GREETINGS FROM GIBSONTON, FLORIDA

 

THE REALLY BIG NEWS!

We learned a few days ago that our daughter, Kristy, is planning to be married!  She is the first of our three children to take the plunge and the Lewis family is very excited.

 

Kristy is going to marry James Peters of Madison, Wisconsin.  They met at the University of Michigan Law School and are both practicing attorneys in Los Angeles.  Now I will have double the legal firepower to battle less than forthright fellow trackchasers.

 

Of course, a wedding budget will have to compete with a trackchasing budget.  I am sure Kristy will understand if certain wedding expenses (wedding dress, photographer, flowers, etc) have to be eliminated in favor of an airplane ticket to some desolate, out of the way, loser town located somewhere “Back East” for a future trackchasing trip.

 

It did not go unnoticed that my fiercest trackchasing competitor, Ed Esser, is also from Madison, Wisconsin.  Could Ed have put James up to this (They have met!) in the hopes that he could cripple my financial empire with both wedding and trackchasing expenses?  Naw, Ed’s from the Midwest.  People are too nice in that part of the country to do such a thing.

 

What is the first impact of the wedding planning process?  My planned for trackchasing trip to Florida for the weekend of March 24-26 has been scrapped in favor of a trip to the potential wedding site.  Fellow trackchasing competitors should not be encouraged by this short-term conflict of interest.  It won’t happen often.

 

CONTEST NEWS

I’m happy to report that National Geographic magazine subscriptions are winging their way to the winners who have requested them in the National Geographic Diversity championship.

 

I also want to offer special congratulations to Steve Shaw (North Carolina) and Andy Ritter (Pennsylvania).  They are the winners of my most recent www.ranlayracing.com website contest. 

 

They had great attention to detail when viewing my website and correctly identified the contents being transported via truck along Interstate 40.  Yes, those were fire hydrants.  Their Wal-Mart gift cards will be sent to them shortly.  I will continue to offer more www.ranlayracing.com contests.  You’ll have to keep up with the website in order to cash in on these online prizes.

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

The Strategy

One of the number one results of a successful strategy is meeting the goals for which the strategy was developed for in the first place.  Of course, this might be an over simplification but that’s why I employ strategic thinking.  Others may simply call their strategy a plan.  Some may not even be as structured to call their ideas a plan.  It doesn’t matter what you call your thought process.  I can go with anyway you want to define it.

 

One of my 2005 annual report goals for 2006 was to improve my trackchaser worldwide ranking.  I took a strong step forward tonight against achieving that goal.  Tonight I tied Andy Sivi for 4^th place in the worldwide rankings.  When I entered the world of formal trackchasing, Andy was one of my trackchaser role models.  This is the highest ranking I have ever had.  One more track and I will pass my first fellow trackchaser of the season.

 

The People

On most of my trackchasing trips, I either go to the races with a friend or family member or visit them somewhere along the adventure.  That will be the case for my three-day trip to Florida as well.  I’ll have dinner tonight with Kindred (a great southern name) P. of Clearwater, Florida and stay at my stepfather’s home for the three nights of this trip.

 

Kin and I have known each other for about 20 years.  I first laid eyes on him in the hotel lobby at the Hilton Hotel in Athens, Greece.  Little did I know that he and his wife, Stephanie, natives of Virginia but living in Atlanta would become our table partners for dinner during our entire cruise of the Greek Islands.

 

Over time, we have each stayed at the other’s home.  We’ve vacationed together several times and have the stories to go with those travels.  I could tell you about the time Stephanie pulled a gun out of her handbag in our New Orleans hotel room, or the time Kin was stopped for speeding in a construction zone on a Sunday morning as we made our way toward North Wilkesboro.

 

However, one of my most memorable recollections was on a beautiful and clear Sunday morning in Bermuda.  Tourists are not allowed to rent cars in Bermuda.  If you want to get around the island one of the most popular options, although mildly dangerous, is too rent a Moped.

 

Since Carol didn’t have much experience riding motorcycles, I  elected to have the two of us share one 50cc Moped.  Kin and Stephanie each rented their own bike.  We couldn’t have been more than 50 yards from the rental company’s office when minor tragedy struck.

 

Carol and I were following both Kin and Stephanie by a few yards.  Kin yelled over to Stephanie to throw him a large white cotton towel.  She reached behind her, grabbed the towel, and flung it toward Kin.  From our position, we had a slow motion view of the towel sailing from one bike toward the other.  It seemed like it took forever for that towel to rotate end over end while we rode forward at about fifteen miles per hour. 

 

From our vantage point we could see what was going to happen.  The towel didn’t reach Kin but it did reach the spokes of his back tire!  You can imagine what happens when a fluffy white towel is thrown into the spokes of a moving Moped.

 

Actually, at this point the fun was just beginning.  Stephanie is not the self-professed “Mouth from the South” without good reason.  Kin does not trail her in this category of verbal masochism by even one degree.  When the dust had settled and the shouting had subsided, we all agreed we were lucky this happened just 50 yards from where we picked up the bike.  It would have been a long walk back if the “Towel incident” had occurred on the other side of the island.

 

With these stories and many more in mind, Kin and I enjoyed a very nice dinner at Floyd’s in the Seminole Indian Casino’s Hard Rock Café in Tampa.  I come in contact with and know many very bright people.  I can’t think of anyone I know who is any brighter than Kindred.  He’s an interesting person to listen too on a very wide range to topics.  Kin, thanks for treating me to dinner.  I’ll look forward to our next visit when I can return the favor.

 

The trip

I have not been trackchasing for nearly three weeks!  To the casual reader that may not seem like a very long time.  However, based upon my trackchasing frequency over the last 2-3 years, three weeks is a very long time.

 

I’m always seeking, although not always achieving balance in life.  Carol and I have been going to UCLA basketball games the last two weekends.  After a trip to Berkeley, California with the Moodys, we ended up last weekend at Staples Center in Los Angeles.  There the UCLA Bruins blew away the competition in the Pac-10 tournament and won that tournament as well as the Pac-10 championship.

 

With the Bruins firmly tucked away in the NCAA tournament with a #2 seed, I felt it was safe to return to the world of trackchasing.  Of course, by the time you read this UCLA may be knocked out of the tournament (Not!).  By the way, Carol has completed her NCAA brackets and submitted, who else, UCLA as her projected tournament winner.  I won’t go that far, but will say that UCLA has one of the best defensive teams I’ve seen in a long time. 

 

The really noteworthy thing about the entire NCAA tournament is that Carol fills out her own NCAA bracket entry.  She’s quite the college basketball fan and enjoys watching the different tournament games on TV.  I think most men would love having a wife who can intelligently fill out an NCAA bracket.  I know I do!

 

This trackchasing trip is what I built my trackchasing career on.  It’s the trackchasing “Classic”, “Out Friday and back Monday.”  This is the type of trip I most often took when I was working for money.  It gave me the opportunity to add 3-4 new tracks without taking much time off from work.  Even though I no longer work for money, which by the way is my definition of retirement, this is still a great way to go trackchasing.

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

EAST BAY RACEWAY, GIBSONTON, FLORIDA

- TRACK  #1,007 – 3/17/06

 

This track was my 45th to see in Florida.  I currently rank second in Florida ahead of P.J. Hollebrand’s 41 tracks and behind Ed Esser’s 49 tracks.  Florida ranks as my seventh highest state in my U.S. trackchasing totals.

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

EAST BAY RACEWAY, GIBSONTON, FLORIDA

 

This is a long way to come to watch Senior Champ Karts race.  I have seen racing on East Bay Raceway’s outer oval 21 times since 1980 (when I first kept track of individual race dates).  I’ve only been to four tracks more frequently.  These include Ascot Park (CA), Santa Fe Speedway (IL), Rockford Speedway (IL) and Eldora Speedway (OH).

 

I first learned that Senior Champ Karts raced on an inner oval at East Bay when Pennsylvania’s Andy Sivi went to the track.  Little did I know that several years later I would use this track to tie Andy for 4^th place in the worldwide rankings.  We both have 1,007 countable tracks.

 

Actually, learning of tracks in this manner is what I call “Trackchaser Welfare.”  A hard working trackchaser does the work in finding the track, which can require hours of searching websites, reading racing papers, etc.  Then someone else comes along and without any work on his or her part benefits from the hard work of the original trackchaser attendee.  I know several trackchasers who won’t share their track information because of the “Trackchaser Welfare” situation.  I really don’t blame them.

 

This is not dissimilar to “Golf Welfare.”  With golf welfare one golfer works his butt off taking lessons and improving his game.  The better he gets the more handicap strokes he gives his fellow competitor who spends his afternoons drinking at the 19^th hole. 

 

Following my dinner with Kin, I drove just eight miles and pulled into the East Bay Raceway.  Tonight’s inner oval is entirely positioned inside the half-mile outer oval although it nearly touches the big track’s front straight.  The lighting of the infield makes it almost seem like its daylight.  There is no track announcer other than to make announcements about what class is racing next.

 

There were 81 racing karts at the track tonight.  The Senior Champ Karts had more racers, eleven, than any of the 10-12 other classes.  The champs ran two six-lap heat races and a 15-lap feature event.

 

Although the track started 15 minutes after the website announced 7:30 p.m. starting time, all of the heat races were completed by about 8:40 p.m.  They took a 30-minute intermission before they began feature event racing. 

 

The racing was good in all classes.  I will always maintain that we trackchasers are missing a bet by not counting all go-karts classes.  Tonight during the 11-car Senior Champ Kart class, one of the drivers did a series of barrel rolls before coming to a stop in turn two.  It’s very unusual to see this class of car flipping.

 

The red flag was displayed and the driver spent a few minutes being administered too by track officials.  Finally, he exited the car and walked over to the infield.  I noticed that he was at least my age or older.  He looked shaken up to me.  I examined his racecar closely following the accident.  The safety roll cage was bent down on one side about five inches.  I’ll share some photos of the wreck on my website after the last track report of this trip.

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

The weather forecast for my weekend in Florida has been good since I started looking at www.weather.com more than seven days ago.  When I entered the track tonight, even though the sun was down and it was dark, it was a comfortable 71 degrees.  The rain forecast for today was 0% so the weather was pleasant.  This was one of the warmer Florida events I have experienced in recent memory.

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

With the National Rental Car “Executive Selection” perk, I chose my current favorite rental car, the Pontiac Grand Prix.  My GP has only 4,500 miles on it, so it definitely meets the need.  I plan to drive about 500 miles on this trip, which is a very light driving plan for me.

 

 

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 (+31)

2.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,021 (+14)

3.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,011 (+4)

4.  Andy Sivi, Clairton, Pennsylvania – 1,007 (+/-0)

4.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,007

6.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 993 (-14)

 

Other notables

 

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

 

40.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 241 (+7)

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 - 16

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 10

3.  Rick Young, Maxville, Ontario, Canada - 9

4.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 7

4.  Roland Vanden Eynde, Vilvoorde, Belgium – 7

4.  Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania – 7

4.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 7

8.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 6

8.  Will White, Quakertown, Pennsylvania – 6

10.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 5

 

 

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 – Tampa, FL – 2,150 miles

RENTAL CAR

Tampa International Airport – trip begins

Gibsonton, Florida – 23 miles

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

East Bay Raceway – $10

 

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

February 18 – Volusia Speedway Park (inner oval), Barberton, Florida

 

February 19 – Sand Mountain Speedway (road course), Ft. Meade, Florida

 

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

 

1,007. East Bay Raceway (inner oval), Gibsonton, Florida – March 17