Greetings from Sterlington, Louisiana
From the travels and adventures of the
“World’s #1 Trackchaser”
USA Speedway Dirt oval Lifetime track #1,632 Reprinted with permission from my Friday, March 11, 2011, Trackchaser Report. THE CLASSIC TRACKCHASER REPORT Editor’s note: This is a CLASSIC Trackchaser Report. What the heck does “Classic” mean? It’s simply a Trackchaser Report that comes from my trackchasing archives. Typically these will be stories from tracks I visited five years or ten years or more ago. For whatever reason (usually not enough time) this trackchasing adventure didn’t get posted to my website when I first made the track visit. Often a classic TR will not have a video and/or photo album attached. I didn’t begin producing my YouTube videos until 2009 (YouTube channel: RANLAY). I didn’t begin writing a complete Trackchaser Report until I had seen about 425 tracks. This was during the 2000 trackchasing season. Photo albums were sort of hit or miss during the early years of my trackchasing. Additionally, if you see a website link know that link worked when the TR was originally written. Will it work now? Your guess is as good as mine! Nevertheless, this CLASSIC Trackchaser Report has finally bubbled to the surface and is now available for everyone to see at www.randylewis.org. I hope you enjoy it. I AM A TRACKCHASER. My name is Randy Lewis (above one of my many visits to the U.K. with Colin Herridge and P.J. Hollebrand). I hail from the sleepy little village by the sea, San Clemente, California. I am a “trackchaser”. I trackchase. Have you ever in your life heard of “trackchasing”? I didn’t think so. I live in southern California. That’s probably the most inconvenient location in the country for seeing tracks in the U.S. Most of the racetracks in the U.S. are located well over 1,000 miles from where I live. My average trip covers 5,000 miles and more. I take 35-40 of those trips each season. In any given year I will travel well over 200,000 miles, rent more than 50 cars, and stay in more than 150 hotel rooms. I get the chance to meet people from all over the world. With trackchasing trips to 85 countries and counting just getting the chance to experience so many unique cultures, spend time in the homes of my friends and meet so many people is a huge reward for being in this hobby. I am indebted to several of these folks for their help and friendship. Once you begin researching my trip itineraries from my website, yes you will want to do that, you will be surprised. One day I’ll be in Tucson, the next in maybe Tuscaloosa and the following day in Syracuse. I do that kind of thing all the time. Figuring out the logistics of a trip like that is as much fun for me as watching a figure 8 race. Now you know a little bit about my trackchasing addiction. When you receive one of my Trackchaser Reports or find one on my website at www.randylewis.org I hope you will take the time to imagine in your mind what it took to make this trip from SoCal and understand the fun I had doing it. There you have it. That’s trackchasing…the way I do it. Do others trackchase? Absolutely. Do they share their experiences? Sorry. They don’t. If you want to see the true “essence” of trackchasing you’ve come to the right place. Today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the proverbial long and dusty trackchasing trail. If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link: If you’ve got a question, comment or whatever please leave it at the bottom of this report. It’s very easy to do. Or you can visit me on Facebook. Thanks! FOREWORD Friday, March 11, 2011. “THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO DO THIS” TRACKCHASING TOUR SPECIAL NOTICE The Japan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant meltdowns were almost unbelievable in their magnitude and devastation this past week. The events reminded me that I arrived in Japan almost exactly one year ago (March 18, 2010) for my second visit to the country. During my trips, I was impressed by the Japanese in many ways. They were the most mild-mannered, well-behaved clean-cut looking folks on a broad scale of any country I have ever visited. Is it surprising that there has been no looting like there has been in virtually every other country (including the U.S.) that has encountered this type of problem? The people I met were reserved yet willing to help (although little English was spoken) in every encounter I had during my trips. My trackchasing travels took me to Tokyo and a little bit South to Suzuka, Japan. If you’re interested in seeing what the Japanese countryside, as well as Tokyo, looked like during my trip click on this link and then click on “Japan”. What makes the events in Japan hit home with me is how much their situation in advance of the earthquake mirrors what we have in San Clemente, California where I live. Our house is located in an “earthquake zone”. Our location required us to use a “caisson” building foundation. Our house is built on nineteen caissons (30-40 feet long) that go ten feet into bedrock. Each concrete caisson is two feet in diameter and steel reinforced. We live exactly 100 yards from the Pacific Ocean. Our home is located just 6.4 miles from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (Tell me more about “SONGS”). They give us iodine pills “just in case”. The Japan catastrophe begs the question, “What would we do if this problem came our way”. Of course, we would attempt to “get out of the way”. However, everyone will encounter one thing or another in his or her life that they will NOT be able to “get out of the way from”. Most people want to postpone that moment for as long as possible. However, as we learned this week the point where you “can’t get out of the way” can come at any time. You just have to hope that you’ve lived a good life up to that point because your life is in the hands of a “higher power” after that. TODAY’S HEADLINES Don’t miss my classic three-tier strategy …………..details in “The Objective & The Strategy”. I pride myself in having above average ‘hunting and gathering’ skills………………more in “Trackchasing Tourist Attraction”. Without “Yelp” there is no way I would find these places …………..details in “Great places to eat before it’s too late” Greetings from Sterlington, Louisiana THE OBJECTIVE, THE TRIP, THE PEOPLE…AND A WHOLE LOT MORE The Objective and the Strategy The objective. In this world there are “racechasers” and there are “trackchasers”. In racing, we have “racechasers” and “trackchasers”. I used to be a racechaser but now I am a trackchaser. The hobby has identified some 60-70 people worldwide who have seen more than 200 different tracks each. If I had to guess I would say there are well over 1,000 people who have seen more than 200 tracks. Why does the “trackchasing community” have so few of those more than 1,000 race fans as card-carrying members? There are several reasons. I would imagine several long-time race fans have never heard of “trackchasing” the hobby. Others are just too lazy to compile their lists. Still, others don’t care for the “politics” of trackchasing. Do I think we have anyone out there who has seen more than my 1,632 tracks? I have no way of knowing for sure. However, if again I had to guess I would say no. It’s not that difficult to see 200 racetracks if you are a race fan. However, seeing more than 1,600 tracks is another “kettle of fish”. I try to be as efficient as I can. I have several interests and commitments other than trackchasing. While I very much enjoy trackchasing I don’t want to be inefficient in chasing tracks. I have too many other things to do. At the end of the day, I want to see as many tracks as I can in as few days away from home as possible. I average more tracks per trip than any other trackchaser and have for several years. So far during the 2011 season, I have made seven round-trip flying trips in the first ten weeks of the year. I am averaging 2.7 tracks per trip. I have no rainouts or cancellations of any kind. Most of my fellow competitors are averaging just over one track per trip. This is what makes the above statistics so important. The “start-up” costs of time and money are the greatest just getting from home to the first track on the trip and then from the last track on the trip to back home. It’s almost always more efficient, again with both time and money, to have more tracks in the plan to “amortize” the travel time and money. You wouldn’t do this, would you? Think about it another way. You probably don’t drive down to the grocery store, come home and then get right back into the car to run to the post office. You wouldn’t come back from the post office to home and then head right back to the gas station. This wouldn’t make much sense, would it? If I can average 2.7 tracks per trip, then 30 trips net me about eighty tracks. If a fellow competitor averages just 1.5 tracks per trip then 30 trips would give them 45 tracks. In order to see 80 tracks, to match my total, they would have to make FIFTY-THREE trips. I would like to see 80 tracks every year, but that is absolutely not a goal. If it happens it happens. I just don’t want to make fifty-three trips doing it! The strategy. Taking the easy way is not always the best way. Today I would be landing in Dallas, Texas. The RPM Speedway in Crandall, Texas was racing tonight. This track is just 45 miles from the DFW airport. That would have been an easy trip to make today. However, I would not be going to the RPM Speedway. I was headed to Northeastern Louisiana! The USA Raceway in Sterlington, Louisiana races on Friday nights. The track is also located some 322 miles east of Dallas! Why would I drive more than 300 miles to see racing when I could travel less than fifty to add to my trackchasing total? The strategy I am using is rather simple. Here’s my strategy. In order to ensure I have plenty of tracks to see for as far into the future as is possible, I have to think “strategically”. It’s a little bit like harvesting a tree forest. If you don’t replant the trees you take out then sooner rather than later you won’t have anything to harvest. Before I tell you my strategy, let me explain why I would even mention it. Yes, I understand that those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” read every word I write and view every picture and video I post. I can’t stop them from doing that. Everything I produce in my trackchasing hobby is open to the public. However, I figure they’re either too stubborn to adopt my more progressive ideas or can’t understand them even when they are fully explained. Yes, the progressive trackchaser can benefit from my information sharing. If that happens, I’ll all for it. The classic three-tier strategy. I have a three-tiered strategy for which track I plan to see. As far as I know, no other trackchaser uses this approach. First, I want to see tracks that race infrequently. You see I have 903 tracks in my U.S. and Canada “still to see” database. However, I am “uncertain” if 365 of those tracks are still active. This leaves me with 538 tracks that I KNOW are active. Some 202 of those tracks race on a “regularly scheduled basis” usually once a week during the warm weather months. A huge number, 304, of the 538 active tracks race just one time per year. Editor’s note: Please don’t hold me exactly to these numbers. They change hourly as the Randy Lewis Racing research department gathers more information. When all else is equal this is how I do it. When I look at track schedules I can visit a track that races once a week for 20 weeks or a track that races just one time per year. All else being equal I will pick the track that races just once during the year. If I see that track now, then I have 20 opportunities to see the weekly track race in the future. If I see the weekly track NOW then I have just one chance each year to see the “once a year” track race in the future. See my point? The next “factor” is figuring out where I go is the distance the proposed track is from where I am currently or will be going to next. Again, all else being equal I prefer to visit the track that is FURTHEST away. Yes, that makes things more difficult now but it will make my travel easier in the future. Tonight I was going to the ‘middle of nowhere’. Tonight’s track in Sterlington, Louisiana is out in the “middle of nowhere”. It’s not near any major airport. They race on Friday nights, the day I start most of my trips. Coming from California there isn’t time to make a flight connection anywhere and then drive a long distance to get to Sterlington, Louisiana for a first day of the trip show. However, I can take an early morning flight from Los Angeles to Dallas. I land in time to make the six-hour drive to Northeast Louisiana. Then I can see a Saturday night track that’s also “out in the middle of nowhere” without too much more driving. You see it’s never very far to the “middle of nowhere” when you start out in the “middle of nowhere”. I’ll catch that Friday night track in Crandall, Texas (45 miles from Dallas) some other time. This strategy has paid huge dividends over the years. I have been using this strategy for years. If I had always picked the “easiest” track to get too my future choices would be MUCH more limited than they are now. Maybe that’s why so many of our trackchasers are beginning to slow down. I don’t expect very many people reading this to put down what they’re doing and implement a “trackchasing strategy”. However, it’s important to know that an effective strategy can be very worthwhile in whatever you are doing. The Trip March is a difficult month for trackchasing. I think March is one of the most difficult months to find tracks to fill my trackchasing hobby’s appetite. December is probably the only tougher month. In March the ice racing season is over. On the other hand, the outdoor tracks don’t open until April in most places. The “toughness” of March is made more difficult when trackchasers have been “cherry-picking” the March tracks for a few years. This is why you will see the “driving trackchasers” struggle so much during March. I get help from many sources for my future trackchasing trips. I have so many people who will drop me a note telling me what’s happening in their backyard. I’ve had a lot of help from my “international” friends as well as both racechasers and trackchasers tucked away in every corner of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. I couldn’t do this without them. Trackchasing can be a full-time job. The staff at Randy Lewis Racing also works hard examining the various track websites all over the world. With about 900 tracks in my database in the U.S. and Canada (about 90% have websites of one type or another) to monitor that can be a full-time job. Mistake #1 avoided in the nick of time. My original plan for this trip had me visiting the Carolina Speedway in Lake View, South Carolina. I had put hours into this trip. It was going to be tough. I would have to fly overnight into Memphis and then go from there. I mentioned to Carol that I would be gone for three nights and I didn’t expect to have time to sleep in a real hotel bed on ANY of the nights. She didn’t like that one bit. After I had already made plane reservations and car rental reservations I discovered a problem. The “Carolina Speedway” website I was looking at was clearly racing this weekend. However, I was mistakenly looking at the Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, North Carolina. I had already been to this track. I went there on November 21, 2004. It was my 797thlifetime track and the 115th of that season. What made this track visit noteworthy was this was the first time anyone had ever been to 115 tracks in a single season. I’m like most trackchasers (note I am not talking about racechasers), I don’t go back very often to tracks I have already visited. I certainly did not want to fly across the country to return to the Carolina Speedway in North Carolina. As it turns out the Carolina Speedway in Lake View, SOUTH Carolina was not opening for the 2011 season until March 26. I needed a new plan. Mistake #2 avoided in the nick of time. It didn’t take long before I had a new travel itinerary. There was a once a year track racing this Friday or so I thought. I would still have to fly overnight on Thursday night/ Friday morning to get there on time. Again, I had all of my flight and car reservations made. Then I called the promoter one last time to confirm they were racing. I had the date wrong!! Maybe I am losing it in my old age! This would require yet another change of plans. I would not make mistake #3 on this trip. I am nothing if not resilient. I was going trackchasing this weekend “come hell or floodwater”. Soon I came up with the plan discussed above that would take me to Sterlington, Louisiana and then points beyond. The weather forecast was good and I had a way to get there. The original two plans called for me to fly overnight into Memphis on 1:40 a.m. early Friday morning flight. Does this sound like a hobby? Does this sound like a passion? Does this sound like an addiction? On Thursday evening Carol and I would visit the Pac-10 basketball tournament at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The plan called for us to first drive two cars to the Los Angeles International Airport. We would leave one there and drive the other to the game. After the game, Carol would drop me (at near midnight) at the airport. From there I would hop on the overnight flight to Memphis and Carol would drive home. Then when I returned from this trip I would have a car already at the airport. Yes, you’re probably saying “that Carol is an enabler”. Yes, you are right. The new plan (yes, the THIRD plan) would allow me to sleep in my own bed in San Clemente on Thursday night. However, after getting home at midnight, I would have to back out of the driveway at 4:45 a.m. on Friday morning. The People I don’t have this ‘people’ encounter every day. I had an interesting “people” encounter while parked at a Louisiana highway rest area on the first day of my trip. I had just awakened from a “20-minute power nap”. Normally, I take just 12 minutes but I only had four hours of sleep last night. I had the time for the stop today. As I was getting things organized for the next 200 miles of driving, a young man approached me. It was broad daylight, at 3 p.m. The man was about 25-30 years old although maybe younger. He was nicely dressed in the clothing of his locale. That meant nearly new blue jeans, cowboy boots and a western-style dark blue shirt. He was well-groomed and looked and talked like NASCAR’s Michael Waltrip. Editor’s note: Somewhat incredibly (shown to me by Trackchasing’s First Mother) NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip appeared on the Shawn Hannity TV show a few weeks ago as a political commentator! This man was down on his luck. Today the young man began to tell me of the “wows” his family including his father were having. They had broken down and needed money for fuel. The fellow seemed sincere. He offered to let me look at his “driver registration and insurance card” to prove the authenticity of his tale. I’m a sucker for someone who can get far enough into his story to make me feel his approach is sincere. This guy told me his father told him to ask strangers for help. He said me he was embarrassed to do it. Remember, this wasn’t a 12 year old but a fully grown young man. When someone really needs your help that’s the time to give it to them. Financially, I can never lose sight of the fact that I am locked in a “death struggle” with those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers”. It requires all of the financial wherewithal I have just to stay competitive with those characters. Nevertheless, I gave my new acquaintance twenty bucks. It seemed like he needed it more than I did. I’ve been in the situation he was describing a time or two. That’s no fun. This guy gets an ‘A+’ for this presentation. On the other hand if his story was a ruse, that’s O.K. too. He should be commended for concocting such a convincing essay and presenting it flawlessly. He could have a career in sales. If he was lying then that’s another story. Luckily, God has a special department for that behavior and the fellow will be taken care of “at another time”. As we bade farewell my new “friend” heartily shook my hand and wished me Godspeed. With that I headed on down the road toward track #1,632. TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION I very much enjoy the racing when I go on trackchasing trips. However, I am not the type of person who would feel the trip was complete if I simply left home, went to the race and came back home. I do a good deal of traveling. I want to do my best to see the local area when I come for a visit. There are usually unusual attractions that one area is noted for more than any other locale. I want to see those places. I want to touch them and feel them. When I leave an area, I want to have memories of these special places that I call Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I will remember those experiences long after the checkered flag has fallen on whatever race I have seen that day. Staples Center – Los Angeles, California (http://www.staplescenter.com/) Our kids were always hard workers. That’s one of the reasons they all graduated in four years from UCLA! I am a very lucky man. I am lucky in many ways. I have three children who are all very bright. They each graduated in four years from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA has more freshman applicants than any other college in the United States. It is a very difficult school to get into. I am also lucky that I have a wife who is a sports fan. She probably likes baseball best followed by football and basketball. Truth be told “trackchasing” is further down her sports preference list. We are lucky that UCLA is fantastic in sports and the school is located somewhat near to our home (60-70 miles). This weekend the Pac-10 (soon to be the Pac-12 next year) was having their men’s conference basketball tournament at the luxurious Staples Center (home to the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and Kings) in downtown Los Angeles. UCLA’s first game was against those lowly Oregon Ducks. UCLA as a #2 seed would be favored over the #7 seeded Ducks. Entertainment in the greater Los Angeles area is pricey. Folks in California seem to have a lot of money and they like to spend it on entertainment. Please don’t let those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” in on this secret. Carol deserves to be treated like a queen. When I travel with Carol I like to treat her royally. She doesn’t demand this treatment; she just deserves it. I needed to get some good seats for tonight’s game. I went online. There were lower level seats available. However at $100 per seat they were expensive. Then the “Ticketmaster” people had the gall to tack on $16 in fees for my right to buy tickets online. Those #$&#@^ ought to be taken outback and whipped! I was ready for war. I would try my luck at the stadium. I readied myself for the inevitable war. First, I printed out a seating chart of the Staples Center. Next I dusted off my trusty “Need Two” sign and off we went. Buying scalped tickets is not easy. I have to assure myself that the seller is not an “undercover” cop. To be honest, that’s impossible to do. I try to protect myself by asking a direct question of anybody I want to do business with. I simply ask “Are you a police officer”. I don’t know if that protects me legally. Maybe someday I will find out. True be told I would love to be arrested for buying scalped tickets. It would make a great story. Secondly, I have to protect against buying counterfeit tickets. This is also about impossible to do as well. I’ve been burned two times (once counterfeit, once stolen) but saved thousands of dollars on the more than one hundred other occasions I have done this. I consider myself a “professional” ticket buyer. I prefer not to work with “professional” ticket sellers. Here’s the problem. We each have conflicting objectives. We’re both trying to make money and it’s hard to have a “win/win” with that. There appear to be ‘horses for courses’. In many occupations certain gender, physical, racial, ethnicity factors are at work. Just about every nurse I know is a female. Just about every jockey I’ve seen is a little person. Just about every Chinese restaurant owner I’ve seen is Chinese. Finally, just about every professional ticket scalper I’ve seen is a black male. I have no idea why young African-American males dominate in the ticket scalping business, but they do. I try not to deal with the “brothers”. They are nice guys it’s just that they are into making money off their ticket sales. I prefer to deal with a middle-aged white bread fellow who comes from the suburbs. He is likely to NOT know the real value and/or demand of the ticket he is either buying or selling. The white fellow is uninformed and inexperienced in this regard. In the ticket scalping business a white man is much easier to deal with than a black man. However, tonight we were inundated with “professional” sellers. At one point, at least four different sellers were surrounding me trying to sell me tickets. I looked like Abe Saperstein during a time-out. Write me if you know what that metaphor means! Editor’s note: Several people did respond to my “sneak preview” of this report. They were all in my age range. They fully understood what the above paragraph meant. Where were the dopey white people? There were no dopey looking white people willing to sell me a ticket. Therefore, it was best that I at least listen to the professionals. I did have to take a moment to remind the sellers of the “scalpers professional code”. This simply means that one scalper is not supposed to “horn in” on a deal while another scalper is trying to close a sale. When I explained this the sellers all smiled. They knew what I was talking about. This gave me “street cred” with them! Nevertheless, they all kept talking at the same time trying to sell me their tickets. The best offers were for two lower level seats that carried a $90 U.S. per person face value. However, tonight those tickets were selling for a discount. One seller had seats in the seventh row from the court for $50 each. Another had row 13 in the same section for $40 each. I offered seventy dollars for the pair and the fellow with row 13 seats accepted my offer. I had just purchased two $90 seats that would have cost about $200 on line for seventy dollars. That more than paid for the new pair of Sketchers athletic shoes I had bought earlier in the day. Had Christmas come early? As the seller was departing he told me “You just got an early Christmas present”. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that. We had just one more “hurtle” to clear. The tickets “needed to scan” when we entered the stadium. That would prove the tickets were authentic. All the while Carol had stood in the background, hopefully admiring my “hunting and gathering” skills. We would have plenty of cash to spend on the way overpriced concessions at Staples Center. We walked around and admired the bronze statues of former Los Angeles sport heroes who are honored in front of the Staples Center. These included Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Wayne Gretzky, Osco De La Hoya and Chick Hearn. Soon we entered the game without any additional fanfare. Our tickets had scanned properly. We would have baseline seats just 13 rows off the court for $35 each. Not only would we get to see the UCLA-Oregon game but also the Washington-Washington State matchup. Space limitations prevent me from discussing the outcome of the game. I recommend you Google it. GREAT PLACES TO EAT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! Rays PeGe – Monroe, Louisiana (http://www.rayspege.com/index.htm) Monroe, Louisiana is just sixteen miles from tonight’s track. When I’m on the road I strongly prefer non-chain restaurants. For the most part, the only chains you will find me in are McDonald’s, Subway and the Waffle House. I eat at Mickey D’s and Subway for diet control. Carol with often judge my various and sundry creative strategies, “How’s that workin’ for you” is a common query. I don’t think her question is all that sincere. McDonalds and Subway both have a few 300-calorie meals/snacks. Those are the only foods I eat at these locations. They include items like the Egg McMuffin, low-cal ice cream cone, oatmeal (new and really good) as well as turkey, ham or roast chicken subs with veggies on wheat bread. You can’t get in trouble eating those items. I guess I must be eating more stuff somewhere in between! Of course there is also the Waffle House (Tell me more about the Waffle House). Who wouldn’t want to eat at the Waffle House. Right now “Helen and Randy” are featured on the website of the Waffle House. They look like they eat there! Somewhat incredibly (I am easily amazed) the Waffle House has its own museum. It located where the first ever Waffle House opened some 55 years ago. However, it, according to the website, is open only two Saturdays per year for just three hours at a time! The location is in Decatur Georgia. My good fortune showed me that will be next Saturday. Can I figure out how to be in Decatur, Georgia next weekend? Stay tuned. By the way, the Waffle House is the only chain restaurant I know of that does NOT list the caloric count of its food items on the chain’s website. That should tell you something. I try to never stop at a Waffle House more than once on a trip. You see, the nearest store to my home in San Clemente is located in Goodyear, Arizona 364.4 miles away. On the other hand, I am staying in Monroe, Louisiana tonight. Monroe has SIX Waffle Houses within TEN miles of me. Maybe living in the “World’s Best Climate” of San Clemente is not all it’s cracked up to be. Could I get a good housing value in Monroe? Nevertheless, I’m here to tell about where I had dinner before tonight’s racing. I used my iPhone app “Yelp” to help me out. I searched for “Cajun/Creole” food. The number one ranked eatery (12 reviews – 4.5 star rating) was Ray’s PeGe on DiSiard Street. Soon I was asking “Garth” my friendly GPS buddy to take me there. It was dark now. However, “Ray’s” had a huge flashing sign telling me that “Garth” had done a good job getting me to Ray’s. What was next door to Rays? A Waffle House! Yes, I was in culinary heaven. I would learn that Ray’s PeGe began as an ice cream parlor back in 1960. In 1967 Ray’s PeGe was relocated to its present location. I have no idea what “PeGe” means. Nevertheless, Ray’s is one of the most popular eating establishments in Ouachita Parish (aka county). The specialty at Rays is the “roast beef po-boy”. The Yelp review highlights included these prophetic words, “The gravy is awesome. The roast beef po-boys with gravy on the side were the ultimate good food. (The first person that reads this far and emails me at ranlay@yahoo.comwill receive one of those famous six-dollar Wal-Mart gift cards. Don’t be late this is a competition!) You gotta get the fries”. I enjoy taking other’s recommendations when I choose foreign location dining opportunities. I walked into Rays sporting a UCLA sweatshirt. That pretty much proved to everyone “that I wasn’t from around here”. At Ray’s you order and pay at a counter and then sit at a table. It’s fast food style service. I dutifully ordered the roast beef po-boy. I did have the good sense to only order a half sandwich. I’ve found that portion control is important when eating less than nutritious foods. I can still hear Carol saying, “How’s that workin’ for you”. I picked out a table where I could get good pictures and video of the place. You won’t want to miss these visuals. Of course, they are available at www.randylewis.org but you probably already knew that. Soon my dinner was ready. For $5.49 this was a good value. The roast beef po-boy was served on French bread with lettuce and mayonnaise. There wasn’t much roast beef just three thin slices. However, the warm brown gravy served on the side was to be used for dipping. This made the sandwich “come alive”. The fries were “fresh cut” and rivaled any I have had at a New York racetrack. I was the only “tourist” in the restaurant tonight. It was 7 p.m. and they were doing a good business with locales including families. I will tell you this. “Yelp,” adds to the enjoyment of these trips immensely. RACE REVIEW USA SPEEDWAY – STERLINGTON, LOUISIANA It was a long drive. At least they didn’t start on time! It was a cool 321 miles from the Dallas Airport to the USA Speedway in Sterlington, Louisiana. This was a good time to get this track because there are no non-stop flights from Southern California that would get me much closer to the track than Dallas. Tonight’s racing would be done on a large quarter-mile dirt oval. That’s my favorite kind of track. Racing was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. That’s later than normal but about right for a Friday night when drivers and fans are coming to the track from work in many cases. This was the first race of the season for the USA Speedway. Last week they were rained out. I am not very tolerant of tracks that don’t start on time. Tonight the racing did not begin until 8:35 p.m. To me, on a dry weather night that is unacceptable. I was not really disappointed. I don’t expect the majority of short track promoters to ever get it right in this area. Tonight’s announcer was good. The track had a good announcer. He talked to the crowd frequently, provided humor as well as driver names and numbers. That’s what a track announcer is supposed to do. He also gave me a hearty welcome and a sincere thank you for visiting the track tonight. The P.A. system was decent, another good aspect of a successful promotion. Some things I liked; some things I didn’t like. There were no time trials. I like that. There were a mind-numbing series of heat races with small fields. There were 12-14 heat races with just 3-5 cars in each heat. The heat races were eight laps in length. That was at least two laps too long, and maybe more, for such small fields. The heats were finished by 9:37 p.m. The track then went to an intermission. It was getting cool (60 degrees) and windy (8-10 m.p.h.). I was glad I had switched from short pants (golfing trousers?) to my blue jeans. I was still chilly in a t-shirt and sweatshirt. Tonight there were six classes. This included B-mods, modifieds, cruisers, compacts and a couple of other stock car classes. I ended up leaving at 10:35 p.m. after seeing just two features. The length of each feature was supposed to be 20 laps or 25 minutes whichever came first. If you create a policy, stick to it. I was disappointed when the track didn’t stick to that policy for the compact feature, the second main of the night. They had several spins. The wrecker service took forever to remove the simplest problems. In most ways, this was a very traditional short track racing program on dirt. If the track can tighten up their show by first starting on time and then keeping the show moving they would be much improved. Maybe these drawbacks were a function of this being the first race of the year. STATE COMPARISONS Louisiana This evening I saw my eighth track in the Pelican state, yes, the Pelican state. That gives me a fourth place ranking here. Wisconsin’s Ed Esser leads with 16 Louisiana tracks. I trail both John Moore and Robert Helmick who have seen 14 tracks down in the Bayou. Some thirty-four trackchasers have pursued the hobby here. I show just four tracks remaining to be seen for me in Louisiana. All of them race on a regularly scheduled basis. I can get to most of these by flying into Dallas or New Orleans. 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? National Geographic Diversity season results for 2010 will by posted by March 30, 2011. TRAVEL DETAILS AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Dallas, TX (DFW) – 1,237 miles RENTAL CAR #1 Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport – trip begins Sterlington, LA – 322 miles TRACK ADMISSION PRICES: USA Speedway – $8 ($2 senior discount) 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 You might have remembrances about this track. If so, please feel free to share your memories in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here. 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 Louisiana sayings: Laisser les bons temps rouler- Let the good times roll! That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report Click on the link below to see the video production from the racing action today. USA Speedway racing action…plus a downhome southern trackchaser mention . . The video trip from A-Z, California to Louisiana 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. The Pac-12 bball tournament followed by a quick trip to Louisiana 
