GREETINGS FROM MILLERSBURG, OHIO

 

 

It may take me a few days to get photos up for these tracks.  Don’t worry, soon you can click on www.ranlayracing.com to see photos of this week’s trip.

 

I WOKE UP IN SHARON, PENNSYLVANIA THIS MORNING (SECOND NIGHT IN A ROW).  THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.

 

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy

                                                                                        

The track I visited last night as well as tonight and even tomorrow night only have countable racing for one day each year.  Actually, their countable racing lasts only about two hours on the one and only day they do race.  Trying to be at a location somewhere in the United States for a specific two-hour period each year requires some planning.

 

Nevertheless, this is the absolute pinnacle of trackchasing strategy.  It is much easier to see racing at a track that races 25 times per year.  I’ll see those kinds of tracks when I run out of locations that race just once a year.

 

The Trip

 

Today was a very easy trackchasing trip.  I actually got to sleep in the same hotel two nights in a row.  That doesn’t happen often.  It was still a nearly 250-mile driving day since the Holmes County Fairgrounds was about two hours from the hotel.

 

What made the driving a little more difficult was that about half of the drive was on country two-lane roads.  There were a few detours but I got to the fairgrounds on time. 

 

Millersburg, Ohio is famous for two reasons.  First, it’s the hometown of World of Outlaws sprint car star, Jac “The Wild Child” Haudenschild.  I’ve seen this guy hundreds of times.

 

Secondly, this part of Ohio has a heavy Amish population.  They build furniture and farm mainly.  I passed several horse drawn carriages on the way to the track.  I even came across one on my drive home at about 10 p.m.  The carriage driver had a small blinking red light and two “Headlights” that were about as powerful as flashlights.  These folks definitely live a different lifestyle than most of us.

The People

There was a time when I could play a lot of golf on my trackchasing trips.  I remember one year when I played about 40 rounds on the road during these types of trips.  That has changed.

 

I always thought that after I had seen a large number of racetracks, I would reach a point where I wouldn’t get to go trackchasing as much because it would be hard to “Package” tracks together for an economical trip. 

 

I get a kick out of analyzing trends in the hobbies that interest me.  When I can correctly analyze a situation, I can then develop a plan that takes advantage of what the future might hold.  I know that in trackchasing, some of the “Old line” trackchasers get frustrated with my analysis and the impact the outcome of my analysis, if everything comes to fruition, might have on them.  My only advice to them is “Don’t kill the messenger.”

 

I have now seen nearly 1,100 tracks.  I still have absolutely no difficulty putting together multi-track trips as you’ve see me do this year.  What I did not fully anticipate was that the distance I would need to travel to make a trip worthwhile would increase.  It is not unusual to travel 300, 400 or more than 500 miles a day in pursuit of this hobby.

 

It’s hard to drive 400 miles to a track, see 2-3 hours of racing and ALSO play 18 holes of golf.  I think you can understand the difficulty I would be faced with.  Nevertheless, one of my main goals for 2006 is to spend the same number of days trackchasing as I do playing golf.  Currently, golf trails trackchasing 75-48.  However, following Labor Day, golf should make a nice comeback.  I figure I will play golf nearly as many days as I trackchase by the end of the year.

 

I’m happy to report that I was able to play golf today.  I made it to the Yankee Run Golf Course (www.yankeerun.com) in Brookfield, Ohio.  I used my Golf Digest ‘Places to Play’ book to help me find a nice course. 

 

This is a book that rates more than 5,000 public golf course across the country.  Based upon reader feedback, each course is given a 0-5 star rating.  There are only 12 five star-rated golf courses in the U.S.  One of those is Pebble Beach.  I have played three of those twelve courses.

 

I subscribe to the theory that there is not enough time in anyone’s life to play golf on a bad course.  Therefore, I am more than reluctant to play anything less than a 3.5 star-rated course.  Today, the Yankee Run course garnered a Golf Digest rating of 4.5 stars.  I felt it was not that good of a course.  I would give it a 3.5 star rating which still makes it worthwhile to play.  The greens fees were only 30 bucks, so it was a bargain.

 

The course did not have a driving range and had several bare spots in the fairways.  I was told this was due to heavy rains of a few weeks ago.  This was a traditional golf course that was green and heavily tree lined.  They did have GPS units on each cart that told us how far we were from the hole.  This is always helpful.

 

I played the back tees, the blue tees.  The yardage totaled 6,534 yards with a slope rating of 119 and a course rating of 70.7.  I shot an 82.  I didn’t think that was too bad since I had been sitting in a car for 10-12 hours a day for every day of the last week and they didn’t have a driving range.

 

When I go to a golf course by myself, I almost always get paired up with some other players.  It’s a lot more fun to play golf with other people than by yourself.  Today, the course put me with a fellow that I would come to know as “Dale.”

 

Dale was about 50 years old and retired from the Army about 10 years ago.  He had the same outlook on life that I do.  He didn’t want to work.  However, the solution to life is not, “Not wanting to work.”  I think the solution is working long enough to get what you want out of life, so that you don’t have to work anymore.  There is a difference.

 

The weather was gorgeous.  The temperature was about 80 degrees with a nice breeze and clear skies.  The humidity was low, although the rains from yesterday made the course a little mushy.

 

Dale and I enjoyed each other’s company.  Enough so, that we made a date to play golf again tomorrow at another local course.  Following a couple of beers, Dale and I bid farewell until our 1:08 p.m. tee time tomorrow.  In tomorrow’s report, I’ll tell you more about my playing partner.

 

By the way, before I left on this trip, I told my golfing buddy George Robertson that I would consider all of the golf on this trip as “Practice rounds.”  That meant that no matter how I played I would not record them for handicapping purposes.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

 

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

HOLMES COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS (FIGURE 8), MILLERSBURG, OHIO - TRACK #1,093 – 8/15/06

This is my 43^rd lifetime track in the Buckeye state.  I’m still seven tracks short of a top 10 ranking.  This is another state, along with New York and Pennsylvania, where you have to nearly live at each of the track’s in order to achieve a top 10 ranking.

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

HOLMES COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS (FIGURE 8)

This is a good-sized fair.  I arrived nearly an hour before the scheduled 8 p.m. start time.  This gave me time to walk around the grounds, visit the livestock barns and get some food.  Since I have not been having good luck with “Fair food”, I ate at Wendy’s on the way out to the track.

 

I did have dessert at the fair.  I chose a blackberry cobbler smothered in vanilla ice cream.  It was excellent.  I had a choice between the $2 and the $3 size.  I felt that I owed myself something after eating responsibly during the day at the golf course.  The three-dollar size was big and delicious.

 

The racing did not get started until 8:20 p.m.  Actually, that was good, because by that time the sun had set over the horizon and would no longer bother the fans who sat in bleachers that faced directly toward the west.

 

There were 22 small car figure 8 cars racing tonight.  They ran three heats races for these cars around a “Double figure 8” course.  The winner of each race advanced to event #7, their feature race.  The remaining cars were supposed to make up events #4, #5 and #6.  However, there were only enough cars to run two last chance races.  All of these races were eight laps in distance.

 

The feature race had seven cars.  This included the three heat race winners and two cars from each of the last chance races.  The feature was 10 laps in length.  The entire program was checkered by 9:35 p.m.  Even though they had two intermissions and started 20 minutes late, this was a quick program.

 

Following the figure 8 feature, the cars ran a demolition derby.  Since a demolition derby is not that much different than a county fair figure 8 race AND it does not count in trackchasing, I didn’t have any interest in staying, so I didn’t.

 

Overall, not a very entertaining racing program.  It was good to get this one in the books.  This was the second of four consecutive nights of figure 8 racing.  I’m sure I’ll be looking for some “Real” racing by the end of those four nights.

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

 

The weather today was gorgeous.  There were clear skies, low humidity and temps in the high 70s.  It was “California” weather.

 

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

 

I will have two rental cars on this trip.  One was picked up and returned in Minneapolis.  The second was picked up in Pittsburgh.

 

 

Minneapolis Rental Car

 

Wednesday total driving miles – 288 miles (corrected)

Thursday total driving miles – 119 miles

Friday total driving miles – 512 miles

Saturday total driving miles – 559 miles (that’s a lot of miles to get zero racetracks!)

Sunday total driving miles – 663 miles

Monday total driving miles – 7 miles

 

 

The driving portion of this trip covered 2,148 miles.  We stopped for gas five times.  I paid an average price of $3.03 per gallon.  The Chevy Impala gave us 28.0 M.P.G. in fuel mileage at an average cost of 10.8 cents per mile.  The car cost 1.5 cents per mile to rent, all taxes included.

 

Pittsburgh Rental Car

 

Monday total driving miles – 175 miles

Tuesday total driving miles – 248 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 – 1,093

2.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,051 (-42)

3.  Rick Schneider – Bay Shore, New York - 1,050 (-43)

4.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,021 (-72)*

5.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 1,019 (-74)*

6.  Andy Sivi, Clairton, Pennsylvania – 1,017 (-76)*

7.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 926 (-167)**

 

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

 

** Special exemption.

 

 

 

 

Other notables

 

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

 

34.  Sammy Swindell, Bartlett, Tennessee – 279 (+2)

36.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California - 277

37.  Dale Danielski, Onalaska, Wisconsin – 269 (-8)

38.  Bob Schafer, Oshkosh, Wisconsin - 267 (-10)

 

 

 

2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 102

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 66

3.  Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania – 59

4.  Roland Vanden Eynde, Vilvoorde, Belgium – 55

5.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 54

6.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 47

7.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 46

8.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 45

9.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan - 41

10. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 33

10. Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 33

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

#1 Trackchaser Living West of the Mississippi

 

I’m very good with figures and wish people asked me to multiply things more often.

 

CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:

 

AIRPLANE

 

Los Angeles, CA -  Minneapolis, MN – 1,530 miles

RENTAL CAR - MINNEAPOLIS

 

Lindbergh International Airport – trip begins

Morris, MN – 177 miles

Ada, MN – 351 miles

Miller, SD – 812 miles

Gimli, Manitoba, Canada – 1,495 miles

Bemidji, MN – 1,825 miles

Lindbergh International Airport – trip ends – 2,148 miles

 

 

AIRPLANE

 

Minneapolis, MN – Chicago, IL – 287 miles

Chicago, IL – Pittsburgh, PA – 416 miles

 

RENTAL CAR - PITTSBURGH

 

Pittsburgh International Airport – trip begins

Dayton, PA – 80 miles

Millersburg, OH – 323 miles

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

 

Stevens County Fairgrounds - $8

Norman County Fair Raceway - $10

Miller Speedway - $5 with senior discount (Regular admission $10)

Gimli Motorsports Park – Free

Bemidji Speedway - $8

Dayton Fair - $7

Holmes County Fairgrounds - $4

 

 

 

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

 

Still more county fair figure 8 action on tap.

 

 

 

 

 

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. Rocky Top Raceway, Coal Grove, Ohio – June 9

 

1,054. Midvale Speedway (oval), Midvale, Ohio – June 10

 

1,055. Midvale Speedway (figure 8), Midvale, Ohio – June 10

 

1,056. Spring Valley Raceway, Millport, Ohio – June 11

 

1,057. Rialto Airport Speedway, Rialto, California – June 17

 

1,058. Lawrenceburg Speedway (figure 8), Lawrenceburg, Indiana -  June 20

 

1,059. Lawrenceburg Speedway (temporary oval), Lawrenceburg, Indiana -  June 20

 

1,060. Thunder Mountain Speedway, Knox Dale, Pennsylvania -  June 21

 

1,061. State Park Speedway, Wausau, Wisconsin -  June 22

 

1,062. Dodge County Fairgrounds Speedway, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin -  June 23

 

1,063. Lucas Oil Speedway (oval), Wheatland, Missouri -  June 24

 

1,064. Lucas Oil Speedway (figure 8), Wheatland, Missouri -  June 24

 

1,065. Tri-City Speedway, Pontoon Beach, Illinois - June 25

 

1,066. Lake Ozark Speedway, Eldon, Missouri - June 29

 

1,067. Poplar Bluff Speedway, Poplar Bluff, Missouri - June 30

 

1,068. Indianapolis Motor Speedway (road course), Indianapolis, Indiana – July 1

 

1,069. Rush County Fairgrounds, Rushville, Indiana – July 1

 

1,070. Rock Castle Speedway, Mount Vernon, Kentucky – July 2

 

** Windy Hollow Speedway (oval), Owensboro, Kentucky – July 2

 

1,071. Heartland Park Topeka (dirt oval), Topeka, Kansas – July 3

 

1,072. Thunderhill Speedway, Mayetta, Kansas – July 3

 

1,073. Little Valley Speedway, Little Valley, New York – July 13

 

** Twin State Speedway (oval), Claremont, New Hampshire – July 14

 

1,074. Twin State Speedway (figure 8), Claremont, New Hampshire – July 14

 

1,075. Canaan Speedway (asphalt oval), Canaan, New Hampshire – July 14

 

** New Hampshire International Speedway, Loudon, New Hampshire – July 15

 

1,076. White Mountain Motorsports Park, North Woodstock, New Hampshire – July 15

 

1,077. Legion Speedway, Wentworth, New Hampshire – July 15

 

1,078. Devil’s Bowl Speedway, Fair Haven, Vermont – July 16

 

1,079. Stafford Motor Speedway, Stafford Springs, Connecticut – July 17

 

1,080. Little Log House Speedway, Hastings, Minnesota - July 28

 

** Elko Speedway (outer oval), Elko, Minnesota – July 28

 

** Elko Speedway (inner oval), Elko, Minnesota – July 28

 

** Elko Speedway (figure 8), Elko, Minnesota – July 28

1,081. Chickasaw Big Four County Fairgrounds, Nashua, Iowa - July 29

1,082. Buffalo River Speedway, Glyndon, Minnesota - July 30

1,083. Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, Utah, - August 4

 

1,084. Atomic Motor Raceway, Atomic City, Idaho - August 4

 

1,085. Mission Valley Speedway, Polson, Montana - August 5

 

1,086. Rock Creek Race Track, Kimberly, Idaho - August 6

 

1,087. Stevens County Fairgrounds, Morris, Minnesota - August 9

 

1,088. Norman County Raceway, Ada, Minnesota - August 10

 

1,089. Miller Speedway, Miller, South Dakota - August 11

 

1,090. Gimli Motorsports Park, Gimli, Manitoba, Ontario, Canada - August 13

 

1,091. Bemidji Speedway, Bemidji, Minnesota - August 13

 

1,092. Dayton Fair (figure 8), Dayton, Pennsylvania - August 14

 

1,093. Holmes County Fairgrounds, Millersburg, Ohio - August 15