





GREETINGS FROM
I AWOKE IN
You can click on www.ranlayracing.com
to see photos from our trip to
This trip ends my trackchasing “Spring” season with 49 tracks. The Memorial Day weekend starts my “Summer”
season. Summer for me will go through
Labor Day. During last year’s record-breaking
season, I had only 43 tracks going into Memorial Day weekend.
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL
NEWS
The Strategy
There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since I saw my first track
at the
The trip
Today’s trip was a piece of trackchasing cake. We stayed in
The People
Today was a very special trackchasing day. A very special trackchasing day indeed! If you’re a race fan you know who Steve
Kinser is. If you’re not a race fan let
me give you a few bits of background on Steve.
Mr. Kinser was an
Why is Mr. Kinser’s name mentioned in this Trackchaser Report since we
didn’t see him race this weekend? You
see Mr. Kinser was the 40th ranked trackchaser coming into this
weekend with 246 different tracks. He
had raced all over the
Who could knock this former state wrestling champion from his lofty
trackchasing perch? None other than “Trackchasing’s First Mother” that’s who!! Weighing in at only at only a couple of Bud
Lights over 100 pounds, Carol Lewis has knocked the “King”
out of the top 40. How does that feel
Mr. Steve Kinser?
Not only did Mrs. Lewis crash into the exclusive club of ranked
trackchasers, she has now tied another trackchasing woman, Miss Virginia (No
not thee Miss Virginia) Schuler for 39th position. There’s no telling how many more people the
Mrs. Lewis will pass before the 2006 season is finished. I will only say that if you are within
striking distance of her, you are forewarned.
Speaking of the ladies, I believe I am the only trackchaser to have met
EVERY woman who is a listed trackchaser in the world. To add to that achievement, I have met the
woman spouses of every trackchaser listed in the top 20. Yes, I like to hang around the ladies and
they are a fine group indeed.
RACE TRACK STATS:
BLACKHAWK FARMS
RACEWAY, ROCTON, ILLIOIS - TRACK #1,039 (CAROL’S TRACK #246) – 5/21/06
This was my 67th track to see in my
native state. I broke a tie for second
place with Jack Erdmann and am now in hot pursuit of Ed Esser for the state
lead. Ed leads Illinois with 80 tracks,
so I’m just 13 behind. My database shows
22 tracks still remaining to be seen in the Illini state for me. Unfortunately, only four of those tracks race
on a weekly basis. Most of the others
are county fair figure 8 locations. This
was young Carol’s 16th lifetime track in her native state.
THE
This was my 42nd track to see in the
Badger state. It was Carol’s 20th. I’m in ninth place in
ANGELL PARK
This was Carol’s 21st
RACE TRACK NEWS:
BLACKHAWK FARMS
RACEWAY
I can’t believe I’ve been hanging
around
The seven-turn, 1.9-mile asphalt
road course is flat. It winds in and out
of some beautiful forested land. Today eight
SCCA race groups were running. Three ran
before lunch and five would race in the afternoon. Each race was 25 laps and lasted about 30-40
minutes.
We viewed the track from every location
that was within walking distance. You
could walk to just about every part of the track, but it was rare to see more
than about 10 seconds of racing from any individual location.
At lunch, they had “Lapping” on the program. I’ve done this at other road courses. The cool thing about this is that for a fee
($10 today), spectators can take their passenger cars around the track at slow
speeds for several laps during lunch. I
saw this item on the track program and instantly saw the opportunity for Carol
to get some track time.
Of course, I couldn’t tell her in
advance or she would die from nervousness.
Finally, at the very last moment I sprung the idea on her. “I can’t do
that. We’ve got a rental car,”
was his first response. I told her that
was EXACTLY why it WAS a good idea.
Finally, I wore her down and she
agreed (my words) to go out on the track.
We drove over to registration to get her signed up. They were a little unorganized and made a few
radio calls to see what the drill was going to be. Soon we got a response from the series
coordinator. The lapping session was
cancelled. Bummer! We will have to wait for another day to see
if Carol can wheel the National Rental Car Racing Chevy around the twists and
turns of one of the nation’s finest road courses.
THE
Overall, this was a disappointing
afternoon of racing. When the weather is
uncomfortable, the track not conducive to good spectator viewing and the car
count very low, you’re in for a poor day of trackchasing. The
As mentioned below, the weather was
cold and windy. Hey! It’s May 21; your Memorial Day picnics are
next weekend. What can you do about
it? Call 1-800-UHAUL. Pack all of your belongings in the trailer
and wait until about 4 p.m. At that time
just point the sedan in the direction of the setting sun and keep driving. When the salt water of the
The road course racing layout at the
I don’t always agree with the
commissioner. Even though I did not
agree with his ruling on that one, I stood to benefit. Since what we saw last year is defined as an
inner oval, what we saw today was the road course.
The start/finish line for today’s
road course is the same location as the track’s one mile oval. The difference is today’s road racing cars
race clockwise around the course. They
take the green at the start/finish line and race into what is the oval’s fourth
turn. They make a hard right at this
point and race roughly parallel to the main straight but in the oval’s
infield. When they nearly reach the
outer oval’s turns one and two, they make a 180 degree turn on the inner oval’s
turns one and two. They then race
parallel to the outer oval’s backstretch but on a portion of the course that is
in the outer oval’s infield. They exit
the infield very close to where they entered it and race around the outer
oval’s turn three and four (always in a clockwise direction) and then down the
outer oval’s backstretch, around the outer oval’s turn two and then turn one
until they reach the start/finish line again.
Whew! That’s got to be as clear
as mud. You may want to take out a pen
and paper and make your own diagram of this description.
Despite a somewhat convoluted
course, we still couldn’t see the racing all that well. Of course, bad weather and a poor layout
aren’t all that’s needed to have an unfriendly spectator experience. The car counts were low. We were at the
So there you have it. The
Did I remember to tell you the
bathrooms were closed? That was not a
problem for me. I’m a golfer. This did make Carol somewhat fidgety. On our way out of the track we found a very
nice porta-potty on the backstretch. It
came just in the nick of time for one of us.
I read the above paragraph to Carol
for her approval. Her response was, “You don’t paint a very nice picture of me, do you?” I replied, “The
reader won’t be thinking about you.
They’ll be fixated on how I don’t treat you very nicely.”
On the drive to
Not long after, the “Low gas” bell went off. I told her to take the next exit for
gas. The next exit didn’t come for a
very long time. I reminded her again to
stop at the next exit for petrol. She
reminded ME that there had been no “Next exit”
yet. She also told me in no uncertain
terms that “My method of getting gas at one-eighth
is better than your ‘Ding-dong’ method.”
You’ve just got to love the sacred institution of matrimony.
ANGELL PARK
If you missed
The track itself is nearly
circular. The midgets race wingless and
need push trucks to get them started.
Just like
The cars pit in the grassy infield
that looks more like a city park than a racetrack infield. No haulers allowed in the infield to block
the spectator’s view. The announcer is
professional and the sound system is very good.
The announcer gave me a nice
trackchaser mention. He also mentioned
his fellow
A few minor details could have been
improved. The show ran from 6:30 p.m. to
just past 10 p.m. That seemed a little
long for a 35-car one class program. I
will give them credit. When the “B” main
ended, they started a nine minute countdown clock on their scoreboard. As the countdown continued the announcer
reminded the drivers, that time was running out. All of the “A” main drivers were ready to
race when the clock hit “0:00”. There
was no dust tonight and no one left early because the show was a stinker.
The grandstands face the sun, but
the clouds protected us tonight. Just
before the “A” main, Carol went to the grandstand in search of hot
chocolate. She was told “We’re planning to make the hot chocolate soon.” Finally, the program was held up while the
track waited on an ambulance that had transported a spectator to the hospital.
If I was at a “
The racing was good. Drivers were here from eight states and two
foreign countries. You won’t find that
statement to be true anywhere in the country for a weekly program. There were 4-5 hard flips during the program,
some of them very violent. The food was
good. I had pizza from Pizza Hut and
Carol went with the bratwurst. The
peanuts were great, but Carol says the popcorn was stale.
I highly recommend the
CAROL’S COMMENTS
Editor’s Comment: As mentioned
above Carol has now displaced Steve Kinser as a ranked trackchaser. Everyone is fortunate to get to read “Carol’s
Comments” after each race she visits. We
never get to hear what Mr. Kinser has to say about his tracks. I suggest that, today, you imagine Mr. Kinser
making the same comments that Carol made.
BLACKHAWK FARMS
RACEWAY
This was bigger and nicer than most
of the road courses, I’ve been too. They
had lots of people and lots of different cars.
It was nice to have the sun out even though it was cold. The bathrooms were O.K. and they even had
showers. I kept thinking I was in
THE
It seemed to me the course was too
big for so few cars. When the cars raced
down the front stretch in the “wrong”
direction, it made me nervous. The
flagman needed two buddies in parkas and a can of beer to do his job. The flagman didn’t use the white flag at
all. He just held up one finger when the
time was right. This record-making track
(she jumped into the top 40 and is now a ranked trackchaser) was somewhat like
your #1,000, somewhat anti-climactic.
The
ANGELL PARK
This track was a lot like
WEATHER CONDITIONS
The weather was much more
comfortable at the Blackhawk Farms Raceway.
Even though it was only 52 degrees when we arrived, there was little
wind and plenty of sun. We both felt it
seemed warmer than the stated temperature.
When we arrived at the
It was 61 degrees when we walked
into the
Recall the rain forecast for the
areas we planned to visit on Friday was 20%, Saturday-30% and Sunday-10%. We had to make a diversion on Saturday to get
all of our races in. We came within a
few miles of getting Carol even more tracks on Saturday night before the wet
stuff cancelled everything in the immediate area.
RENTAL CAR
UPDATE:
The National Rental Car Racing Chevy
Impala LT drove well and except for the malfunctioning interior reading lights
was a good rental. If you don’t have
AAA, I highly recommend it. It will save
you time and money. Because we travel a
lot, I estimate it saves us more than $1,000 each year.
This trip covered 1,002 miles. Carol helped with the driving. We didn’t have any really long drives during
the five days we toured the
LIFETIME
TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
These worldwide trackchasers are
within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total.
1. Randy Lewis,
2.
Rick Schneider –
3.
Allan Brown,
4.
Guy Smith, Effort,
5.
Andy Sivi,
6.
Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring,
Other notables
These worldwide trackchasers are
within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.
37.
Mike Knappenberger,
38.
Spike Rixon,
39. Carol Lewis,
39.
Virginia Schuler,
41.
Steve Kinser,
2006
TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis,
2.
Ed Esser,
3.
Roland Vanden Eynde,
4.
Mike Knappenberger,
5.
Roger Ferrell,
5. Carol Lewis,
7.
Paul Weisel,
8.
Linda Thomas,
8.
Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs,
10. Guy Smith, Effort,
Thanks for reading about my
trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
The World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser
Eat all your sandwiches.
CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:
AIRPLANE
Santa Ana, CA – Chicago, IL – 1,736
miles
RENTAL CAR
Sun Prairie,
AIRPLANE
Chicago, IL – Santa Ana, CA 1,736
miles
Total air miles – 3,472 miles
Total auto and air miles traveled on
this trip – 4,474 miles
TRACK ADMSSION
PRICES:
Grant
Blackhawk Farms Raceway – Free (If I
told you why I’d have to kill you)
The
Total race admissions for the trip –
about $31
Some of my standings data comes from
trackchaser.com
I may be rained out in my very next
outing. Otherwise, I expect to have a
productive Memorial Day weekend.
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.
1,006.
1,007.
1,008.
1,009.
1,010.
1,011.
1,012.
1,013. East
1,014. Margarettsville Speedway,
1,015. Sunny South Raceway,
1,016.
1,017. Coldwater Raceway,
1,018.
1,019. Ballymena Raceway,
1,020.
1,021.
1,022. Mendips Raceway,
1,023. Oval Raceway,
1,024.
1,025. Southside Speedway,
1,026. Motor Mile
1,027. Wythe
1,028. Summit Point Raceway, Summit
Point Circuit, Summit Point, West Virginia - April 30
1,029. Old Dominion
1,030. Shenandoah Speedway,
1,031.
1,032. Empty Jug,
1,033.
1,034.
1,035. Motocross 338,
1,036.
1,037.
1,038.
1,039. Blackhawk Farms Raceway,
1,040. The
** Angell Park Speedway, Sun
Prairie,