GREETINGS FROM GADSDEN, ALABAMA

 

 

THE LIFE OF A TRACKCHASER…..

 

How often do you go to sleep in a 10’ by 12’ bedroom with another person sleeping in the bed next to you, whom you have never met?  How often do you exit your bathroom in only your underwear and come face to face with a woman that you have never met?  This can and does all come about when you are a trackchaser.  You can learn more about this adventure in “The Trip” section below. 

 

 

 

SPECIAL, SPECIAL NOTICE

 

I would like to thank everyone who sent me private messages of congratulations regarding my 1,000^th track.  I tried to get back to everyone individually to offer my appreciation and hope that I did.  I have a very special contest being planned around the occasion of my 2,000^th track!

 

 

 

 

 

SPECIAL NOTICE

 

You can click on www.ranlayracing.com to see photos from this weekend’s new track visits in both North Carolina and Alabama.  If you don’t have time to read the entire Trackchaser Report, you can get the Reader’s Digest version from the website. 

 

 

 

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy

 

You’ve all heard me refer to a trackchaser’s “Geographical Driving Circle.”  This is a circle around a trackchaser’s home that encompasses the tracks that are within a day’s drive or less.  Historically, trackchasers have been unwilling to consistently drive beyond that circle to get to their first track of a trip and/or return from their trackchasing trip.

 

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.  Let’s say our trackchaser in question lives in Chicago.  In order for this trackchaser to start driving on the morning of day 1 of his trip and still see a race on the evening of day 1, about 500 miles could be covered. 

 

For the trackchaser living in Chicago, these cities roughly define the 500-mile limit.  To the west, we have Lincoln, Nebraska and to the south, Nashville, Tennessee.  To the north, there is Duluth, Minnesota and over in the east is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Using Chicago as the center of the Geographical Driving Circle and the four cities mentioned as points on that circle, you can construct the GDC.  That’s a pretty big circle and covers a lot of geography.

 

Of course, this distance is an estimate.  Some might be willing to drive more miles in a day and some less.  Remember, the trackchaser needs to arrive at his track on day 1 no later than 7 or 8 p.m. to see the race program.  Most trackchasers go trackchasing on the weekend and most are still working for a living.  If the last track of the trip runs on Sunday evening or even Sunday afternoon, the prospect of driving more than 500 miles to get home and then go to work on Monday morning is daunting.

 

Historically, we have had only one trackchaser who has been willing/capable of doing this on a consistent basis.  That is Ed Esser of Madison, Wisconsin.  Others have tried it for a few weekends each year but soon discovered that it’s not much fun to drive more than 500 miles to get to the first track of the trip or to drive that distance or more from the last track to home.

 

Most of the top 10 trackchasers have seen most of the tracks within their geographical trackchasing circle.  More than 90% of all tracks race either on a weekly basis or just one time a year.  The remaining tracks race on some intermittent frequency such as every other week.

 

The top 10 trackchasers have seen 90-95% of all of the tracks that race weekly within their geographical driving circle.  This leaves the tracks that race less frequently than weekly to choose from within their GDC.  Trying to make up a weekend trackchasing trip of tracks within their GDC from tracks that race only once a year is difficult.  It can’t be repeated that often.

 

Any guesses on how many tracks that race weekly within not just 500 miles of my home, but 700 miles of San Clemente still remain to be seen by me?  One!  Yes, I have only one racetrack that races on a weekly basis that I have not seen within 700 miles of my home.  That track is the Bullring at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  The Bullring is only about 300 miles from San Clemente.  I’ve been saving that track since I figure I can tie it into a vacation trip to Vegas just about any time I want.

 

My GDC has some special constraints.  The western half of my circle is the Pacific Ocean.  There aren’t many tracks that can keep their head above water out there!  The southern half of my circle is the country of Mexico.  There’s virtually no countable racing within 500 miles of San Clemente in Mexico.  This leaves just the northeastern portion of my circle (California, Arizona, and Nevada) to look for countable tracks.  Outside of Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas there isn’t much population or very many racetracks.

 

The trackchaser who has seen most of the tracks within his Geographical Driving Circle has three options.  First, he can try to emulate Ed Esser and take more than a day’s driving time to get to the first and/or last track of his trip.  This must not be a popular choice since Ed is the only trackchaser to pull this strategy off successfully.

 

The second choice is to park the car at the airport and hop on an airplane.  I am the only trackchaser that implements the flying strategy consistently.  By they way, although I am known as the “Flying Trackchaser,” I also do my share of driving.  I drove nearly 50,000 miles last year with trackchasing, second only to Mr. Esser.  Nevertheless, flying must not be a popular choice either, since I am the only one using it on a regular basis. 

 

Some think flying is an expensive strategy.  I have explained in the past how flying in no more expensive and actually can be less expensive than driving for the traditional 3-4 track trackchasing weekend.  The cost savings comes in when the tremendous wear and tear of depreciation expense is considered for the long-distance driving trackchaser.

 

The third and final option is not to drive long distances (option 1) or fly long distances (option 2), but to simply cut back on the number of tracks that a trackchaser sees each year.  We are already beginning to see this play out amongst several of the leading trackchasers.  There is nothing wrong with this option.  It’s simply an evolutionary result of a trackchaser’s previous success.

 

Although I am not affected by my own Geographical Driving Circle, I will someday be affected by my Geographical Flying Circle.  There will come a time when I cannot routinely schedule 3-4 tracks in any convenient geographical trackchasing pattern for a flying trackchasing trip.

 

You’ve seen me fly somewhere on a non-vacation trip and get just 1-2 tracks.  I don’t do that very often.  It’s just not time or cost effective.  It’s not attractive for the same reason driving trackchasers are unwilling to consistently drive very long distances for just 1-2 tracks.  The time will certainly come when I begin to exhaust all of the tracks within my Geographical Flying Circle.  I think that time is a few years off, but it will come.  When it does, my trackchasing totals will begin to decline.

 

This is my last trackchasing trip of the “Trackchasing winter.”  Recall the trackchasing “Winter” season runs from just after Thanksgiving trough the end of February.  “Spring” goes from the beginning of March up to Memorial Day.  “Summer” is from Memorial Day to Labor Day and “Fall” runs from Labor Day through Thanksgiving. 

 

I’ve finished the first two months of 2006 with 15 new tracks.  Recall that in my record breaking season of 2005, I had seen only seven new tracks by the end of February.  (Reading the reader’s mind:  “He wouldn’t try to break his record of 182 new tracks from last year……would he?”)

 

Stay tuned.  It’s never over til it’s over!

 

 

 

The People

 

Technology can certainly cut down on my contact with the local color as well as the people I meet during a trip.  Let me give you a couple of examples.

 

Many times, I can meet interesting people on the airplane while I’m coming or going on a trackchasing trip.  On the other hand, it’s very tempting to simply put on my Bose headset and stay in my own world. 

 

When traveling in the car on one of these trips, I can listen to local radio to learn what the local news and events are wherever I am traveling.  On the other hand, I can flip on XM satellite radio and tune into the same channels I listen too when I’m in San Clemente or wherever.

 

These technology items remind of the time when McDonalds type restaurants came about and ended up closing most ma and pa coffee shops.  Although people may have enjoyed the uniqueness of a local coffee shop, eventually they preferred the quick service, lower prices and consistent quality offered by a chain over the ma and pa experience.  The people part of this experience was removed by the perceived benefits of the chain.

 

With this in mind, I have to monitor my own personal comfort (with Bose headset and XM radio) and make sure I don’t shut out all of the people and sights offered by each local area I visit.  If I do ignore the local color I will be shutting out one of the main reasons I make these trips.

 

 

 

The trip

 

This was supposed to be a simple, out Thursday, back Sunday, and three day’s overnight trackchasing trip.  I put a tremendous amount of time into planning every such trip I take.  I am always amazed at no matter how much time I take to plan each trip; the trip almost never comes off as planned.  That’s O.K., that’s where the fun comes in.

 

In point of fact, my three-day trip has turned into a nine days out trip!  Here’s what happened.  My original trackchasing trip took me into and out of Atlanta.  Our son, J.J. is living in Atlanta while doing his flight instructing.  I had hoped to visit with J.J. on at least one end of my trip in Atlanta.

 

It just turned out that he was traveling to Las Vegas for a friend’s bachelor party on the weekend I was coming to Atlanta.  (Editor’s note:  He and 21 of his friends were sharing a $1,600 per night hotel suite at the Mirage Hotel.  Somewhere along the line, I missed this exciting part of life.  I can only imagine what the sleeping arrangements looked like for 22 people in a two-bedroom suite!)

 

As we were considering how we might get together in Atlanta if at all, J.J. learned his company would be relocating him from Atlanta to Las Vegas.  J.J. seems to relocate every few months so he travels nearly with the clothes on his back.  The major logistical issue regarding his Las Vegas relocation was that his car was sitting in Atlanta.

 

We had a couple of choices.  J.J. could come back from Vegas to Atlanta and drive the car to Nevada.  If I had not already been coming to Atlanta that’s the choice he would have made.

 

Since I was coming to Atlanta, I offered to help him drive the car from Atlanta to Las Vegas.  That’s what fathers do.  I had the time and J.J. could use the help.

 

I could simply cancel my Atlanta-Los Angeles flight and help J.J. drive to Las Vegas.  The more I thought about this idea, the more I thought J.J. would not even have to fly back to Atlanta from his Las Vegas bachelor party.  I could just drive his Toyota Prius from Atlanta to Las Vegas.  Ultimately, that’s the choice we agreed too.

 

My new Sunday trackchasing plan now included picking up J.J.’s car at the Atlanta airport and driving it to today’s track in Gadsden, Alabama.  That short drive was just 133 miles.  That would be the easy part of this trip.

 

Driving from Gadsden to Las Vegas was an additional 1,898 miles.  The total drive from Atlanta to Las Vegas was 2,031 miles.  I haven’t made a drive that far, by myself, ever I don’t think.

 

The trip took me from Alabama to Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and into Nevada.  I left the track late Sunday afternoon and made overnight stops near Memphis and Albuquerque.  I finally pulled into Las Vegas on Tuesday night. 

 

J.J.’s company, Airline Transport Professionals (ATP) rents apartments for both its student pilots and flight instructors.  The apartments are 2-3 bedrooms with two beds in each room.  The pilots are coming and going at the most unusual hours.  I’ve stayed in these apartments in both Jacksonville and now Las Vegas.  It seems like you’re always meeting someone new in the apartment.

 

Following a late night dinner in a Las Vegas casino, J.J. and I  headed to his apartment.  I had a choice to sleep on the sofa in the living room or in J.J.’s bed.  I chose the sofa the last time I visited and that encouraged me to choose the bed this time!

 

It was late and I had driven more than 600 miles during the day.  I was ready to hit the sack.  I lay down in the dark on my twin bed.  There was a pilot already fast asleep in the other bed in my room.  He was snoring away.  Sleeping in the same room with a snorer isn’t much fun especially when it the other person who’s doing the snoring.  It was also a strange feeling sleeping just five feet from a person whom I had never met.

 

About midnight nature came calling.  I staggered over a few unseen obstacles in the bedroom to the apartment’s lone bathroom.  As I was exiting the bathroom, I came face to face with another pilot who was just coming out of his bedroom.  I introduced myself, in the dark, as “J.J.’s dad.”  I received a nod and a smile and then a surprise.  A young woman popped her head around the door to take a peak.  That’s when standing in the hallway in only my underwear made me feel somewhat self-conscious. 

 

I looked at it as “No harm, no foul.”  Anyway, it did look like the lifestyle of a young airline pilot might be fun.  Actually, it looked like it could be a LOT OF FUN!

 

By the next morning, nearly everyone had cleared out of the apartment.  I thought I had the place all to myself.  I walked into the living room only to find a young man having some cereal for breakfast.  I introduced myself and told him I was going out for an hour’s worth of exercise.

 

The young breakfast eating pilot promised he would leave the apartment unlocked for my return.  I was off to explore North Las Vegas.  There is only one word to describe Las Vegas:  Growth.  There is no city that has experienced more growth than Las Vegas has over the last 20 years.  The place has just exploded.  For this reason, I am not a big fan of Las Vegas as a tourist destination.

 

Upon my return to the apartment complex, I climbed the steps to what I thought was J.J.’s apartment.  The door was locked!  Bummer.  That made me think I might not have the right apartment.  I pondered my next steps.  I decided to knock on the door.  No one answered.

 

Now I began to seriously ponder my options.  I was dripping wet from exercise.  I had no car.  I had no place to stay.  I had no place to get cleaned up.  It didn’t seem like I had any options.

 

At just that moment, a young and attractive woman opened the door dressed in a somewhat provocative outfit.  She looked like she had been awakened from a deep sleep.  Obviously, I now thought I had picked the wrong apartment and woke up its occupant by mistake to boot.

 

I lamely asked, “This isn’t the airline pilot’s apartment is it?”  “Yes…..it is,” she replied.  I tried to explain that I was J.J.’s father and that I belonged in the apartment.  Surprisingly, she bought my story and admitted me inside even though she was all by herself.  I guess initially she didn’t recognize me wearing clothes! 

 

The final three days of our trip were spent with our good friends, the Moody’s, Wes and Jill.  We saw the UCLA Bruins come back from defeat and win in overtime against the Cal Bears.  We also spent an afternoon driving through the California Redwoods.  We had lunch at Barbara’s Fishtrap (No credit cards 650-728-7049) in Princeton by the Sea, California which earns a RANLAY Racing Money Back Guarantee award.  Our final evening was spent with the Moody children and their significant others at a delicious and fun dinner.  Carol and I passed our time away on the 400+ mile drive back to San Clemente from the Bay Area by listening to six hours of Pac-10 basketball games on XM radio.  The great thing was that she was probably more interested in the games than I was.  That’s the kind of wife a guy can appreciate!

 

That’s how a simple three day trackchasing trip turned into three days of trackchasing, three days of getting a car from Atlanta to Las Vegas and then three more days of Carol and I watching UCLA basketball in Northern California.  That's nine straight nights out when I thought it would be three out for trackchasing, four at home and then two more out for our basketball trip.

 

The whole trip certainly supports the statement that “Trackchasing doesn’t have to be fun to be fun!”

 

 

 

 

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

GREEN VALLEY SPEEDWAY, GADSDEN, ALABAMA #1,006 – 2/26/06

 

This track was my 13th to see in Alabama.  This moves me into a fourth place tie with Rick Schneider in the Crimson Tide state.  I trail Jack Erdmann’s 14 tracks for third place and lead sixth place Allan Brown’s 10 tracks.  John Moore leads the state with 25 tracks.

 

 

 

 

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

GREEN VALLEY SPEEDWAY, GADSDEN, ALABAMA

 

Today’s weekend at the Green Valley Speedway is the “Bama Bash.”  This special event, according to track signage, is held the last weekend of February each year.  It’s a three-day promotion with countable racing scheduled for all three days. 

 

I selected Sunday as the day I would visit the track.  That’s when most of the feature racing was scheduled to take place.  The Sunday admission price was $25.  That’s a bit high.  At least they had a large purse for each of the participating classes.

 

Today they will have these feature events with 1^st place feature prize money in (  ).  Super Late Models ($8,000), limited late models ($2,500), B Sportsman ($1,500), Bombers ($1,000), Pony Stocks ($800) and Two Man Cruisers ($500).

 

Most of the preliminary racing was to be done on Saturday.  However, a widespread rain system moved through this area and rained out all of the action set for Saturday.  This meant the track’s management would try to combine both Saturday and Sunday’s schedule into just Sunday.

 

The original schedule called for Sunday’s racing to begin at 11 a.m.  I was in constant touch with the track regarding the weather and start times.  The man I spoke with told me they would be starting earlier than the 11 a.m. scheduled Sunday time if Saturday was rained out.  They would do this in order to get the fans out at a decent hour with the extra racing now scheduled for Sunday.

 

How many minutes earlier than 11 a.m. would they start?  “Yes, you in the back row with your hand up.  How many minutes.”  “Zero”, that back row student yelled.  “Correct, you are,” replied the #1 Trackchaser of the 21^st Century.  They would not start a single solitary minute before 11 a.m.  Actually, they would not even start at 11 a.m. 

 

These promotional gurus, these protector’s of consumer rights, these stewards of my time would not throw the green flag on the first countable race of the day until 1:16 p.m.!!!!  They had to incorporate an entire extra day’s worth of racing into the Sunday event and they started more than two hours late.  Rural dirt tracks don’t rock when it comes to customer satisfaction.

 

I was dealing with a wind chill factor of about 40 degrees.  That meant I had to allocate my time in these weather conditions judicially.  All of the trackside parking was taken when I arrived at 12 noon.  Bummer!  I parked where I could see some of the racing and hear the announcer as if I were sitting right next to him.

 

I would enter the grandstands when the divisions I was interested in were going to race.  The first two races of the day were bomber heat races.  Bombers aren’t worth using up my body heat for.  I stayed in the car.  Sometimes I’m smarter than even I think I am.  Of course, Carol thinks I’m rarely as smart as I am.  We’ve spent countless hours debating this topic.

 

I submit this as evidence of my trackside intelligence.  The first bomber heat had EIGHT caution flags.  They even had cars being black-flagged for the “Two spins and you’re out” rule in the freaking HEAT RACE.  The young couple in the blue Toyota Tacoma pickup truck parked next to me was back in their truck before even the first bomber heat was completed!!  What did I care if the track ran a little behind schedule?  I only had 1,898 driving miles ahead of me. 

 

You can imagine my joy when the announcer told the crowd that the limited late models should report to the pit area for “Qualifying.”  If I wasn’t so laid back with abnormally low blood pressure and cholesterol levels, I think I could run down to a gun shop and………..aw, never mind.

 

The announcer felt compelled to tell the crowd that, “Normally, these bomber drivers are used to racing on a night time racing surface and this day time stuff is tough to figure out.”  The first bomber heat took 27 minutes to complete.  Unbelievable!  Twenty-seven minutes for a bomber heat race when the wind chill is 40.  This can only happen in the short track racing world.  I’m really glad Carol was not here to experience this. 

 

They didn’t even start the second bomber heat for another eight minutes.  This second group of bombers must have been the “Einstein’s” of bomberland.  They ran their heat race non-stop!

 

That good fortune would now be nullified by time trials for the limited late models.  The announcer just kept coming forward with more good news for the fans.  Not!  He informed everyone that the fastest qualifier would start on the pole of the feature.  That’s bad news for the fans.  Did these promoters step out for coffee during the promoter’s meetings this winter?

 

At precisely 3:01 p.m. (4 hours and 1 minute past the scheduled start time), the track finished time trialing both the limited late models and the super late models.  Then they went to intermission!!  Where is that gun shop?

 

By nearly 5 p.m. (six hours after the scheduled start time) the track management had managed to run two bomber heat races, the Pony Stock and 2 Man Cruiser features as well as a consolation event for both the Limited Late Models and Super Late Models.  Is “Pathetic” two words or three?

 

I managed to stay for just one more race, the B Sportsman feature.  By this time, the sun was starting to set over turn three.  About midway through the race, a couple of cars spun and stopped in the middle of turn three.  A yellow caution flag was displayed.  That action by the flagman is very typical.

 

The crowd and I were shocked to see and hear, about 8-10 seconds after the yellow flag came out several cars slamming into each other where the original cars had spun.  It turns out the race leading cars could not see the caution flag or track lights because of the glaring late afternoon sun.

 

You’ve all read about those 50-100 car pile-ups that happen on a fog-shredded freeway.  The same thing was happening here.  The race leader hit the stopped cars so hard he flipped over.  Almost all of the remaining pack of cars, running full speed, slammed into the stopped cars.  It was a bad accident on a bad afternoon of racing.

 

They wouldn’t be getting this accident cleaned up that quickly.  This was my signal to exit the track.  It was now more than six hours after the scheduled start time and I had been at the track for more than five of those hours is some very chilly winter temperatures.  Rural, day, dirt racing usually leaves a lot to be desired and it did today as well.

 

 

 

 

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

 

It was 48 degrees under cloudless skies.  The wind made it feel about forty, maybe even less.  Rain moved through here yesterday and rained out the Saturday portion of this Friday through Sunday program.

 

These southern fans looked like bunch of weenies to me.  To look at them you would have thought they were watching the snowmobile races somewhere in Alaska.  Everyone had stocking caps, gloves, snow mobile suits.  They just LOOKED cold. 

 

Here I was wearing my Nike running shoes (I use them for walking), low cut golf socks, surfer shorts and a light sweatshirt.  I didn’t have no stinking stocking cap, gloves or blanket.  Of course, I ran to my strategically parked nearby car whenever they went to time trials, intermission or it looked like there would be a delay. 

 

 

 

 

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

If you were in the market for a hybrid personal automobile, I would highly recommend the Toyota Prius.  By the way, according to Consumer Reports, the Toyota Prius is the most well liked car by its owners for the second year in a row.  Thirty-one of the top 40 cars in this survey are from Japan owned companies.

 

I consistently drove J.J.’s Prius at speeds of 75-80 M.P.H.  The car is very quite at those speeds and except in the windiest conditions in northern Arizona handled really well.

 

Actually, the Prius looks somewhat like NASCAR’s “Car of the future.”  From the driver’s seat, I cannot see any of the car’s front end or even any portion of the hood.  That’s because the hood slopes downward so severely to create less resistance.  Even when I lean forward with my chin on top of the steering wheel, I still cannot see any part of the car’s hood.  This view makes me feel like I’m driving in an automobile “Simulator” with nothing whatsoever beyond the car’s dashboard.

 

The car is powered by a combination of gasoline and electric.  During the 1,898 miles drive from Gadsden to Las Vegas I got 40.3 M.P.G. while using regular gasoline.  Actually, the car gets better mileage in town than on the highway.  That’s because it operates on battery power more often at slower speeds.

 

The fuel economy equated to just 5.6 cents per mile or nearly half of what my rental cars cost to operate.  The federal government also provides a tax credit for purchasers of cars like the Prius.  The tax credit and gas savings can offset the additional purchase price of a Toyota Prius in 3-4 years.

 

 

 

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:

These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total.

 

1.  Rick Schneider – Bay Shore, New York - 1,038 (+32)

2.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,021 (+15)

3.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,011 (+5)

4.  Any Sivi, Clairton, Pennsylvania – 1,007 (+1)

5.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,006

6.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 992 (-14)

 

 

 

Other notables

 

These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.

 

40.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 239 (+5)

41.  Don McAuley, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - 235 (+1)

42.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California - 234

42.  Andy Ritter, Mansfield, Pennsylvania - 234 (+/- 0)

44.  Colin Casserly, Stevenage, England 232 (-2)

45.  Bernie Harlen, Goshen, Indiana - 229 (-5)

 

 

 

 

 

2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 14

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 8

3.  Rick Young, Maxville, Ontario, Canada - 7

4.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 6

4.  Will White, Quakertown, Pennsylvania – 6

4.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 6

7.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 5

7.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 5

8.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 4

9.  Spike Rixon, Watford, England - 5

10.  Bob Schafer, Oshkosh, Wisconsin - 2

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21^st 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

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – trip begins

Concord, NC – 299 miles

Concord, NC – 316 miles

Lenoir, NC – 415 miles

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – 758 miles

 

J.J.’S TOYOTA PRIUS

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – trip begins

Gadsden, Alabama – 133 miles

Las Vegas, Nevada – 2,031 miles – trip ends

 

 

AIRPLANE

Las Vegas, NV – Long Beach, CA – 249 miles

 

 

Total air miles – 2,190 miles

 

Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 4,979 miles

 

 

 

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

 

 

Lowe’s Motor Speedway 1/5M oval – Free

Concord Raceway - $20

Antioch Speedway – Free

Green Valley Speedway - $25

 

Total race admissions for the trip – about $45

 

 

 

Past trackchasing stories are available at:

www.ranlayracing.com

 

Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:

www.trackchaser.com  

 

Some of my standings data comes from trackchaser.com

 

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

 

Gone basketballing!

 

 

 

 

 

RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2006 (** not the first time to visit this track)

 

992.  Watermelon Capital Speedway, Cordele, Georgia - January 14

 

993.  Cross Roads Motorplex (asphalt oval), Jasper, Florida - January 15

 

994.  Norfolk Scope Arena, Norfolk, Virginia - January 20

 

995.  Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California - January 21

 

996.  Oregon State Fair & Expo Center, Forster Livestock Arena, Salem, Oregon - January 28

 

997.  Morosso Motorsports Park, Jupiter, Florida – February 4

 

998.  Thunderbowl Speedway of Ocala, Ocala, Florida - February 4

 

999.  Cross Roads Motorplex (dirt oval), Jasper, Florida - February 5

 

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