GREETINGS FROM ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO

HELP!

I’ve had a couple of reports from readers in foreign countries who are having a difficult time accessing my website.  I am not certain if this is something unique to their systems or not.  Can you send me a one or two line email and tell me if the website and pictures work O.K. for you.  Thanks!

 

 

 

CORRECTION!

 

Long-time reader Greg Z. formerly from Badgerland and a Green Bay Packer fan reminds me that if I were sitting in the right field stands at the Angels Stadium of Anaheim, I would be watching Vladimir Guerrero and NOT Roberto Guerrero.  Greg is correct.  Of course, I could be sitting NEXT to Roberto Guerrero, the former Indy car driver as he lives in nearby San Juan Capistrano and is a good friend of our children’s orthodontist.

 

 

 

 

 

ALL PICTURES HAVE BEEN UPDATED AT WWW.RANLAYRACING.COM  FOR THIS TRACKCHASING TRIP.  THERE ARE NOW MORE THAN 5,000 PHOTOS POSTED ON MY WEBSITE.

I WOKE UP IN FRESNO, CALIFORNIA YESTERDAY MORNING AND WENT TO SLEEP IN ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO.  THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.

 

 

 

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy                                                                                    

 

THE PAST TWO WEEKS

 

You know, it is going to be a very long trackchasing season in 2007.  You might think it would be a good strategic choice for me to take it easy at the beginning of the year, so that I don’t burn myself out.  With that in mind, I didn’t go trackchasing anywhere last weekend.  Today is my first new track to see in 14 days!

 

You might be wondering how that can be since you just got a Trackchaser Report from me from Anaheim, California a couple of days ago.  Yes, New Zealand put me a little behind.  You can always go to the bottom of each report to see the EXACT date that I saw each track.

 

Anyway, you might guess that I just lay on the sofa over the past two weeks, thankful that I didn’t have to fly or drive anywhere.  That thinking would only be partially correct.  I didn’t fly anywhere during this time, but we did keep busy and drove around our state a good deal.

 

The two-week trackchasing hiatus included a 500-mile driving trip up to Central California over three days working on wedding planning with Kristy, James and Carol.  I snuck in a couple of rounds of golf and bought a bike.  I plan to do some long distance riding here in the Southern California area.

 

I also did something I’ve wanted to do forever.  What have I been wanting to do forever?  You see, I grew up in a bowling alley.  I was there all the time.  I once bowled 33 games on New Year’s Eve day!   I wanted to attend a Professional Bowlers Association tour event.  I had never done that.  Last week I was able to add the PBA Tour to my list of major sporting events when I showed up at the Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley, California.  The PBA tournaments are televised on ESPN every Sunday morning.  I really enjoyed myself.

 

We also had a midweek date up in Los Angeles to celebrate my 58^th birthday.  The celebration took place with Carol, Kristy and James at the Staples Center.  There we watched the Los Angeles Clippers defeat the Milwaukee Bucks.  The Bucks have one of my most favorite players, 5’ 5” Earl Boykins.

 

Finally, Carol and I just returned from a three-day, 1,000-mile roundtrip to the San Francisco Bay area for the UCLA-Cal basketball game.  I’m happy to report the #2 ranked Bruins smothered the Bears 62-46.  We had a fine time with our good friends the Moodys and loved the new home they are building.  It’s great!

 

That trip got Carol and I back to San Clemente at 1 p.m. on Saturday.  I worked out for 30 minutes on my elliptical trainer, took a shower, kissed Carol good-bye and then I was off.  I had been home for exactly 83 minutes.  Carol had only one thing to say, “I don’t know how you do it.”  Neither do my fellow competitors.  Yes, after a very busy two weeks of no trackchasing, it was time to get back on the trail.  I headed for LAX and a very unusual Saturday night flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I’ll be trackchasing in Albuquerque on Sunday.

 

 

SUNDAY

 

I must say that I was surprised that Albuquerque looked so much like Mexico.  I say that in a complimentary fashion.  So many cities today have become “homogenized” with one chain store after another that they tend to look alike.  Albuquerque seems to have kept its individuality.  I can’t recall seeing so many independent fast food operators in one medium sized city.  The city also carries over both the American Indian and the Mexican cultural landscape.

 

 

 

The Trip

 

SATURDAY

 

It felt awkward to be flying on a Saturday night.  I almost never do that.  There was nobody at LAX when I departed or Albuquerque when I arrived.  I could have made this program by flying out Sunday morning, but the availability looked a little tight.  Flying on Saturday night seemed to be the safer choice.

 

The only incremental economic disadvantage to leaving Saturday night was the expense of a hotel room.  That wasn’t much, to be guaranteed that I would have airline space from my airline partners, SkyWest Airlines.

 

SUNDAY

 

Of course, if Saturday night is empty at the airports, then Sunday night is packed.  Everyone, including me, is trying to get home from his or her traveling weekends.  Once I got to Denver, the first two Los Angeles flights were full.  This was not a surprise as my information sources indicated they would be.  The last flight of the night was wide open and would get me back to San Clemente at midnight.

 

Of course, that flight ended up being delay by two hours.  This delayed my arrival back home and I pulled into the driveway at exactly 2:07 a.m. (3:07 a.m. Albuquerque time).  That’s how trackchasing goes sometimes. 

 

 

 

The People

 

I have to give today’s racers full credit.  First, they lucked out with the weather.  However, they were willing to race even if the weather had been much worse.  The weather forecast earlier in the week called for temps in the high 30s and snow showers.  The promoter told me “if the snow isn’t too bad we'll race.”

 

Hey, this is January, we’re at an elevation of nearly 6,000 feet, it might snow, and these people still want to race.  They sound pretty motivated to me!

 

 

 

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

 

SANDIA MOTORSPORTS PARK, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO – TRACK #1,149

 

This was just my third lifetime track to see in New Mexico.  The Aztec state is not visited by trackchasers very often.  Alan Skinrood leads the state with just five tracks.  I started the day tied for 10^th place here.  Just one additional track improved my state standing to a tie for FIFTH place.  That gives me five more lifetime National Geographic Points. 

 

 

 

 

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

SANDIA MOTORSPORTS PARK – ROAD COURSE

 

I didn’t know what the exact racing schedule was going to be today.  The website said that racing began at 10 a.m.  My track contact had said main events would run in the afternoon.  I tried to split the difference and made my appearance at 11 a.m.  The Miata division was on the track practicing then.  I had not missed any countable racing. 

 

The weather was much nicer than predicted earlier in the week.  The earlier forecast called for a 30% chance of snow showers.  There wasn’t any snow today.  It was cool when I arrived (39 degrees) but sunny and there was no wind.  It felt much warmer than the stated temperature.

 

There were two classes running countable races.  They were the Miatas (9) and Legends (15).   There was also an open class of just a few cars out for a practice day.  Each class ended up running a heat race before lunch.  Lunch went from 1 p.m. to 1:40 p.m. 

 

I didn’t get the word that it was BYOL as in “Bring your own lunch.”  There was no food being sold at the track.  The track is located on the western outskirts of Albuquerque with little development nearby except for the city dump and a prison.  Therefore, it didn’t seem to make any sense to drive into town to eat.  Instead, I raided my briefcase and came up one small cookie biscuit from last night’s flight and a package of granulated peanuts from a long ago consumed McDonald’s chocolate sundae.

 

The road course at the Sandia Motorsports Park is relatively flat.  It is 1.3 miles in length according to a Miata car owner I talked too.  The same start/finish line is used by the road course and the two asphalt ovals that are also part of the SMP.  The road course cars drive down the front stretch and exit onto a series of curves located beyond the oval’s turn one.  Later in the lap, they reappear on the oval’s backstretch before exiting the ovals at turn three for some more turns that are nearly out of view.  The cars coming roaring back onto the oval at the oval’s turn four.

 

As noted, in addition to the road course, Sandia has both a ¼-mile and a ½-mile asphalt oval track.  I’m sure I’ll be back to get those two someday.  The track offers a large, modern 12-15 row aluminum grandstand for their spectators.  There are several modern light poles that obviously were not used today.  This facility reminds me in some ways of the newly built Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas.

 

Following lunch, each class was scheduled to run a second heat and then a main event.  All cars in each class race in all three of their classes’ races.  There really was not much difference in outward appearance from one race to the other.

 

At 2:45 p.m., I had been at the track for three hours and 45 minutes.  At that point, they had just started the fourth race of the day (2 Miata heats and 2 legends heats), when there was a crash (and delay) on the first lap of the second legends heat race.

 

Now let’s think about this.  I had given them an hour’s head start by arriving one hour late.  Then I had been at the track for nearly four hours and they had run just a bit more than three races of eight laps each.  That’s terrible.  How can New Zealand run a 21-race program with 15-20 cars or more in each race in three hours routinely?

 

I fear I am in for a season full of yellow flags, delays and one lane racing in the United States.  We have some really boring spectator programs here.  This is why there is virtually no one in the stands at so many tracks I visit.  The acuteness of this problem is more noticeable after just returning from New Zealand.

 

 

 

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

 

When I arrived, it was 39 degrees but it didn’t feel cold.  With a completely blue sunny sky and no wind, it actually seemed warm.  During down times I sat in the National Rental Car Racing Pontiac Grand Prix.  With a black leather interior, it actually seemed hot.  By mid-afternoon, the temperature had warmed to 59 degrees.

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

 

I’m back to using rental cars for the first time, domestically, in 2007.  I’ll be going with the National Rental Car Racing Pontiac Grand Prix.  I picked this car because it has XM radio.

 

Saturday total driving miles – 3

Sunday total driving miles – 63

The driving portion of this trip covered just 66 miles.  I stopped for gas once for the sole purpose of making sure the rental car company didn’t try to charge me $5-6 for the couple of gallons of gas I used.  I paid an average price of just $2.03 per gallon.  The Pontiac Grand Prix gave me 32.1 M.P.G. in fuel mileage at an average cost of 7.9 cents per mile.  That fuel mileage is slightly inflated because I don’t think the car was full when I got it, so I did not fill it past about 30 M.P.G. fuel usage.  The car cost 73.4 cents per mile to rent, all taxes included.  When I don’t drive very far, my gas bill is low, but my per mile rental charge is large.

 

 

 

 

 

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 – 1,149

 

2.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,079 (-70)*

 

3.  Rick Schneider – Bay Shore, New York - 1,066 (-83)*

 

7.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 966 (-183)**

 

* 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.

 

31.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California - 303

 

32.  Chris Economaki, Ridgewood, New Jersey – 302 (-1)

 

33.  Gary Jacob, Turlock, California – 301 (-2)

 

34.  Ron Rodda, Lincoln, California – 297 (-6)

 

 

 

 

 

2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 11

 

2.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 9

 

3.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 3

 

3.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 3

 

5.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 2

 

5.  Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 2

 

5.  Rick Schneider, Baytown, New York - 2

 

8.  Several tied with one track

 

 

 

Tracks have been reported from 22 different worldwide trackchasers this season.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

 

Randy Lewis

#1 Trackchaser Living West of the Mississippi

 

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

 

 

 

 

CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:

 

AIRPLANE

 

Los Angeles, CA – Albuquerque, NM – 676 miles

RENTAL CAR

 

Albuquerque International Airport – trip begins

 

Albuquerque, NM – 42 miles

 

Albuquerque International Airport – trip ends – 66 miles

AIRPLANE

 

Albuquerque NM, – Denver, CO – 349 miles

 

Denver, CO – Los Angeles, CA - 861 miles

 

 

 

Total air miles – 1,886 miles

 

 

Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 1,952 miles

 

 

 

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

 

Sandia Motorsports Park - Free

 

Total racetrack admissions - Zippo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Past trackchasing reports are available at:

www.ranlayracing.com

 

Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:

www.trackchaser.net  

 

Some of my standings data comes from trackchaser.net

 

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

 

I finished the first month of 2007 with 11 new tracks.  I don’t think anybody in trackchasing has ever gotten off to a fast start like this.  February looks nearly as busy.  Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2007 (** not the first time to visit this track)

 

1,139.  Meremere Dirt Track Club, Mere Mere, New Zealand - January 1

 

1,140.  Meeanee Speedway, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand - January 1

 

1,141.  Top of the South Speedway, Richmond, New Zealand - January 2

 

1,142.  Woodford Glen Speedway, Christchurch, New Zealand - January 3

 

1,143.  Robertson Holden International Speedway, Palmerston North, New Zealand - January 5

 

1,144.  Taupo Motorsports Park, Taupo, North, New Zealand - January 6

 

1,145.  Waikaraka Park International Speedway, Auckland, New Zealand - January 6

 

1,146.  Angels Stadium of Anaheim (inner oval), Anaheim, California - January 13

 

1,147.  Angels Stadium of Anaheim (outer oval), Anaheim, California - January 13

 

1,148.  West Valley Speedway, Surprise, Arizona - January 14

 

1,149. Sandia Motorsports Park (road course), Albuquerque, New Mexico - January 28