Wahgunyah Speedway

 

 

THE EVENT

I have had the opportunity to follow my trackchasing hobby all over the world.  As this is written I have seen racing in 77 countries.  My lifetime track total is just over 2,400.  Long ago I wrapped up seeing racing in every American state.

 

 

My hobby is not only about racing.  Yes, that is one part of it.  However, of equal importance are the logistics of trackchasing and the opportunity to see the world.

 

 

I live in Southern California.  The vast majority of tracks are located in the Midwest and East.  It takes a good deal of logistical planning to get from where I live to where the tracks are.  For the past 15 years I have traveled about 175 nights each and every year.  Surprisingly to some, more than half of those overnights were not part of trackchasing.

 

 

Then there’s the travel just for the fun of seeing new things.  You won’t want to miss my “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions” page or my “Sports Spectating Resume” page on my website at www.randylewis.org.  That will give you some understanding on how important seeing the world and just “seeing stuff” is with my hobby.

 

 

Today’s adventure was one more of the 2,000 trips that have taken me up, down and around the long and dusty trackchasing trail.  If you would like to see where I’ve been and experience those adventures here’s the link:

 

 

Randy’s Complete Track List

 

 

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!

 

 

Randy on Facebook

 

 

 

 

FOREWORD

 

 

Yep.  I’m going to close out my 2017 trackchasing season with a trip to Australia.  This will be my fourth time to trackchase “down under“.

 

 

I had not planned to go to Australia this year. However, a couple weeks ago I was sitting in my office and the thought came to me… what if I could use frequent flyer miles at Christmas to go to Australia?  The thought actually seemed somewhat preposterous.  Using miles during the holidays normally costs “an arm and a leg”.  However, I soon found out that for just 45,000 miles I could fly one-way to Melbourne, Australia on Delta Airlines.

 

 

That was an absolute steal.  It’s very difficult to get a free ticket to a place like Australia for Christmas.  I would have to pay the piper to get back home when the trip was finished.  Nevertheless, I figured I could save $600-800 using my frequent flyer miles.  On the one hand that was a savings.  On the other hand, the trip would still be expensive but I knew it would be lots of fun.  Of course,  I invited Trackchasing’s First Mother to come with me.  You should know that she is invited to come on every trip that I make.  However, she is judicious in her travel plans.  She’ll take trips to Maui and New York City before she’ll accept a trackchasing trip.  That’s OK.  I want her to be happy with whatever adventure she takes on.  A happy wife makes for a happy life!

 

 

 

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Australia is a long way from United States.  On December 23, it was going to take me nearly 16 hours to fly non-stop from the Los Angeles International Airport to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  My buddy Paul Weisel tells me that trips like this are really pretty easy.  According to him, you just, “get on the plane and sit there until the plane lands”.  That is a rather simplistic way of looking at things but I suppose in a way it is factually accurate.

 

 

With me flying two days before Christmas that meant an adjustment in our holiday calendar.  Now, for Carol and me, Christmas Eve be happening on the evening of December 22.  Santa would come overnight to the Lewis household in San Clemente a couple of days early.  On Saturday morning, December 23, our stockings were filled and there were presents underneath the tree.

 

 

Carol and I had a good time opening our presents to the delight of each other.  My flight would depart Los Angeles at 8:40 p.m. on Saturday night, December 23.  Melbourne, Australia is 19 hours ahead of the Los Angeles Pacific time zone.  By the time I flew 15 hours out to Melbourne and took advantage of the time zone change I was only five hours behind the actual time at home….but a day ahead.  O.K., I’ll give you some time to think about that.

 

 

Here’s what is weird about flying from California to Australia.  I left on Saturday night and arrived on Monday morning!  What happened to Sunday?  One of these days I’ll figure it out.  The flight wasn’t all that bad.  I had an aisle seat.  The seat next to me was wide open.  The opposite side of our middle seat was occupied by a 56-year-old Asian woman.

 

 

How do I know she was 56 years old?  I helped her fill out her Australian arrival customs card.  Even though she had a United States passport she didn’t speak English all that well.  She needed my help, which I was happy to provide.

 

 

I did watch three movies and do just a little bit of computer work on my brand-new MacBook Pro laptop.  I guess that means I must have slept about seven or eight hours.  I got up about five times to take a walk, drink some water and use the bathrooms. There was plenty of legroom in my coach seat and it was acceptable flight given the distance.

 

 

Monday, December 25, 2017

Australia has a new automated customs control kiosk.  It’s available to the general public.  I did not talk to a single Australian border control officer in order to get into the country.  What will they think of next?  

 

 

I’ll be in Australia for eight days.  To begin the trip, I’ll spend two days in the Australian state of Victoria.  Midway in this adventure I’ll fly from Melbourne to Brisbane. Then on the last day of the trip I’ll go from Brisbane to Sydney to Los Angeles.  I’ll be hitting three of Australia’s main cities during the trip.

 

 

Rather than try to jam all of my belongings for an eight-day trip into my rolling carry-on bag I elected to go with the larger bag and check it.  I almost never check baggage.  It’s a hassle although for this trip having the size of a larger bag to carry a lot of extra stuff is a benefit.

 

 

Clearing Australian customs was a breeze.  It did take me 20 minutes or more to get my bag.  That’s why I don’t check bags.  I then walked outside the airport and hopped on the shuttle bus to the Mantra Tullamarine Hotel.

 

 

I used Booking.com to select every one the hotels/motels I’ll be using in Australia.  Booking.com is a great resource for finding a wide selection of motels in small towns.  I’ll be staying overnight in several Australian small towns during this adventure.

 

 

By the way the word, “Hotel” in Australia is often meant to describe a restaurant not a place to sleep overnight.  On the other hand, a “Motel” is definitely a place to hang your hat for the evening.

 

 

The Mantra Tullamarine Hotel was a great choice.  It was located only a couple of miles from the airport.  The shuttle was free.  Additionally, they were able to let me check into the hotel at about 8:30 a.m. this morning.  Had they been full the night before I might not have been able to check until 2 p.m.  That would have really messed up my day of touring in Melbourne.

 

 

Even though I didn’t absolutely need it I took about an hour’s nap.  I also had breakfast at the hotel.  Lots of things in Australia are expensive relative to American prices.  Right now, one dollar of United States currency will buy $1.29 of Australian dollars.  Another way to look at it is that one Australian dollar equals about $0.77 in U.S. currency.

 

 

When I see something priced in Australian dollars I can discount the price by 20 percent or a little more and I’ll know how much it really costs in United States currency.  Today’s hotel breakfast was $28 Australian.  Although that was “discounted“ back to $22 U.S. that was an expensive buffet breakfast.

 

 

Someone told me that buses were free today in Melbourne because it was Christmas Day.  Someone else told me that the best way to get from the hotel to downtown, a distance of about 20 miles, was to take the “Sky Bus”.  I was thinking the Sky Bus was free. I was incorrect.  They charged me $29 Australia round-trip to ride the Sky Bus from the airport to the Southern Cross station in downtown Melbourne. Given the distance that wasn’t a bad price.  It turned out that the city buses were free on Christmas Day.  However, those buses would have taken much longer to go back and forth.  I didn’t have a lot of time to waste.  I was ready to tour.

 

 

I spent the entire day doing a walking tour and then a boat tour up-and-down the Yarra River in Melbourne.  The weather was beautiful.  It was Christmas Day in Australia and the locals were out just exploring the glory of it all.

 

 

Folks let’s think about this.  I had flown more than 15 hours to get to Melbourne.  I landed at 7 a.m.  Then I went on a tour, much of it walking.  My walking distance for the day totaling 6.6 miles.  I got back to my hotel at about 7 p.m.  You have to be motivated to do what I do!

 

 

Since it was Christmas Day most of the attractions such as museums and such were closed. Nevertheless, cruises were going and lots of Riverwalk restaurants were open.  

 

 

I’m pretty good at dressing correctly for the weather. For me that almost always means shorts, a T-shirt and maybe a light sweater over the T-shirt if needed.  I absolutely totally missed “the weather set up“ for today.  I just never do that.  I was so mad at myself for my decisions regarding clothing that I made today.

 

 

At about 8 a.m. this morning when I got outside the airport and headed toward my hotel it was cloudy, cold and windy.  The temperature might have been 60° or maybe a little bit lower.  I knew I was going to be gone all day touring.  I didn’t want to regret not having enough clothes especially since I brought them along.  It’s always bad to have the clothes back in the hotel, twenty miles away, when you’re freezing your butt off.

 

 

I ended up wearing blue jeans, a golf shirt, light sweater over that and a rain slicker over that.  None of the clothing I wore was all that heavy.  However, when the temperature warmed up to 75-80° under clear skies and lots of sunshine I was way too hot. There was no way I could dump the clothing.  I just had to gut it out.  My poor decision-making made the entire day very uncomfortable.  It was a major error on my part in misjudging the weather.  I should have looked more closely at my weather app.

 

 

The food highlight of the day was finding myself in Chinatown.  Several of the area restaurants were open.  I found one serving dim sum, one of my favorites.  I waited about 10 minutes for a table and then chopsticked my way through a delicious lunch. Don’t miss the photos.

 

 

Within the last week Melbourne had a terrorist like attack with some idiot driving his car into a large group of pedestrians injuring 19 people.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  The incident occurred on Flinders Street.  It’s one of the main streets in downtown Melbourne.  I traversed it today but didn’t see any remnants of the earlier situation.

 

 

I was able to see lots of the city highlights including the St. Paul’s Cathedral during one of their Christmas services.  I was amazed at the ethnic diversity of Melbourne.  I think of Australia as a “white“ country.  If Melbourne is an example I don’t think that’s the case at all.  Almost all the people I encountered today were either Asian or Indian.  There were very few Caucasian people.

 

 

The boat tour was OK but not spectacular.  Nearly ninety percent of the seats were inside the boat.  When I take a sepal ride like this in good weather I like to sit outside which is what I did today.

 

 

After a 15-hour flight and a 6.6-mile walk I was starting to drag by the time I caught the Sky Bus back to the hotel.  That entire process was very efficient even though it was a little pricey.  Today will be my only full day of touring.  The rest of the trip will be reserved for visiting race tracks with whatever touring I can find along the way.

 

 

When I got back to the hotel I finished reserving the rest of my hotels for this trip.  I know lots of folks that make travel plans for each and every day of their trip far in advance.  I don’t do it that way except special circumstances.  I really felt that I was going out on a limb making reservations just three or four days advance.  In my world things change on a dime.  In the past booking reservations about three or four or five days ahead of time have come back to bite me.

 

 

I’ll be trackchasing in the states of Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales.  If all goes well, and there is some minor rain in the forecast, I’ll see six Australian tracks over six consecutive days of trackchasing.

 

 

Coming into this trip I’ve already seen racing at 9 tracks in Australia and 18 in New Zealand.  That gives me the #1 trackchasing ranking for the entire continent of Australia.  If I’m lucky enough to add six more tracks to that total I’ll extend my lead a good deal.

 

 

 

As we go along I’ll give you more information about how I decided where I would be trackchasing.  The main thing so far is that I got from United States to Australia and had a full day to tour a large cosmopolitan city like Melbourne.  The rest of the trip will have me visiting small Australian towns.  I expect that to be very entertaining.

 

 

 

Tuesday, December 26, 2017 (Boxing Day!)

I woke up this morning in the Mantra Tullamarine hotel near the Melbourne airport after a full night’s sleep.  This will be my last stay in a “citified” hotel for the remainder of the trip.

 

 

This hotel has been perfect.  Its location was right next to the airport .  They had a complementary shuttle bus that was easy to get on and get off.  If I come back to Melbourne again, I’ll stay here before I begin another trackchasing trip.

 

 

My main mission this morning was to pick up my rental car.  I’ll be using two cars for this trip.  In Melbourne, I have a car for two days.  In Brisbane, I have a car for four more.

 

 

I made my rental car reservations a couple of weeks ago.  I chose nearly the smallest car offered.  I wouldn’t do that in the United States because there’s a big difference between small cars and full-size cars there.  I find that in foreign countries a “little car” isn’t all that much different than a bigger car but the cost savings are substantial.

 

 

I don’t normally buy the insurance offered by rental car companies.  However, for this trip I went for the full coverage, which included tires, windshield…. the whole shebang.  The extra insurance cost was about $90 for the entire trip.

 

 

A few years ago, Carol and I were rear ended in Cannes, France.  We had insurance for such a thing from the credit card I was using.  However, the entire paperwork process was so daunting that $90 seemed like a bargain to avoid going through that again.

 

 

I was given a Kia Rio rental car from Hertz.  Its odometer had 29,000 km on it.  I was surprised to see it came with an automatic transmission.  I didn’t ask for that.  Normally, an automatic transmission for a foreign country rental car is about twice the price as a manual transmission would be.

 

 

Of course, my rental cars will be right side steering automobiles.  Yes, Australians drive on the “wrong“ side of the road.  Did you know that some 42 percent of the world does it that way?  I guess that makes it barely wrong!

 

 

Even though I had the full insurance coverage I took a series of photographs of the entire car.  The Hertz rental car agent had recommended that.  I think I’ll start doing that with all of my rental cars as the photos are time stamped.

 

 

As I pulled out of the Hertz rental car garage I gave myself the same driving advice that I shared with our three children when they became of driving age.  It’s simple advice.  What’s the advice?  Don’t hit anything and you’ll be all right!

 

 

The advent of the smart phone has made international trackchasing much easier.  As I drove northeast out of Melbourne if I blinked my eyes I wouldn’t know that I wasn’t in Northern California.  The scenery was eerily similar.

 

 

I have a full data package on my phone.  That means it operates just as if I were back in San Clemente at our modest seaside cottage.  I have full GPS usage with my phone.  I can make phone calls anywhere in Australia as well as back to the United States at no charge with crystal clear coverage.  I have full email capability.  Yelp works in Australia.  What’s not to like?  I think even my fellow competitors can come over here and have a successful trip with technological resources that I have.  It’s so easy a trained monkey could do it.

 

 

By the way my full data package costs me $10 per day U.S.  That’s a bargain.  If I were to rent a GPS unit in a foreign country it would cost me that much and more.  That doesn’t even factor in all of the other capabilities the data package comes with using my Apple iPhone. 

 

 

I had my GPS system set to “no tolls”.  I hope that works.  The Hertz agent told me there would be a one-time $27 Australian service charge if they had to pay any of the tolls for me PLUS cost of the tolls.

 

 

Most of my drive would be along M31.  This was a four-lane divided highway with quite a bit of traffic on Boxing Day.  I stopped at a highway service area that offered McDonald’s, KFC and a few other restaurants and coffee shops.

 

 

I was still a good 2 1/2 hours from tonight‘s racetrack. I was surprised to see two street stock looking race cars in the service area.  I stopped and talked to one of the race crews.  They told me they were motoring on up to the same track I would visiting tonight.  That seemed like a long tow for a low dollar stock car race team to make.

 

 

Once inside the service area I decided to eat at McDonald’s.  I travel internationally a lot.  Excluding Canada, which I don’t think of as a foreign country, I’ve probably taken well over 100 international trips.  If every trip averaged seven days or so that means that I’ve spent a full two years of my life outside of the United States and Canada.  I will tell you this.  I do not make it a practice to eat at McDonald’s on my international trips.

 

 

I did notice as I drove along the M31 highway that not all service areas were of the same quality.  I happened to have stopped at a top end location.  Some service areas I would see later had pretty much a gas station and that was it.  

 

 

Whenever I left my car I used my new security cable system to attach my computer inside the rental car.  The security cable isn’t strong enough to deter a serious thief with cable cutting capabilities.  However, the smash and grab guy might be held off but I’m not even sure about that.  I hope I never had to test the cable’s effectiveness.

 

 

I chose McDonald’s today because I wanted to try their self-service electronic kiosk ordering system.  I’m always trying to push myself with technology so that I don’t fall behind.  I see too many people of my similar age who have “lost the draft“ with technology.  You all know what happens when you lose the draft.

 

 

The ordering system was pretty intuitive.  I just kept tapping the screen until I had ordered everything I wanted and was ready to check out.  There was a friendly young woman bouncing about helping folks who might get stuck here and there.  I looked at her and smiled a bit to myself.  It was a young woman helping others to ultimately put her own self out of a job.  Folks artificial intelligence is here and the robot is going to replace you or a loved one at work.  Get ready for it and adapt.

 

 

The weather was gorgeous.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  The temperature was somewhere around 25°C.  That’s about 75-80° Fahrenheit.

 

 

Tonight, I would be staying at the Star motel/hotel in Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia.  I found this small six unit motel on Booking.com.  The hotel was just six miles from the racetrack that I would be visiting tonight.  That was perfect.

 

 

Rutherglen was named after the Scottish town that sits just outside of Glasgow.  They’ve got about 2,500 residents in this small village.  The place started out as a gold-mining location.  They grow a lot of grapes and focus on wine production now.

 

 

I pulled into Rutherglen at about 1 p.m.  It was easy to find the motel.  It was on the main street running through town.  By the way in Australia a hotel is a place that serves food and a motel is a place where you can sleep overnight.  It took me a long time to understand that distinction.

 

 

I’ve checked into my share of hotels in the past many years.  Today’s was a bit unusual.  I walked into a really cool looking bar.  The bartender was also the motel clerk!  This was the day after Christmas.  He told me that on Christmas Eve they had 400 people in the bar.  Then on Christmas Day he hosted free drinks for his very best customers for two hours.  The bartender admitted to me that he was dragging!

 

 

On Booking.com I paid $65 for a night’s stay at the Star Motel.  Booking.com had mentioned on their website there were only four rooms remaining when I reserved mine.  I think they were trying to create a sense of high demand.  As mentioned the Star Motel only had six units!

 

 

There’s a Chinese restaurant located next to the Star Motel.  I was really looking forward to having some Chinese food.  Unfortunately ,they were closed for the holidays.  The bartender recommended I had go across the street to the Poachers Paradise Hotel for lunch.

 

 

I acted on his recommendation.  Why?  It seemed as if Poachers was the only restaurant available in the small town of Rutherglen that was open today. Poachers was a bar/restaurant.  Soon I was dining on black and white calamari and chips.  Chips in Australia are French fries of course.  It was all very good and a nice place to relax in a cool atmosphere.

 

 

 

THE RACING

 

 

Wahgunyah Speedway – Wahgunyah, Victoria, Australia

 

 

 

Racing at the Wahgunyah Speedway was set to begin at 3 p.m. When I finished lunch, it was time to head over to the racetrack.  I really enjoyed the fact that I was staying just 10 minutes from where the racing would be happening.  That doesn’t happen often.

 

 

My GPS pointed me in the direction of the speedway.  Their sign posting confirmed I was on the right track. Admission prices for these Australian tracks have always been on the expensive side.  Today the general admission price was $25 Australian which is about 20 bucks U.S.  I asked for the pensioners price and they sold me my ticket for just $15 Australian. That made it more reasonable.  A free racing program was included, which made the whole day of racing a great value.

 

 

When I walked into the track the first thing I did was give my card to one of the employees.  I was looking for club president Brendon Eames.  Brendon and I had been in contact in advance of the race.  He told me to look him up when I got here.  While I waited to meet Brendon, I began to explore the place.

 

 

Australian tracks have a very unique feature compared to the oval track racing I see in the states.  They don’t have any grandstands.  There are no bleachers.  Later in the day I asked Brendon why that was the case.  He told me their form of OSHA has a lot of requirements which make the idea of having a bleacher set up a financial liability.

 

 

That being the case just about everyone who came to watch today brought their own folding lawn chairs.  In the past Carol and I have actually gone to a local store and bought a lawn chair in Australia.  We used it for the duration of our trip and then just left it behind.

 

 

This trip has me seeing two races in one Australian state and then four races in another.  I’ll fly between the two states.  I don’t know if buying a lawn chair and then lugging it around for a maximum of four races is a good idea or not.

 

 

Today’s race track was a dirt oval.  It was much bigger than I expected.  I was told it measures about 750 meters around the inside.  That makes it roughly a half-mile track in U.S. terms.

 

 

When I bought my ticket, I was given a complementary race program.  The program informed me that the headliner division today was the production sedans.  They would be supported by the SSA street stocks, standard saloons, GOSA, VSC open juniors, VSC open ladies and VSC sport sedans.  Of course, I didn’t know what most of that meant but as the day went on I would learn.

 

 

Each class would run three heat races and a final.  There were no time trials.  I am not a big fan of heat races.  That was about two heat races per class too much for my tastes.

 

 

I soon found Brendon the group’s president.  Brendon also drives in the standard saloon division.  He was happy to see an American trackchaser at his track.  He did tell me he was a little skeptical when I first approached him with the idea of me visiting.  He couldn’t figure out why someone would do what I do with trackchasing.  I told him I get that reaction from lots of people.  Brendon had to check out my website to confirm that I do really do this!

 

 

Brandon invited me to watch the races from up in the VIP/announcing stand.  I also did a couple of interviews with the track announcer.  I had to listen closely to understand what they were saying with their Australian English.  It’s a good deal different from how we speak where I come from.

 

 

I spend a few bucks at the concession stand today.  I opened with a Diet Coke and a potato cake.  I didn’t exactly know what the potato item was but it turned out to be pretty much a hash brown.  Later I would come back for a bottle of water.  I concluded with a finale that included a Diet Coke, a Pluto Pup and four sugar donuts.  I haven’t seen or said the word to Pluto Pup in probably about 50 years.  Everything I had today from the concession stand was large and tasty. The concession staff was extremely friendly.  Real nice folks.

 

 

They did a good job of running one heat race after another with very few delays.  Each heat featured about 6-10 cars.  I was a little surprised when they told me they had a 10:30 p.m. curfew.  They mentioned they would have to keep things moving in order to meet that curfew… despite starting the first race shortly after the official starting time of 3 p.m.

 

 

I would’ve liked to have seen them run one heat race and a final or feature race.  Maybe local fans wouldn’t think they were seeing enough racing if they did that.  I could go for two heat races and a final for each class but three heats was just too much racing for my taste.

 

 

I’m going to say they were very close with their prediction of starting and closing times.  They started only a couple of minutes past 3 p.m. with no national anthems or any ceremony like that.  At about 10:15 p.m. they were just finishing up the racing.  Mind you they had no significant delays between races they just had about 30-35 races!  At 8:30 PM they turned on the track lights.

 

 

I did take a couple of breaks in the comfort of the air-conditioning of the Hertz Rental Car Racing Kia Rio. That refreshed me.  Another benefit of being in the car was that I could recharge my iPhone battery.

 

 

It was a long day of racing.  I watched the six finals a.k.a. feature events.  The last one for the production sedans ended just 15 minutes before the track’s curfew.

 

 

It had been an interesting day.  The people couldn’t have been nicer.  I was happy to have the complete support of the club president Brendon Eames.  It was also fun getting an interview with the track announcer and being able to watch the races up from the scoring tower.  The guys scoring the event spent a lot of time educating me on what racing is like all over the state of Victoria.  Even the concession ladies were pleasant and engaging in conversation.

 

 

I spent several minutes talking to a fan who might have been of a similar age to me.  He worked for the railroad for more than 20 years and then transitioned over to working in the local breakfast cereal plant where he also put in more than 20 years.  When they offered him a package in his late 50s he took it.  He told me that automation was replacing several jobs in the cereal making factory.

 

 

One of the scorers told me the Wahgunyah Speedway is a “country“ track.  That is true and it’s also true of many dirt all tracks in the U.S.  For the most part, short track auto racing is a country sport.

 

 

I would have liked to have gotten down into the pit area but that didn’t seem to be an option today.  It was interesting seeing all of the fans sitting in their lawn chairs.  The concessions were tasty and unique.  The PA system was not perfect.  The whole place had a real laid-back vibe.  I really appreciated the fact that I was staying overnight just 10 minutes away.  My first Australian track was in the books.  This trip was underway!

 

 

Good evening from Wahgunyah, Victoria, Australia.

 

 

 

Victoria

 

 

The Peace and Prosperity state

This evening I saw racing at my 6th lifetime track in the Peace and Prosperity state yes the Peace and Prosperity state.  I’ve now seen 10 tracks in Australia.  With another 18 racked up in New Zealand I hold the #1 trackchasing ranking in the entire continent of Australia.  I’ll take 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

Victoria sayings:  Sweet as

 

Meaning ‘that is very good news’ or ‘I am happy with that’, this expression tantalizingly declines to reveal the end of the simile. Sweet as what? Nectar? Honey? A Portuguese tart? A child’s smile? A first kiss? A litter of sleeping French bulldog puppies? It’s fun to imagine how people could finish their sentence.

 

Tradesman 1: Mate I gotta call the missus, you right to finish this?

 

Tradesman 2: Sweet as [the twinkle in my nan’s eyes].

 

 

 

 

 

 

QUICK FACTS

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS 

The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are:

 

Total lifetime tracks seen

Total “trackchasing countries” seen

Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

 

Total Lifetime Tracks

There are no trackchasers currently within 600 tracks of my lifetime total.  Don’t blame me.

 

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2,402

 

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 20 countries of my lifetime total. 

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 77

 

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4.37

 

 

 

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.

 

Tonight’s trackchasing interview from the Wahgunyah Speedway 

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Stock car racing from down in Victoria, Australia at the Wahgunyah Speedway

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Come with me on a photo tour of Melbourne, Australia and then we’re off to the races!