GREETINGS FROM STANLEY, NORTH CAROLINA

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy

I am practicing my ongoing trackchasing strategy of “Trackchase early, trackchase often.”  I have a fixed number of tracks I’m planning to see in 2006.  That number has not been shared with the trackchasing public.  Since these trackchaser reports are posted on my website several days after you receive them, I must accept that prying eyes might try to understand my long-term trackchasing plans.

 

The more tracks I see early in the season, the more flexibility I will have during the “Dog days” of summer.  We’ve just received the 10 dates we will have season tickets to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim games.  I’ll have to plan trackchasing around those dates.

 

We share season tickets with 6-7 other people.  Each person gets about 10 games.  Everyone else works and prefers to go to weekend games.  Since Carol and I trackchase on many weekends, we prefer mid-week games.  This works perfectly in allowing us to get Angels dates that have the least likelihood of trackchasing conflicts.

 

The People

I want to thank James Peters for the line spacing headsup he gave me for Microsoft Word.  You should be seeing an improvement in the spacing of the Trackchaser Report emails you receive.

 

I had only traveled a few miles after finishing Friday night’s trackchasing when I came upon a woman hitchhiker.  It was nearly midnight and she was out in the middle of nowhere standing in the dark.  She was wearing pretty much full motorcycle gear.  I did not stop to pick her up.  I did spend the next several minutes wondering how she got there tonight.  I also pondered what her life might have been like from an early age to put her in tonight’s position.

 

I met some elderly North Carolina residents in a BBQ restaurant today.  They were friendly and we struck up a conversation.  I asked them where they thought I might be from.  “New York?” was one woman’s response.  That’s just about the worst thing you can hear from a southerner in answer to that question.

 

I spoke with them a little longer and soon won them over.  Their initial response does remind me of a saying I have seen more than once in the South, “It don’t matter how they do it up north.”  We spent the rest of our conversation talking about their travels to California and their local experiences with racing.

 

Remember to take a look at my “People” comment about driver Chase Austin in “The trip” section.

The trip

I did something today with regard to my trackchasing and my travel that I have never done before.  Unfortunately, I am unable to share many details at this time with even the most loyal and long-time readers of the Trackchaser Report.  Suffice it to say, as soon as I can share what’s going on, I will.

 

Have you ever been to a “Drive-thru” store?  Me neither until today.  I ventured into the Horsefeathers Drive-Thru in Denver, North Carolina today.  The building is shaped somewhat like a car wash.  For all I know maybe this store used to be a car wash.  You drive into one end of the store, stay in your car while you order and then drive out of the store without ever leaving your car.

 

The store is packed with every form of beer, wine and liquor you would ever want.  They also have soda, snacks and party favors.  I’m not sure what the state thinks about this store concerning drinking and driving.

 

Did you know that a keg of beer costs $166?  Me neither.  Of course, you can get $65 back if you return the keg after you’ve used it.  The owner showed me he knows how to promote his business.  He has a very attractive young woman with the sweetest Alabama country accent serving his customers.  Very opportunistic on the owner’s part since nearly every customer I saw entering the store was a young male.

 

I always like to experience things for the first time.  Today, I stopped at a gas station to fill-up.  The station had a “Live bait” machine.  For three dollars, you could get a dozen, “Premium night crawlers.”  I plunked down my three bucks, O.K. maybe it wasn’t MY three bucks.  Soon I had my very own Styrofoam container of black mud and night crawlers.  I didn’t check to see if they really gave me twelve.  Since I wouldn’t be fishing today, I left the container for the next angler.  He will think it was his lucky day.

 

Later in the day, I went over to the home of one of tonight’s race drivers.  I’ll tell you more about that in the Race Track News section.

 

One of the drivers I met tonight was Chase Austin.  Chase is from Euphoria, Kansas.  Chase has several unique things going for him.  When you put them all together, it makes for a great combination.

 

First, Chase is only 16 years old.  Secondly, he is an African American driver.  Thirdly, he is driving under a development contract with Rick Hendricks Racing.  Hendricks Racing owns the cars driven by Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson among others.

 

Several of the big NASCAR car owners are signing young drivers to driver development contracts.  It’s similar to a young person signing a minor league baseball contract.  If they do well they may someday make it to the major leagues.

 

I talked with Chase for several minutes.  He seemed like a very polite, well-spoken clean-cut young man.  I asked him what he was doing about schooling since he was spending so much time racing.  His reply was, “I do it all over the internet.”  I also asked him if he had a girlfriend.  Apparently, he doesn’t get this question often when he’s being interviewed.  He broke into a 16-year-old’s grin and vigorously shook his head no.

 

I spoke briefly with Chase’s dad, Steve.  During our conversation, he me told that Chase has been running Hooters Pro Cup asphalt races as part of his development.  Chase won the “Hard charger” award during his last race by moving up from 32^nd to run as high as 8^th before being spun and finished 13^th.

 

Tonight Chase was driving a dirt modified.  I must say the Austin’s seemed to have the most elaborate hauler and race trailer of anyone I saw in the pit area.  I don’t know if that’s Hendricks money or not.

 

The elder Austin did make one interesting comment to me.  He said they are not interested in participating in the “Driver diversity” program that NASCAR has.  This program has some similarities to the government’s Affirmative Action program.  They prefer to bypass that program and go with the Hendricks Racing group.  Who could blame them?

 

There were seven modifieds racing tonight.  In the heat race, Chase ran at the back of the pack on a very wet track.  He didn’t look very good in that race.  Things changed during the feature.

 

Chase started last in the seven-car feature field.  The race was 15 or 20 laps.  He slowly picked off one car after another until he reached first place with only a lap or two to go.  Each pass he made was careful and effective.  He didn’t try to drive over anybody.

 

As I was taking his picture in victory lane, there was a ruckus near his car.  The second place driver, a very rough looking dude, and his female companion a very rough looking dudess, were vociferously voicing a protest.

 

The next thing I heard over the P.A. just as I was taking my last picture of a smiling yet reserved Chase Austin was that “Chase Austin, driver of the #11 modified has been disqualified.”  It turns out that Chase’s car was missing a four-inch tall, 48-inch wide piece of sheet metal that covers the rear end of the car.  There is no way the omission of this piece enhanced his performance in any way.

 

Chase did not have much reaction to his disqualification.  He simply pushed the car back to its trailer with his dad.  Later in the evening, I came face to face with the driver who had run second to Chase.  I wanted to ask him what his complaint had been.  However, like I say, he was one rough looking dude and I decided to pass.

 

Chase’s disqualification reminds me of another disqualification of a black race driver many years ago in the South.  Wendell Scott raced in what would later become the NASCAR Nextel Cup series for several years.  He was the only black driver to run at this NASCAR level for such a long time.  He always ran in under funded equipment.  The late actor/comedian Richard Pryor (from my hometown by the way) portrayed Wendell in the movie, “Greased Lightning.”

 

Wendell one (this is for Bev Herrin!) only one NASCAR race in his entire career.  It was a hot sunny afternoon in Jacksonville, Florida.  At the end of the race, even though Wendell had won, the first place trophy was given to another driver.  The next day after the crowd had gone home, the decision was reversed and Wendell was awarded first place and given the trophy.  I believe this happened in the late 50s.

 

The promoter told the press that he couldn’t let a black man stand in victory lane and hoist up the trophy in front of his all white crowd.  He feared they would riot.  Wendell frequently recounted how he knew he had won the race.  His most significant memory of the day was his not being allowed to get the glory that came with his victory.  Tonight’s verdict, while not nearly as dramatic as what happened to Wendell Scott, gives some indication that not that much has REALLY changed in race relations between blacks and whites in nearly 50 years.  I see this in so many places I visit.

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

EAST LINCOLM MOTOR SPEEDWAY, STANLEY, NORTH CAROLINA - TRACK #1,013 – 4/1/06

This track was my 28th to see in North Carolina.  This gives me a 9^th place ranking in the state behind P.J. Hollebrand’s 30 tracks.  Guy Smith leads the state with 63 tracks.

 

 

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

EAST LINCOLN MOTOR SPEEDWAY

I was pleasantly surprised by my visit to the East Lincoln Motor Speedway.  I wasn’t expecting much, but when I noticed their Bologna sandwich was priced at $3.00, when I had only paid $1.35 at last night’s Westminster Speedway I knew I was moving up in class.

 

The track started on time and ran one race immediately after another.  That’s a great start.  The track itself is a 3/8 mile bank North Carolina red clay oval track.  The racing surface has both an exterior and interior wall around the entire track.

 

The lighting is excellent, one of the best I’ve seen at a local dirt track.  I am noticing many more tracks upgrading their lighting to near daylight conditions during the past couple of years.  The P.A. system wasn’t the best, but the announcer did a good job.

 

As a matter of fact, I had a great interview with the track announcer up in the press box.  He seemed to obsess over the fact that I looked much younger than my 57 years.  He told me he was expecting a much old person if I had already seen more than 1,000 tracks.  I suspect he has long used lines such as this on the ladies in his life.

 

Tonight I spent much of my time in the pit area.  They sell racing fuel at the track.  This is not that common.  I spoke with the old-timer operating the gas pumps.  He told me racing fuel was selling for $5.50 a gallon and that racers might use 8-10 gallons in a racing night.  He also told me that tonight’s track sold racing gas for the lowest price of anyone around.

 

During the afternoon, I spent some time over at the racing Walker household.  The Walkers field a stock car for both Johnny Walker and his wife Shannon.  They are a low budget operation.  Their “Race shop” is actually a carport.  Johnny’s car wouldn’t be racing tonight as he is still waiting on his engine.

 

Shannon’s beautiful #7 will race in the “Road Hawg” division.  I’ll have pictures to show you at www.ranlayracing.com someday of her and her car.  Tonight will be the first night Shannon has ever raced.  She’s an attractive mother of two teen-agers. 

 

She’s always wanted to race and will finally get her chance.  Her contribution to the car’s construction was in the area of safety.  She plunked down 35 bucks for a PINK driver’s side window net.  She told me she wiped out the car in last week’s practice session and her only goal tonight was to “Have fun and bring the car back in one piece.”

 

Only three Road Hawgs showed up tonight.  Shannon started third and finished third.  Nevertheless, she was just about the happiest driver in the pits following her race.  We exchanged high fives and she told me she had the time of her life!

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

Tonight’s weather forecast called for the highest probability of rain, 40%, of any of my planned three trackchasing days.  I’m happy to report there was no rain in sight.  When I left the track, I looked up into the black sky to see a galaxy full of stars.

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

Although I’m driving the National Rental Car Racing Chevy Malibu on this trip, I don’t think it’s as good as the Pontiac Grand Prix’s I’ve been renting.

 

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 (+25)

2.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,021 (+8)

3.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,013

4.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,011 (-2)

5.  Andy Sivi, Clairton, Pennsylvania – 1,007 (-6)

6.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 996 (-17)

 

 

 

Other notables

 

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

 

40.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 244 (+10)

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 - 22

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 15

3.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 10

3.  Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania – 10

3.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 10

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

6.  Roland Vanden Eynde, Vilvoorde, Belgium – 9

8.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 7

9.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 6

9.  Will White, Quakertown, Pennsylvania – 6

 

 

 

 

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

Santa Ana, CA – Dallas, TX – 1,236 miles

Dallas, TX – Charlotte, NC – 934 miles

RENTAL CAR

Douglas International Airport, Charlotte, NC – trip begins

Anderson, South Carolina – 117 miles

Westminster, South Carolina – 142 miles

Stanley, North Carolina – 401 miles

 

 

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

Anderson Motor Speedway – $10

Westminster Speedway – Free!

East Lincoln Motor Speedway – Free, again!

 

 

 

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

April 2 – Margarettsville Speedway, Margarettsville, North Carolina

 

 

 

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

 1,008. Volusia Speedway Park West (1/6M oval), Barberville, Florida – March 18

 1,009. Speedway Park, Fruitland Park, Florida – March 18

 1,010. Sand Mountain Speedway (road course), Fort Meade, Florida – March 19

 1,011. Anderson Motor Speedway, Anderson, South Carolina – March 31

 1,012. Westminster Speedway, Westminster, South Carolina – March 31

 1,013. East Lincoln Motor Speedway, Stanley, North Carolina – April 1