GREETINGS FROM COAL GROVE, OHIO

I WOKE UP IN ST. CLAIR, MISSOURI THIS MORNING. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.

 

You can click on www.ranlayracing.com to see photos from my trackchasing visit to Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio and who knows where else (June 6 to??). 

 

 

AND THE READERS RESPOND

 

Rather than identifying my readers by name in the “And The Readers Respond” section, I will identify them by their geographical region.  This will allow some to offer more direct points of view.  By the way, I can neither endorse nor be responsible for any reader’s point of view.  It’s a free country and everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.

 

From a Eastern based reader………………

“As you instructed, I went over to trackchasers.com to see your picture.  It reminded me of my high school yearbook picture.  We wore a suit and tie on the top and shorts and went barefoot on the bottom.  By the way, do you get paid when your picture appears like this?”

Editor’s note:  Unfortunately, I do not get paid.  The trackchaser commissioner is a shrewd marketer.  He realizes now that he has a charismatic and marketable trackchaser in the #1 spot, he can use that to his advantage and attract more viewers (like you) to his website.  Of course, I fully support that line of thinking as we live in a country founded on the concept of capitalism.

 

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy

 

Do you know what airplanes and golf have to do with trackchasing strategy?  Lots!  Airplanes don’t fly directly into thunderstorms and golfers (good ones anyway) don’t try to drive their ball through a grove of trees.  A strategic trackchaser, like a jet pilot, goes out of his or her way to avoid bad weather.  Bad weather can give the less than vigilant trackchaser a big goose egg for the day.

 

Today is my 44^th day of successful trackchasing this year.  I’ve had one rained out trackchasing day in all of 2006.  As a matter of fact, I have had only one rainout day in my last 145 days of trackchasing.  Someday my record number of tracks seen will likely be broken, but my rainout record will never be touched. 

 

Why am I so confident concerning the good graces with which the weather treats me?  There are several reasons.  First, I’ve had my share of good luck.  Secondly, I use the most state of the art weather forecasting tools (some of which can never be explained here).  Finally, like the airline pilot, I will drive hundreds of miles to avoid bad weather and assure myself that a trip will not be spoiled by it.  Of course, I will be rained out in the future.  I just won’t be rained out very much in the future.  Here’s how the weather plan worked on this trip.

 

The first three days of this six-day trackchasing trip didn’t require that much strategy, just good weather.  On Tuesday and Wednesday I had only one track each night to choose from and I was lucky to get good weather both nights.

 

For Thursday night, I had tracks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Missouri to choose from.  My Thursday night choice was dictated by the weather forecast for Friday and Saturday.  With rain forecasted for Iowa and surrounding states for the weekend, I drove south to Missouri for my Thursday night race.

 

Catching Missouri on Thursday night would force me to cancel my plans for an Iowa/Minnesota weekend.  Had I stuck with my original plan I would have met up with trackchaser Ed Esser at the Jamaica Raceway in Iowa.  I would now divert to southern and eastern Ohio.  This should get me out of the way of any rainy weather, at least until Sunday.   

 

 

The trip

 

Carol and I had returned from Las Vegas last Monday night.  I had less than 12 hours in San Clemente before this trip started.  Now in just about 72 hours since landing in Minneapolis, I had driven nearly 2,000 miles.  Yes, it’s all in the name of trackchasing!

 

Tonight’s track is located in Coal Grove, Ohio.  Coal Grove is just across the river from Ashland, Kentucky and within a couple good seven irons of West Virginia.  I’ve traveled to every one of our fifty states often.  West Virginia has the most backwoods living of anywhere I travel.  These folks are just down home.  A close friend hypothesized that this is do to “Inbreeding.”  I’m not sure about that, but I sense these folks don’t travel far from home often.

 

When I pulled into the Rockytop (Yes, it’s all one word) Raceway, they were blasting the song “Rocky Top Tennessee” over the loud speakers.  What else would you expect?  The music selection at intermission was 100% blue grass.  You won’t get that anywhere else in the country.  I’ll tell you more about the racetrack facilities in the Race Track News section, but it was “Rustic.”

 

One more note about the trip.  Just as I pulled into the one lane gravel road track entrance, the “Low fuel” light came on.  That was somewhat concerning because I had not seen any gas stations near the track.  I elected not to sit on the extremely narrow (at least for my behind) 2” X 6” boards that roughly resembled a spectator seating area.

 

Instead, I parked my car on a hillside overlooking the first and second turns.  The hillside was steep.  I estimate the front end of the car was pointing downward at a 45-degree angle.  The parking surface was loose rock and grass.  The longer I sat there the more I worried the National Rental Car Racing Pontiac Grand Prix would not be able to back out up hill as easy as it entered the spot going downhill.

 

The sun was setting directly into my windshield and I would have loved to run the air conditioning.  However, with almost no fuel that didn’t seem like a good idea.  I also started to be concerned that the fuel pickup system might not work well with nearly no gas and the car parked at a 45-degree angle.

 

It was just when all of these concerns were reaching a crescendo in my head that the “Battery saver active” warning light came on.  I had been using my laptop and had plugged it into the car’s power outlet.  I’ve never seen that warning light before even though I use the car’s battery power to support my laptop nearly every day I trackchase.

 

I decided to leave following the completion of the late model “A” main event.  The challenge would be to back the car uphill from a loose gravel parking base.  By now, fellow spectators had filled in around me and were sitting comfortably in their lawn chairs.  With the tires spinning wildly and the gravel flying everywhere I summoned enough traction to barely get uphill.  Of course, this commotion got the attention of the folks seated near me, but it was time to go!

 

The People

 

I’m telling you the people in this part of the country are MUCH different from anyone else I meet.  Some might take that comment as a negative.  If they do, they are missing my point entirely.  This is coal mining country and these folks have been living this way for a very long time. 

 

They dress differently, they talk differently and their approach toward material things is much different from where I come from.  It was more than 90 degrees when the races started.  Nevertheless, I didn’t see one male in shorts.  Everyone wore blue jeans.  Blue jeans on a 90 degree day are hot, but that’s the way they do it here. 

 

I did venture down to watch some of the races from the spectator area.  I felt somewhat self-conscious wearing surfer shorts and having a golfer’s tan around my ankles.  Sometimes I like to sit with my legs crossed in sort of an effeminate manner.  It’s all so comfortable.  You can get some pretty strange stares from coal miners sitting this way wearing surfer shorts!

 

Nevertheless, each and every one of the folks I met tonight was the nicest ever.  I ran into one guy while filling up with gas after the races that engaged me in conversation.  We must have talked for 15 minutes or more standing at the gas pumps in the warm evening air.  He was enthralled with this hobby of trackchasing.  He had his own unusual story to tell.

 

The fellows name was Mark Robinson.  In addition to his day job working at Pepsi, he and his partner own “Inflatables.”  Yes, they are the owners of M&M Inflatables, Inc. (www.mandminflatables.com).  They own 43 Bounce House, Moon Walks, Dunk Tanks, etc.  It was fun to hear about the business acumen this young man possessed.

 

The track announcer gave me one of the best trackchaser announcements I’ve ever had.  He read nearly every ounce of my press release about trackchasing and spent nearly 10 minutes telling the crowd about our hobby.  The people of this area were friendly and more than pleasant to this unusual looking stranger.

 

While at the track, I picked up a copy of the May 30, 2006 edition of the racing paper RPM Racing News.  This paper had one feature that I found very impressive.  Several tracks ran ads in the paper.  Nearly every ad featured the track’s next 4-5 race dates.  I’ve never seen that done with nearly every ad in a racing paper before.  I didn’t pick up any new dates, which gave me confidence in my own trackchaser research, but I appreciated the paper providing all of these race dates.

 

 

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

ROCKY TOP RACEWAY, COAL GROVE, OHIO - TRACK #1,053 – 6/9/06

 

This was my 39th lifetime track to see in the Buckeye state.  I can’t believe I have a 13^th place ranking in Ohio with 39 tracks!  I’ve been racing a bunch in this state.  I’ve been to Eldora for 35 separate days of racing since I first set eyes on the place on April 27, 1980 only to be rained out after the heat races.  Of course, that was before I had the state of the art weather predicting capabilities I possess today.  I did come back later in that year to see Sammy Swindell win the feature for my first complete program at Eldora.  Norm Wagner, the only trackchaser in the top 20 I have never met leads in Ohio with an even 100 tracks.

 

 

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

ROCKYTOP RACEWAY, COAL GROVE, OHIO

 

I’m such a trusting sole.  That often gets me into trouble.  You see, I always want to believe what people tell me.  The Rockytop Raceway website said “Racing at 7:30 p.m.”  After driving just over 500 miles, I arrived at 7:10 p.m.  They were watering the track when I climbed a rough, steep and gravel laden hill in the National Rental Car Racing Pontiac Grand Prix.

 

At 7:30 p.m., they started hot lapping the racecars.  At 8 p.m., they started time trialing their racecars.  They actually did not throw the first green flag until almost 9 p.m.  The track is a very high banked 3/8-mile dirt oval.  The cars pit beyond the third turn on an elevated plateau.  The sun sets beyond turns three and four.

 

The spectator seating area is unique to say the least.  Take a look a www.ranlayracing.com to see what I’m talking about.  There are no bleachers.  They simply have some round posts placed into the ground.  About a foot or so above the ground are some aforementioned 2” X 6” boards to sit on.  A six inch board in not very wide and can’t hold that much weight.  Many of the boards were beginning to curl up from warp.  It was about as rural as one can get and still be able to say they are sitting.

 

They raced late models, bombers, modifieds and four & six cylinder stock cars.  They had trophy dashes, heats and features.  The racing really wasn’t very good.  There was a lot of follow the leader except when someone tried to do a slide job and that usually ended up in a yellow flag restart.

 

The 25-lap Late Model “A” main started nearly 20 cars.  They had several yellow flag delays until they reached the 20^th lap.  I had been listening to the track communications all night on my race scanner.  Tonight was the first time I had ever heard track officials wagering on the outcome of the races. 

 

On the 20^th lap, one driver spun another out.  The driver who initiated the spin, was told to go to the back of the pack.  He wouldn’t do it.  They yelled over the radio time and again to give him the black flag.  He did not heed the black flag, which instructs a driver to pull in for consultation. 

 

Finally, after much consternation over the track’s radio frequency, the track steward yelled, “Throw the checkered, we’re ending the race.”  That’s exactly what they did.  Because one driver wouldn’t obey the black flag, they cancelled the rest of the race.  It was now past 11 p.m.  I had been at the track for four hours and they were canceling the premier division’s late model feature because of one driver.  That was it.  I was gone.

 

It’s probably not inaccurate to say that the education level of most local stock car drivers isn’t very high.  Yes, I know this is a generalization and somewhat stereotypical, yet I believe the data would support this statement.  I just felt that the behavior of this driver might be the reason so many of these folks might have had trouble in school or their work/economic life.  They just had trouble accepting authority when life’s little problems came their way.  That’s really too bad, but the solution to problems requires respecting and listening too authority in situations like this.  If more people could play by the rules and respect the system, then they themselves would be much more successful.  I find the only people who take exception to this line of thinking are those that never could get along with authority figures.

 

 

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

 

It was hot until the sun went down.  After that, shorts and a t-shirt made the evening very comfortable.

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

 

I had a very real mental picture of the National Rental Car Racing Pontiac Grand Prix rolling 50 yards down the hill from my downhill parking position.  How would I explain that one to the rental car folks? 

 

Avoiding bad weather, made the driving miles add up.

 

Tuesday total driving miles – 273 miles

Wednesday total driving miles – 595 miles

Thursday total driving miles – 530 miles

Friday total driving miles -  522 miles

 

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:

 

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

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,053

2.  Rick Schneider – Bay Shore, New York - 1,039 (-14)

3.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,021 (-32)

4.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,019 (-34)

5.  Andy Sivi, Clairton, Pennsylvania – 1,007 (-46)

6.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 1,001 (-52)*

 

* First warning, you are within 50 tracks of being removed from this list.

 

 

 

Other notables

 

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

 

38.  Spike Rixon, Watford, England - 252 (+2)

39.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California - 250

40.  Virginia Schuler, Allentown, Pennsylvania - 248 (-2)

41.  Steve Kinser, Bloomington, Indiana – 246 (-4)

 

 

 

 

2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 62

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 38

3.  Roland Vanden Eynde, Vilvoorde, Belgium – 35

4.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 30

5.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 23

5.  Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania – 22

7.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 20

8.  Linda Thomas, Watford, England - 15

8.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 15

8.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 15

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

The World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser

 

Eat all your sandwiches.  You’ll need them for the pursuit.

 

 

 

 

 

CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:

 

AIRPLANE

 

San Diego, CA – Minneapolis, MN – 1,530 miles

RENTAL CAR

 

Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport – trip begins

Hibbing, Minnesota – 213 miles

Alta, Iowa – 611 miles

Lebanon, Missouri – 1,243 miles

Coal Grove, Ohio – 1,870 miles

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

Hibbing Raceway – $15

Buena Vista Raceway - $10

Lebanon Midway Speedway - $15

Rocky Top Raceway - $12

 

 

 

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

 

So far on this trip, I have seen only one countable track each day.  Maybe, when the weekend comes I can get a double.

 

 

 

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

 

1,026. Motor Mile Speedway, Radford, Virginia - April 29

 

1,027. Wythe Speedway, Wytheville, Virginia - April 29

 

1,028. Summit Point Raceway, Summit Point Circuit, Summit Point, West Virginia - April 30

 

1,029. Old Dominion Speedway – inner inner oval, Manassas, Virginia - April 30

 

1,030. Shenandoah Speedway, Shenandoah, Virginia – May 4

 

1,031. Bridgeport Speedway (inner oval – front), Bridgeport, New Jersey - May 5

 

1,032. Empty Jug, Hawley, Pennsylvania - May 6

 

1,033. Oakland Valley Race Park, Cuddebackville, New York - May 6

 

1,034. Thunder Mountain Speedway, Center Isle, New York - May 6

 

1,035. Motocross 338, Southwick, Massachusetts - May 7

 

1,036. Glen Ridge Motorsports Park, Fultonville, New York - May 7

 

1,037. Calumet County Speedway, Chilton, Wisconsin - May 19

 

1,038. Grant County Speedway, Lancaster, Wisconsin - May 20

 

1,039. Blackhawk Farms Raceway, Rockton, Illinois - May 21

 

1,040. The Milwaukee Mile (Road course), West Allis, Wisconsin - May 21

 

** Angell Park Speedway, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin – May 21 (new track Carol only)

 

1,041. Park Jefferson Speedway, Jefferson, South Dakota - May 25

 

1,042. Superior Speedway, Superior, Wisconsin - May 26

 

1,043. Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, Minnesota - May 27

 

1,044. Canby Speedway, Canby, Minnesota - May 27

1,045. Crawford County Fairgrounds (figure 8), Denison, Iowa - May 28

1,046. Tri-State Speedway, Sisseton, South Dakota - May 29

1,047. Sheyenne River Speedway, Lisbon, North Dakota - May 29

1,048. Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, Pahrump, Nevada – June 3

1,049. The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nevada – June 3

 

1,050. Hibbing Raceway, Hibbing, Minnesota – June 6

 

1,051. Buena Vista Raceway, Alta, Iowa – June 7

 

1,052. Lebanon Midway Speedway, Lebanon, Missouri – June 8

 

1,053. Rockytop Raceway, Coal Grove, Ohio – June 9