 21 cars. Most of them were Porsches. A few Ferraris were sprinkled in. I capped off the rest of Saturday evening with a 180 mile drive to the southwest portion of England. This will be my last long daily drive of the trip. Even though the primary purpose of this trip is trackchasing, I want to get as many experiences as I can from visiting a foreign country. That being the case, I took a detour looking for a nice sit-down restaurant off the motorway. I ended up in Worchester at an Italian restaurant run by European Indians. The food was good and it was nice to be able to enjoy a good meal compared to normal trackchasing fare. I find the English to be very interested in interacting with me as an American. In virtually every contact I have with an England native, I can sense they are curious about Americans and want to represent their country well. Of course, their pride in their country makes me want to represent the U.S.A. in the same manner. My waitress tonight was a young woman of twenty-three. She had graduated from University and was student teaching. She will become an elementary education teacher next September. She had been working at the restaurant on weekends for just three weeks. She told me I was the first American she had served. I asked her what her one impression of Americans might be. She replied, “They’re very friendly.” That a good impression to have left on her. At about 10:30 p.m., I was in full search of a hotel. I was so impressed with my Bed & Breakfast stay last night, I was looking for another B&B tonight. I was lucky to find a quaint old English house operating as a B&B just 1.5 miles from tomorrow’s first racetrack. I rang the bell, the proprietor answered, she had a room and asked if I would like to see it. Nope! The house looked great from the outside, I didn’t need to see the room, I would take it. Again, I was not required to pay for the room in advance. Breakfast runs until 9:45 a.m. That works for me! The last half of my 2006 England Easter trackchasing trip report will continue in Part 2 which follows this Trackchaser Report. CURRENT NEWS OF THE DAY – 2006 Top of Form Bottom of Form Once people join the worldwide trackchasing group it is strictly forbidden to question anyone’s intelligence. Group members are not required to show high school or college transcripts and no one has ever shared their SAT scores. That makes it pretty difficult to see who actually is the smartest trackchaser of all. Even though personal documentation is not available, I believe I know who the smartest worldwide trackchaser really is. It’s Rick Schneider. Yes, that’s right. Mr. Schneider is currently our #1 ranked trackchaser according to recent statistics at Trackchaser.com, the official sanctioning body for such things. O.K., so Mr. Schneider is currently number one, but why would that make him the smartest trackchaser? Well, it takes some time to tell the story, so grab a cold one and lean back in your chair. I’ll keep it as brief as I can. You see, after Mr. Schneider achieved the number one spot, he decided to quit the group. Yes, he would no longer submit any of his new tracks to the trackchaser commissioner, Will White. I’m not sure if this course of action was initiated by his publicist, agent or if Mr. Schneider himself came up with this stroke of genius. Like most things, the devil is in the details. From time to time a trackchaser will see a new track, that some of his/her fellow competitors don’t think should count. If there is a clear-cut rule laid out in advance, usually we don’t have a problem. The trackchaser recognizes that what was seen doesn’t meet our established rules and that’s the end of it. Sometimes a trackchaser sees a track that clearly does meet the rules and still hears a good deal of bellyaching. The trackchaser commissioner is a fairly unbiased individual and you can count on him to do what he thinks is right. Now mind you, I didn’t say he would always do what I think is right. Of course, I am just a “Member at large” and my view carries no more weight than anyone else’s. Once the commissioner counts the track that meets the rules currently in effect, the above mentioned bellyaching normally subsides to a minor series of burps. Mr. Schneider’s situation was a little bit different. He saw a track in Ohio that was not banned by the rules when he saw it. He submitted the track to the commissioner and it was counted. The track in question was counted as an “inner oval” by Mr. Schneider. Most inner ovals up to that point did not come in contact with the facility’s “outer oval” around the entire outer circumference of the inner oval as Mr. Schneider’s track did. Often an inner oval does not come in contact with the large outer oval at all. Sometimes the two ovals share one or two straights, but use separate turns. In Mr. Schneider’s case the inner oval track he was counting was more like the inside lane of the full existing oval. On the night in question, the cars were instructed to race only on this inside lane. Mr. Schneider took this to mean they were actually racing on their own “inner oval” track. He counted this new track, so did the commissioner. This move by Mr. Schneider caused much consternation amongst the trackchasing elite (voters). Some thought it was O.K. to count and some did not. This prompted one member to propose a rule to ban such track counting. If the rule passed it would be “retroactive.” That meant that even though no such rule was in place when Mr. Schneider saw and counted his “inner oval”, the track would be removed from his list. There was much worrying and gnashing of teeth regarding the outcome of this vote. I supported the new rule proposal, but I didn’t like it being made retroactive. For that reason, I voted against the rule. Nevertheless, the new rule passed. It reads like this: “Any track that is composed entirely of the apron of another track (i.e.: no part of it is physically separated) can not be counted as a second track (ex: Lake Erie).” What was the name of the inner oval facility where Mr. Schneider saw the track in question? Lake Erie Speedway! After the rule passed, Mr. Schneider’s track count was reduced by one track. What was his reaction? Adios! Yep, Mr. Schneider decided to leave the group. I didn’t agree with Mr. Schneider’s count being reduced on a retroactive basis. Nevertheless, we have rules and each and everyone must abide with them. That’s how a society works. How would I react if a rule was passed specifically for something I did and a track was removed retroactively from my list. I’ll choose to pass on that question at this time. Nevertheless, I will say I can understand Mr. Schneider’s actions. So, there you have it. Mr. Schneider told everyone he would not be a member of our group. He no longer submits any new tracks he sees to the trackchaser commissioner. He even returned the trophy he had been awarded for being the #1 worldwide trackchaser to trackchasing’s founder, Guy Smith. Our trackchaser commissioner, Mr. White, made the executive decision to continue to keep Mr. Schneider on the worldwide rankings list. Whenever another trackchaser sees Mr. Schneider at a track, that fact is reported to Mr. White. Using this process since July, 2003, Mr. Schneider’s track total has crept upward albeit at a much reduced pace. Now we come to a dilemma. Has Mr. Schneider’s superior strategy and intelligence foiled the chance for any other hardworking trackchaser to ever surpass his total? Has he been that clever? I can’t say for sure. Initially, I was against the commissioner’s decision to keep Mr. Schneider on the worldwide trackchaser rankings list. My reasoning was that if Mr. Schneider’s wish was to disassociate himself from the trackchaser group that wish should be granted. I have come to appreciate the wisdom of Mr. White’s decision. Mr. Schneider does in fact have 1,038 countable tracks and we can’t deny that. Therefore, his ranking should be whatever those 1,038 tracks gives him. At the time, I was also concerned about the impact on the future of trackchasing because of Mr. Schneider’s decision to remove himself from the group. If someone passed his published total would they be deserving of a rank above Mr. Schneider? On the other hand, would the trackchasing skeptic say, “But, Mr. Schneider has seen more tracks that have been reported.” If someone passed Mr. Schneider’s total by 50 tracks would their claim to be ranked above him be disputed? How about if they passed him by 100 tracks, 200 tracks or even 479 tracks? Could anyone EVER pass Mr. Schneider? I am sure the answer is “No” to that question in some of Mr. Schneider’s supporter’s minds. At the time of Mr. Schneider’s departure, I posed this question to trackchasing’s birthfather, Guy Smith. Mr. Smith responded quiet strongly that Mr. Schneider should not have the power to remain in the #1 spot forever because of his decision to no longer submit his tracks. He should not be able to put himself above the rules adopted by everyone (speaking of all trackchaser voters here). Mr. Smith told me that whoever passed Mr. Schneider’s published total would indeed be deserving of a higher trackchaser rank that Mr. Schneider. That was good enough for me. Even though I was mired down in the lower part of the top 10 at the time all of this was going on, I made a mental note. Maybe I could pass Mr. Schneider and lay claim to being “The World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser.” Of course, I was well behind Mr. Schneider when he dropped out of the group. My thoughts of ever being #1 were just a passing daydream back then. All right, I’ll be honest. I never ever dreamed about reaching the top of the trackchaser standings. Realistically, I never ever thought I would have a higher rank than 7th place. Now we come to today. As I write this I am only five tracks behind Mr. Schneider’s posted total of 1,039 tracks. I am certain that he has seen more tracks than his posted total. How many more? I don’t know. Maybe no one knows accept Mr. Schneider. Mr. Schneider is not a member of the trackchaser email group. He is not a recipient of the Trackchaser Report. Nevertheless, there are many people who are both Trackchaser Report subscribers and members of the trackchaser email group. I offer this request of those people who communicate with Mr. Schneider on a regular basis. Please pass along these thoughts of mine. First, I implore Mr. Schneider to rejoin the trackchaser group and bring his trackchasing list up to date. If he does, I will then settle for second place until I can pass whatever total Mr. Schneider actually does have. If that idea fails, then I will have no choice to declare myself “The World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser”, should I surpass his posted total. Mr. Schneider, you have been warned. Although I do not normally heed Mr. Smith’s advice, he was absolutely right when he said, Mr. Schneider “Should not have the power” to control the #1 position without posting his new track visits. Additionally, I will accept the trackchaser trophy signifying the highest ranking trackchaser if it is both offered and shipped to my place of residence postage paid. If I do ever gain the #1 trackchaser ranking, I promise that I will not quit while I am ahead in an attempt to keep any future trackchaser from ever passing me. Greetings from several points in England, PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS SUNDAY, APRIL 16 Easter Sunday started off really well for me, then took a temporary downturn before reversing course and becoming an excellent trackchasing adventure. I awoke after a great night’s sleep in the Greenwood Lodge (http://www.greenwood-lodge.co.uk/) in Highbridge, Somerset, England. I came downstairs for breakfast and was greeted by the friendly proprietor, Penny. She asked if I wanted the continental breakfast or a full “English breakfast.” Since they were both included in the price of my lodging and I’m a big strapping youngster I went with the full English breakfast. It was delicious. Penny even substituted baked beans for the tomato (pronounced ta-maaa-to). Following breakfast, I left the bed & breakfast at about 10 a.m. My first track, the Somerset Bangers Raceway was just a mile or two from the B&B or so I thought. I had seen the racetrack sign on my way to the B&B last night. The races were scheduled to begin at 12 noon. My second track of the day, the Mendips Raceway was to begin at 2 p.m. The tracks were only about 10 miles apart so a double would be easy today. I figured I would drive over to the Somerset Rebels track, which was first on my schedule, and get the lay of the land. I had been told my second track of the day, Mendips Raceway, was difficult to find. Therefore, I planned to drive over to Mendips to make sure I knew where it was and be back at the Somerset track before they started at noon. This seemed like a good plan when I started out. At 10:15 a.m., I pulled into the Somerset Rebels racetrack in Rooks Bridge or so I thought. There was not a soul around. They could not have cancelled because of weather, because the track’s flat oval looked to be in excellent condition. It didn’t seem likely everyone would pull in at the last minute. Where was everybody? As a trackchaser, I am trained to be positive. When there are tornado warnings, I always figure it will blow over and they will race. When the rain forecast calls for 90% chance of rain, I figure it will stay dry. When there is nobody at a racetrack less than two hours before the scheduled start time, I figure they will all appear as if by magic and they will race. There was no magic today. Nobody showed up. I stopped a passerby and he told me to knock on the door of the farmhouse at the track. They would know what the racing situation was. I walked over to the farmhouse. The farm’s dog, fortunately on a leash, did not greet this wandering American in a friendly manner. I knocked on the door. After a few anxious moments, the farmer’s wife answered the door. No, they were not racing at Somerset Rebels today. She told me her husband was off racing in Newport, South Wales. I guess they race at Somerset on Fridays and Newport at other times. She didn’t know how far Newport was from where we were. I asked somewhat impatiently, “Is it 20 miles, 200 miles?” She wasn’t sure, but thought it took about two hours to get there. I have never seen a race in Wales. I looked on my map and Newport seemed like a bigger town. I began to wonder, from what the farmer’s wife had told me, “Was the track IN Newport or just NEAR Newport”. Newport looked to be maybe the size of Topeka, Kansas. Would you drive two hours one-way on the hunch that a track MIGHT be in Topeka or maybe just somewhere around Topeka? I would! That’s why I am a trackchaser. I headed up the M5 toward Newport, South Wales. I figured if I got over there and couldn’t find the track, that I could still make it back to Mendips for their late afternoon racing. I’ve frequently mentioned that the use of information technology is vital to my trackchasing success. My use of technology saved me one track and maybe two tracks today. It also helps to have people contacts. Two heads are better than one. While I was motoring along on the M5, I was booting up my computer, grabbing my reading glasses and checking my U.K. communication log. You see, I had copied all of my pre-trip emails into a Microsoft Word file so I could refer to them during my trip. I figured I would not have access to an internet connection and having these communiqués might come in handy. They would end up be a trackchaser lifesaver. Next, I got on my cell phone that had very little battery life left (thanks to my friends at Thrifty Rental Car who did not want their car stunk up with smoke and had disabled my cell phone power source.) First I called Colin Herridge for advice. He wasn’t home. Next, I called Tim Street. Tim and I had communicated about Somerset racing over the past couple of weeks. Fortunately, for me Tim left his cell phone number at the bottom of his email to me. I called Tim. He didn’t answer, so I left a message. I had exhausted my contacts. I continued to drive toward Newport when the phone rang. It was Tim Street. Tim informed me they were racing in a “Farmer’s field” just a couple of miles from the Somerset Rebels track I had visited early this morning. I had gone to the wrong track! I was looking for the Somerset Rebels Banger Raceway. I had actually been at the Oak Tree Arena where the SOMERSET REBELS speedway bike team races. I think that mistake was easy to make given the fact that they are located within a mile or two of each other and have nearly identical names. I’m glad I had my cell phone and I’m glad I had thought to copy those emails and I’m glad Tim left his cell phone number. All of that came together to save me one and possibly two tracks. I made a U-turn on the M5 (well almost) and was back at the Somerset Rebels Banger Raceway in time for the driver’s meeting. You can read more about how that went below in the race track news section. Following my second track of the day, I headed over toward Chicester. I had a Travelodge reservation there and planned to meet the #1 European trackchaser in the world, Roland Vanden Eynde for dinner at 8 p.m. I pulled into the hotel parking lot at 7:58 p.m. Roland was standing there waiting for me. We had dinner at the Little Chef located next door to the Travelodge. I don’t know of any trackchasers who enjoy their food more than Roland and I do. I was surprised we settled for a Little Chef. Roland and I enjoyed catching up. This was the first time since Carol’s and my visit to Belgium in May 2005 that we have been able to talk. We talked non-stop through dinner, adjourned to his room and talked non-stop until past midnight. There is no other trackchaser who understands trackchaser human behavior and is able to express those thoughts better than Roland. The surprising thing is that he can do it in something other than his native tongue. Roland, I enjoyed our chat. MONDAY, APRIL 17 Today ended up being a good day of trackchasing but it started off very weird. Can you believe the first FOUR tracks I either had planned or actually saw were uncountable by trackchasing standards? Roland and I met for breakfast at the Little Chef located next to our Travelodge Motel. We had finished breakfast and we were in the parking lot getting ready to leave for the S.A.A. Speedway. Right at that moment I received a cell phone call. It was English trackchaser Colin Herridge. Our first planned track of the day had cancelled. We would not be seeing any countable racing at the S.A.A. Speedway. It had something to do with their Armco barriers not being finished. This was the first track cancellation I have ever had in the U.K. after seeing about 40 tracks. I have never had a weather cancellation in the U.K. It didn’t matter what their excuse was. We wouldn’t be going there. Yes, for the second day in a row, my international cell phone had saved me both time and money. Seeing Colin was good for another reason. I could use his car’s electric power to charge my cell phone that was on its last legs. His power meant that I was never without cell phone power during the entire trip, although it was close. Colin recommended we stop by the Goodwood Circuit road-racing course. He reminded us they only race one time each year and that’s in September. It was nearby and we had some extra time now. We did as recommended. When we arrived at Goodwood, unbelievably we heard the sound of racecars. There were racecars circling the track at speed. Could we somehow slip in an unexpected countable track? Four sports cars lined up at the starting line with racecar numbers on their sides and their drivers buckled in and wearing full-face helmets. The flagman was about ready to throw the green flag. If they all accelerated at the same time, we would have countable racing. Alas, when the green flag flew, only one of the four cars left the starting line. Then in 10 seconds or so, the second car left the starting line, etc. These cars were racing timed laps and not racing in a wheel-to-wheel format. Not too long ago, this type of racing was outlawed by trackchaser voters. The Goodwood Circuit would not be countable today. Soon we arrived at the Oval Raceway. Yes, it’s a very original name! I had been following Roland when I stopped at the track’s entrance to take a picture. Just at that moment Colin Herridge appeared in my mirror. The three trackchasers representing England, Belgium and the United States were now joined up as we had planned. The first race on the concrete oval at the Oval Raceway was the “Minis” being raced by younger than adult drivers. Not countable! This was our third planned or actually seen track just today that was not going to add to our track total at this point. The next race on the Oval Raceway property was on the road course. This track snakes its way inside the Oval Race Track oval. What were they racing on the road course? Motorbikes! Yes, another non-countable class. That would make our fourth and final track of the day that was either on our schedule or where we had actually seen some machines on the track. So far, we had nothing countable at all. Of course, it’s never a good idea to give up. We didn’t and were rewarded with two new tracks later in the day. I’ll detail the specifics about Oval Raceway and Arlington Stadium in the racetrack news section. A special treat when we arrived at the Arlington Stadium was meeting up with Paul Huggett. Paul is the editor of “Wheel Spin,” the official magazine of Spedeworth Motorsports, the promotional company for Arlington Stadium. He also does work with the national magazine of England, “Short Circuit.” Short Circuit has featured trackchasing stories about me during my past visits to England. Our very own Canadian trackchaser, Rick Young, is a contributing writer to this magazine. Paul, it was great seeing you. Thanks for getting us “Up on the roof,” the view was great from there. Also thanks for the copy of Wheel Spin. This is an excellent magazine, you should be proud. Roland had to leave Arlington a little early to catch a flight home to Belgium. Colin and I left Arlington after several more races. Since we were both headed north to London, we stopped along the way at an English pub to share a pint and have dinner. The Nutley Arms on the A22 in Ford’s Green, Nutley was a fine place to dine. It was simple and fit the bill for some local color and food. Their claim to fame was that they served organic beef. I heard a lot about organic farming over the radio and in the newspapers during this trip. I owe a debt of gratitude to Colin. He helped me with track selection for this trip. He also gave me some great heads-up on the best routes to take. Of course, his morning phone call today saved us a worthless trip to a track that wasn’t going to run today. Thanks, Colin! On the way back to my hotel in Stains, just south of London’s Heathrow Airport, I stopped for gas. That was only my second England petrol stop of the trip. You might want to check out the “Rental Car Update” below to see how many gallons of diesel fuel I used at $7.50 per! TUESDAY, APRIL 18 It’s time to fly home. Counting the overnight on the plane and five nights in motels/B&Bs, I’ve been gone six nights. I only saw six new tracks (seven were scheduled), which is not a huge amount, but I doubt anyone gained anything on me in the trackchaser world over Easter weekend. This is one of the quieter weekends of the racing year in the U.S. I always enjoy my trackchasing in Europe. In addition to the racing, there is so much to see. Both the sights and scenery are unique and fun. I’ve been here enough now be called, “America’s #1 European Trackchaser.” I like the sound of that. Today should be easy. My flight doesn’t leave until 3 p.m. I’m staying less than 10 miles from the airport. My non-stop flight from London to Los Angeles is about 11 hours in length. It could be worse, I could be connecting somewhere. I spent this morning walking around the quaint downtown shopping area of Staines. I bought some postcards and sent them back home. The cards cost 20 pence (35 cents) and the postcard stamps cost 50 pence (88 cents) per card. That makes all the sense in the world to me. Shouldn’t the cost of transportation of more than 5,000 miles be more than the printing and manufacturing of a flimsy piece of cardboard? It’s been a fun trip. It was great to see Colin and Roland. I’m not exactly sure when I’ll see them again, but trackchasers seem to pop up out of nowhere, so you never know. Within hours of returning home home, I’ll be driving son Jim’s 1974 VW bug to the Long Beach, California shipping terminal. We’re putting it on a boat and shipping it to Jim in Hawaii. Assuming the bug doesn’t break down, then it’s on to Palm Springs for some golf and relaxation with my college fraternity brothers. Carol and I will reemerge on the trackchasing scene during the last weekend of April vigorously. Carol is on her way to moving into the “Top 40” and clawing and shoving her way past her immediate competition (those are my words not hers, so don’t hold anything against here.) RACE TRACK NEWS: SOMERSET REBELS BANGER RACEWAY, ROOKS BRIDGE – TRACK #1,021 – 4/15/06 Possibly the most significant remembrance of this track is that it moves me into a tie with Allan Brown for second place in the trackchaser worldwide rankings. As described above I almost missed it. With the M5 Motorway just a few yards from the track off Junction 22, I pulled into the “Facility.” A woman was collecting the admission fee of 6 pounds at the entrance to the track. An informative race program was just another 50 pence. Soon I was meeting Mr. Tim Street driver of the #70 car. He races in the Production Hot Rods Rear Wheel Drive division and was last year’s champion. That figures that I had been communicating with a track champion over email and not just some back of the packer field filler. By the way, you might like to check out the website for Tim’s racing team at http://www.arbstreetracing.co.uk/. Tim and his friends were very informative. Tim provided me with the name of the track and its city location. This is auto grass racing. I’ve seen Autograss racing many times before but today was most unusual for me. I copied this description of U.K. Autograss racing that I thought you might find interesting. What is Autograss all about then? “Autograss Racing is Britain’s most popular form of amateur motor racing. It takes place at venues throughout England, Wales and Northern and Southern Ireland. Autograss is basically cars racing, usually on quarter-mile oval tracks. The tracks are laid out on natural surfaces (usually a farmer’s field) – a fresh track will start off as grass. Although highly spectacular to watch, it is first and foremost a participant sport. Meetings are promoted by non-profit making clubs. The social side of the sport is a very large factor in the appeal of Autograss. With many a Saturday evening spent with the aroma of a barbecue and the sound of beer cans clunking! This just seems to emphasize the family nature of the sport encompassed by the fact that husband, wife and children can all compete in the same Poor class 1 mini!. Today’s racetrack truly was a farmer’s grass field when I arrived. Following the driver’s meeting everyone in the pit area was dispatched to a far corner of the field. At that location were some 100-150 used truck tires. Everyone grabbed a tire and began rolling it toward the center of the field. In no time, the nearly quarter mile track was lined out with both an inner and outer ring of tires. The cars would race on the grass in between these tire barriers. The program told me there would be 31 races today. The classes included Ladies Hot Rods, Bangers over 1800cc, FWD Production Hot Rods, Bangers under 1800cc FWD, Junior Rods, RWD Production Hot Rods and Bangers under 1800cc RWD. At the driver’s meeting the pit steward asked how many women were racing today. Only four raised their hands. The pit steward didn’t think this was enough for a class race. This was greeted with many men yelling, “Let ‘em race with the blokes! Let ‘em race with the blokes.” That is exactly what they did. The women raced with the blokes (men). I think some of the other classes were combined when an individual class didn’t have enough cars to present an entertaining race as well. According to the program, most classes were scheduled for four heat races. I did learn something new about Autograss racing that I found interesting. The first 28 races are called heat races. The last three races of the day are called finals. Points are awarded for heat races within each class. The overall highest point total per class is the day’s winner based upon the heat races. The “Finals” race combines cars from multiple classes. Often the attrition rate is high and some drivers prefer not to race in the finals because there is a high incidence of beating and banging amongst all of the classes. The final is NOT a feature event, it is just a FINAL race of the day for each competitor. The heat races are used to determine the champion of each class. This new news effects how I have counted my blended doubles (BD with or without a feature) in the past. With this new knowledge, I will go back and recalculate my BD results. An interesting note appeared in the program. “The Club races thanks to a friendly farmer. Let’s keep him friendly. Please take all your litter home.” MENDIPS RACEWAY, SHIPHAM, ENGLAND – TRACK #1,022 – 4/15/06 The Mendips Raceway was exactly 10 miles from the Somerset Rebels Banger Raceway. You can’t ask for much easier of an afternoon Blended Double than that. Even though the distance was short, the elevation between the two tracks was significant. The SRBR sits down in the valley. The Mendips oval is located on one of the highest hills in the area. Some of the route is just one lane wide. That’s most difficult when you see some of the huge racecar haulers that had to make it up that hill. The Mendips Raceway will always have its place in my personal trackchasing history. It will be noted that this track moved me into undisputed second place in the worldwide trackchaser standings. At this point, I’m only 16 tracks out of first place. Maybe I will reach that position some day. There were three classes of racecars at Mendips. The Formula 2 stock cars were the main attraction. They were supplemented by classic bangers and hot rods. I like all three of these classes. Today the track was hosting a World Championship qualifying round for Formula 2 stock cars. Each track gets only one of these events per year. The BRISCA formula stock cars start the fast cars in the back. Each car is graded on its previous performance. Each competitor has a special roof color to denote what his past achievements have been. From slowest to fastest the roof colors go like this White, Blue, Yellow, Red and National Champion. In most races the faster cars can come from the front to the back. Sometimes this happens with a little persuasion from the “Chrome horn.” Only two of the “Classic” bangers really got my attention. By the way, only “Pre-1975” cars are eligible to run in this division. The two cars I liked best were a Wolseley 6/80 and a Mark 2 Jaguar. I have pictures of both on the website. I received a nice trackchaser mention from a very qualified announcer over a robust P.A. system. I consumed a trackside cheeseburger for 2 pounds, 60 pence ($4.55). I must apologize to my fellow spectators on this one. I mistakenly placed myself in the drinks only line when I was looking for my cheeseburger. I wondered why that line was shorter and moving so much faster! The serving woman took pity on my American accented apology. When the sun was out it was a nice day for racing. When the sun went behind the clouds, it got cold. I used the ice cream van as a windbreak. Following the 10th event of the day, the Formula 2 World Final, I decided to head down the hill. Along with Ballymena, Mendips was my favorite track of the trip. OVAL RACEWAY, ANGMERING, ENGLAND – TRACK #1,023 – 4/16/06 We arrived at the Oval Raceway at 10:30 a.m. for their 11:30 a.m. start. Colin reached the track at nearly the same moment that Roland and I did. This was the first time this Englishman had met this Belgian. I am pleased to have been the instigator in quite a few trackchasers meeting for the first time. We had plenty of time to get to know each other. We also had time to wander through the very crowded pit area. I must say this track seemed to have the least diversity of racecars of any I saw on this trip. Almost every car seemed to be a variation on the “Mini” theme. I would estimate there were more than 100 racers in the pits. They started at 11:30 a.m. with practice. Then they went with heat races for the “Minis” driven by kids. Other than the fact, that this class limits their drivers to the 12-16 age range, there was no visual difference between the cars or the quality of racing compared to the minis driven by drivers without an age restriction. The track itself was unique. The oval track ran downhill (when driving clockwise) from turns 3 & 4 to turns 1 & 2. The outer retaining wall was a steel Armco barrier. Above the barrier was a mosaic collection of old tires painted black and white. Some of the tire barriers were 6-8 tires high. The checkerboard paint scheme was very creative. The pit area was directly behind the backstretch. There were no formal grandstands. People either sat in the cars that ringed the speedway, brought a lawn chair or stood. We stood. The P.A. was difficult to hear from our position. The track, like most in England, has no lights. I say to you England. Get some grandstands and get some lights! We ended up heading over to the Arlington Stadium at 1:15 p.m. Arlington was a little less than an hour away, although the worst traffic of the trip made it seem longer. Arlington was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. We arrived after the first heat race of the day had finished. The racing wasn’t that great at the Oval Raceway because nearly all the cars looked the same and we couldn’t hear the announcer. The Oval Raceway was the first half of a Blended Double without a feature event. ARLINGTON STADIUM, EASTBOURNE, ENGLAND – TRACK #1,024 – 4/16/06 The Arlington Stadium racing facility is one of the more well known in England. The race program is under the promotion of Spedeworth. They promote Arlington, Bovingdon, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, Ringwood, Swaffam and Wimbleton. I have now been to all seven of the Spedeworth tracks. I had been forewarned by track photographer and editor of the Spedeworth magazine, Wheel Spin, Paul Huggett that parking would be at a premium on a “Bank Holiday Monday.” That was the understatement of the weekend. There are four bank holidays, one at Easter, two in May and one in August. We approached the stadium on a very narrow road that was made that much narrower by cars parked on both sides of the it. That left about one and one-half lanes up the middle. Not knowing how far we were from the track or if there was any better parking spots ahead, the three of us, Colin, Roland and I parked our three cars on the side of the road and began to walk and walk and walk. After a while we could hear the racecars. That was a good sign. When we arrived at the car park (parking lot), a sign told us the lot was full. Our eyes told us the same thing. We stood in line to pay our admission and entered the track. I guess this is where the term, “Standing room only” came from. First of all, there were no grandstands at all. Everyone stood. People were standing at the track’s fence all the way around the track. As we used to say in the Marines it was #$%&%$ to bellybutton all the way back to the top of the hill which was 15-20 feet from the fence. We were standing near the start/finish line wondering what our next move might be with such a large crowd. I can definitely understand how those European soccer crowd stampedes can occur. Just at that moment, Paul Huggett appeared from the track’s infield. He immediately escorted us to the rooftop of the press box. We were some 30 feet or more off the ground and had an excellent view of everything. We only stayed up there for one race, but it was great. The four of us chatted for a while and Paul went back to work. There were three classes racing today. These included team banger racing, Spedeworth Super Stox and 2-liter stocks. The track itself is made of concrete and a little less than a quarter mile in distance. The concrete oval is very narrow. The track has an inner shale (dirt) oval that adjoins the concrete oval. It’s not uncommon for the drivers to slide through the dirt oval back onto the concrete track. In banger racing, the objective is to knock the other cars out of the way so you can win the race. Ya, it’s sort of like trackchasing (just kidding!). If 20 cars start a banger race, then each car is trying to knock the other 19 out of the way. In team banger racing there are 10 cars on each of the two teams. That means each car is only trying to knock 10 cars, not 19, off the track. That means less crashes. When I watch banger racing I want to see crashes. Nevertheless, the crashes they did have at Arlington were of the high speed variety. It was too bad it was so crowded and we could only stand at about a track high elevation level. The Super Stox are virtually identical to BRISCA Formula 2 stock cars. It’s normal for U.K. tracks to start 20-25 cars in a 16-20 lap heat race. The vast majority of feature events in the United States don’t start that many cars for this long of a race. This is one of the reasons I find U.K. racing so entertaining. The racing was good at Arlington, but it was way too crowded. It was almost scary crowded. Since we were saving ourselves for dinner, we didn’t try any track food. U.K. tracks are woefully short on amenities of just about any kind. Restrooms, seating, lighting (usually none) and parking are very backward. Nevertheless, the racing is excellent with full fields and generally good organization. That’s why I keep coming back. The idea of running over to the Arena Essex Raceway following Arlington was heavily discussed. Some thought it was about an hour’s drive away and some others thought it might take up to two hours in Easter traffic. I never really saw any major traffic on any of the motorways I traveled except for a few minutes getting out of London on Thursday night. In the end, I nixed the Arena Essex idea. Although I think I could have pulled it off, I don’t like to do very much driving when two competing programs are running at the same time. My maximum is one hour and I really like to limit it to no more than 45 minutes and hopefully less. Taking 45 minutes or less out of the middle of two programs that will run simultaneously for 4-5 hours doesn’t seem too bad. On the way out Colin and I did our very best job not to get run over while trying to walk back to our cars. That was no easy task! Once we found our machines we were off in search of some “Pub grub” and we soon found it. This was my sixth trip to the United Kingdom for racing. Even though it’s a long way to come, I’ve enjoyed every one. I’m just 14 weeks into the 2006 trackchasing season and have already traveled more than 57,000 miles. Nevertheless, I’ll be back again but the next trip will probably be during the summer. Cheers! Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis America’s #1 European Trackchaser That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, all of the children are above average and the real estate prices are way above average. RENTAL CAR UPDATE: The Thrifty Rental Car Racing Vauxhall Vectra was an excellent rental car, one of the best I’ve ever had. Except for the fact that the smoking police had disabled the cigarette lighter/power source and the car was difficult to nap in, it was great. I didn’t know I was getting a diesel powered car, until I was handed my final paperwork. I was a little hesitant about getting a diesel. I bought a brand new 1980 Cadillac Sedan Deville from a dealer in New Jersey in August, 1979. That car was a diesel and a real lemon. I had three different engines in that car in the first couple of years I owned it. Fortunately, I became a member of a class action suit against General Motors and they ended up reimbursing me for all of the repair expenses. Another positive was that it gave me good experience at becoming a member of a class action suit. I have done very well in class actions ever since. The clerk sold me today on the idea of a diesel with these words, “It gets better gas mileage.” You might think fuel costs are up in the United States and they are. However, fuel costs are really high in the U.K. Diesel was running about 99 pence per liter. My slide rule says that with an exchange rate of about $1.75 per English pound, diesel fuel runs about $7.50 per gallon. Yes, you read this correctly. $7.50 per gallon! The car had excellent pick up and cruised along at freeway speeds just like my gasoline car does. It DID get great fuel mileage. How does 46.5 M.P.G. grab you? This made my fuel cost somewhere around 16.0 cents per mile, give or take a tenth or two. I usually get around 25 M.P.G. with my domestic car rentals. Taking into consideration that my domestic cars get only 55% of the fuel mileage of this week’s U.K. car, the REAL fuel cost adjusts downward from $7.50 per gallon to $3.99 per gallon. That’s still more expensive than the current $2.90-$3.00 in the U.S. but it’s not as bad as $7.50 sounds. For additional useless fuel mileage facts, please contact me privately. LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. Other notables These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total. 2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES: AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – London (Heathrow), England – 5,447 miles 1ST RENTAL CAR – LONDON, ENGLAND (HEATHROW AIRPORT) London (Heathrow) Airport (1st rental car) – trip begins Liverpool, England – 228 miles AIRPLANE Liverpool, England – Belfast, Northern Ireland – 184 miles 2ND RENTAL CAR – BELFAST INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND Belfast International Airport (2nd rental car) – trip begins Ballymena, Northern Ireland – 113 miles Belfast International Airport – 133 miles – trip ends AIRPLANE Belfast, Northern Ireland – Liverpool, England – 184 miles 1ST RENTAL CAR – LONDON, ENGLAND (HEATHROW AIRPORT) London (Heathrow) Airport (1st rental car) – trip begins Liverpool, England – 228 miles Little Budworth, England – 243 miles Rooks Bridge, England – 478 miles Shipham, England – 488 miles Angmering, England – 657 miles Eastbourne, England – 698 miles London (Heathrow) Airport (1st rental car) – 796 miles – trip ends AIRPLANE London (Heathrow), England – Los Angeles, CA 5,447 miles – trip ends Total air miles – 11,262 miles Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 12,191 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Ballymena Raceway – 8 pounds ($14) Oulton Park – 8 pounds ($14) Somerset Rebels – 6 pounds ($10.50) Mendips Raceway – 5 pounds ($8.75) Oval Raceway – 5 pounds ($8.75) included program Arlington Stadium – 5 pounds ($8.75) Total race admissions for the trip – about 37 pounds ($64.75) Note: Senior discounts saved me a considerable amount at some tracks No trackchasing this coming weekend. It’s time for our annual Delta Sigma Pi golf outing. It’s in Palm Springs, California for the first time ever. 1,000. Auburndale Kartway, Auburndale, Florida – February 10 1,001. Ocala Speedway (asphalt oval), Ocala, Florida – February 12 1,002. Speedworld Speedway, Surprise, Arizona – February 19 1,003. Lowe’s Motor Speedway (1/5 mile asphalt oval), Concord, North Carolina – February 25 1,004. Concord Raceway, Concord, North Carolina – February 25 1,005. Antioch Speedway, Antioch, North Carolina – February 25 1,006. Green Valley Speedway, Gadsden, Alabama – February 26 1,007. East Bay Raceway (inner oval), Gibsonton, Florida – March 17 1,008. Volusia Speedway Park West (1/6M oval), Barberville, Florida – March 18 1,009. Speedway Park, Fruitland Park, Florida – March 18 1,010. Sand Mountain Speedway (road course), Fort Meade, Florida – March 19 1,011. Anderson Motor Speedway, Anderson, South Carolina – March 31 1,012. Westminster Speedway, Westminster, South Carolina – March 31 1,013. East Lincoln Motor Speedway, Stanley, North Carolina – April 1 1,014. Margarettsville Speedway, Margarettsville, North Carolina – April 2 1,015. Sunny South Raceway, Grand Bay, Alabama – April 7 1,016. Barber Motorsports Park, Leeds, Alabama – April 8 1,017. Coldwater Raceway, Coldwater, Alabama – April 8 1,018. Talladega Short Track, Talladega, Alabama – April 8 1,019. Ballymena Raceway, Ballymena, Northern Ireland – April 14 1,020. Oulton Park, Little Budworth, England – April 15 1,021. Somerset Rebels Banger Raceway, Rooks Bridge, England – April 16 1,022. Mendips Raceway, Shipham, England – April 16 1,023. Oval Raceway, Angmering, England – April 17 1,024. Arlington Stadium, Eastbourne, England – April 17 DAYS 1-4 – “EASTER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM” TRACKCHASING TOUR Greetings from San Clemente, Chicago, London and finally Anglesey, Wales, THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Objective and the Strategy The objective. It’s kick back time in the U.K. Our objective for this trip is straightforward. Carol and I want to have a lovely time in the United Kingdom while seeing some auto racing. Easter is a fantastic time to come to the U.K. The strategy. The six “Ps”….proper planning prevents piss poor performance. The strategy revolves around pre-planning. Pre-planning allows us to dramatically shorten the “learning curve” of traveling and enjoying. I’ve been coming to the U.K. for quite a while. I first came to “Great Britain”, also known as the United Kingdom back in 1999 for trackchasing purposes. On that trip we brought our son and daughter, Jim and Kristy. Later in the journey I had the most enjoyable ever round of golf (not my lowest ever score) at the Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club (Royal Lytham & St. Annes) in Blackpool, England. As you may know this course hosts the British Open (The Open) about every four years. This will be my seventh trip to the U.K. to trackchase. On one of those trips I invited trackchaser P.J. Hollebrand (2005) to tag along. On another trackchaser Allan Brown (2004) was my invited guest. Carol had been part of the trip in 1999 and 2000. I guess that means I came here twice by myself. One of those visits was just for a couple of days. Separately, Carol and I have been to London a time or two to visit son J.J. when he lived in the city. Net, although we have a good deal of experience it still takes the proper amount of planning to get the most out of the days we will have here. Below are just a few things that “went down” in advance of making this trip. Trackchasing’s three requirements. You’ve often heard me talk about the three requirements for a successful trackchasing trip. First, I need a race to attend. Secondly, good weather is required so that I don’t travel cross-country only to be rained out. Finally, I need a way to get there. During Easter weekend there is very little racing activity in the United States. Check the results of the leading trackchasers. They will be hard pressed to get much of anything during this holiday weekend. However, back in 1999, I discovered that the United Kingdom had ALL kinds of racing over Easter. This is one of their several “bank holiday” weekends. They offer racing Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Easter. As I recall all but one of my trackchasing trips to the U.K. have occurred at Easter. This has allowed me to see 42 tracks in this country up until this week. There was no shortage of racing. My research for this trip found about 100 tracks in the U.K. (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) that I had not been too. Some 20-30 of those venues were racing on Easter weekend. Most every track now offers fans a website. That means I checked out about 100 U.K. race sites to come up with my England Easter racing plan. Additionally, I searched another fifty sites that either sanction U.K. racing or provide information to the U.K. racing fan. Finding a race to attend would not be a problem despite my having already seen forty-two U.K. tracks race mostly over the Easter holiday. International pre-planning is much different than domestic trackchasing planning. I don’t plan much of my trackchasing out more than a few days at home. However, as you might imagine international trips are the exception to that rule. On this trip we will be using frequent flyer miles from American Airlines. During my business career I earned more than SIX MILLION American Airlines frequent flyer miles. Can you even imagine how much flying late at night it took to earn that many miles! Based upon my history with American Airlines they have granted me “lifetime” platinum status. What’s the benefit of that? First, we don’t have to pay any checked baggage fees. Despite flying weekly, I can’t ever recall paying a checked baggage fee with any airline. Next, we get to board the plane first assuring a spot for our carryon bags. Finally, on international trips like this one we get to use the private Admirals Club. Those are a lot of important benefits that makes flying American very worthwhile. I absolutely love U.K. racing. I love U.K. racing for several reasons. One of those is that they don’t cancel their races when it rains. It rains a lot here. That’s why it’s so green everywhere you look. I’ve been at oval track U.K. races where it poured rain the entire time and they barely made mention of the weather. However, during this year’s planning I did notice a few tracks that seemed to indicate they might cancel if the weather was bad. Bottom-line is that we had all the elements of a perfect trackchasing plan. There would be plenty of racing. These folks race in the rain but they shouldn’t have too this weekend. The weather forecast called for warm and dry weather. We had a way to get there. We had plenty of time for sightseeing as well. The Trip Day 1 (Tuesday) It pays to be patient with trips like this. We started the trip flying out of our hometown airport. That’s the John Wayne Santa Ana Orange County (SNA) airport. I have a full parking sponsorship there. The airport is just 30 minutes from our house. We would have a planned four-hour layover in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. When we landed it was 35 degrees, with heavy rain and fog. Folks, this is the last of April. What’s up with that weather? There’s a good reason I demanded a move from Chicago to Southern California in 1983! With such a long layover we had a lovely dinner at the Macaroni Grill in terminal 3. They served their Italian food on white table clothes. White table cloth service in an airport! The meal was lovely. The only downside was I think I left my American Express card there! A four-hour layover turned into a six-hour layover. There was heavy rain and lightning that closed the airport twice while we were in the terminal. Then a mechanical problem on our flight to London caused a two-hour delay. That made our “lay over” in Chicago six hours. Part of my pre-trip preparation includes selecting the best seats (in coach) on the plane. Those are usually exit row seats. I use my past experiences as well as www.seatguru.com to help choose those seats. Carol and I had side-by-side exit row seats on the “two-seat side”. Once on the plane we noticed a row of five seats was open next to us. We immediately “seized the opportunity”. This would allow both of us to lie horizontally for most of the flight. That was a huge benefit. Day 2 (Wednesday) The weather was much warmer than normal in London. We landed (late) at London’s Heathrow Airport at 1 p.m. It was a beautiful 79-degree sunny day. What a contrast from Chicago. We cleared customs in less than two minutes. Rarely is getting through customs much of a delay any more. We had checked just one bag. It was on time and we were ready to rock. Getting a good rental car is key for a trip like this. Our rental car company, Ace Rental Car doing business at Heathrow as Green Motion Rental Car was located off-site in the Holiday Inn Ariel Hotel. The “Happy Hopper” shuttle bus took us there quickly for a fee. The Green Motion rep did a nice job getting us on the road quickly. I had rented the least expensive car available. I always do that in Europe. What’s the difference between a tiny car and a car just a bit bigger than tiny? This week our car would be a four-door Hyundai I3. It’s got plenty of room for the two of us. The car is nearly new (3,000 miles) has a six-speed manual transmission and plenty of pep. The car’s engine uses diesel fuel. We would be driving on the “wrong side” of the road. You may or may not know that the folks in England drive on the “wrong side” of the road. At least they do from my perspective. That’s not a problem. I’ve driven more than 5,000 miles in the U.K. on the “wrong side of the road”. By the way, our car is right side steer. I shift the transmission with my left hand. I can still do all of that while taking pictures! Carol and I came up with a saying that “lefts are easy, rights are scary” to remind us how to make our turns here. Normally, I’ll make one stupid turn into oncoming traffic each trip. Google Earth rocks! Before we left on the trip I used Google Earth to determine the longitude/latitude coordinates for all of the racetracks and hotels we expected to visit. If you travel and never have used Google Earth you should. Son J.J. got me interested. Then Carol plugged those coordinates into Garth, our friendly GPS buddy and we were good to go. This worked like a charm. Trust me, I travel more than anybody you know. If you are traveling you need a GPS unit. If you don’t think you do I can only recommend you just do it based upon my word. You will NEVER regret it. Off we went. So off we went with me sitting in the right side driver’s seat shifting gears with my left hand driving down the left side of the road. It sounds weird but once you get used to it, it’s a piece of cake. If we wanted to get all the way up to Friday’s track today, the Anglesey Circuit, it would be a 267-mile drive. We had just completed flying twelve hours. London time is eight hours ahead of Los Angeles. When we landed at 1 p.m. that was actually 5 a.m. OUR time. I didn’t plan to drive all the way to Anglesey today. Welcome Breaks rock too! We beat most of the outbound London mid-week rush hour traffic out of town. Our first stop along the motorway was a “Welcome Break”. I have always been impressed with these interstate oasis. We don’t have anything like this in the United States…..unless you count Wal-Mart. A U.K. Welcome Break, offers food, restrooms, a mini casino, shopping and more. Don’t miss the pictures. Welcome Breaks dot the motorway landscape. Next up was Mickey D’s but not for what you think. Later we stopped at a McDonalds. I am 100% against eating at McDonalds while in a foreign country. The only exception would be to try a menu offering that is not available in the U.S. I call that “restaurant research”. However, we stopped at McDonalds to use the toilets. In the U.S. we call them restrooms. In Europe they are toilets. Once in McDonalds we were reminded they offer free Wi-Fi. That would be helpful. I used my iPhone to see that our MasterCard had a “fraud hold” after the Green Motion Rental Car Company made a second (legitimate) charge for our car. I also got a final email update from the “mystery man” and some more track feedback. Folks, I cannot identify the “mystery man” for his/her own protection. Nevertheless, McDonalds was a very worthwhile place to stop today. My life is divided into two parts…. Before I got my iPhone and after I got my iPhone. While in McDonalds I used the “TruPhone” iPhone app to make some calls back to the states. First, we called to remove the fraud hold on our MasterCard. Then I called the Macaroni Grill to see if they had my AMEX card. We got a recording. Finally, we called home to check messages. Each one of these calls went through the first time. The call quality was excellent. The expense was less than five cents per minute. TruPhone with my iPhone works wherever I have a Wi-Fi connection. Using technology to make life easier is the coolest thing ever. Garth came along to Great Britain as well. Finally, we used “Garth” to help find us a hotel for the evening. We selected the Oriel House Country Hotel (Oriel Hotel) It’s an older upscale place with just 37 rooms in Wales. We went with one of the “superior” rooms. It was nice but not opulent. Most English hotel room rates include a full breakfast for guests. Foreign countries rarely beat the U.S. in amenities for just about anything. Our standard of living just rocks compared to the rest of the world. However European hotels have everyone beat when it comes to including breakfast in a hotel rate. The U.K. also has “Welcome Breaks” I guess they aren’t doing too badly. Day 3 (Thursday) Trackchasing would be nothing without local touring. Today is a FULL touring day. We don’t get those nearly as often as I would like. I had the good fortune to get some great local touring recommendations. Those came from Annette who works for the Anglesey Circuit. She went out of her way to make sure we would have good food and good lodging in Wales. The day started with our full Welsh breakfast at the Oriel Country Hotel. What a lovely atmosphere. The hotel began as a private residence some 350 years ago. Folks, stuff is old over here! Since then it’s been a “work house”, a school (for 100 years) and now a hotel for the last forty. Most European hotels include either a continental breakfast or a fully cooked breakfast in the price of the room. Today’s eating area was large. It was light, airy and surprisingly modern. The outdoor Welsh gardens were in full spring bloom. Breakfast of eggs, fried bread, bacon, sausage and mushrooms was delicious. Soon we were off to enjoy the Wales countryside in our Hyundai diesel-powered I3. Today was going to be a “castle-touring day”. Annette and others had recommended some local castles built back in the 13th century. One of the benefits of visiting castles today was that we would end up driving less than 75 miles. Before we reached our first castle we came across Llandudno (Llandudno) The seaside town was bustling with pre-Easter tourists enjoying a day at the beach. Your best bet to get a real “feel” for what we were seeing is to check out the photos or video from our visit. You should be able to find them easily at www.randylewis.org. If you can’t let me know. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION CONWY CASTLE First we visited the Conwy Castle (Conwy Castle) This was the most highly recommended of any castle in Wales. Next up following lunch at a small local bistro (Jake’s Bistro) was a tour of the Caernarfon Castle (Caernarfon Castle). Edward the first, the King of England in the 1200s, had these castles built. Some 800 years later the only thing that remains are the stone castle walls. Everything that was either wooden or glass is long gone. This fact gives a totally different feel to seeing a castle! Nevertheless, it was a fun day of touring in nice weather. Temps were in the low 70s with mostly sun. It was a gorgeous day to explore Wales. I was following the ‘locals’ best travel recommendations. Tonight we were staying in Beuamaris, Wales. The Anglesey Circuit (Anglesey Circuit) website recommends several places for “accommodation”. The “Ye Olde Bulls Inn” (Ye Olde Bulls Head Inn) was one of those places. Annette added her personal recommendation and that sealed the deal. Again, I had used Google Earth to pinpoint the hotel’s location. I absolutely cannot remember how I did these trips without the aid of a GPS unit. I did the trips, I just don’t know how I got from point A to point B. It makes all trips, and especially foreign trips so much more relaxing. She’s worth it…..right? The Old Bulls Inn is not inexpensive lodging. However, I stay in Motel 6 properties while doing domestic trackchasing so Carol can enjoy the luxuries of upscale travel when we go together. It’s a good investment on my part don’t you think. Our room at the Old Bulls Inn is named “Mr. Tony Weller”. I don’t know who Tony Weller was (later I would find out) but he must have been somebody important. The “Olde” Bulls Inn is aptly named. Let’s just say we were not the first folks to stay here. Our hotel is located near the Irish Sea. The Beuamaris Castle is less than a block away. It’s quiet in Beuamaris. We drank wine on a terrace overlooking the water. Yes, this trackchasing hobby can be pretty enjoyable. Day 4 (Friday) It’s time to shift to ‘trackchasing mode’. Today would be our third consecutive day in Wales. This was all in preparation for this afternoon’s visit to the Anglesey Circuit in Ty Croes, Wales of the United Kingdom. From this afternoon forward we will be heavily into “trackchasing mode”. However, we had all morning to continue touring Wales. We had another traditional Welch breakfast. This time at the Olde Bull’s Inn where we stayed last night. I thought our hotel was old. It was built in 1472! Folks, that’s old. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION Puffin Island The Olde Bull’s Inn is located in Beaumaris, Wales. The hotel offers views of the Manai Strait, which feeds into the Irish Sea. While walking around the small town we saw the opportunity for a morning boat ride. The destination was “Puffin Island” (Puffin Island). Of course, Puffin Island is home to the Puffin (Puffin) The round-trip ride was only 75 minutes. Carol calls the island “One Puffin Island” because we only saw one puffin! That was enough for me. It was nice to get our in the sea air. It was racin’ time. From Beaumaris it was a 25-mile drive over to the racetrack. Our GPS system worked flawlessly and we arrived at the track in good order. I’ll tell you more about our first ever trackchasing experience in Wales in the “Race Review” section. ………………. We’re headed to England. Following the races we began our three-hour plus drive to tomorrow’s tracks in England. The drive will be remembered for a very long time. We drove for more than two hours and never did get out of Wales. We didn’t see any U.K. motorways in this part of the country. I know I mention this often. However, the idea is so significant on nearly an every minute basis that I would be remiss if I didn’t say something. I have no idea how we did this before GPS. This afternoon it seemed as if we were changing highways or going through a roundabout every 2-4 miles. I didn’t worry about a thing regarding directions. If “Garth” told me to turn “left” I turned left. If he told me to take the “fourth exit at the next roundabout” I did as told. This place in beautiful. The scenery could not have been any more beautiful. Please don’t miss the pictures. The views on this trip were spectacular. We drove through hilly and almost mountainous country. The landscape was as green as could be and dotted with sheep and cattle. The roads were narrow and often lined with six feet tall rock walls. There were several points where the road was not wide enough for two cars to pass each other. Nevertheless, I kept one hand on the steering wheel, the other hand on the gearshift and my other hand on my camera. I was recording everything for your viewing pleasure despite having a tall rock wall within six inches of us on the left side of the car and passing oncoming traffic with just six inches of clearance as well! Uncle! After about two hours of this driving I cried “uncle”. Then I asked “Garth” to find us a hotel. In less than ten minutes we were stopped at the Lion Hotel in Berriew, Wales. This was another VERY old inn. The innkeeper was nice and welcomed us with open arms. They did reduce the price for our stay a little but hotels and food are very expensive in this part of the world. Despite it being 9 p.m. Carol and I went down to the restaurant for a late night dinner. This was gourmet dining. Again, don’t miss the pictures. We have a busy day for tomorrow. Lots of driving, lots of trackchasing and positioning ourselves for Sunday and Monday’s trackchasing. The People The folks at the Anglesey Circuit rock! I emailed most of the tracks we planned to visit in advance. Often times tracks will make my visit part of their promotional plan. The folks at the Anglesey Circuit were the most enthused about my visit. There were more than five people who communicated with me. They all wanted to make sure our visit was perfect. The ‘mystery man’. Additionally, I had the full benefit and resources of a U.K. person that has come to be known as the “mystery man”. I cannot reveal his identity because of fear that he will be “blackballed” by the more “traditional” trackchasing elite. He knows who he is. Other trackchasers may think they know who he is. Nevertheless, he has always been a good friend. The “mystery man” has always been able to answer any question I might have. RACE REVIEW ANGLESEY CIRCUIT – ANGLESEY, WALES, UNITED KINGDOM Today I saw one of the most scenic tracks ever. The Anglesey Circuit (Anglesey Circuit) is relatively new especially by European standards. It opened in 1997. It’s location makes it one of the most scenic of any track I have ever visited. It is situated directly on the Irish Sea. Luckily, today was a sunny day for the most part with temperatures in the high 60s. Are you Randy? When Carol and I drove down the narrow entry road to the track we spotted the ticket booth and track office. When a woman came out to greet us, I lowered my window. “Are you Randy”, she asked. Folks, I was 5,000 miles from home. I was not wearing any clothing to identify myself. Yet, I still met up with the question, “Are you Randy?”. I was pretty impressed by that. It turns out I was talking to Annette F. She and I had communicated via email regarding our trip. It was Annette who recommended the Ye Olde Bulls Inn and the Wales’ castles we had already tour. What’s in the ‘goodie’ bag? Here she was the first person to welcome us to the Anglesey Circuit. Our admission to the racing would be included today. I have Andrew Hughes to thank for that. Additionally, Annette had a “goodie” bag waiting for us. The folks at the Anglesey Circuit were ready for us. In the “goodie” bag were two Anglesey Circuit racing hats. These were gorgeous hats that we wore for the rest of the trip. Andrew Hughes had also thought to include quite a bit of information about the track’s history. He included promotional binders, track Christmas cards, wristbands and more. I read every page of the more than 300 pages of material! Also, included for us were two “V.I.P. passes”. These would allow us to explore the Anglesey Circuit from every angle. From the track’s entrance we bade Annette farewell and went to “see what we could see”. The race officials were ‘spot on’. This weekend’s racing was being officiated by the British Racing Sports Car Club Northwest Centre – BRSCC (BRSCC – Northwest Centre). They officiate racing at both Anglesey and Oulton Park. It wasn’t long before I met the group’s chairman, Tom Dooley and the Competitions Secretary, Andrew Brewer. Andrew and I spoke for several minutes. He had lots of background info about the Anglesey Circuit. We met all the key people at Anglesey today. It wasn’t long before we met Richard Peacock. He runs Anglesey. Richard was nice enough to take us on a 2-lap tour of the racing circuit. Not many people get to do that. Richard explained that in the coming months, the temporary official’s buildings would be replaced with permanent ones as well as new garages. Richard went out of his way to make us feel welcome. I also had a chance to meet Neil Lambert. Neil is the track’s photographer. He had emailed me in advance of our coming here. You’ll see a great picture of Neil while we’re touring the track. What’s he doing in the picture? He’s taking a shot of us! Richard Sproston as enthusiastic as they come. It wasn’t long before we were meeting up with track commentator, Richard Sproston. Richard is a true character. He’s the perfect person to describe the racing action. Richard showed a strong interest in my hobby of trackchasing. He even did an interview with Carol. You won’t want to miss the video of our interviews. It can be seen by clicking on the “Anglesey Circuit – The racing action” video link toward the beginning of this report. If they don’t race on a circuit, they don’t race. I had several people question me about the tracks I had seen in my trackchasing pursuit. As most folks know, trackchasers count tracks that offer wheel to wheel racing on ovals, figure 8 tracks and circuits. A few folks today seemed to think if a race wasn’t held on a circuit then it really wasn’t a race. This included the tracks I planned to see this weekend such as autograss and oval racing. As it is in the U.S., circuit or road racing attracts the “wine and cheese” group. Oval racing seems to attract the “beer and pretzel” fans. I like ‘em both. I was glad that the folks I met today had probably never seen a two-car champ kart race or a four-car figure 8 “feature”! Time for lunch and then the racing. After meeting all of these folks, it was time for a quick lunch and then the racing. The track’s café served some tasty food. We had “fish fingers” (think fish sticks), chips (think French fries) and beans. I couldn’t pass up the chocolate cake with heavy cream! The track was racing today on “Good Friday”. I had all kinds of racing choices on the other three days of this “Bank Holiday”. However, the Anglesey Circuit was the only track racing on Friday in the U.K. that I have never visited before. It was a great choice. What a location. The track is relatively new having been built in 1997. The circuit sits right on the edge of the Irish Sea. The track’s location is good for scenic views. It’s location is not all that central to where it’s competitors travel from. Today the weather was outstanding. I can imagine there are some cold and rainy weather that blows in from the sea at times. The racing action. This weekend’s events would span both Friday and Saturday. On Friday there were three races scheduled. Saturday would feature eight races. The cars were using the brand new 1.55-mile Coastal track today. Today the Formula Fords ran in race #1 and #3. The S&R Response Ford XR Challenge cars competed in race #2. The Irish touring cars practiced today but would not race until tomorrow. This was their first ever visit to Anglesey. The Irish cars and haulers arrived into Wales by ferry! Each race was 20 minutes long. Carol and I used our car to drive and then park all over the circuit. By now, the winds were picking up off the Irish Sea and some clouds were rolling in. Watching much of the racing action from inside the car was more comfortable. Today I enjoyed the racing. However, I will long remember the people I met at the Anglesey Circuit. They could not have been more hospitable to Carol and me. We really appreciated that. COUNTRY COMPARISONS United Kingdom This afternoon I saw my 43rd lifetime track in the United Kingdom. It was my first ever venue to see in Wales. This gives me an eleventh place ranking in the U.K. Notably, I am the #1 American trackchaser in the United Kingdom. Now you can see the entire up to date trackchaser rankings for these states. Just click on this link or paste it in your browser: United Kingdom Country Trackchaser Rankings Note: I am not certain how long state trackchasing standings will be available. I will post them for you as long as I can. This link may not work when the www.autoracingrecords.com site no longer posts trackchasing standings. Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! My review of the Apple iPhone trackchasing “app” Track Guide powered by the National Speedway Directory. How is the transition going from unofficial trackchasing commissioner Will White to his successor? Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser Welch sayings: Canu cyn borefwyd, crio cyn swper. Translation: To sing before breakfast is to weep before supper. Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report DAYS 5-6 – “EASTER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM” TRACKCHASING TOUR Editor’s note: Folks, you’ve got your work cut out for you. There are videos, still photos and Race Reviews from FIVE tracks to sift through below. I’ll give you an extra day or two before I send the third and final “Easter in the United Kingdom” Trackchaser Report. Need some extra time? Remember, that’s what “sick days” are for at work! Greetings from the United Kingdom THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Objective and the Strategy The objective. This is when ‘the plan’ kicks in. Now is when my logistical planning begins to kick in. This report will cover a two-day period (U.K. part 2 of 3) when Carol and I will see racing at five different tracks. In addition our plan is to attend Easter Sunday church services. The strategy. It all boiled down to this. Remember I checked nearly 100 U.K. track websites before coming up with today’s plan. Then I checked another 50 racing promotion websites. The purpose was to find our which tracks were racing over the four-day U.K. Easter Bank Holiday weekend. This advanced planning netted thirty tracks or so that fit the bill. Then I had to find out where in the United Kingdom each of these tracks was located. Added to that part of the mix was the time of day the racing would take place. Google Earth rocks! You can see the world from there. I used Google Earth in many cases to figure out the track’s location. Then Google Earth helped me learn how far each track was from the next. From all of this and LOTS MORE I came up with a racing plan. Since I had already seen forty-two of the more popular U.K. tracks those places were not available to me on this trip. That was too bad. I really like the BRISCA F1 stock cars but they were racing at venues I had already seen. It is background planning like this that allows me to see more tracks per trip and just more tracks than my fellow competitors. Ya….it’s a strategy thing. The Trip Day 5 (Saturday) Good-bye Wales! On Saturday morning we finished up another traditional Welsh breakfast in the hotel’s gourmet dining room. This had been our third and last night to stay in Wales. Wales is beautiful in the spring. Their hotels serve hearty breakfasts. With some time available we took a stroll around the small village. Right behind our hotel was an old stone church. We ran into a lady who was willing to show us inside. They were all set for tomorrow’s Easter services. Every U.K. trackchasing program should include some autograss racing. Our first stop today is the Lugg View Raceway. This is part of the Hereford autograss group. Back in 2005, when I traveled with P.J. Hollebrand we, along with Colin Herridge, had seen the Hereford autograss organization race. That race in 2005 was at the Grove Farm track. Today is a new track for Hereford. I guess they switched both farms and towns. I’ll tell you more about the Lugg View Raceway outing in “Race Review”. I’ve never seen anything more colorful. After the race we headed out into the English countryside. The “grape seed” fields are both beautiful and colorful. They are a bright mustard yellow. I’ve been calling these plants canola fields in the past. Colin Herridge tells me they are grape seed fields. Don’t miss the photos. Our late afternoon trackchasing stop would be at Donington Park in Castle Donington, United Kingdom. This track was a two-hour drive from the Hereford autograss track. More on Donington Park in “Race Review”. Our only night race of the trip. Following Donington Park we headed over to the Arena Essex Raceway. This was the only “night” race we would be seeing. Most tracks in the U.K. don’t have lights thus most race during the day. Arena Essex is located in an urban area on the ring road (M25) around London. It took a little extra doing to find this place but we did. More on the Arena Essex trackchasing experience in “Race Review”. No! Not a chain hotel. Following the race we went looking for our first chain hotel. We would be staying at a Ramada property. Normally, I wouldn’t stay at a chain hotel on a trip like this. However, the Ramada’s location was key. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. Carol wanted to attend church on Easter. What Carol wants, Carol gets if I have anything to say about it. I wasn’t as interested in attending church as I was in solving the logistical problem her request created. The first objective (to me anyway – don’t tell Carol) was that we needed to be at the Horndean Raceway for their 11 a.m. Easter Sunday start. That meant I needed to find a church, not just any church, but a Catholic church. Catholic churches are in the minority in England. If Joe leaves home…….. I also had to find a Catholic church that had services early enough that we could drive to the Horndean track in time for their start. This had all the makings of “If Joe leaves home at 8:30 a.m. bound for his school which begins at 9:15 a.m. and he lives 6.2 miles from school and must walk against a 15 M.P.H. headwind what is the name of his dog”. Those are problems I love to solve. Fortunately, every hotel we’ve stayed at, despite some being more than 500 years old, had internet capabilities. That would not have been the case five years ago. I went to work using Google Search, Google Maps and Google Earth. After some time I found a church and found a hotel that would get us to the Horndean Raceway on time. I will never get Alzheimer’s. I use my brain too hard. Just bring me results. Carol was “pleased as punch” with my good work. It’s sort of like I’m the chef and Carol is a patron in my restaurant. She enjoys the finished product and doesn’t really understand what goes on back in the kitchen. That’s fair enough. The room at the nearly new Ramada hotel was better amenity wise than any of our previous upscale AND MORE EXPENSIVE Welsh hotels. It all depends on what you are looking for. I went to sleep with a smile on my face. We were all set for Easter Sunday’s busy day. Day 6 (Sunday) Be careful who you take advice from. When we checked into the Ramada hotel last night the clerk told me he knew of a Catholic church just one mile from the hotel. My church selection was two miles away. Maybe we would go with his choice. We drove down to the church last evening just to make sure we knew where it was. Later on in the evening I did some internet research on the desk clerk’s suggestion. I wanted to confirm starting times. It turned out his selection was not a Catholic church. It was a Church of England denomination. This would make a big difference to Carol. I am not a member of the Catholic Church or the Church of England. It would seem to me that God wouldn’t care whose side you were on as long as you believed in Him. However, it does seem that several religions take the stance that “you’re either with us or again’ us”. I guess only time will tell. I do know this. Most wars in the world have been centered on religion. Easter Sunday church services. We ended up going to the church I had picked out. It was a small place but old as most things are around here. Services started at 9 a.m. That was perfect. The Horndean Raceway was an hour’s drive away. The church service, based upon my limited experience, should last about an hour. To help matters this church didn’t do any singing. I guess that’s like not having time trials. As always they did do a lot of “standing up and sitting down and kneeling”. Catholic services are not for people with bad knees. After I got over how much Carol put in the collection plate, we headed out to the parking lot. We were pinned in by “tandem parking”. That didn’t seem very “church-like”. We had a racetrack to get too. Eventually we did get out of the church parking lot. We arrived at the gate of the Horndean Raceway precisely on time. More on the Horndean Raceway experience in “Race Review”. Later that afternoon we had an appointment at the Aldermasten Raceway. It was an hour’s drive up the road from Horndean. More on the Aldermasten Raceway experience in “Race Review”. And you think four bucks a gallon is expensive? Toward the end of the day, we had to fill our car with fuel. We needed to return the car with three-quarters of a tank. Our best calculations would have us fill the car to the brim now. Then when we finished the rest of our planned trip we would have the right amount of gas for the rental car company. I much prefer picking up a rental car with a full tank and returning it with a full tank. However, this isn’t Kansas. I didn’t come to England to feel like I was in Kansas. Luckily, Carol has a Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics. I can normally hold me own with “numbers” as well. Our plannin’ worked out perfectly. Was Garth messin’ with me? You would not believe the one lane “roads” Garth had us traveling. Many were paved but wide enough for just one car to pass. Most of those were tree lined with the trees joining branches above our heads. I don’t know if “Garth” was just messin’ with me or if that was the most efficient way to get from point A to point B. Don’t miss the pictures! After the Aldermasten race we drove round and round trying to find a Travelodge. I can’t believe that people live in houses connected to the main highway with a 1-2 mile one-lane road to contend with. We never did find the Travelodge. Finally we came across a well-rated traditional “B&B”. Our long, but very productive Easter Sunday had come to a close. The People Who should we run into? Our people highlight from this part of the trip centered on meeting up with England’s Colin Herridge. I will tell you how that came about below. RACE REVIEW SATURDAY LUGG VIEW RACEWAY – nr MARDEN, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM As a former autograss racer, I have a fondness for the grass surface. In the U.K. a very popular form of motorsport is “Autograss Racing”. Today I was seeing my sixth ever autograss race. You might not know this but as far as anyone knows I am the ONLY trackchaser to have raced in an actual autograss event. All the way back in 2000 I raced at the Hilltop Speedway in Tirley, England. It was definitely an “E” ticket ride for me. Today’s event was at the Lugg View Raceway near Marden, England. The event was sanctioned by the Hereford Autograss Association. Back in 2005, P.J. Hollebrand, Colin Herridge and I saw racing at the Boiling Wells Farm autograss track in Monkland, England. That event was also promoted by the Hereford Autograss group. The Hereford Autograss group races at several different tracks each year. I think most tracks are located on the private property of local farmers. One year they may use one farm and the next year another. Today’s track was brand new. Things were very well organized. The racing surface started out as a flat green grass pasture. Yes, we did have to watch where we walked! By the end of the day the oval’s surface would be dirt. To keep the dust down the track was watered from time to time. Some autograss events attract 200-300 cars. This weekend’s Hereford show would run for three days. I was told car counts would be bigger on days two and three. Today there were maybe 75 cars in the paddock area. Just sign in please. Since I had made contact with race chairman Martin Murphy (I had called him from the states during the trip planning process), Carol and I were admitted into the paddock area at no extra charge. We simply signed a release and in we went. A major part of the fun at autograss race events is being able to stroll into the paddock and get a close up view of so many racers. The cars are so colorful. Several are driven by women and teenagers. We stayed for one hour’s worth of racing. That’s the minimum stay for any normal blended double I would do. I can’t see showing up for 5-10 minutes, seeing a heat race or two and counting the track. Some think that is O.K. but I don’t. Heck, to be fair, some don’t think seeing an hour’s worth of racing is enough. We were at the track for nearly two hours. We had 45 minutes or so to attend the driver’s meeting and roam the pits. Then we had an hour of racing. Autograss racing is somewhat repetitive. I would have to say that autograss racing is somewhat repetitive. They start just 4-5 cars (all side by side) and race for just four laps or so. They run one race after another with no delays. We probably saw 15-18 races in time we were here. That was enough for me. The woman announcer could be heard clearly over a stout P.A. system. I just couldn’t understand her! I’m not sure she was even speaking English all the time. We were still very near the Wales border. I had not realized that the Welsh seem to speak, well Welsh, more so that English. Nevertheless, the announcer had a passion for her position even though she passed on an opportunity to recognize the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”. DONINGTON PARK – CASTLE DONINGTON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM British truck racing! Our experience at Donington Park would be interesting. It’s one of Britain’s many permanent historic asphalt racing circuits. Today’s headlining division was the British Truck Racing Association. These are trucks just like the 18-wheelers you see running up and down the interstate. Of course, they don’t race with their trailers attached. This was the first day of a two-day show. Today they had been practicing and qualifying for most of the day. Beginning at 3:50 p.m. they would hold three special races. This worked perfectly for a “blended double”. The combo of the Lugg View Raceway and Donington Park would make for a “Blended double without a feature on both ends”. Then Donington Park and Arena Essex Raceway would qualify as a “Day/night” trackchasing double. I’ve been using these double definitions for years so followers should be comfortable with the terminology by now. Did they really want to charge us at this time of day? Tickets to today’s racing were 15 British pounds each. That’s about $25 U.S. a piece. However, when we arrived they were just about ready to shut the ticket booth down for the day. I asked the ticket seller if he really wanted to charge two Americans this late in the day. Sometimes (almost always) it pays to have a very direct conversation with a key decision-maker when you want to get something done. That’s as true in the boardroom as it is with a minimum wage worker operating the ticket booth. An “executive” decision was made on his part to have us ask the ticket taking girl if we needed a ticket. Heck, that’s exactly how it works in the boardroom. If a decision can be passed on to someone else then it will be. The ticket taking young lady agreed with my line of thinking. There was no admission charge for us today. Not the finest grub, but grub none the less. There was a lull in the on track action at Donington Park when we arrived. That gave us time for lunch at the “Gourmet Burger” stand trackside. I will tell you this. With what I eat at these tracks I should weigh 400 pounds. If I don’t stop eating track food I WILL weigh 400 pounds. I don’t see ‘drifting’ often. As luck would have it there was a major “drifting” event going on within yards of the Donington Park track. This was the MAXXIS British Drifting Championship. There were more people watching the drifting than the circuit racing. We peaked over for a few of the drifting “races”. These two-car events were fun to watch. Trucks, legends and then big trucks. The first countable racing we saw was for about a dozen pickup trucks. From our position we could only see them for 5-10 seconds before they left our view. We needed to get a better place to watch the next two races. The legends were up next. By this time we had found a seat in a small grandstand near the start/finish line. The legends started about 25 cars. They raced hard and fast. I would estimate that top speeds were over 100 M.P.H. I think this is the best legend racing I have ever seen. I would hate to be in one of those things at these speeds in a major accident. This was the feature race for the weekend for the legends. The final race of the day was for 15-20 British trucks. This was only the second time I have seen this class race. The other was in Brazil with friend and Englishman Jerry Fisher. I wouldn’t say these races were all that compelling. The trucks don’t seem to be very nimble. Nevertheless, they are big loud diesel fuel belching machines. The crowd seems to love them. Yes….a grand trackchasing logistical success. Seeing three big races for these classes in the late afternoon was a grand trackchasing logistical success. We also had more than 30 minutes to tour the paddock area. I was able to get some great close-up shots of the competitors. We definitely got more than our money’s worth at Donington Park. ARENA ESSEX RACEWAY – PURFLEET, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM U.K.’s signature track for me. With every state and many foreign countries I have a “signature” track. It’s the track I would most like to see given the opportunity. I won’t go too far out of the way to see a signature track. I figure I’ll get to all of them sooner or later if the man upstairs is cooperative. The Arena Essex Raceway was my U.K. signature track. Cadwell Park is my new signature track here. Tonight’s “Rolling Thunder” race program began at 6:15 p.m. We couldn’t get there until 8:19 p.m. The promoter told me in advance their racing continued until 10:30 p.m. most nights. The promotion calls for each racing class to run two heats and a feature. We arrived in the middle of the second heats. This allowed us to see about 15 races including features for all classes. That was plenty of racing. More racetrack food. We started with dinner. You see, when we’re visiting three tracks in a day there is not much chance for roadside gourmet dining. We could have done worse than Arena Essex. For a U.K. oval this track had one of the best concession stands. They offered “breakfast” presumably for their day races as well as a full selection of burgers/dogs, chips and “jackets”. Carol went with a huge “frankfurter” and I chose the chips and gravy. My choice was just like Canada’s “poutine” without the cheese. Who says you can’t get quality “eatin” at these little racetracks. Our first tarmac oval of the trip. The Arena Essex race track is a tarmac (asphalt) oval. It’s about 400 meters in distance and for the most part flat. In the turns there is a curbing that rises about 12 inches above the racing surface. There wouldn’t be anybody “cutting corners” with that curb. The “Rolling Thunder” program races at Arena Essex about twice a month on Saturday nights. AE also hosts racing on Sunday afternoons and Bank Holiday Mondays. Why can’t the U.S. do this? Like most U.K. short tracks they start the fast cars in the back. This is another reason I so much like U.K. racing. Not only do the fast cars start in the back they sometimes start nearly a full lap behind the slowest cars in the field. No free lunches! Carol was in direct opposition to this procedure. She is against “enabling” the “sick, lame and lazy” from gaining an advantage in all walks of life including racing. I liked this approach. Typically, the slow car/inexperienced driver could hold onto the lead for half the race or more. By then the faster cars would have moved up through the pack and normally ended up winning. I cannot explain why the U.S. must start the fastest cars in the front almost guaranteeing no passing. U.K. oval racing rocks for this reason and many others. Tonight’s program included winged sprint cars. There were just five of them. It is rare to see sprint car racing in the U.K. They couldn’t do much but follow the leader on a short flat asphalt oval. At least they sounded mean. My advance race contact, Dave Gordon, was videotaping the race action. In between races I had the chance to introduce myself and thank him for his help. The track commentator also gave me an excellent “trackchaser mention”. A day early for bangers. I would have loved to have seen a full field of bangers racing at Arena Essex. They were on the card for the next day. However, we did get to see the Reliant Robins (three wheel cars) race. That was fun. There were several other stock car classes racing. Their mini-sprints are pretty much equivalent to our senior champ karts. Open-wheeled cars race in the clockwise direction. Fendered cars raced counter-clockwise. Photos are limited from this track due to the darkness. SUNDAY HORNDEAN RACEWAY – HORNDEAN, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM Out of the church goin’ clothes and into race wear. Carol and I pulled into the Horndean Raceway parking lot right on time at 11 a.m. We were still in our Easter Sunday church goin’ clothes so we had to made a change. It was nice to see the Horndean Raceway offering a healthy 50% discount for people of age. Why not give more money to the age group that already has the most money right? Since the Ramada hotel did not have breakfast included in the rates we were ready for lunch. Wait! The Ramada DID have breakfast it just was not included in the room rate. Any guesses on how much a traditional English breakfast costs at this mid-price hotel. Twenty-five U.S. dollars per person! What a small world. Just as we were sitting down to eat at Horndean who do you think stepped up? It was Colin Herridge aka Clark Kent. What were the chances of THAT happening? For those of you who don’t know, Colin Herridge is one of the foremost U.K. trackchasers. He doesn’t have the most tracks of any U.K. trackchaser. However, he can always be counted on for good council regarding the United Kingdom racing system. Colin and I met several years ago. I first met Colin back in 2004 when he came out to meet Allan Brown and me at the Bovingdon Circuit. I’ve always been able to get helpful information from Colin regarding my several trips to the U.K. and consider him a good friend. I do it the smart (easy) way now. His visit does remind me of that first meeting. Allan Brown and I were traveling together. Allan was handling the map reading chores. That was a much more difficult process than today’s 99%+ error free GPS navigating. It’s like comparing night and day. Chalk! Are you kidding me? Today would be a first with the Horndean Raceway. They have a CHALK racing surface. I’ve seen racing on asphalt, dirt, clay, concrete, grass and aluminum but never on chalk! The track was white. Predictably the chalk gave off chalk dust as the races went along. It was chalk dust just like you may have seen during your grade school (aka primary/elementary) days. I didn’t like chalk dust then and I didn’t like it this afternoon. Down wind was not good. Initially, we sat “down wind”. That was not good for my camera. Fans and their vehicles were pulled up right next to a protective fence within yards of the track. After only a race or two the darker spectator cars looked as if they had been snowed on. Soon Carol, Colin and I moved to the other end of the track and our “chalk dust” problem was eliminated. The Brits know how to run their racing events. I have always loved U.K. racing for several reasons. They start the fast cars in the back and there is lots of passing. They don’t delay races with yellow flag cautions. Fans can access the pit area with only a general admission ticket. U.K. tracks race in the rain. All of those are HUGE for the real racing fan. However, I fear that some U.K. tracks are getting much more like their generally less entertaining U.S.A. counterparts. While doing research for this trip I noticed websites posting phone numbers for weather updates. That meant to me they might cancel the show if it rained too much. The U.K. (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) gets a lot of rain. I’ve been to races where it poured rain for the whole show and the weather was never mentioned. They just kept racing. U.K. fans have always had full access to the pit/paddock area. In the U.S. if a general admission ticket costs $10 then a pit pass might cost twenty or thirty dollars. The U.S. promoter might try to tell you the difference in price covers the extra insurance for the racer. There is no way it costs an extra twenty dollars per person in the pits for insurance. That’s just a promoter trying to make money off the back gate when the front gate receipts are low. Today spectators were not allowed in the pits without a pit pass. Luckily they were not enforcing that policy closely. I also don’t remember the wire fences now being put up between the spectators and the track from my previous visits. Mind you I have not visited the U.K. for racing since 2006. It’s hard to get good photos with these fences in place. Where were all the racecars? Several tracks, including Horndean, have a U.S. racing disease…..low car counts. More often than not racers come from the “blue-collar” community. They are most likely to be affected by a bad economy. For the past two years, low car counts have been showing up in more and more places. A promoter once told me he can put on a show with no spectators but there will be no show without racers. Right, Chris? Were these guys trying to get under my skin? Horndean didn’t get off on a great start with me. I didn’t like being coated with chalk dust. I didn’t like the fan restriction in the pits. I also didn’t like seeing such small numbers of cars racing. However, I did like the track commentator, Ben Thompson. He did a nice job over a good P.A. system. He even recognized my presence as a worldwide trackchaser. I liked Carol’s “Randy Lewis Racing” t-shirt (I gave her a good deal on it!). I liked having Colin Herridge in the house today. A race program highlight of the day was having “Van Bangers” on the schedule. There were five of them. Their event looked more like a demo derby than anything else. I’m not sure any of the panel vans completed a full lap. They had to water the chalk surface frequently. We stayed for two hours of racing. Then we headed out to the Aldermasten Raceway. I liked this afternoon’s selection of tracks for two reasons. They were both new for both Carol and me. They were both new track options for Colin Herridge. ALDERMASTEN RACEWAY – ALDERMASTEN, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM Follow that Renault. The Aldermasten Raceway was up the road from Horndean by an hour or so. I didn’t need my GPS to get us to this track. We simply followed Colin. We arrived in time to see more than two hours of their racing program. However, there was no one collecting admission when we pulled into the pit area. That was a good thing. Passin’ and bangin’ who doesn’t like that? Aldermasten is a 400 meters or so tarmac oval. It, like everyone of the U.K. ovals I have attended, was flat or nearly flat. There is virtually no banking at all for U.K. ovals. Nevertheless, with the use of full or at least limited contact, passing happens. U.K. racing offers much more passing and banging two key ingredients for customer satisfaction. No! It couldn’t be. Aldermasten did offer one thing I almost never see at an oval in the U.K. They had some grandstand seating. This is one item that I have never been able to understand about oval racing over here. Virtually, none of these tracks have any grandstands. Spectators are expected to either stand or bring there own chairs or watch from their cars. Also, given the frequency of rain and the fact they race in the rain, there is very little shelter for the fans. Today’s 7-8 row grandstand offered padded seating and chair backs. This grandstand was very comfortable. With a beautiful warm sunny day we sat back in turns one and two or was it turns three and four and enjoyed the racing. I’m not really confused about which turns we sat in. It really all depends upon which class was racing and what direction they were heading! When was the last time you saw a hearse racing? This track was also affected by very small fields. There were several classes and few if any had more than ten cars. I liked the bangers best. One of the “racers” was driving a hearse! You won’t see one of those at your next World of Outlaws or NASCAR race. This was 1,000% better than expected. The last event of the day was a demolition derby. I have seen very few of these in the U.K. In the U.S. demo derbies are normally low speed affairs. The cars back into each other so as to protect their radiators. If the radiator is damaged it won’t be long before the engine stops running. In these events the cars rarely go much faster than 10-20 M.P.H. Today’s demolition derby had just four starters. I guess they were the only bangers still running for the day. You might think that four vehicles couldn’t put on much of a show. Wrong! This was one of the most entertaining events of our four-day Bank Holiday weekend. Imagine four cars using the entire track of a 400-metre asphalt oval at speeds of 50 M.P.H. or more to inflict their mayhem. These cars took some of the hardest hits and just kept coming back for more. You won’t want to miss the video of this. There was plenty of time to chew the fat. When it was all over the three of us just sat back in our padded grandstand seats and chatted. Another track, the Aldershot Raceway was very close by. We probably could have seen some countable racing there as it still wasn’t that late. However, it was fun talking with Colin. We don’t get to do that very much. Carol was meeting him for the first time. She told me that Colin was one of the nicest trackchasers she had ever met. COUNTRY COMPARISONS United Kingdom Over the course of these two days I saw my 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th and 48th lifetime tracks in the United Kingdom. I even knocked off Arena Essex, my signature U.K. track. My new U.K. signature track is Cadwell Park. Today’s activity gives me an eleventh place ranking in the U.K. Notably, I am the #1 American trackchaser in the United Kingdom. Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! My review of the Apple iPhone trackchasing “app” Track Guide powered by the National Speedway Directory. How is the transition going from unofficial trackchasing commissioner Will White to his successor? There’s a big battle brewing for the second place ranking in the worldwide trackchaser standings. You won’t want to miss my analysis of this contest. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser English sayings: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Translation: A man of even limited ability has an advantage over a person who is less able. Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report DAYS 7-9 – “EASTER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM” TRACKCHASING TOUR Special note Diesel fuel (as well as gasoline) was expensive in the U.K. Take a look at the “numbers” to see what I mean. Total miles driven = 1,162 Diesel fuel liters used = 105.8 Average price per liter = 1.45 British pounds Miles per liter = 10.98 U.S. gallons used = 27.98 Average price per gallon = $8.98 U.S. Miles per gallon = 41.5 Cost per mile (U.S.) = 28.0 cents Cost per mile in U.S. based upon 25 MPG and $3.87 (average U.S. price 4/25/11 – Average U.S. gas prices = 15.5 cents per mile Fuel prices per mile, despite better mileage with our U.K. rental car, 81% higher in the U.S. Greeting from the United Kingdom, THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Objective and the Strategy The objective. Mission accomplished. Our trip is winding down. Our objective was to see several U.K. tracks, do some touring, stay in some great old hotels and just have fun. Mission accomplished. The strategy. It’s fun when everything works perfectly. I put a good deal of time into planning these trips. I use the latest machines to make my analysis both complete and quick. It is very gratifying to have a trip come off exactly as planned. Often, they do not. Sometimes that if because of a flaw in my planning or something out of my control. As far as I can tell no other fellow competitor comes anywhere close to having and using the technology I have. That’s too bad. It really isn’t expensive. In both the long and the short run it saves me money. The proper use of technology and my extensive trackchasing sponsorships allow me to string together some very unusual geographical trackchasing combinations. On the one hand that gives me the chance to see a lot of tracks NOW. It also lets me strategically plan for what will come later in trackchasing. This is a very challenging and thought-provoking hobby. The Trip Day 7 (Monday) Our last day of U.K. trackchasing. Today would be the fourth and last trackchasing day of our weeklong trip. Carol will head back to the states tomorrow. I’ll stay on for another week although not all of that time will be in the U.K. Breakfast this morning was again a fine traditional English breakfast. I will say this. European hotels beat most U.S. hotels when it comes to including a “free” breakfast. Of course, one could probably spend less in the U.S. buying a room and breakfast separately. Today’s 40ish innkeeper told us he is trying to get out of the “B&B” business. He’s been doing it with his wife for twenty years. The landlord wants to double his rent. I can see his point. This morning we would start with a major European Rallycross event at the Lydden Hill Race Circuit. I’ll tell you more about the Lydden Hill racing in “Race Review”. Today’s tracks were on top of each other. In the early afternoon we headed over to the Dover Raceway for some banger racing, among other things. Dover was less than ten miles from Lydden Hill. That was perfect. Who plans these things anyway? More on the Dover Raceway, our eighth U.K. track of the trip in “Race Review”. Following the Dover race we began our trek back up toward London’s Heathrow airport. The airport was a little less than two hours from the Dover Raceway. There was one rather surprising aspect to this trip. Not a single traffic jam. We drove 1,162 miles during our United Kingdom vacation. We were never in any major traffic for a single mile! Would nine dollars plus per gallon have anything to do with that? I had worried about driving into London on Monday night after a four day “bank holiday”. Not a problem. We arrived at the Sheraton Heathrow hotel before sundown. Sheraton is a sponsor of mine. They would be hosting our visit for the next three days. I will be here for three nights. Carol leaves in the morning. I needed to return my rental car at the Holiday Inn two miles from the Sheraton. That process went well. I hitched a ride back to the our hotel and we were ready for dinner. Finally, some Chinese food. We had been looking for Chinese food all week. As luck would have it the London Hong Kong restaurant was a five-minute walk from the hotel. Virtually everything on this trip has gone perfectly. I planned this trip 1-4 hours per day for several weeks in advance. I guess all of that planning paid off. Was this the perfect trip? We stayed at the very best inns. We ate outstanding food. We met fine people at the tracks. We saw eight tracks in four days. The weather was perfect every minute of the trip. There was zero traffic. I didn’t hit anything with the rental car despite driving on the left side of the road, shifting with my left hand and taking pictures with my right hand. O.K. I did hit one curb, at speed, but then I don’t try to achieve perfection in life. Day 8 (Tuesday) Who was that in the big black limo? Carol and I were up early for breakfast in the Sheraton Lounge on the club level. Shortly thereafter a big black Mercedes limo rolled up and Carol was deposited inside. Her trackchasing adventure was coming to an end. You see, SOMEONE, has to take care of things at home when I’m off on these wild goose chases. However, I’ve got to give Carol credit. She travels more than any other woman in trackchasing. Left to her own devices she probably wouldn’t stay away from home a single night. As it is, she has already spent 29 nights on the road and it’s still late April. I try to economize so Carol can be treated like a queen (or something like that). I will spend the next two days in London “touring”. Then I will be off to what is hoped to be my 50th different trackchasing country. Who would have thought that possible when coming into the 2005 season I had seen racing in only four countries! I’m staying at a hotel near the Heathrow airport in London. The cheapest way to get into the city is to take public transportation. I started with a five-minute walk to the bus station. It feels good to walk after being in a small car for the past four days and driving nearly 1,200 miles. From the bus station I have four different buses to choose from. They will each take me, for free, to the airport. Yes, those reading closely will “compare and contrast”. Carol rode in a big black limo to the airport. I walked and then road a free bus there. I save so Carol can be treated as if she were a queen. It’s the least I can do for her. Tubing. Once at the airport I took the “tube”, London’s subway to “Green Park”. I can ride the subway all day for eight British Pounds Sterling (about $13 U.S.). That seemed pretty reasonable. The woman who sold me my subway ticket was more than helpful. She armed me with bus schedules, train schedules (subway) and other hints on how to make my journey a fun one. You see, whenever I have a break from the tracks you will find me “seeing the sights”. The train ride was about one hour. It was fun for me. I am a “people watcher”. It is truly amazing how different people “look”. What would be even more amazing is to truly understand how everybody grew up, where they live and what and why they think about things the way they do. Of course, those questions can be “answered” by one’s imagination. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION Buckingham Palace (The Royal Wedding) My first train stop would be “Green Park”. This, and a ten-minute walk would take me to Buckingham Palace. Perhaps you have heard of it. It seems a couple of youngsters are getting married there in a few days. They call it the “Royal Wedding”! William and Catherine aka Kate are the lucky couple. You wouldn’t believe all of the TV production trucks, etc. that are in the area. Don’t miss the pictures. Of course, technology played a role in this day trip. First, I used “Garth”, my friendly GPS buddy as a “walking” GPS. He directed me flawlessly around the area. I could have used my iPhone GPS capabilities if I were in the U.S.A. However, here I don’t have a phone connection or a continuous Wi-Fi connection. I did use my iPhone (where I did have Wi-Fi) to record the Royal Wedding for later viewing on our TV at home. My “DirectTV” app allows me to program my Digital Video Recorder (for my home TV) remotely from any place in the world! I recorded the six-hour CNN coverage of the wedding for viewing whenever I get around to it. I still have yet to watch the Super Bowl! I’ll get to it someday. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION The Wizard of Oz – Palladium Theatre, London, England It was now about 4 p.m. I needed to get a theatre ticket. London is on a par with New York for live theatre productions. Carol and I will see several plays every year. We normally go to New York at least once a year and see shows in downtown Los Angeles as well. In the past we have seen “Lion King” and “Starlight Express” in London. Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the latter musical. Tonight I was hoping to see another show done my Baron Webber, the “Wizard of Oz”. Andrew Lloyd Webber has produced these blockbusters as well, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and the Phantom of the Opera. When in New York or London we almost always use “tkts” (London Theatre Tickets). I like to buy “good things cheap”. Some people like to buy “cheap things cheap”. It’s all in how you look at things in life. I took the subway to Leicester Square. This is the heart of the London theatre district. Not only does “tkts” have a store there but lots of other “half-price” imitators do too. By the way, not all shows offer their tickets through these outlets. Some tickets are “reduced” but may not be available at half price. The Wizard of Oz was playing in the famous “London Palladium” (London Palladium). This made my night even more memorable. This 2,286-seat venue is arguably the most famous theatre in all of London. The building opened in 1910. Today it is a modern beautiful place to spend an evening. I didn’t buy my ticket at tkts. I chose another “half-tix” location. Most of these shops did not have reduced price tickets to the Wizard of Oz since it opened just two months ago. However, I was able to buy my ticket at 33% off the face value for 42 pounds. Some might think this type of reduced price ticket would be in the back row of a theatre that seats more than 2,200 people. No, that is not the case. There are three sections to this theatre. They are called “stalls”, “royal circle” and “upper circle”. This equates to American theatre’s seating sections of “orchestra”, “mezzanine” and “balcony”. My seat location was in the “stalls” section. I was in the center section of the theatre just twelve rows from the stage. This supports my strategy of buying “good things”, a great seat location to a popular play, “cheap” for 33% off the regular price. That part of my strategy could not have worked any better. How was the production itself? Outstanding. I give it a 4++ rating on my 1-5 scale. The props and set were outstanding. That is typical of many Andrew Lloyd Wright productions. Unfortunately, no photos or video of the show were allowed. The show was most entertaining, although a little long (sort of like these reports). I’ll probably hit another show tomorrow night. Wizard of Oz theatrical review When the Wizard of Oz was concluded, I was off into the London night. With a train change at Piccadilly Circus I was on the way home. There are not many people riding the train toward Heathrow late at night. I made my transfer to the “U103” bus. Then a quick five-minute walk in declining temperatures and my “London touring” adventure was finished for the day. Day 9 (Wednesday) TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION Imperial War Museum – London, England I am definitely on “European” time now. I’ve been in Europe for eight full days. Following breakfast on the Sheraton club level I headed back into London for the afternoon and evening. It’s amazing what an extra day makes when it comes to better handling the “learning curve”. Riding the bus and then the London subway (tube) was very easy today. My first stop was the Imperial War Museum (Imperial War Museum). I had consulted Tripadvisor.com for their top tourist recommendations. I am a huge fan of TripAdvisor. Folks like you and me give their opinions on all kinds of travel situations. They rated the Imperial War Museum at the top tourist attraction in London. I don’t know if that’s true but I enjoyed my stay there. Like most London museums there is no museum charge. The obvious highlight of the museum was their “holocaust” exhibit. It’s extensive. I spent about an hour there. I have followed the holocaust history. Today’s exhibit added to that research. Making a city bus a tour bus. Following my war museum visit I did something that I’m guessing most people don’t or wouldn’t do. I boarded a double decker city bus for sightseeing purposes. My eight BPS (British Pound Sterling) transportation fee included unlimited rides on both the subway AND the city bus system for the day. I asked the bus driver if his route went in a loop. He said that it did. I asked him how long the loop would take. He told me about an hour. Those seemed like simple questions and simple answers. Apparently, they were not. The weather during our entire stay in the U.K. has been picture perfect. Maybe that is because Easter came later this year than normal. With the afternoon sun peaking in on the top deck of the bus I dosed some. The bus tour took me through some less than prosperous (not slums) areas of the city. I didn’t see anything like I might of the poor in American cities. After about and hour and fifteen minutes, the audio system of the bus told me the bus had reached the end of the line. Everyone had to get off the bus. Say what? I asked the driver what was up. He pleaded ignorance (aptly applied) and told me I would have to ride another bus back to my starting point. I had not planned for this delay. My evening plan included seeing another theatrical production. That plan could be in serious jeopardy if I didn’t get moving. Apparently, where I was now was NOT near any part of the subway system. If I could get to a subway I could get to a theatre. I had to ride the bus for 40 more minutes before I reached a subway location. The bus driver on this route was both knowledgeable and helpful. Once I got down into the subway I used my handy subway map. I had to use three different trains to make it to Leicester Square. That’s the heart of the London theatre district. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION Million Dollar Quartet – Noel Coward Theatre, London, England London’s theatre productions begin between 7-8 p.m. Last night’s Wizard of Oz began at 7 p.m. I didn’t arrive at the “half price” tickets location until 7:10 p.m. tonight. My request to the ticket seller was simple. “What do you have that is discounted and near enough that I can still make the show?”, I asked. She reeled off about ten productions that started at 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. that were within walking distance. Great! I selected “Million Dollar Quartet” (Million Dollar Quartet). It was playing at the nearby Noel Coward Theatre (Noel Coward Theatre – London) at 8 p.m. Now I even had time for a quick dinner. I chose a noodle house. I sat outside on the sidewalk using my chopsticks to eat my noodles and spicy pork at the theatre patrons hurried to their shows. The London theatre scene seems nearly identical to my experiences on and around Broadway in New York. I love the “half-priced” ticket outlets. For me (and my quests) there is never a need to buy tickets in advance. Tickets are not always “half-priced” at these places but the discounts are substantial. Tonight I received a 24% discount. My seat was in the fifth row just a couple of seats off center in the 872-seat theatre. I couldn’t beat that! Tonight’s show was fantastic. If focused around the only time that Elvis Presley (Elvis Presley), Johnny Cash Johnny Cash), Carl Perkins (Carl Perkins) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Jerry Lee Lewis) were ever together at Sun Records (Sun Records) with promoter Sam Phillips (Sam Phillips) The date was December 4, 1956. The ensemble performed more than twenty of their hits. By the end of the show more than half the audience was clapping their hands above their heads. The show just kept getting better and better. Unfortunately, I can’t share any video or audio from the production since that was not allowed. If you get a chance to see “Million Dollar Quartet” I highly recommend it. More tubing. Following the show I road the subway, then the U3 bus and walked the last five minutes to the hotel on my final night in London. I shared that walk with a young woman from Los Angeles (Maria). She was in town for the Royal Wedding! Maria was a financial planner. We talked about the challenges that people face in developing and then following a good financial plan. If one can do that well they will have lots of options for the rest of their lives. Tomorrow I head out in hopes of seeing racing in my 50th different country. If I am successful I will become the first trackchaser to see racing in all 50 of the United States as well as 50 different countries. That’s my kind of “50/50” ticket! RACE REVIEW LYDDEN PARK RACE CIRCUIT – WOOTEN, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM We don’t always come in the front gate. I was using “longitude/latitude” coordinates to find today’s circuit. There’s one problem with that. I can just as easily be directed into the back of the property as the front. Sometimes there is no entrance to the back of the property! I’m going to have to improve my skills with Google Earth in this regard. We never did see any signage with this track. That was most unusual since this is a major circuit. We definitely “came in the back way”. We were traveling on one-lane heavily forested roads. It was amazing to me how rural it was. First we followed then we were followed by another car of race fans looking for the track. Maybe they used Google Earth too! Finally, we found the entrance to the Lydden Hill Race Circuit. Today’s event was “European Rallycross” (European Rallycross) This sanctioning body races all over Europe. Today was the second day of a two-day event. Beautiful countryside and great weather. The track is situated in the beautiful rolling green hills of southern England. There was a large crowd on hand with ample places to park and watch from the car. Again, like every other day we have been here the weather was gorgeous. Temps were in the low 70s with abundant sunshine. We really lucked out with the weather on this trip. I was pleased to see that our 20 British Pound (about $32 U.S.) admission included full access to the paddock area. In the paddock we could get up close and personal with the cars and drivers. There were well over ten languages being spoken in the paddock. We could see everything. What I really like about Lydden Hill was that we could walk the entire track. Today’s rallycross course had several elevation changes. Importantly, rallycross racing changes from asphalt to gravel and back again. That’s one of the requirements to make a rallycross track. In trackchasing we aptly call that a “mixed” surface. Rallycross racing is somewhat akin to autograss racing. Only 4-5 cars start each event. They take off side by side and race for only 3-4 laps. When one race is finished the next one is lined up and ready to go. I’m probably not a big fan of rallycross. I can’t say I’m a big fan of rallycross. Maybe I haven’t seen enough of it to make an informed decision. There isn’t much passing. Who ever wins the drag race from the standing start often wins the short race. Three lap races don’t turn me on either especially with very little passing. What’s a ‘joker lap’? Rallycross does offer one unique aspect that affects the racer’s strategy. Each driver must complete a “joker” lap. At some point in the course (today it was at the first turn) the driver can race on the normal course. Alternatively, he/she can take a second lane, which makes up the “joker” part of the course. This second choice will take the driver several seconds longer to complete. Every driver must make at least one of the racing laps a “joker” lap. The strategy comes into play when drivers decide when to take their “joker lap”. Some drivers did it on the first lap and some on the last lap. One driver forgot to take the joker turn at all and received a 30-second penalty. Now the European rallycross community has been exposed to trackchasing. I am pleased to report than the trackchasing hobby received a nice announcement over the stout P.A. system. Can you imagine how many European race fans got a very brief exposure to our little hobby today. I wish all trackchasers could promote the hobby this way. We spent about three hours at Lydden Hill. That was plenty of time to see every car in the paddock, watch 15-20 races and have a butterscotch crepe. Then we were off to the other end of the European racing spectrum. I’m talking about banger racing at a track right out of the fifties. If I could only see one event I would attend banger racing over European rallycross. It doesn’t mean I don’t like both. But if I had to choose I would prefer good full-fields of bangers. DOVER RACEWAY – DOVER, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM I could not believe the track’s entrance road. This track was most unusual. A one-lane paved road covering 1-2 miles was the only way into the track. We arrived before the start of the first race at 1 p.m. This was a perfect double since the track was less than 10 miles from the Lydden Hill Race Circuit visited earlier in the day. We were about the last fans to arrive. Most people parked their cars on a large grassy hillside and watched from there. Most U.K. tracks race in the rain. I have no idea how people could get their cars up on that hill in the rain. If it did start to rain I have no idea how they would keep their cars from sliding down the hill into other parked cars. No problems with car counts today. The pit area was jammed with around 100 race cars of various ethnicities. Don’t miss the pictures. U.S. fans won’t see racecars like these at most traditional tracks. As noted there had to be 100 racecars plus haulers in the pit area. There were about 200 cars in the spectator area. How in the world did all of these vehicles get into the track area via a one-lane road. The U.K. tracks I have visited (now totally exactly 50) do more with less than anywhere I now. Have you ever eaten a ‘jacket’? Dover Raceway would be the site for our lunch. There was only one small concession stand serving hot food with two employees. Carol and I selected two “jackets” to eat. No, not THAT kind of jacket. In the U.K. a “jacket” is a baked potato. I had the cheese and bean jacket and Carol chose the curry jacket. Given the circumstances they were very good. A significant case of ‘deferred maintenance’. This was likely the track featuring the most “deferred maintenance” of any we saw this week. Some might translate that into meaning the track was a real “dump”. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the actual racing at this place the most of all eight tracks we visited. Like most U.K. short tracks there were no grandstands. Carol and I chose a small hillside overlooking turn one to sit. Luckily, we had followed Carol’s suggestion to bring our “golf tournament chairs”. These three-legged chairs are light to carry and very effective. Unfortunately, our seats were “down wind”. With a bright sunny day and some wind the dirt racing surface was drying out quickly. Carol may have liked the Dover Raceway the least of the tracks we saw. She’s not much for dirt in the face. Truth be told, the Dover dirt was far less than that produced by the dirtiest and dustiest tracks I have visited in the U.S. The Dover Raceway is an oval track measuring about 400 meters. Turns one and two are at a higher elevation than turns three and four. The start/finish line is located on what most would call the “backstretch”. That means it was the at the furthest straight from the crowd. I believe I noticed some concrete used to patch holes in the track! I always learn something at the driver’s meeting. I attended the driver’s meeting. There I learned the track had changed ownership. They told us the new owner intended to put some money and attention into the track. I wouldn’t know where to start first! Bangers are the best. The highlight of this “meeting” (that’s what they call a race event in the U.K.) were the “national bangers”. Along with BRISCA Formula 1 and saloons on tarmac I think I like banger racing the best of all the U.K. formula. Banger racing is essentially a demolition derby where the cars still try to complete a set number of laps around the track. The best banger racing starts 25-40 cars. Many of the tracks we visited this week had small numbers of cars in each class. That is similar to their U.S. brethren. Today Dover started about 25 bangers. In banger racing “full contact” is allowed. It is not only allowed, it is encouraged. Demo derbies in the U.S. also allow full contact. However, in U.S. demos rarely do speeds exceed 10-20 M.P.H. In U.K. banger racing impact speeds can be more than 60 M.P.H. Despite the track being littered with disabled racecars the race does not stop and is not delayed. They just keep racing. If you want to see some serious crashing and banging don’t miss my video from the Dover Raceway. I saw one car drive the entire length of the front straight (probably 150 yards) at speed in the WRONG direction just to do a head-on collision with a competitor! What’s a ‘Reliant Robin’? Another interesting class was the Reliant Robin (Reliant Robin) group. These are THREE-WHEELED cars. They have only one tire in the front. I guess that makes them less stable if the three rollovers in one race was a guide. These cars were manufactured from 1973-1981. Right out of ‘Deliverance’? The track had a good commentator (announcer) and quality sound system. We toured the pit area taking pictures of the most unusual cars. The “toilets” were right out of the movie “Deliverance”. I wouldn’t want it any other way. This was a fine way to end the U.K. portion of our eight track trip. From here it was back to London. Carol would leave for the U.S. tomorrow. I’ll be here (Europe) for another week. We have been blessed with absolutely perfect weather. COUNTRY COMPARISONS United Kingdom Today I saw my 49th and 50th tracks in the United Kingdom. This gives me an eleventh place ranking in the U.K. Notably, I am the #1 American trackchaser in the United Kingdom. Now you can see the entire up to date trackchaser rankings for these states. Just click on this link or paste it in your browser: Coming Soon – RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Exclusive Features! My review of the Apple iPhone trackchasing “app” Track Guide powered by the National Speedway Directory. How is the transition going from unofficial trackchasing commissioner Will White to his successor? There’s a big battle brewing for the second place ranking in the worldwide trackchaser standings. You won’t want to miss my analysis of this contest. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis World’s #1 Trackchaser English sayings: Liars need good memories. Translation: People who do not tell the truth must be careful to remember what they say. TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Santa Ana, CA (SNA) – Chicago, IL (ORD) – 1,720 miles Chicago, IL (ORD) – London, England (LHR) – 3,940 miles RENTAL CAR #1 London’s Heathrow Airport – trip begins Anglesey, Wales – 306 miles Hereford, U.K. – 475 miles Castle Donington, U.K. – 573 miles Purfleet, U.K. – 720 miles Horndean, U.K. – 817 miles Aldermasten, U.K. – 881 miles Wooten, U.K. – 1,024 miles Dover, U.K. – 1,037 miles London’s Heathrow Airport – 1,162 miles – trip ends TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Anglesey Circuit – Complimentary admission Lugg View Raceway – 5BP Donington Park – no charge Arena Essex Raceway – 7BP Horndean Raceway – 5BP (BP senior savings) Aldermasten Raceway – no charge Lydden Hill Race Circuit – 20BP Dover Raceway – 9BP COMPARISONS LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS There are no trackchasers currently within 200 tracks of my lifetime total. Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” EASTER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM VERSION 8.0 (Part 1 of 2) THE KEYS TO THE TRIP When should a husband leave his wife for a “boys night out” trip?……………more in “The Trip – Day 1”. Do NOT go to sleep!……………..more in “The Trip – Day 2”. The top ten reasons why I come back again and again to the U.K.………..details in “The Experience”. GREETINGS FROM ALL OVER THE UNITED KINGDOM WHO, WHAT, WHY AND WHERE The Plan The U.K. – My eighth time. I first came to “Great Britain”, also known as the United Kingdom back in 1999 for trackchasing purposes. On that trip we brought our daughter and son, Kristy and Jim. Later in that journey I had the most enjoyable ever round of golf (not my lowest ever score) at the Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club (Royal Lytham & St. Annes) in Blackpool, England. As you may know this course hosts the British Open (The Open) about every four years. This will be my eighth trackchasing trip to the U.K.. On one of those trips I invited trackchaser P.J. Hollebrand (2005) to tag along. On another trackchaser Allan Brown (2004) was my invited guest. Carol had been part of the trip in 1999, 2000 and 2011. I guess that means I came here twice by myself. One of those visits was just for a couple of days. Separately, Carol and I have been to London a time or two to visit son J.J. when he lived in the city. Net, although we have a good deal of experience it still takes the proper amount of planning to get the most out of the days we will have here. Below are just a few things that “went down” in advance of making this trip. My invited guest. I’m very careful, beyond traveling with Carol of course, on whom I invite to come along on one of my trackchasing trips. I subscribe to the adage, “He who travels fastest travels alone”. However, there are trips where it makes sense to have someone come along. This was on of those trips. I’ll tell why. On this trip I invited friend and fellow trackchaser Paul Weisel to tag along. That means that on three of my Great Britain trips now I have invited trackchasers to join me. The biggest reason for doing that was just to see the joy on my friend’s faces as they experienced something they had never done before. Another reason I invited Paul is that I knew he had the knowledge to appreciate the trip. That was important. When I invited Allan and P.J. they had never “traveled abroad” to see racing. I don’t think they would have ever done such a trip on their own without coming along with me first. Paul Weisel, from Pennsylvania, was a good deal more advanced with his international trackchasing experience. As a matter of fact, I met Paul for the first time ever at a track in Australia! Additionally, Paul a former TQ and full midget driver has raced internationally in Jamaica. Let’s be clear….. To be clear I never invite people to join me on these trips for their financial support. Some trackchasers won’t make a trip unless a friend comes along to pick up much of the expense. In every previous trip, I enjoyed having the company of a fellow trackchaser on these visits to the U.K. However, whether they came along or not I was still headed to the U.K. Since Paul had never been to the United Kingdom to see any racing EVERY track would be new for him. That made my planning process a little bit easier. Over the four-day “Bank Holiday” aka Easter weekend I would first schedule races at tracks I have never visited. There is a lot of racing in the U.K. over Easter. Up to now I have seen 50 different tracks in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, all part of the bigger entity of Great Britain. However, filling a complete four-day trip this year with tracks I had never visited was not possible. Lots of tracks…and lots of miles. Our complete trackchasing agenda calls for us to see racing at eight venues in four days. All but one day will be trackchasing “day/night” doubleheaders. If all goes well Paul will add eight new tracks and I will get five. That seems pretty good to me. My trackchasing plan is heavily focused on diversity. We’ll see the famous BriSCA (British Stock Car Association) F1 stock cars three times. We’ll also visit a traditional U.K. road circuit and an autograss track. We’ll see a new class of cars (for me) in the “Superlites”. At most of the tracks several other classes will be thrown in to round out what should be a fun and productive trip. The biggest drawback of all. There will be one major drawback. That’s the weather. Luckily, tracks hardly ever cancel because of the weather in the U.K. They will race in a downpour. However, the projected temperatures are TERRIBLE for this trip. We’ll be “on the ground” for five full days. The highest projected temperature for any of these five days will be 42 degrees. The lowest overnight low will be 27 degrees. Ouch! Folks, I hope this doesn’t ruin our trip. The internet is a wonderful thing that Al Gore oversaw isn’t it. When I first came here in 1999 not that many tracks had websites. Now most do. This made getting a race schedule together much easier. I used Google Maps! to plot the location for each of the tracks racing over the Easter holiday. Then I conveniently “connected the dots” to see which tracks made the most sense to visit. With gasoline going for nearly EIGHT DOLLARS a gallon creating an efficient travel plan was a must. I took a risk in hopes of reaping a reward. I did something on this trip that I normally don’t do. I booked all of our five nights of hotels in advance. I did this for a couple of reasons. I was pretty sure what tracks we were going to see. I figured if I chose the hotels in advance we could control our trip. By “control” I mean we could have a better handle on the quality and cost of this adventure. I used Google to search for hotels at specific locations all over the U.K. Then I used Hotels.com to find out which hotels were available in even the smallest of towns. Hotels.com is a bit like using Yelp! to find restaurants. You’ll see all kinds of consumer reviews and “verbatim” comments. When I was convinced a hotel was in the right location at the right price AND provided a strong past consumer rating I booked it. The U.K. is a very expensive country for an American to visit. In addition to out of sight gas prices most other things (hotels, food, etc.) cost 1.5-2 times what it would in the U.S.A. Even at those prices you might not get the quality we come to expect in America. I’m not trying to knock the U.K. I base my comments on my previous trips here and the numbers. It must be great for a European to visit the U.S. Everything must seem like a bargain. So with pre-bookings at five different hotels, a rental car reservation and eight tracks as part of the plan we were ready to “make this trip happen”. In the sections below I’ll take you through this trip day by day. Of course, you can supplement your reading will lots of photos and videos. The photos will focus on the touring aspect of this trip. The videos will hone in on the racing. I hope you enjoy traveling along with Paul and me. At least you won’t have to pay $150 U.S. to fill up your gas tank. Oh yes, one final point of the pre-planning process. One final point….I had help planning this trip from a “secret spy” in the United Kingdom. I would love to tell you who that is so this individual can get the respect and admiration that he or she deserves. Alas, I feel that if I did identify this individual they would suffer “repercussions” from the “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” mafia style group. Suffice it to say, I was most pleased with the local support I got, and always get, from the United Kingdom. Wednesday – Day 1 – Los Angeles to New York to London THE TRIP The long 12,000+-mile road was about to be traveled. This morning I left the house at 4:51 a.m. You might be surprised at how heavy traffic can be on the SoCal freeways so early in the morning. Nevertheless I made the 65-mile drive to LAX, at about 80 M.P.H. much of the time, in about one hour. Most of our freeways are 10-12 lanes wide. The traffic can be heavy and the lanes are a bit narrow. I am surprised there are not more accidents. Nevertheless I think Los Angeles, and especially Orange County where I live have just about the best roads in the country for a major metro area. My plan was simple today. I was flying on my “business” airline, American Airlines. Over my lifetime I have earned more than six million frequent flyer miles on American. I was using some of those today. With American, and my preferred platinum status I get on the plane first, get preferred coach seating (exit rows for more leg room) and access to their private Admirals Club when I am flying internationally. All that being said I still prefer, believe it or not, flying standby with my airline sponsors. You just can’t beat the flexibility of that program. The Admiral’s Club is quite upscale in both Los Angeles and New York. They have all the amenities including a full bar and they now serve food just like a restaurant. They didn’t do that over the many years I was a member of the club. I was about to pay the ‘California penalty’…..again. Today I was paying the “California penalty” for trackchasing. I pay it on almost every trip. What is the “California penalty”? It’s simply the extra distance I must travel to make these trips since I live just an hour or so north of Tijuana, Mexico. My buddy Paul Weisel would be heading to London from the Newark, New Jersey Airport. His flight left at about 8 p.m. Eastern time. My first flight of the day would have me leaving at 8 a.m. local time or 11 a.m. Eastern time. I would be leaving nine hours before Paul and getting there one hour after he landed. On the way back Paul will land in Newark a full nine hours before I get to Los Angeles. How can I lose nine hours on BOTH ends of the trip? Do this right or pay the piper sooner or later. By the way Carol had the first option on this trip. She looked at the weather probabilities for the United Kingdom at this time of year and the temps Maui was likely to get. She chose Maui! That Carol is a smart cookie. Just four days after I return from the U.K. we will be off for a week of relaxing in Maui. The above paragraph emphasizes a very important point in trackchasing. Should a husband leave his wife for a six-day “boys night out” weekend at Easter? The answer to that question can be both “yes and no”. I say the answer is “Yes” is you are retired and can spend lots of time with your wife both before and after a trip like this. However, I feel the answer is an emphatic “No” if you’re still working. What kind of family life would be available if you worked right up to the trip’s beginning (not seeing much of your wife during the work week) then took off for a big Easter trip (without your wife) and then returned in time to get back to work (not seeing much of your wife during the work week)? I see trackchasers working all week, then leaving their spouses for the weekend, and then coming back just in time to go to work all week. Folks that cannot be good for family life. It is questions like this that must be answered in order to be successful in both the trackchasing hobby and at home. Make sense? My LAX to New York flight had me landing at JFK at 5 p.m. There I had a four hour layover for my overnight flight to London. Paul will land tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. I land one hour later. We have a master plan on where to meet at London’s Heathrow Airport. We’ll see if it works. Good night! THE RACING No racing yet. Thursday – Day 2 –London THE TRIP How would you have handled this? Paul was flying to London from Newark, New Jersey. I was coming in from New York’s JFK airport. We were landing in the morning just one hour apart. London’s Heathrow is a big place. We didn’t want to have any problems meeting up. How could we make certain we wouldn’t spend hours looking for each other? Most aspects of this week’s plan had been “pre-arranged”. I planned more of the trip than usual in advance for one simple reason. We had a firm (as firm as you can get in this hobby) eight-venue trackchasing plan. Since we knew where the races would be I filled in the gaps with some great places to stay. Neither of us would have a working (to make phone calls) cellphone. That’s one area of the world’s communication that seems to be behind the times. Making a call on my phone would cost $2-3 U.S. per minute. I do use the TruPhone app for inexpensive calls but that requires a Wi-Fi connection. The only way Paul and I could meet up seamlessly would be to have a pre-arranged meeting place. Paul had never been to London. He would be landing in terminal 3. I would land in terminal 5. Where would we meet? I simply went to my friends over at TripAdvisor.com and asked that question. Have you ever used TripAdvisor? If not, you’re missing out on a tremendous resource. They recommended we meet at the Krispy Kreme donut store in terminal 3! This would be easy for Paul. When I landed in terminal 5, I needed to clear U.K. customs, claim my check bag and then ride a train from terminal 3 to terminal 5. That process took me the better part of an hour. Nevertheless, when I found the Krispy Kreme Paul was sitting nearby. We had found each other. That was a good start! By the way, I have “whittled” down my photos of this trip to just 500! They will be presented in two parts. You’ll get to see just about everything I’m going to mention. I hope if you make your own trip to London and the U.K. you might be able to use some of the tips I’ll share as a primer. A full day to tour London, England. Today was going to be reserved for touring in London. There would be no racing. Since London is a big and expensive city we would use the subway to get about. Tomorrow we’ll pick up our rental car and begin touring the English countryside. Although I won’t be using my phone much to call folks I will be using my iPhone for lots of other stuff. Its first assignment was using a London subway map. This app allowed me to simply plug in where we were and where we wanted to go. The app then told us what subway line (Piccadilly – blue) we needed to use. This app worked really well. Soon we were riding the subway 24 stops (about an hour) to downtown London. With any luck the subway would drop us near our hotel. It did! A short two-block walk got us to the Wardonia Hotel. Although it was too early to check in, we were able to drop our bags and begin our touring day. A fantastic way to book that special hotel stay. By the way, I used www.hotels.com to book most of our hotels. Bookings.com is also another similar and wonderful site I use. This is a fantastic service. Let’s use the U.S. as an example. Say you wanted to get a hotel in Omaha but didn’t have any idea where you wanted to stay. You could simply hop on a Holiday Inn or Marriott website and probably get a room pretty quickly on your way to see Warren Buffet. However, as the travel planner for this trip, I had declared this to be a “chain free” experience. The U.K. is so unique why miss all of that by staying at the aforementioned Holiday Inn or even a Premier Inn which is similar in the U.K.? Hotels.com will take even the smallest city, just about anywhere in the world and list virtually every hotel that would be worth staying at with a primary focus on independent hotels. You can sort their offerings by quality, price, location and more. The U.K. and London are expensive areas to vacation. Most things cost 1.5-2 times what they would in the U.S. I normally sort the hotel list first by price. Then I’ll do a visual sort by quality. Hotels.com uses a 10-point scale. The better places earn a 7-9 rating and the worst places might garner a 4-5 evaluation by customers who have stayed at these places. The Wardonia Hotel was highly rated, within it’s category for a twin room. We were warned the rooms would be small. They were! At $113 per night this hotel was easily twice as expensive as it would be in the U.S. However, it was clean, safe and in a great location for our touring to begin. Hop on…hop off. Our plan was to take one of those double decker “hop on – hop off” buses that are so popular in major cities. For about $37 U.S. per person we could ride the bus for 24 hours and get off and back on as often as we wanted. There was just one problem (O.K. maybe two) with our plan. The weather was terrible! It was dry which was a good thing in the U.K. However, it was COLD! The cold would dog us for the rest of the trip. Nearly a month before we came here I started tracking the temperatures in London. On most days the high was in the low 40s and the low was sometimes in the high 20s. I kept expecting the temperatures to warm as we moved further into spring. They did not. We froze our #$@% off for the entire trip. However, it was what it was. We couldn’t do much about it but dress as warmly as we could. Off we went in search of the “Big Bus”. I had ordered our tickets in advance to save about five bucks each. As Carol says, “No good deed goes unpunished”. Why is that? When I placed my order my credit card rejected the process when the card’s “fraud alert” system threw up a red flag. By the time I got that straightened out I was already at the JFK airport. That meant I had a confirmation on my phone but no printed ticket. I figured they would be able to “work with me”. Wrong! In 35 degrees temps the Lithuanian ticket taker explained how my phone confirmation would not work. We soon tracked down a “Kinkos” like place to print out our tickets. Let’s see what we can see without getting frostbite. Now we were cooking! Once on the bus (the top deck no less) we were off to see the London sights. One of the first views was the London National Gallery. Other important stops included Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey (where the Prince William and Catherine were married), Big Ben and lots of other landmarks. I’ve been on this route a few times. I can tell you this. It’s a lot more enjoyable when it’s 75 degrees than thirty-five. Nevertheless, we made the best of it. We just missed by a second or two our complimentary cruise up the Thames River. Given the weather we decided not to wait for the next boat ride. Soon it was time to head back to the hotel. We could check in now. Our room was conveniently located (not really) on the fourth floor. There was no elevator. Since neither one of us died of a heart attack getting to the room we declared the hotel a success. We had a “twin” room. That meant two twin beds. In England a twin bed is about three feet wide and maybe 6’6” long. That was the type of bedding arrangement we would have until the very last night of our trip. Understanding important strategies will make your international trip be a lot more enjoyable. Throughout this report I will share strategies that have made my international trips the successes they have been. Here’s an important one. When it’s 10 a.m. in London most U.S. visitors will be coming from a time zone where it is really 2 a.m.-5 a.m. Most people back home are sleeping at 2 a.m. When it’s 10 a.m. or a little bit later you’re going to want to go to bed if just for a few minutes. Don’t do it! If you get nothing else out of anything I write DO NOT GO TO SLEEP until after dinnertime in Europe. If you do you will regret it. Paul and I were able to stay up until after dinnertime! Our trip would be a success now. We soon found a great place to eat that was somewhat near our hotel. This was a London pub that was packed with younger professionals all sharing a drink on a Thursday evening preceding a four-day “Bank Holiday” weekend. We were lucky to score a table where we could get some dinner. Tonight was gourmet dining time. I enjoy trying just about every kind of food (no sushi yet) available. I believe Paul is more of a meat and potatoes fan. Tonight’s menu offered a wide range of foods that were all served beautifully. We began with the “salt and pepper squid” as an appetizer. Paul liked it. So did I. I selected the bangers (sausage) and mash (mashed potatoes) as my entrée. We had a side of “mac and cheese” just to see what it was like. All of the food and drink was fantastic. We had stumbled upon a great place to drink and eat. Our trip was going very well. With that we walked back to our hotel. Our room was small and it was quiet. We now would be able to get about ten hours of sleep. That was just what the doctor ordered for what the trip had in store for us ahead. THE RACING Tomorrow. No racing yet. One more day and we’re off to the tracks. Friday – Day 3 – All over the United Kingdom THE TRIP First, we needed a rental car. The first item on our morning agenda was to get our rental car. I was renting with Eurocar, which represents the National Rental Car Company at Heathrow. I will be doing all the driving on this trip. Our plan calls for 912 miles of cruising the countryside. We’ll see how close we come to the plan. In order to get back to the airport, and our rental car, we needed to ride the subway for about one hour. During the ride we encountered a beautiful young German girl. She had been in country for three months on business. First, she helped us get on the right train. Then when a split second decision needed to be made she got off the train in the wrong spot. Although a fellow passenger saved us we couldn’t save her. I hope she got back to Munich. Once at the rental car location I was told I could pick out any car in the classification I had rented. That was a nice touch. The “driving experience” in England would be different. First of all, they like 29% of the people in the world, drive on the “left” side of the road. The steering wheel is on the right side of the car. I had rented a car with a manual transmission (about half the cost of an automatic). Of course, I would be shifting with my left hand. This would certainly add to the challenge for a trip that was planned to cover nearly 1,000 miles. As we walked toward the cars, I saw a couple pick the one and only Mercedes. We had come within 30 seconds of getting that car for a very low rate. However, we settled for a 4-door VW sedan diesel powered automobile. Diesel is just a bit more expensive than gasoline in England. That’s O.K. A diesel-powered car gets better mileage. For the entire trip we averaged about 55 M.P.G. with our rental car! Despite fuel being around $7.50 U.S. per gallon we didn’t do badly with the expense given our fantastic mileage. Is there anything an iPhone can’t do? My iPhone would be using Google Maps! as a GPS unit to move us around England. The system performed flawlessly to get us out of the airport and on our way. I have a good deal of experience driving on the “wrong” side of the road. It didn’t take too long to get back in the swing of things as we headed toward our first racetrack of the trip. We had just an hour and a half or so until we reached the Primo Energy International Raceway in Northampton. Of course, lunch seemed like a good idea before we reached the track. I have good friends in the U.K. My good friend, Colin Herridge from the U.K. would be meeting us at Northhampton. Colin and I first met in 2004 at the Bovingdon Circuit when I was touring England with Alan Brown. He and I have stayed in touch frequently over the past ten years. Colin lives in Milton Keynes just 15 miles or so from this afternoon’s track. On the way up we had driven through Colin’s hometown. Ultimately, we stopped at Newport Pagnell for lunch. We stopped in a local grocery store to see what we could see. Growing up in the grocery store industry I always enjoy visiting stores in foreign countries. After a few souvenirs were purchased we inquired about local restaurant recommendations. Meat and potatoes meet Thai. Ultimately, we settled on a Thai restaurant on this Good Friday afternoon. We walked inside to find just one guest having lunch. It was just about as cold inside as it was outside. Our nearly non-English server pulled up a space heater to knock the edge off the cold. I sensed Paul might be questioning our luncheon selection. Soon our fried rice entrees show up. Mine was spicy. Paul enjoyed his rice selection and allowed he might even be willing to try a Thai restaurant when he returned home. Yes, we were making progress on the culinary front! THE RACING Why have I come back to the U.K. eight times? There must be a reason I have come back to the U.K. EIGHT times to trackchase. Yes, over their “bank holidays” they have lots of racing. Coming into this trip I have seen racing at 50 different racing venues in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Mann all located in Great Britain aka the United Kingdom. What’s the main reason I enjoy trackchasing in the U.K. so much? They have fun and entertaining racing. There are only a few countries where oval racing is the main track staple. Those places would be the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and, of course, the U.K. That doesn’t mean they don’t have magnificent road circuit racing as well. They do. The top ten reasons why I come back again and again to the United Kingdom. Racing in the United Kingdom has so many elements that I consider superior to most countries where oval racing dominates. I’ll list a few not necessarily in order of importance. Think about my comparisons. Do you agree? Let me ask you this question if you are a short track racing fan. Does YOUR track excel in the areas I’ve listed? If they don’t, would you like them to use the above practices? I pretty much know the answers to those questions. Granted the ticket prices are 1.5-2 times higher than what is offered in the U.S. The hamburgers don’t really taste like hamburgers. Few tracks have grandstands folks just stand. However, the racing is very entertaining. Primo Energy International (Northampton) Raceway. A second time visit to my first ever U.K. track. It wasn’t long after lunch when we arrived at the Primo Energy (Northhampton) International Raceway. Back in 1999, Northampton was the first ever U.K. track I ever saw. On June 26, 1999 Carol, Kristy and Jim joined me for my first ever U.K. trackchasing visit. It’s hard to believe it has been 14 years since I saw that first U.K. track. I will tell you this. I didn’t remember a single thing from my 1999 visit here. Most of the tracks we would visit on this trip had “senior” pricing. In the past, without having a U.K. pensioner’s card, I was never able to get a senior discount. However, my philosophy is “If you don’t ask, you don’t get”. I simply asked for a senior discount and was give a three GBP savings (about $5 U.S.). Additionally, just before the ticket booth I was able to share with Paul my “racetrack parking” strategy. It all evolves around “there’s always room for one more” and “it’s a rental car”. This allowed us to get some excellent parking spots. At Northampton, with the parking lot jammed, we garnered a parking space within a few feet of the track’s entrance. We would stand all day. When we entered the raceway the action was underway. U.K. tracks rarely have any grandstand seating. Everyone simply stands or brings a lawn chair. Since we didn’t have any lawn chairs we stood. Here and there we noticed snow on the ground. In U.K. racing, the sports cars (hot rods, etc.) race clockwise. The “stock cars” race the opposite direction in a counterclockwise pattern. Today we were seeing the saloon cars and hot rods that turn right on the oval. The BriSCA Formula 2 stock cars would turn left. Congratulations Colin. It wasn’t long before we came across Colin Herridge. Paul and I spent the remainder of the afternoon with Colin. Toward the end of the day I was able to give Colin his “Randy Lewis Racing” t-shirt as a reward for him winning one of my famous “International Country” naming contests. Despite the cold weather we very much enjoyed the racing at Northhampton. It was one of the best of the trip. We moved around the track to see the action from all angles. We took advantage of the U.K.’s generous policy toward pit area admission. They don’t charge! This allowed for great picture taking opportunities. In a couple of hours, it was time to leave. It was great seeing Colin as always. The racing had been good. Fourteen years seemed like a long time between visits to Northhampton. Skegness Stadium. Snow squalls across the North Sea. I first visited Skegness in 1999 when it had a shale (dirt) racing surface. Then I came back in 2004 to see racing when the track surface changed to tarmac (asphalt). Skegness has been one of my favorite U.K. tracks. Tonight, being an evening race, may have featured the coldest temperatures of the trip. Skegness is located in Northeast England. You can see the North Sea from here. I knew it was going to be cold. It was. Soon after we arrived we noticed a strong series of “snow squalls” moving over the track. Did this bother the U.K. racers and fans? No way! In the U.S. the program would have been cancelled two days ago. Not here! These folks race in wind, sleet and snow. Good on them! By the time we arrived at the track they were no longer taking tickets. That saved us about $24 U.S. The BriSCA Formula 1 stock cars, saloons and mini stox (a kid’s class) were on the card. We did our best to stay warm. That was not possible. Paul and I each dined on a “combo” plate of French fries, baked beans and sausage. It was especially good because it was warm! We watched racing from all around the track, took a tour of the pits and the souvenir building. It was all good. The U.K. has excellent commentators. In the U.K., the announcers aka “commentators” are active with quality information. The starter’s are especially good. At the halfway point they wave the “Union Jack” flag. During the race they are very animated and signal the top five racers with hand signals every few laps. Both of these positions are handled very well. Knowing that we would arrive at our hotel late I had emailed the inn to alert them. Luckily, our GPS was performing flawlessly. At a few minutes before midnight we arrived at the hotel. This would be the first of three consecutive true bed and breakfast hotels. We were shown to our twin bedded room. Our first full trackchasing day in England had been a full one. We slept well. More to come in Part 2! 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 U.K. sayings: Brilliant! That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” EASTER IN THE UNITED KINGDOM VERSION 8.0 (Part 2 of 2) THE KEYS TO THE TRIP Two different points of view……………more in “Day 4 – The Trip”. Houston, we have a problem…………….more in “Day 4 – The Trip”. My really good plan was falling apart…………..details in “Day 5 – The Trip”. THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED HAD YOU BEEN PAYING MORE ATTENTION IN SCHOOL GREETINGS FROM ALL OVER THE UNITED KINGDOM WHO, WHAT, WHY AND WHERE Saturday – Day 4 – All over the United Kingdom THE TRIP Two different points of view. During the trip Paul and I soon discovered we do not share the same political beliefs on many subjects. A little bit later we confirmed that we were not likely to change the other’s political point of view. No harm no foul there. We did have a good discussion on whether or not local U.K. residents liked their national health car plan. That being the case we decided we would do an informal survey on the subject. The question would be simple. I asked different people we met during the trip this question, “What do you think of your national health care plan”? We asked middle-aged people, older people and even a youngish German yuppie this one question. What did we learn? Some 100% of the people asked had essentially the SAME response. Since my Trackchaser Reports are not a political forum I won’t say which way the Europeans we asked leaned or which side of the question Paul or I was on. I will tell you this. The entire topic provided lots of friendly banter as we sailed around the English countryside. We stayed in some lovely old English bed & breakfast hotels. This morning we had our first “Full English Breakfast”. It was everything I had come to expect from these types of establishments and included a fried egg, ham, tomato, banger (sausage), mushrooms and baked beans. This would not be our only “Full English Breakfast”. Here is my excuse(s). It was this morning that I discovered two things. I had hoped to get some morning power walking in during this trip. However, that was not going to happen for two reasons. First, it was really cold. However, the cold wasn’t the showstopper. The real reason I didn’t feel like exercising was there just wasn’t enough time. Frequently, we arrived at our hotel at nearly midnight and departed at 8-9 a.m. the next day. With the requisite B.S. that needed to be shot in our hotel room, as well as logistical planning for the next day I was operating on 5-7 hours of daily sleep. That’s not enough when the day calls for 250-300 miles of driving on some crazy roads with lots of Easter traffic and standing out in the cold for four hours or more each day. Anyway, that’s MY excuse. This would be problematic. What was the SECOND thing I discovered? For some reason my iPhone’s GPS wasn’t working properly. I had never had a problem before. The first day everything worked perfectly on the GPS front. Fortunately, my pre-plan included bringing along my Garmin GPS unit as well. That helped but the further we went into the trip the more problems we had. Getting to and from the Stoke Stadium required our best ingenuity. With the iPhone GPS not working much of the time we reverted to my Garmin GPS unit. Even with my European mapping chip that didn’t work well either. What did we do? We resorted to stopping at convenience stores a method I used most of the time….ten years ago. Employees at these locations were more than glad to help. To support Paul’s European “trackchasing training program” I let him to the talking while I scouted out the store’s inventory just like I often did in my work life. THE RACING Thruxton Circuit. Thruxton Circuit originally started out in 1940 at RAF Thruxton a WWII airfield. The airfield supported D-Day operations in Europe. Thruxton began its “racing career” in 1950 with motorcycles and then auto racing in 1952. It is said that the Thruxton Circuit is allowed only 12 days of racing each year. We were seeing the Thruxton Easter Revival meeting. The event included the return of Historic F2 in association with the HSCC over the Easter bank holiday weekend as well as the Historic Formula Ford 1600 & 2000, 70s & Historic Road Sports, Classic Racing Cars, Historic Touring Cars, Formula Junior and GT & Sports Racing. They still fly small private planes out of Thruxton. The viewing wasn’t all that great at this road course. A good deal of the racing took place a very long way from where the spectating areas were. Another drawback to the event, in addition to the cold, was that we were not allowed into the paddock area with our general admission ticket. With such a large field of historic cars it would have been more fun to get up close and personal. Nevertheless, we saw what we could. I think you’ll very much enjoy the still photos I was able to get. With a good zoon lens and some great photo cropping capabilities with my Apple Aperture software it made things look as if we were much closer than we were. Stoke Stadium. The Stoke Stadium was probably the most similar track we saw to what we have in the U.S. It was a banked dirt oval about 3/8-mile in length. The racing was some of the best we saw during the entire trip. When we arrived at Stoke, after some good directions from a convenience store manager, we encountered what could have been a big problem. The place was absolutely jam-packed with fans. We were stopped by a parking lot employee who told us there was absolutely nowhere to park. When I hear that I take it as a personal challenge. We drove a bit further and found the absolute best parking spot in the place! Frequently it pays NOT to listen to people. You just need to know which people not to listen too. When we entered the facility we found ourselves in the pit area. That’s one of the very best things about U.K. racing…your general admission ticket lets you into the pits. We watched the first couple of races from the backstretch. It was here that Paul got his first real taste of “no stops for a yellow flag” which is another great thing about British oval racing. Tonight we were seeing BriSCA F1 and F2 stock car racing and a youth class driving minis. BriSCA Formula 1 in the very top class of stock car racing in the U.K. It is probably my favorite class in the country. They not only start the fastest guys last in 30+ car feature fields they handicap those drivers more than half a lap. What would Steve Kinser or Scott Bloomquist think of that! During most of the races some cars would spin out or get spun out and become disabled in the middle of the racing groove. Not to worry….they just kept on racing. Once in a while when the track became almost completely blocked they would display the yellow. On the concession front it was time for Paul to finally try an English short track racing burger. I had warned him that these burgers “don’t taste like back home”. They don’t. For the rest of the night Paul kept saying, “That burger didn’t taste like ANYTHING!”. I can’t imagine what we were eating was a BEEF burger but then who knows what was in it. As mentioned the parking lot and the viewing area was packed with fans. The temperature all evening was in the 30s. There are very few U.S. tracks that would continue racing with weather like that. I really enjoyed two items on tonight’s entertainment agenda. First, I got to see my favorite U.K. driver Frankie Wainman Jr. (#515). Although the local track videographer told me Frankie was on the downside of his career I’m not sure I agree. Wainman came from the back of his 20-car heat race to win. Then he started in the back of the 30-car feature and finished in the top 5. Two nights later Frankie won at Belle Vue and he is the current F1 point leader by a strong margin. The other great thing about tonight’s racing was that we could watch the feature events indoors. With our hamburgers and chips (French fries) Paul and I scouted out a front row seat in the “clubhouse” at Stoke Stadium. This building was packed but we snuck in to grab an excellent seat just across from the start/finish line. From there we could see the very animated flagman and hear the commentator going crazy describing the action. It was a fun night of racing. On this evening we made our first fuel stop as well. We spent 70 British Pounds getting 47.97 liters of diesel fuel. Translating these numbers to U.S. thinking we spent $105.91 U.S. getting 12.67 gallons of fuel. What was our cost per gallon? How does $8.36 U.S. sound? Despite the high cost of fuel our nearly full-sized VW sedan was giving us around 55 M.P.G. Happy Easter! Sunday – Day 5 – All over the United Kingdom THE TRIP My really good plan was falling apart. Today was Easter Sunday. We awoke this morning at the Holly Trees Hotel. This was another old home type B&B. Breakfast was good and served in a lovely dining room. My really good logistical plan, which called for eight tracks in four days with just 912 miles of driving, was falling apart. The autograss track on our schedule cancelled because of wet grounds. Autograss racing takes places essentially in farmer’s fields. It’s been wet and cold in the U.K. for several weeks. Autograss racing is pretty much the only class of racing that will cancel in bad weather. One track or two? We had a choice. Stay near where we were and see one track. Or, do a good deal of driving and add two new tracks that were not part of my original schedule. If you are a trackchaser, you might have guessed we chose the latter option. This meant getting less sleep, driving about 300 extra miles and generally being “on the run” a good deal more than planned. Along the way Paul and I visited the famous “Welcome Breaks” that I have loved in the U.K. since I first came here in 1999. The extra driving knocked out some of the gourmet dining I was looking forward too. It also made us “forfeit” a pre-paid hotel that was now not part of our new plan. However, we both agreed it was the best way to go. Now this was a cool place. Following the races we had a long drive to our hotel in the South of England called “The Manor”. This place was built in 1735! We were just in time for a nightcap at the hotel bar, which was probably the home’s parlor back in the day. What a majestic place the Manor was. Don’t miss the pictures. However, when we got to our twin-bedded room we couldn’t figure out how to get much heat. We both ended up declining showers when the inside room temperature was simply too cold the next morning! Breakfast was good and served in a delightful dining room. We did our share of “BSing”. At the beginning of each day as well as the end I did my Egoscue back exercises. I’m happy to report my back has been feeling much better. Each night Paul and I discussed the events of the day as we lay in our beds. I knew it was time for me to go to sleep when Paul no longer responded to my comments. He had fallen asleep! THE RACING Aldershot Raceway. When we got somewhat near today’s racetrack it was time to stop and ask for directions. By now our GPS wasn’t working well. In the bigger towns streets are not well marked and, even if you had a map, finding places would be difficult. I didn’t have a map and didn’t want one. Paul did an outstanding job of asking locals where we needed to head next. Check out the photos and you’ll see Paul at work. My first few trips to the U.K. were pre-GPS. I guess I did the convenience store method of asking for directions too. The races at Aldershot would give Paul his first exposure to “banger” racing. Banger racing in the U.K. is essentially a demo derby disguised as a race. Today the bangers focused on racing a bit more than crashing. I prefer it to be the other way around. The Aldershot Raceway has something most U.K. short tracks don’t have. A grandstand! Yes, at most short tracks, fans just stand, bring a long chair or sit on a blanket. At virtually all of the events we attended on this trip we stood. Like all of the tracks we attended the crowds were large. The lines at the concession stands were long everywhere we went. U.K. racing fans must be ardent and tough. For such large turnouts in some every cold weather they are to be commended. Brands Hatch. Our late afternoon venue called for a visit to the famous Brands Hatch circuit. Recall this was not part of our original plan. BH started out as a dirt motorcycle racing track. However it moved up the social ladder quickly. From 1964-1986 it hosted the British Grand Prix twelve times. We would be watching racing on the “Indy” course, which is just 1.198 miles long. I loved this race track and everything Brands Hatch had to offer today. With three races left on the track’s Sunday itinerary we didn’t have to pay 20 GBP to get in the gate. Motor racing for cars first began at Brands Hatch in 1950. It was the first purpose built road circuit in the U.K. The circuit has a long and glorious history. Check out Wikipedia to get more info than you would probably ever want to see regarding Brands Hatch. Today we saw the British Touring Car Championship event and two other support races. During our time at Brands Hatch we walked around the entire Indy circuit. You simply won’t want to miss the photos if this is your guide of environment. I was really impressed with the large number of permanent buildings housing all manner of racing related retail stores. We were not allowed to get into the paddock area today, which was disappointing. However, we were witness to a major crash that you won’t see much of with this type of racing. Although it was cold, our visit to Brands Hatch brought out the most sunshine of the event. This was definitely stocking cap, gloves and heavy coat weather. This trip was the coldest of the eight I have made here. Nevertheless, Brands Hatch will go down as one of my very most favorite road circuits. With today’s Indy track we could see most of the racing most of the time. That’s about all you can ask with road course racing. On top of it all I got my picture taken with the track’s Easter bunny! Monday – Day 5 – All over the United Kingdom and back to London THE TRIP Trackchasing takes its players to some unusual places. This would be our last full day of racing in the U.K. The two tracks on today’s agenda were added when the entire back half of the plan was changed yesterday. On the way to last night’s hotel we had passed a sign for “Stonehenge”. Most of you will know that is a popular U.K. attraction. I had been there before with Carol and the kids. However, if we could fit it in after today’s racing we intended too. Both of today’s tracks were in very rural locations. Without our GPS working at 100% finding the tracks in a timely fashion was going to be difficult. Our plan was to find the second track we planned to see first. Once we found the Smeatharpe track we would go onto the track near Netherbridge. We figured we could find Smeatharpe easier once we left Netherbridge by using this plan. You had to be there to understand our strategy! That plan worked although you will see photos of Paul asking locals how to make it the “last 100 yards”. I’m probably more of a tech man than Paul but even he admitted having a map would still make finding these places a real challenge. You won’t believe some of the one-lane roads we took to reach our destinations. There was ZERO chance of two cars passing each other without having to back up. After the races our plan was to see the Stonehenge attraction. However, traffic was absolutely horrendous with Easter travelers returning back toward London like we were. However, with the sun having set we arrived just in time to get our pictures taken in front of those famous Stonehenge rocks! Left side of the road, right hand steering and a left-handed stick shift. A few driving hours later we were pulling into our only chain hotel of the trip the Novotel Hotel at London’s Heathrow Airport. Our trip had been a huge success. I had driven 1,363 miles on the wrong side of the road (O.K. about 50 yards were driven on the wrong side of the road by U.K. standards), with a right side steer car and a left handed gearshift. THE RACING Netherbridge. The North Cornwall Banger Club hosted today’s racing. The word “banger” was a little misleading at today’s event. The course looked more like an autograss track than anything else. The car count was small with maybe 25-30 cars covering 5-6 classes. It was still cold as it had been the entire trip. They started on time and kept the show moving. The track was a bit dusty. The young female announcer told us the “North Cornwall” banger club was trying to get back on it’s feet. The paddock area was open to spectators allowing us to see all of the competitor’s car up close. That’s always fun. After we had seen every car race at least once and taken a complete tour of the pit area we left for the second half of this “Blended double without a feature on the front end”. This track was both the most difficult to find and offered the least in racing value. It looked as if this was the first ever event at this location. Smeatharpe Stadium. Although we had scoped out this track’s location before going onto the Netherbridge banger event finding it a second time was as difficult as the first. However, Paul was very good at getting complex directions from people on the street. For me the dirt racing at Stoke and the road racing at Brands Hatch were trip highlights. However, the racing at Smeatharpe might have been the best tarmac racing although I liked the racing very much at Northhampton. It was both cold AND windy on top of the mini-mountain where the Smeatharpe Stadium has resided since 1974. We were in line to see F2 BriSCA stock cars, bangers and saloon cars. I love the saloon cars. They are battle tested war wagons that go fast and race on narrow tires. They are not afraid to but the bumper to anyone in their way. The car counts were huge at all but the Netherbridge track. This meant 20-car heat races, very few yellow flags and lots of racing action. The final event of the day was for bangers to race in “chained pairs”. I had never seen this before. Two banger cars were chained together as they raced against other teams. This provided so much action I had a hard time capturing it all with my video camera. However, I got a lot of it. Don’t miss the video. Tuesday – Day 6 – London – New York – Almost to Los Angeles THE TRIP It was time to say goodbye and head for home. We awoke early on Tuesday morning after having left the U.S. last Wednesday. Soon Paul and I were saying our farewells at the National Rental Car parking lot. He was headed to Newark. I was leaving for first New York and then Los Angeles. If you don’t ask you don’t get. When I got to my terminal I inquired about getting a non-stop flight to LAX. That option had not been available earlier in the trip. I subscribe to the theory that if “You don’t ask you don’t get”. Getting on a non-stop flight would save me EIGHT hours of travel. As luck would have it I COULD get on the London-Los Angeles non-stop. I spent my waiting time in the American Airlines Admirals Club. If you’ve got to wait, that’s the place to do it in an airport. All in all a very good trip. We had a couple of GPS glitches that could have been big problems but weren’t. We got to meet up with Colin Herridge at the beginning of the trip. We saw all the major London tourist stops AND Stonehenge. Paul added eight new tracks and I added six (one more than the original plan). I managed to travel nearly 13,000 miles making this trip a reality. We had a very good time and enjoyed virtually every minute of our trip. You can’t do better than that. 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 U.K. sayings: Cheers! TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – New York NY (JFK) – 2,475 miles New York NY (JFK) – London, United Kingdom (LHR) – 3,452 miles RENTAL CAR #1 London Heathrow Airport – trip begins Northhampton, U.K. Skegness, U.K. Thruxton, U.K. Stoke-on-Trent, U.K. Aldershot, U.K. Fawkham, U.K. Launceston, U.K. Smeatharpe, U.K. London Heathrow Airport – 1,363 miles AIRPLANE London, United Kingdom (LHR) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 5,456 miles Total air miles – 11,383 (3 flights) Total rental car miles – 1,363 (1 car) Total miles traveled on this trip – 12,746 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: Primo Energy (Northhampton) International Raceway – 12 GBP* Skegness Stadium – No charge* Thruxton Circuit – 12 GBP Stoke Stadium – 16 GBP Aldershot Raceway – 10 GBP Brands Hatch – No charge Netherbridge – 6 GBP Smeatharpe Stadium – 7 GBP *Not a trackchasing expense Total racetrack admissions for the trip – 63 GBP 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 300 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 Click on the link below to see the “Video Plus” production from the racing action today. [enter YouTube videos] Click on the link below for a photo album from today’s trackchasing day. You can view the album slide by slide or click on the “slide show” icon for a self-guided tour of today’s trackchasing adventure. [enter photo link] 
Standlake Arena
Standlake
England
United Kingdom
December 2, 2001
PO
TRAVEL/PEOPLE NEWS
RACING NEWS
Wimbledon Stadium
Wimbleton
England
United Kingdom
December 2, 2001
TRAVEL/PEOPLE NEWS
RACING NEWS
New racetracks visited in 2001
Bovingdon Circuit
Bovingdon
England
United Kingdom
April 9, 2004
PO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
Mildenhall Stadium
Mildenhall
England
United Kingdom
April 9, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone
England
United Kingdom
April 10, 2004
PRC
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
Skegness Stadium
Orby
England
United Kingdom
April 10, 2004
PO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
Hunmanby Raceway
Hunmanby
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
Men’s Racing Classes
Class 1
This class is restricted to under 1000cc unmodified Mini’s where the main requirements are for safety regulations. The
engine is allowed to be “Blueprinted” which means it can be constructed to all the + tolerances but apart from that must
remain standard The gearbox must also remain un-modified.
This class has a restriction of up to 1300cc engines which can be either a front engined, rear wheel drive car such as a
Escort or Starlet, a rear engined rear wheel drive car such as a NSU or Skoda, or a front engined front wheel drive cars
such as Nova’s or Micro’s. Limited Modifications are allowed such as “blueprinting” the engine, and also the inlet manifold
and carburetors are free! as long as they breathe through a 32mm restrictor plate. Once again the gearbox has to be
standard for the make car that you are racing in!
This class is for front engined rear wheel drive cars with an engine capacity of over 1421cc but with a maximum of two
valves per cylinder. Any engine and gearbox combination is allowed subject to the front-engine rear wheel drive format.
so a few hybrid cars appear in this tail end happy class such as Escorts with V8 Rover engines or 8v Vauxhall engines
as well as Starlets with various engine combinations and becoming more popular are Peugeot 205 which have been
modified to rear wheel drive cars to save weight!
This class is for up to 1130cc modified machines, which can be, either front or rear engined and front or rear wheel drive.
The restriction in this class is that the engine must remain in the original position and must be of the type originally sold in
that type of car. Ultra lightweight Mini’s and Imps are very popular in this class!
This class is for modified saloons with a capacity of between 1131cc and 1420cc and can be either a motorcycle engine
or car engine. Any engine can be placed either in the front or the back of the saloon which makes a variety of
machinery available like ultra-lightweight mini shells with a motorcycle /front wheel drive configuration to Micro’s/Nova’s
with rear engined/rear wheel drive combinations.
This class is for over 1421cc front engined/front wheel drive modified cars. The most popular cars in this class appear to
be 2litre-16valve Novas with highly tuned engines although 16valve-Golfs, Turbo-charged Fiesta’s and other hybrid motors
Have been known to appear in this class.
The “King” of the saloon classes, this class is for modified rear-wheel drive saloons over 1421cc. This “anything goes
Class” can have allsorts of exotica machinery with such diverse engines as 16-valve turbo charged Ford Cosworths, V6
0r V8 often with super/turbo charged engines, to twin motorcycle setups. the engine is usually mid-mounted in the rear of
a small lightweight saloon shell. This is definitely the “Loads of money” class but is also one of the most exciting classes
as well!
Specials up to 1420cc. The first of our specials built just for Autograss racing. These are constructed using a home-built
space frame chassis, using an open-wheel format with varying engines but now mainly motorcycle engines and over the
last few years have probably developed into the fastest of all the classes but all the specials are very close in performance
to each other! top class racing from these small but extremely light machines!
Specials from 1421cc to 2070cc. A very popular class for people wanting to race open-wheeled cars but generally not
having to spend quite as much money on them as the other two special classes (but not always the case!).
Used to be the undeniable king of the specials classes with engine capacities over 2071cc, with engines similar to that of
the class 7’s, but due to there light weight class 8 are now so competitive, really have to work to get to the front in
handicapped racing!
Class 1 and class 2 cars driven by Ladies racing other ladies duly handicapped race in this class.
Class 4, 5 and 6 cars duly handicapped race against each other!
Class 3 and class 7 cars race against each other duly handicapped.
Classes 8, 9 and 10 cars race against each other duly handicapped!
Drivers are aged between 12-16 year old and can be either Girls or Boys, who after passing a test are allowed to race
Using class 1 Mini’s only!
Blyton Raceway
Blyton
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
PO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
Sheffield Stadium
Sheffield
England
United Kingdom
April 11, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
London, Heathrow Airport – trip begins (this entire trip will be within the U.K.)
York Autograss Club
York
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
Buxton Raceway
Buxton
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
PO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
Brampton Raceway
Brampton en le Morthen
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
Belle Vue Greyhound Stadium
Belle Vue
England
United Kingdom
April 12, 2004
DO
PEOPLE/TRAVEL NEWS
Racetracks visited in 2004
(** Not the first time to visit this track)
Greetings from all points in England
1955 Last F1 race in Wiltshire. Harry Schell wins in Vanwall
1965 First 100mph lap. Chris summers in Lotus 24 Chevy
1971 Future World Champions Alan Jones & Jody Scheckter on F3 podium
1976 Nigel Mansell wins Formula Ford race
1982 Ayrton Senna wins Formula Ford 2000 race
1995 First 2 day race meeting
1997 First 130mph lap establishes new outright lap record
1999 New corners increase circuit length to 1.85 miles
2000 Circuit celebrates 50th Year Anniversary
2001 F3 returns to Castle Combe Circuit after 25 years
Planned new racetracks
On the last day of each racing trip I will post my tentative plans for my next trip.
Racetracks visited in 2005
** not the first time to visit this track
RANLAY RACING – TRACKCHASER REPORT – ENGLAND PART 1
RANLAY RACING – TRACKCHASER REPORT – ENGLAND PART 2
This is a true family sport – anyone can take part. Junior drivers may start racing at 12 years old, moving into the adult classes at 16, and some drivers are racing competitively well into their 60s and 70s. Ladies’ races are held at every meeting and the sharing of cars between family members is encouraged. It is the affordable motor sport. You can race in the most basic classes (such as Class 1, for standard 1000cc Minis with only safety modifications) for an initial outlay of under £500 and minimal running costs. There are ten classes of car ranging from production saloons, through progressively wilder Modified machinery to the super-fast single-seat Specials.”
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2006 (** not the first time to visit this track)
We stayed in great places.