GREETINGS FROM MIDLOTHIAN, VIRGINIA

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy

 

Yesterday morning I drove past the Exxon station where I get my gasoline in San Clemente.  Premium gas was selling for $3.33 a gallon.  Both of the Lewis family cars require premium gas.  I needed gas but decided to wait until the afternoon to fill-up.  That was poor strategy.  By the afternoon, the price had increased to $3.37 per gallon.

 

I did fill-up at that price and it cost me $74.66.  As a high school student, I never put more than one dollar of gas in at a time.  One dollar bought about four gallons of gas.  That would take me 80-100 miles.  My hometown of East Peoria, Illinois was small enough that a dollar’s worth of gas would last more than a week.

 

We can’t afford these California gas prices.  What could we do to fight back?  Carol and I decided to fly to Virginia where the prices would be lower.  We figured we could rent a car that burned only regular gasoline to save even more money.   Unfortunately, our overhead costs of airfare and hotel might extend our breakeven point beyond a long weekend.

 

Seriously, I have a trackchasing budget with seven different expense categories.  These include airfare, rental car, hotel, airport parking, food, race tickets and gasoline.  That covers just about everything associated with a trackchasing trip.  I start the year with a specific number of budgeted trackchasing days where these expenses will be incurred.

 

Each of the seven expense categories has its own per trip or daily budget.  I’m currently at 97% of my Year to Date (YTD) budget based upon 24 days of trackchasing in 2006.

 

As you have seen gasoline prices have increased a good deal.  If gas increases from $2.50 to $3.00 per gallon here’s the impact on my trackchasing budget.  This example assumes I drive 1,000 miles during a typical trip and my rental car gets 25 M.P.G.  My extra expense because of this increase in gas prices would be twenty dollars.

 

That extra 20 bucks is about 2.5% of my average total expense for a three-day trackchasing trip.  While I would just as soon have gas prices go down, in the big picture the incremental change really isn’t very significant.

 

The financial press often mentions the effect of inflation on everyone including retirees.  If the annual inflation rate runs at 3.5% then the price of things will double in 20 years.  That seems like a long time before something would double in price.

 

Nevertheless, inflation will eat away at you, sometimes when you might not even notice.  Take these examples as proof of his point.  The per person charge for a guest at our 1972 wedding for a hotel buffet dinner was $2.75 per person.  My first new car, a 1970 Ford Mustang cost about $3,000.  Our first home in 1974 cost $41,000 and a year’s worth of college cost about $3,000 per year for Carol and me in 1967.  I could work a summer in a factory and pay for my entire year’s worth of schooling.  Yes, prices can go up a bunch over a period of time.

 

So how can I offset the $20 increase in a trackchasing weekend because of increasing gas prices?  I could plan a trip where I see the same number of tracks but drive fewer miles.  I could rent a car that gets better mileage than what I’ve been used too.  I could cut expenses in some other trackchasing category.  Maybe try a cheaper hotel, eat in less expensive restaurants or have Carol drop me at the airport rather than parking at the airport.

 

I must admit I spoke with an active trackchaser about this last year.  I explained my logic.  He had a different point of view.  He told me he couldn’t cut back much more.  He wasn’t using an airplane to trackchase and therefore didn’t need to buy an airplane ticket or park at the airport.  He was already sleeping overnight in his car (no hotel or rental car needed) and bringing food from home.  His only expense for trackchasing was gasoline and a race ticket.  Therefore, the increase in gas expense was a major percentage change to his overall expenses.  Nevertheless, 1,000 miles still just costs an extra 20 bucks.

 

I could complain about the oil companies making too much money, but they only make about nine cents a gallon in profit.  Heck, the government collects 40-60 cents per gallon in taxes! 

 

I guess I’ll just have to accept this increase in fuel prices.  It won’t affect my trackchasing frequency whatsoever.  I’ve analyzed the impact of rising prices and concluded that a 2.5% overall increase in manageable. 

 

 

The People

 

I’ve always have to be aware of young trackchasers who might sometime like to challenge me in the worldwide trackchaser standings.  This excerpt from the April 25, 2006 edition of the Orange County Register is an example:

 

“Tiger Woods, the world’s best golfer, in New Zealand for the wedding of (his) caddie, Steve Williams, won the second of two celebrity stock car races on a dirt track in Huntly, a small coal mining town 55 miles south of Auckland.

 

Woods forced his way from the back of the grid to the front and took the lead on the sixth of 12 laps, over a 400-meter oval, and, despite a crash into the wall, he held on to the win.”

 

I know Tiger has been to New Zealand before for trackchasing.  His caddie is a well-known driver there.  Just last year Steve Williams broke his hand racing stock cars and had to carry Tiger’s bag while wearing a cast.  I hope Tiger never decides to get to serious about trackchasing!

 

 

The trip

 

Before I get started on this part of the TR, I want to give a shout out to my fellow DSP fraternity brothers, Bob, Jim, Mike and Phil (alphabetical).  We all had a great time playing golf in Palm Springs last weekend.

 

We played one day at the Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells, California.  I have never been to a more upscale club in my life.  While we were hitting balls on the driving range, they had a guy cleaning the clubs we had already used.  The golf carts had floor mats and cloth seats.  We even had a caddie.  At each restroom area along the course, they had an “Honor bar.”  Here a player could reach into a refrigerator and grab a cold beer or soda as well as candy, etc and simply sign for it. 

 

To top it all off, President George Bush was coming to the club the very next afternoon to speak.  There was evidence of Presidential security everywhere we looked and I’m sure in many places we weren’t allowed to look.

 

We ate some expensive dinners during our three nights in the desert.  I’m talking about dinners in the $500 range.  Our policy is to flip coins with the loser paying for dinner.  Once you’ve lost you don’t have to buy dinner during the rest of the trip.  Only one brother, Jim, was exempt from this dinner paying ritual.  Why was he exempt?  Jim used his company airplane to transport Bob, Mike and Phil to and from Jim’s Las Vegas location.  Although I never got to ride on the company jet, I am happy to report I was the only brother who did not lose a coin flip.  I was able to eat free for the entire outing!

 

This weekend’s trackchasing trip will be a little different from some trips.  Trackchasing’s First Mother will tagging be along.  Actually, this will be Carol’s fifth trackchasing trip of the young season. 

 

You might notice below that a young woman from Watford, England, Linda Thomas has posted 11 tracks during the 2006 season.  When Carol was informed of this, you could see a fire in her eyes that is normally reserved for when I screw up big time.  I tried to tell Carol that I have met Miss Thomas on a previous trackchasing trip to England and that she is a fine woman.  Carol was having none of it.  She intends to dominate the women’s division of trackchasing in 2006, regardless of what Miss Thomas may or may not have planned.

 

To prove her point, Carol was up and at ‘em at 4:45 a.m.  We were out the door and headed for the Long Beach Airport at 5:30 a.m.  I knew I was in for a comfortable trip when we stopped at the Jack in the Box drive-thru just a couple of miles from the airport for an early morning breakfast.

 

I’ve started using credit cards at fast food drive-thrus.  There are several advantages.  First, I don’t have to find change and keep change in my pocket.  Secondly, I get airline miles even when I spend only a few dollars.  Finally, this means I can finance my breakfast.  If I don’t want to pay off my credit card bill, my Frontier Airlines credit card will only charge me 15-20% until Carol and I can come up with some income generating scam in retirement to generate cash flow.  It’s all good.

 

Anyway, I realized I had a good helper when we were served our “Extreme sausage” breakfast sandwiches.  Before I knew it, Carol was unfolding my napkin and placing it neatly across my lap as I drove.  Next, she was taking the wrapper on my sandwich and neatly arranging it so I could hold the sandwich by the wrapper and take a bite without any grease getting on anything but my mouth and intestines.  Finally, rather than just wadding up my trash and flipping it over my head into the backseat, she provided a small sack as my trash receptacle.  I hoping to take advantage of her, I mean exploit her generosity, no I mean simply enjoy her company for the next several days while we’re on the road.

 

This is the second time that Carol and I have driven to Long Beach (about 40 miles from San Clemente) in the last week.  A few days ago, I drove our son, Jimmy’s, 1972 VW Super Beetle to the port of Long Beach.  There we signed the paperwork to put it on a ship and have it delivered to him in Honolulu, where he lives.

 

This is a win/win for everyone.  Jim gets to use the car and we get it out of our driveway.  We’re going to have to come up with new directions to the house.  “Make a right on Vista Marina and we’re the house with the orange Volkswagen in the driveway” won’t work any more.

 

The shipping company required that the “Bug’s” gas tank be no more than one-quarter full.  We left San Clemente with a half tank of gas.  We didn’t know what the gas gauge would show by the time we got to Long Beach.  After driving in the slow lane of the San Diego freeway for 40 miles, the tank was still three-eighths full.  That was a minor problem.

 

I devised a road course layout in and around Long Beach in an attempt to burn fuel.  We had just about an hour to get the car delivered before the shipping people closed for the day.  The “Lap around Long Beach” was about 6-7 miles long.  I must have done nearly 10 laps with Carol following closely in my Lexus.  We were in touch via cell phone and hand signals.

 

Carol asked if she should just park and save gas in the Lexus while I drove around in circles.  No, that would not be a good idea.  I wasn’t too confident that the Bug would make it back to the starting line for each lap.  Carol followed.  Finally, with just 10 minutes to go before closing time, the gauge hit a quarter tank.  We got the Bug on that ship and Jim should have it by the time you read this Trackchaser Report.

 

One more thing about tonight’s trip.  We had about 110 miles to travel to our hotel in Waynesboro, Virginia.  We decided to pull off at an I-64 exit and switch drivers.  Carol would take over and drive the last hour or so.  While we were sitting in the dark, getting buckled in and adjusting mirrors, etc. a state policeman pulled in behind us.

 

With flashing lights in the total darkness, we braced for an unknown encounter.  The police officer shined his flashlight in our interior and asked, “Is everything all right?”  I wanted to scream, “I’m being kidnapped!” just to see what his reaction would be.  I refrained.  Carol told him we were just switching drivers and he wished us well.

 

As we slowly drove away, Carol said, “I thought he was coming to get us for the tolls.”  A few miles back Carol had given me some change for a 50-cent toll.  I tossed it in the machine, but the light stayed red.  I drove through anyway since there were no live attendants at this location, thinking the machine must be broken.  No, the state policeman was not stopping us for a tollbooth violation.

 

 

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

 

SOUTHSIDE SPEEDWAY,    MIDLOTHIAN, VIRGINA - TRACK #1,025 – 4/28/06

 

This was my 9^th track to see in Virginia.  I am now tied with Dale O’Brien for just 21^st place.  I can’t believe 20 people have seen more tracks here than I have.  This was Carol’s second track to see in the peanut state.  Guy Smith leads the state with 43 tracks. 

 

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

SOUTHSIDE SPEEDWAY

 

The Southside Speedway is a well-run track.  I’m not sure how much longer this track will be in operation.  The facility is surrounded by some very upscale residential homes that have been built in the last few years.  Whenever this happens, it usually means curtains for the track.

 

The Speedway did several things right.  They started their heat races at 7:30 p.m. with the features scheduled to begin at 8:15 p.m.  They missed the feature start time by a few minutes but not by much.  They were also smart enough to run the featured class first.  Hooray!  Why don’t all tracks do that?

 

When the 21-car, 100-lap late model feature was set to take the green flag, I leaned over to Carol and said, “We’re lucky tonight.  We get to see a great class of cars, on a nice track with a full field (21 cars).”  She nodded in agreement.

 

It wasn’t long before we were reversing our opinion of the 100-lapper.  First, there was no passing at all in the first seven positions during the entire race.  That’s terrible.  Secondly, they did not count yellow flag laps in the race total.  They didn’t have many cautions, about 7-8, and they were very good at restarting efficiently.  However, with no passing, we wanted to get the race over quicker and counting yellows would have done that.

 

The second feature of the night was for champ karts.  I was surprised to see 18 WINGED champ karts (driven by adults) come out and put on an excellent show.  They raced on the big 3/8 mile asphalt oval.  They ran non-stop and had many passes for the lead all over the track.  This may have been the best champ kart race I have even seen.

 

Although this track has been here for a while, their facilities are above average.  They have large aluminum grandstands situated from the fourth turn through the second turn.  They had a very large crowd on hand tonight to hear an announcer who plugged his advertisers too much but did tell the crowd a little about the current worldwide trackchaser standings.  The lights were good and refreshments were readily available.  Carol even liked the women’s restrooms, which featured silk flowers.

CAROL’S COMMENTS

The track was well kept and had a good announcer.  The 100-lap race for the late models was boring since none of the top cars passed anybody.  The champ karts were better than the late models because they could pass each other and they didn’t wreck.  It was a bit chilly around the edges (53 degrees when we reached the car).  It was a strange parking lot (everyone parked in whatever direction suited them).  I thought the state policeman was coming to get me because we didn’t pay the correct toll a few miles back.

 

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

 

We still can’t get really comfortable weather.  The rain forecast for this three-day trip is excellent.  The rain probability is no more than 10% for any of the three days of racing.

 

The temps are a bit on the cool side.  It was 64 degrees when we entered the track with a slight wind.  I’m wrapping up my southern/southeastern spring trackchasing season.  Like major league baseball teams, I will begin heading north next weekend for the next several months.  I’ve had dry but unexpectedly cool weather for 2006.

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

 

For this trip we’ll be going with the National Rental Car Racing Chevy Impala LT.  It has two power outlets.  It also had only 1,820 miles on it when we picked it us.  Can’t beat that!

 

 

 

 

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 - 1,039 (+14)

2.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,025

3.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,021 (-4)

4.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,014 (-11)

5.  Andy Sivi, Clairton, Pennsylvania – 1,007 (-18)

6.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 997 (-28)

 

 

 

Other notables

 

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

 

39.  Virginia Schuler, Allentown, Pennsylvania - 248 (+9)

40.  Steve Kinser, Bloomington, Indiana – 246 (+7)

41.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California - 239

42.  Don McAuley, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - 235 (- 4)

43.  Andy Ritter, Mansfield, Pennsylvania - 235 (- 4)

44.  Colin Casserly, Stevenage, England 232 (-7)

45.  Bernie Harlen, Goshen, Indiana - 229 (-10)

 

 

 

 

2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 34

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 24

3.  Roland Vanden Eynde, Vilvoorde, Belgium – 18

4.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 17

5.  Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania – 13

6.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 11

6.  Linda Thomas, Watford, England - 11

6.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 11

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

9.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 9

9.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 9

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

America’s #1 European Trackchaser

 

That’s all the news that’s fit to print from San Clemente where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, all of the children are above average and the real estate prices are way above average.

 

 

 

 

 

CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:

 

AIRPLANE

 

Long Beach, CA – Washington, D.C. – 2,270 miles

RENTAL CAR

 

Washington, D.C. Dulles Airport – trip begins

Midlothian, VA – 135 miles

 

 

 

 

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

 

Southside Speedway – $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

 

It’s Virginia baby!

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

1,014. Margarettsville Speedway, Margarettsville, North Carolina – April 2

 

1,015. Sunny South Raceway, Grand Bay, Alabama – April 7

 

1,016. Barber Motorsports Park, Leeds, Alabama – April 8

 

1,017. Coldwater Raceway, Coldwater, Alabama – April 8

 

1,018. Talladega Short Track, Talladega, Alabama – April 8

 

1,019. Ballymena Raceway, Ballymena, Northern Ireland - April 14

 

1,020. Oulton Park, Little Budworth, England - April 15

 

1,021. Somerset Rebels Banger Raceway, Rooks Bridge, England - April 16

 

1,022. Mendips Raceway, Shipham, England - April 16

 

1,023. Oval Raceway, Angmering, England - April 17

 

1,024. Arlington Stadium, Eastbourne, England - April 17

 

1,025. Southside Speedway, Midlothian, Virginia - April 28