Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
ANTIOCH SPEEDWAY, ANTIOCH, NORTH CAROLINA
Confederate Railroad??
In the distance, I could see the cars racing. I was getting close to track #1,005.
It couldn't be much further, could it?
As soon as the Renegade stock car feature took the green flag, the track was official.
Note the red Carolina dirt. This is common amongst southern dirt tracks.
Do these girls even know there's a race going on?
Note the cars and trucks parked (upper photo) in the terrace parking area. These people can view the races from the comfort of their own vehicle. That's a good choice on a cold day.
At least there was one guy as crazy as me to wear shorts to the Antioch Speedway. That barrel of fire felt good.
GREETINGS FROM
THREE TRACKS IN THREE LOCATIONS IN
ONE DAY IN FEBRUARY! LIFE IS GOOD!
ANSWERS &
QUESTIONS
Why wouldn’t the McDonalds
drive-thru attendant tell me when I ordered a salad, waited through 10 cars in
the drive-thru line and then fished out the exact change from under the floor
mat, that they were out of salads?
TiVo rocks!
Why do the flight attendants always
stop the drink cart right over my seat when my laptop is open and then proceed
to pour 10-20 drinks for just about every passenger on the plane?
Jet Blue Airlines is great, they
have leather seats, snacks, lots of legroom and live satellite TV.
Why do people continue to drive in
the fast lane while fellow driver after fellow driver passes them on the right?
XM radio also rocks and local AM/FM does
not.
The
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL
NEWS
The Strategy
Strategy is so important in trackchasing. The right strategy can add more tracks, keep
expenses down and make the trip more comfortable by saving time. O.K., I’ll be honest. I’d like to save money, but it really doesn’t
matter. I’d like to save time, but it
really doesn’t matter. The overriding
strategy is to add new countable tracks.
Now you know what my REAL strategy is.
Believe it or not, my life strategy, as regards spending my time is to
have a balance between all of the things I enjoy doing. In regards to life strategy, I must admit I receive
different forms of challenging feedback about my trackchasing hobby. It’s always good to get challenging
feedback. It forces me to continue to
evaluate your positions.
From some of the “Old boys”
trackchasing network, I sometimes get “You’re
trackchasing too much. We can’t keep
up. You’ve put so much time and
resources into trackchasing, we feel like giving up.”
From many of my golfing friends and friends, I get, “You built that big new house, and you must never be
there to enjoy it. Doesn’t Carol mind
you being gone so much? We haven’t seen
you at the club, where have you been?”
I don’t exactly know how to answer these questions. I might say to the good old boys, “Now you know how folks who compete against Tiger Woods
feel.” To my golfing friends (who
never have to worry about confusing me with Tiger Woods), I might say, “I’m home 4-5 days a week. That’s plenty of time to enjoy our house.”
My business travel over a 30-year career, along with personal travel had
me traveling about two nights a week.
That’s 100 or more nights a year.
Carol never traveled with me on business.
I think it’s important for a successful and fulfilling marriage to have
some independence. I think my travel in
the early years helped Carol develop into the independent young woman she is.
In all of my years of business travel, I was almost never on the road
for more than three consecutive days. A
normal business trip had me out one or two nights. A good deal of the time, when a meeting in an
attractive location ended, Carol and the kids would fly in and join me at the
meeting resort for a few days.
This past year was my biggest travel year in terms of overnights. I have
never had or expect to have this many overnights again. As far as I can tell, I traveled 163
overnights in 2006. About 125 of those
were primarily for trackchasing. Carol
had 76 overnights. (Editor’s note: Now
you can understand why my tax CPA says I am the only non-engineer she knows who
replicates the entire
In 2006, Carol and I were able to travel together for about 35 nights
that had nothing to do with trackchasing.
I would submit that very few couples in all of
This may give you some insight into how I look at this hobby. Carol and I will probably still travel for
non-trackchasing activity about as much as we did last year. I won’t travel 125 nights for trackchasing
this year. I hope the number of my
trackchasing days equals my golfing days in 2006. So far, golf is beating trackchasing 11-10!
The People
Do you believe people are inherently bad? On the other hand, do you believe people are inherently
good? I can go both ways on the
issue. I’ll give you an example of both
bad and good people behavior I encountered on the very first day of the
trip. My first overnight stop was in
I stopped in
I walked up to the motel check-in desk and told the clerk I’d like a
single room. The elderly gentlemen
wearing a white short sleeve shirt with a black tie and Masonic tie clip smiled
a totally toothless smile and replied, “Fine, that
will be $49.95 for tonight.” I
didn’t expect him to say that. “What about the billboard?” I asked. “Oh ya, the
billboard,” was all he could say.
He agreed to give me the advertised rate. I was prepared to walk if he didn’t.
Was the elderly desk clerk being dishonest with me? I don’t think so. Were the proprietors being dishonest by
saying one thing on their billboard and another at their check-in desk? Probably!
Some people are a little shady.
It pays to pay attention and speak out when folks don’t do the right
thing.
I have more positive people experiences than negatives ones by far. One of my best people experiences in a long
time was my lunch with Steve S. in
I showed up at Steve’s office and he asked me “If
I had my helmet?” Had my
helmet? What was Steve talking
about? It turns out Steve had a special
plan before we went to lunch. He wanted
to take me to an indoor go-kart racing facility. I’ve ridden at my share of go-karts tracks,
but I never needed a helmet before.
We soon arrived at the Victory Lane Indoor
Karting Center (www.victorylanekarting.com).
It wasn’t long before I was being asked to sign every liability clause ever
invented by the American legal community.
After that, I was issued my very own personal racing I.D. card as well
as a “Head sock.” The head sock was to be worn under my helmet. These guys weren’t kidding!
Steve and I then walked into the uniform room. There I picked out my driving suit and racing
helmet. The karts even had shoulder
harnesses and seat belts. We would be
racing for two 10-minute segments.
The racetrack was a road course.
It was flat, long and fast. The
track’s management even puts Coke syrup on the racing surface to give drivers
better traction. I have never driven
faster go-karts in my life!!
Steve gave me some good advice on the “Racing
line.” Soon we were off on the
first run. The track has a large time
clock that projects on the wall. The clock
counts down the seconds from 10:00 minutes.
I’d like to tell you that I dusted Steve, but that wouldn’t exactly be
accurate. I will say I was spotting him
60-70 pounds of extra weight, which would be accurate. It turns out Steve had raced
professionally. He was a truck racer at
the super fast Irwindale Speedway in
In point of fact, Steve dusted me.
The track gives every racer a lap time printout for each lap
completed. Steve’s best time was 32.593
and my best was 35.810 during the first session. That difference of 3.3 seconds was huge on
the track.
During our second session, we both lowered our lap times. Steve ran a 31.942 and I improved to
34.534. Again, trailing by more than 2.5
seconds was a big deficit. Steve’s time
was the fastest of the day for everyone who had raced up to that point.
This was one of most fun things I’ve done in a very long time. I give the
The trip
This was supposed to be a simple, “Out
Thursday, back Sunday” trackchasing trip. In trackchasing, nothing is ever as simple as
it sounds. As befits my status as “Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser while being married”,
I wanted to make certain that “Trackchasing’s First
Mother” aka wife, Carol was comfortable in my absence.
Just before I left on the trip, she asked if I could do a chore for
her. I said I would. Of course, the idea of doing a chore made me
shutter and break out in a rash. She
wanted me to call the plumber. I told
her I would.
When I told her I’d call the plumber, I honestly meant too. However, from the tone of this, you guessed it;
I forgot to make the call. Ultimately,
Carol made the call so the plumber could repair a running toilet and do
something to a “Hose bib.” Since I didn’t know what a “Hose bib” was, in hindsight I thought it was
better that Carol shepard this project from start to finish.
I guess I had failed Carol in her chore request. When you’re on a roll, why stop, right? Next, I had to ask Carol at the last minute
to drive me to LAX. This is usually a
difficult drive, traffic-wise, but I would not be returning to LAX at the end
of the trip, so I couldn’t drive myself.
Asking her to make this drive after my plumbing “Oversight”
was beginning to push the limit.
Nevertheless, Carol dropped me off at LAX and this trackchasing trip was
happening. My flight was delayed so I
stopped by the “Home Turf Bar” in terminal 3
to watch the Accenture Match Play golf tournament for an hour or so. As luck would have it (actually it was bad
luck), I left my credit card on the table and then hopped on my flight to
I noticed I didn’t have my MasterCard when I picked up my National
rental car. I carry only one other card
and I used that one to get my car. I attempted
to call the sports bar without success.
This credit card recovery project was too big for me. It required the attention to detail of a
woman. My call to Carol went something
like this, “I’ve got bad news I lost my credit
card.” Before I could get too
much more out, I was listening to why it’s important to 1) keep an eye on my
credit cards, 2) always check to make sure I had my credit card after I used it
and 3) don’t be a dummy.
Carol’s advice was helpful. At
least, that’s what I told her. I needed
her to do the legwork to track down the lost credit card, so it wasn’t a good
time to disagree with one word of what she was saying. This is one of the secrets to 34 years of
wedded bliss, make that near wedded bliss!
So that’s how the last winter trackchasing trip of the year began. I had screwed up the one and only chore I was
given. I had caused Carol to make a last
minute unexpected 130-mile round-trip drive in heavy city traffic. Finally, I got her involved in a never-ending
phone tree of conversations trying to track down my lost credit card.
Please don’t feel sorry for Carol.
She’s the one who said, “Yes” when
asked if she would accept me for “Better or worse!” All right, that’s a little harsh. I’ll do something special for her to make up
for my significant inadequacies.
RACE TRACK STATS:
LOWE’S MOTOR
This track was my 25th to see in
This track was my 26th to see in
This track was my 27th to see in
RACE TRACK NEWS:
LOWE’S MOTOR
There are five countable racetracks
on the Lowe’s Motor
I also saw the Dirt Track @ Lowe’s
Motor
After today’s visit to the Lowe’s
Motor Speedway 1/5 mile asphalt oval, there will be future new track
opportunities at their infield road course as well as their Ľ mile asphalt oval
located inside the 1.5 mile oval.
There are only a handful of
facilities that offer multiple track choices as Lowe’s Motor
Today’s track is located just
outside the second turn of the 1.5 mile oval.
The 1/5 mile asphalt oval is a permanent track with very limited
grandstand seating. They have lights but
did not have a public address announcer.
Refreshments were served from a mobile catering truck.
At the driver’s meeting, I was handed
a schedule of events for the day. There
were several classes racing today. Some
were countable by trackchaser rules and some were not. There were four types of Bandeleros including
Beginner Bandits, Bandits, Young Guns and Outlaws. I don’t believe any of these classes were
countable because they were not driven by adults.
The countable classes of legends
included Young Lions, Semi-Pro, Masters and Pro. I’m not sure about the age limit for the
Young Lions. It’s possible they were not
countable. Thunder Roadsters also joined
the fray.
Without an announcer, it was
impossible to tell which class of Bandeleros or Legends was racing. The track was efficient. They ran one race after another without any
delays. The heats were six laps long and
the main events from 10-20 laps in distance.
After taking both digital pictures
and some video, I retired to the comfort of the National Rental Car Racing
Buick Lacrosse’s cockpit. It was warm in
there. By the way, I did not see one
other person wearing shorts today. Don’t
they value their personal comfort?
My car location was just 20 yards
from the second turn fence. From here, I
had a great view under weather conditions that met the requirements of an aging
warm weather resident body. It was all
good.
On the way out of the Lowes Motor
I couldn’t do that today. They have torn up the oval’s surface and are
in the midst of repaving the entire oval.
This comes after Humpy Wheeler’s failed attempt to “Levigate” the track’s surface.
I must tell you now that I took a
personal risk at this point. Even though
I knew I was trespassing I had a responsibility to viewers of www.ranlayracing.com. I took several photographs of the repaving
project that will be on the website soon.
Please don’t tell anyone where you first heard about this super secret
repaving project or saw photos of same.
I first visited the
I recall the late model racing on
the
Today, I’m visiting the
When I entered the long winding
entrance to the complex, there wasn’t much activity. There was so little activity, it crossed my
mind that there was no one racing today.
That kind of thing has happened before, so that’s why it crossed my
mind!
I kept going when a sign pointed me
to the “Legends/Bandelero” track. That’s where I wanted to go. Just at that point, I saw some activity. Good!
The pit area for the small track was full of go-karts and go-kart
haulers.
It was a cold, cloudy 57
degrees. I really wanted to watch the
races from my car but that wasn’t going to work. A very professional announcer was telling the
handful of people in the stands about the qualifying times of the different
go-kart classes racing today.
I was here to see the Senior Champ
Karts. I figured I could buy a grandstand
ticket and stay in the car until the champ karts were ready to race. First, I had to confirm there were some
Senior Champs racing today. I walked
over to the pit shack and asked.
Just at that moment a woman
approached to buy her pit pass. She had
overheard my question about champ karts and confirmed to me that, yes indeed,
they were racing.
That was the good news. The woman working the pit shack told me that
no grandstand tickets were being sold, only pit passes. She said something about “People buying a grandstand ticket and sneaking into the
pits.” Let’s see. Rather than establish some control that
prevents people from buying a cheaper ticket and then sneaking into the pits,
we’ll just charge everyone for the higher priced pit pass. I guess I was just at another customer
friendly short track.
I paid my $20 pit pass fee and
wandered into the pit area. At first, it
seemed like the only countable event would be the Senior Champ Kart Heavy
division scheduled to race as the 13th class of the 18 total
classes. That was bad for two
reasons. First, it looked like it might
rain. Secondly, this might jeopardize my
idea of visiting the
A closer examination of the race
schedule told me that the Senior Champ Kart Lite division was the fourth
scheduled feature of the day. The Heavy
and Lite divisions of the Senior Champ Kart group would be racing exactly the
same cars. The “Lite”
division has a 410-pound weight limit.
The “Heavy” division has a 425-pound
weight limit. The karts simply bolt on
15 extra pounds when it comes time to switch from the Lite division to the
Heavy division. I didn’t know that until
today.
After I saw the Lite division
contest their 15-lap feature in the fourth event of the day, there was really
no reason to hang around and see the very same competitor’s race with 15 pounds
of leads added to their chassis’.
I did visit “Allan’s
BBQ and Catering” truck in the pit area.
He was serving some of the best BBQ I’ve eaten this season. About the time I was downing my last bite of
BBQ the announcer told the competitors to speed up the program. Rain was on the way. With that comment, I began to worry that I
might not get my race in but the rain held off long enough.
The Senior Champ Kart Lite division
ran their one and only race of the day.
It was a 15-lap feature event. I
enjoyed watching the flat karts race their feature events as well.
You should know I’m feeling the
pressure from non-trackchasing Trackchaser Report readers. They simply can’t understand why the
trackchaser rules preclude the counting of flat karts. I’m just about ready to give the phone
numbers and addresses of those trackchasers that passed the rules outlawing
flat karts.
Today’s program at
The woman I spoke with told me they were
“About a quarter of the way through the program.” I’m no math whiz. O.K., I am a math whiz and my calculations
told me that if they were finished with 25% of the program at 4:30 p.m. then
the entire program would be completed by about 9 p.m. I was only an hour away. I expected to arrive at the
I must admit that I experience my
share of angst whenever I am trying to make it to a track when time is a
factor. I felt no such angst today. I was running low on gas so I made a
leisurely stop for gas. I saw some
interesting sights and stopped to take pictures. I wasn’t hungry, but if I had been I would
have stopped to eat.
I pulled into the
No one was collecting money at the
ticket booth at this stage in the program.
Now, everything was looking REALLY fine.
The facility suffers from a significant amount of deferred maintenance. Yes, it is a run down dump.
I scanned the pit area. There weren’t many cars in the infield. Most of them were already on their
trailers. That part didn’t look good. To make a long story short, they had only one
race to go. That was the Renegade stock
car feature that ran about 12 cars. The
race had a few cautions and ended up lasting about 20 minutes.
The entire program ended at 5:55
p.m. Maybe the
The announcer gave me a nice trackchaser
mention. Many announcers have a
difficult time pronouncing
He told the crowd I was from San “Clemontine.”
His fellow announcer corrected him and told the crowd that “Was nice country out there.” He’s right.
There weren’t many people in the stands to hear all of this. Several were huddled around 55 gallon drums
that had raging blazes going in them.
This kept those folks warm on a cold and damp late
WEATHER
CONDITIONS
It was 53 degrees and overcast when
I arrived at LMS at 10:10 a.m. That’s
not warm, but it is probably better than 80-90% of the rest of the
country. That’s not bad. The rain forecast increases from 10% to 30%
by 3 p.m. I expect to be long gone by
then.
The announcer at
The wet stuff stopped on my way to
the
It misted rained most of the way to
RENTAL CAR
UPDATE:
Whenever possible, I will try to
rent my cars from National Car Rental.
My “Executive Selection” status gives
me the right to pick from their very best cars.
Today, I’ll be going with a Buick Lacrosse CXL model. I chose this car because it had a leather
interior and sunroof. It’s a very
comfortable car to drive. The car even
came with
I covered 758 driving miles on this
trip with my rental car. I paid an
average gas price of $2.15 per gallon.
The Buick Lacrosse gave me 27.6 M.P.G. in fuel mileage at an average
cost of 7.8 cents per mile, one of my lowest totals for the year.
LIFETIME
TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
These worldwide trackchasers are
within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total.
1.
Rick Schneider –
2.
Allan Brown,
3.
Guy Smith, Effort,
4.
Any Sivi,
5. Randy Lewis,
6.
Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring,
Other notables
These worldwide trackchasers are
within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.
40.
Don McAuley,
41. Carol Lewis,
42.
Andy Ritter,
43.
Colin Casserly,
44.
Bernie Harlen,
2006
TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis,
2.
Ed Esser,
3.
Rick Young,
4.
Roger Ferrell,
4.
Guy Smith, Effort,
4.
Will White,
7. Carol Lewis,
7.
Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs,
9.
Bob Schafer,
10.
Several trackchasers – 1
Thanks for reading about my
trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21st century
Trackchasing doesn’t have to be fun to
be fun.
CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA – Atlanta, GA – 1,941
miles
RENTAL CAR
TRACK ADMSSION
PRICES:
Lowe’s Motor
Past trackchasing stories are available at:
Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:
Some of my standings data comes from
trackchaser.com
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2006 (** not the first time to visit
this track)
992.
Watermelon Capital
993.
Cross Roads Motorplex (asphalt oval), Jasper,
994.
995.
Qualcomm Stadium,
996.
997.
998.
Thunderbowl Speedway of
999.
Cross Roads Motorplex (dirt oval), Jasper,
1,000. Auburndale Kartway,
1,001.
1,002. Speedworld Speedway,
Surprise,
1,003. Lowe’s Motor
1,004.
1,005.
