Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
HOUSTON RACEWAY PARK, BAYTOWN, TEXAS
Trackchasing takes me all over the world. The first stop on this weekend's trip was New Orleans home to one of my top 10 worldwide favorite restaurants, Pascal's Manale.
The house specialty is BBQ shrimp. The shrimp are served in a clarified spicy butter sauce. You will need a bib to eat them.
What's just as good as the shrimp is dipping the French bread in the sauce. Next time you're in "N'Awlins" don't miss Pascal's Manale.
After dinner it was time to stroll down Bourbon Street with all the young people on spring break as well as the fans in town for the NCAA basketball tournament games.
The morning brought a film crew out in the famous French Quarter.
Alas, all is not perfect in the Crescent city. Homes in the Hurricane Katrina flooded area are still boarded up and unoccupied.
They've made some limited progress, but these neighborhoods may never come back. It might be best just to doze everything and start over.
The first day of our trip was supposed to start off at the Houston Raceway Park. Unfortunately, we mistakenly ended up at the Houston Motorsports Park instead! I wasn't the only one to be confused. Here the track calls itself the Houston Speedway. Back in the 80s I visited this track when it was a dirt oval, it's asphalt now. The track name then was the Big H Speedway.
We even went so far as to buy our tickets before I realized my mistake.
It didn't take us long to get to the right Houston track, the Houston Raceway Park.
When we arrived during World of Outlaws time trials, this was the line of ticket buyers waiting to get in. At $32 a pop, it was not an inexpensive night of sprint car racing. As luck would have it, my camera broke down after this picture was taken. Therefore you won't see any sprint car photos of tonight's racing.
GREETINGS FROM
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WE WOKE UP IN
TRACKCHASING TOURIST
ATTRACTION
YES! - SEE
BELOW
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Strategy
A tremendous amount of time and
effort can go into developing a successful and robust trackchasing
strategy. I like to use technology to
generate information. Information is
power.
I also like to practice trackchasing
conservation. It’s a little bit like
playing Jeopardy on TV. You don’t want
to waste your letters. Let me explain
what I mean with these two trackchasing strategy concepts.
At the beginning of each
trackchasing year, I try to beef up my technology war chest. The Garmin GPS unit I received for Christmas
is going to revolutionize my travel.
It’s like getting a color TV for the first time, getting
air-conditioning in your car for the first time or getting the convenience of a
cell phone for the very first time. It’s
simply above and beyond. Of course, I
can never stop adding technology opportunities when they present themselves.
Many of my airplane flights are four
or five hours long. Some are even
longer. I used to fly on American
Airlines for most of my trips. American
has power adapters at most of the seats I occupied. This allowed me to “plug-in”
and enjoy the benefits of my computer during the entire trip.
Now that I am flying with my airline
partners, Delta and United, I have discovered that they do not offer computer
power adapters for the most part. My
laptop’s battery lasts only about 1 ˝ hours.
It’s no fun for me to be on an airplane with a dead laptop. There’s too much information to analyze and
compute.
Last week I purchased an extra
strength computer battery for my Dell laptop.
This new battery along with my old one will get me from
Do I really need all of this
technology? Consider this. Some of my fellow trackchasing competitors
have recently gone to traveling together like a “wild
pack of dogs” in order to benefit from the synergies of cost sharing
travel and logistics. Note, I did not
say they WERE a pack of wild dogs. It’s
a metaphor. This is good for me. Without their unification they could not keep
up the trackchasing pace. If they can’t
keep up, then it takes the fun out of it for me. Nevertheless, I will continue to add to my trackchasing
technology war chest to fend off these roving packs of trackchasers.
I am also practicing trackchasing “conservation” as a form of trackchasing
strategy. This is my ninth round-trip
airline adventure of this season. On
each of the first eight trips, I saw only one or two tracks. That might seem like a very low level of
production when an entire airline trip is used.
Nothing could be further from the
truth. The tracks I’ve been picking off
this winter are all those “onesies and twosies”
that can be seen in the trackchasing “off-season.” Often they are tracks that are difficult to
pair up with others due to their location or racing frequency. I haven’t had to use up any tracks that can
fit into more elaborate trackchasing weekends for the future. This will enable me to be even more
productive with each trip I plan for the balance of this season. That benefit will begin to show itself as
early as this trip, where four new tracks are planned.
The Trip
This trackchasing trip was originally
planned to be a simple
The springtime brings up and down
temperatures to this part of the country and that old trackchasing nemesis,
rain. Our first planned track of the
trip was scheduled for northern
My best option appeared to be a
World of Outlaws Sprint car show in
There was simply no good airline
seat availability going into
You can imagine the hours I spent in
my
We would then have all-day drive on
Friday of 348 miles to
Yes, this plan would require going
through airport security three times (
The gratifying aspect of this trip
was that it would include Trackchasing’s First Mother. This was her “trip
of the month.” Even though the
entire trip involved a little more effort than originally planned, she was up
for whatever it would take. I’m telling
you there are not many women willing to do this. I’m glad Carol is.
There was just one final
problem. This entire logistical plan
revolved around us making that first flight from
TRACKCHASING TOURIST
ATTRACTION
I was as surprised as anyone to find
us strolling down
The only way we could get to
We didn’t know until 15 minutes
before our plane departed that we would even be able to get on the plane to
I needed that internet connection. I wanted to use www.hotwire.com to get a great hotel value
in the French Quarter. The one drawback
to the Hotwire site is that once you make a reservation, you can’t cancel
it. That’s why I couldn’t make a reservation
before I was certain we would be coming to the Crescent city.
Just beyond the airport, I found a
small auto parts business. They were
closed. My internet signal “finder” key told me there was an internet
connection here. They did not have it
password protected, so in no time I was into the system.
The www.hotwire.com
site allows me to pick a specific area of a major city where we would like to
stay. The site does not show me the
names of the hotels that are being offered.
The site does tell me the price; shows me the number of stars (1-5) the
hotel earns representing the hotel’s quality and tells me the hotel is located
in the area I have requested. In this case,
that was the French Quarter of
I selected a 3-star hotel that was
priced at $60. That seemed like a great
value considering a 2.5 star hotel was being offered for $114. Later on, I would see that it really
was. Our hotel would be the Holiday Inn
on
By the way, I offer this type of
information to you, the loyal Trackchaser Report reader, so that you too can
experience these kinds of travel values during the trips you plan. I hope my travel tips help you.
This is spring break time in areas
like
Carol and I spent the evening doing
just what I’ve done so often during my visits to
The specialty at Pascal’s is BBQ
shrimp. This is not BBQ in the
Midwestern sense. These are huge (4-6”)
boiled shrimp. Carol says they are
bigger. The shrimp are served in a
clarified spicy butter sauce. The shrimp
are dumped into the sauce whole, so they have to be peeled before they can be
eaten. I don’t care much for that
part. They even have their eyes still
attached. I didn’t even know shrimp had
eyes!
Diners who order this specialty are “bibbed.”
If you go there, you had better wear the bib or you are likely to regret
it. We also went through at least two
loaves of French bread. The French bread
is used for dipping in the spicy butter sauce.
The meal is delicious. We
concluded our fine supper with some famous
Pascal’s Manale was affected by the
We capped off the evening with a
stroll down
We soon learned that one round of
the NCAA basketball regionals were being played in
The next morning Carol and I headed
over toward
Bottom-line is that the French
Quarter is a fun place for a night or maybe two.
The People
The people in this part of the
country are possibly the most unique of any geographical locale in our great
country. Their French Cajun speech takes
some getting used to just to understand what is being said.
They took a major hit with Hurricane
Katrina and the subsequent flood. It’s
been argued that the government has failed these folks. I’m not exactly sure where I fall out at that
issue. Normally, I am a “if you want something, go out and get it yourself kind
of person.” I never care what the
government’s policies are since I have never depended on the government for
help.
On the other hand, the people most
affected by this flood might have been the folks least capable of dealing with
it. If you had nothing but your home and
the contents in it and that was taken away, it would be devastating. Then if you have no skills or wherewithal to improve
your situation, you’re going to have big problems. I wish them the best, but I doubt the
situation will improve any time soon.
By the way, I sat next to a
Wow!
Two weeks without electricity in
RACE TRACK STATS:
This was
my 28th lifetime track to see in the Lone Star state, home of the state bird,
the Mockingbird. I am only one track
behind John Moore for the state lead. On
the other hand, I have
RACE TRACK NEWS:
We were in
The evening got off to a rough
start. We arrived at the
Nevertheless, we bought our tickets
with our MasterCard. The ticket taker
gave us our tickets, our MasterCard receipt and a one-page schedule of
tonight’s events. We drove toward the
parking lot. I glanced at the scheduled
events for the night. There were heats
and features scheduled for the bandeleros, thunder roadsters and legends. However, there were no World of Outlaw sprint
races on the schedule.
Why would that be? We were at the WRONG track. The World of Outlaws were racing at the
The funny thing about this confusion
is that I had been to the
We still had enough time to make it
to the
We quickly received a cash refund on
our
There were two lines of more than 50
people each waiting to buy tickets. The
general admission price for tonight’s program was $32. That’s the most I have ever paid for a World
of Outlaws show. Pit passes were
$40. There was no shortage of takers. My digital camera also froze up after I took
a picture of the track’s sign.
Therefore, there will be no racing pictures of the HRP posted, although
there will be several other photos posted before the camera went on the blink.
The
The first person I met at the track
was wearing a red shirt. He looked like
a track official. I struck up a
conversation with him. His name was
Johnny Gibson. Johnny is the World of
Outlaws announcer. I was also surprised
to learn that he is THEE Johnny Gibson of trackchaser fame.
Johnny hails from
So….how was the World of Outlaw
sprint car racing? Had they corrected
the one problem with their show that everyone complains about? Would the answer to that question be “Yes,” “Maybe” or “No?” How about no #$$%&*$@^& way!!!!!!!
There was almost no passing with the
Outlaws all night. They ran four heats,
a dash as well as a “B” feature and the “A” feature event.
In the heats, the fastest four cars were inverted. Each one of the heats was won from the first
row except for one. In heat number three,
Danny Schatz started in the second row.
He jumped the start and led the heat race into the first turn. Therefore, in reality there was no passing in
that race either. Actually the best race
of the night was the 24-car bomber feature event. Only nine of the bombers finished.
The top two cars from each heat race
went into the dash. Those eight drivers
drew for positions in the dash. That was
probably the most exciting element of the entire night of racing. The dash, “B”
main and “A” main were all won from the
front row!!!!! Bad @#@##%&^&
news!!!!! It was fun to see Steve Kinser
advance from his 11th starting position to fifth.
I want to see passing. The World of Outlaws did have one unusual
rule. Following restarts, all lapped
cars were sent to the rear. This seems
unfair to the drivers who had passed those cars earlier in the race. On the other hand, it’s fan friendly. Without lapped cars there might be more
passing for position.
Nevertheless, it will be a long time
before I go to another one of their shows unless they are racing at a track
that is new to me and is my only alternative.
CAROL’S COMMENTS
I didn’t like the muddy parking
lot. I wanted to see some action. There wasn’t much passing. I like Steve Kinser and it was fun to see him
pass a few cars. The concession line
moved fast. I liked that they didn’t
take an intermission.
The World of Outlaws show had its
final checkered flag wave at 10:05 p.m. at the
The
We were one of the very first out of
the
As we traveled back toward our
Country Inn & Suites hotel, located just 2.4 miles from the
I missed the turn to the
We parked quickly and hopped out of
the car. As we approached the
grandstand, I could see the track’s lap counter. It showed “28.” I figured this was probably the last race of
the night (it was) and they were on lap 28 (they were not). If 28 laps had been finished you would have
to think the race was nearly over.
I asked a bystander if this was the
last race of the night. Yes, it was he
told me. However, I would soon learn
that twenty-eight laps had not been completed.
There were still 28 laps remaining.
At the
The thunder roadster racecar is
beautiful. It reminds me of the low and
sleek cars that ran at Indy in the 1950s.
This is also a new class. I don’t
believe I’ve ever seen more than four or five of them at any other track. Tonight, they had 31 thunder roadsters show
up. When we arrived at the track, there
were 27 racing.
This is where the rub comes in. We did not see the beginning of this
race. We did see 27 cars race for 28
laps. There were a couple of caution
periods. The racing we saw lasted for
about 20 minutes. There were some
incredible battles for position including the lead. Carol and I both concluded that this racing
was better than anything we saw all night at the World of Outlaws sprint car
show.
This is what our trackchasing rules
have to say about counting a track as it relates to the racing,
“To count a track you must see actual racing competition.
No time trials are countable, even if multiple racers are on track
simultaneously. No practice only counts. No visits on off days count.”
There are a number of ways to look at what we saw and how what we saw
compares to the above rule. The real
question was, “did we see actual racing
competition.”
There is nothing in our rules that says you have to watch an entire
program from start to finish. There is
nothing in our rules that says you have to see a complete race. There is nothing in our rules that says you
have to see a particular type of race. We’ve
talked about adding such requirements but nothing has ever been proposed in
this area.
There are difficulties with a rule that simply says you must see a
complete race. What if you went to the “24 hours of Daytona” endurance race and left for
two hours during the middle of the race.
Even though you saw 22 hours of racing, would you not be allowed to
count the track because you didn’t see the ENTIRE race?
I know one trackchaser who arrived at a
What if you went to see a 500-lap race at the
What if the race was rained out after 240 laps? NASCAR would not count that race as complete
and would require the drivers to come back at a later point in time to complete
the race. Could a trackchaser count the
track? What if the trackchaser could not
return on the date scheduled for the completion of this race? Would that fact have any impact on the
track’s countability? Remember, we have
no rules whatsoever that say you must see a complete race.
Of course, any self-respecting trackchaser would prefer to see a
complete race. However, there are
sometimes circumstances beyond a trackchaser’s control that would prevent that
from happening. Maybe the best solution
is for each trackchaser to make their own call as to whether or not they saw “actual racing competition.”
A discussion could also occur regarding the quality of racing seen as a
determinant for being able to count the track.
Recall that tonight we saw 27 cars race a feature event for 28 laps. Again, our rules have nothing whatsoever to
say about the quality of the racing that needs to be seen. Thank goodness! If we did have such a “quality” rule, I might not be able to count tracks where I’ve
been in the grandstand watching the racing for four hours!
I’ve seen far less racing action than we saw tonight and still counted
the track in the past. Virtually every
other trackchaser I know has seen far less racing than we saw tonight and
counted the track. Trackchaser Andy Sivi
is famous for saying these words or something like them, “Every trackchaser has 5% of his tracks that another
trackchaser wouldn’t want to count.”
I believe Andy’s comments are directionally correct. I don’t believe it’s 5% but the total might
be 15-20 tracks.
If you remember, my 1,000th career track was seen at the
Auburndale Kartway. That night only one
countable class raced and that class, the senior champ karts, had only one
car. I was allowed to count that track
because the one countable racer at the track raced with another non-countable
racer (a junior champ kart).
There’s a track in
The situation we encountered tonight is definitely a grey area. I feel more comfortable counting a track
where I saw the beginning of the race and the race was not completed for any
number of reasons, (rain, tornado warning, lights went out, etc.) I feel somewhat less comfortable counting a
track where I didn’t see the beginning.
I don’t know why I have that feeling since I might see more actual
racing, like we did tonight, at a race where I did not see the first green flag
thrown than if I saw the beginning of a race that was shortened due to some
reason beyond my control.
I might also feel less compelled to want to count tonight’s track if I
had left the first track of the evening before its completion. However, we stayed at the
Finally, as mentioned, we had visited the
It would have been very easy for Carol and me to count this track. I could have written, “We arrived at the
This situation is somewhat exacerbated by the recent ruling by
trackchaser commissioner, Will White.
Will declared that trackchasers couldn’t arbitrarily withhold the
counting of a track based upon their own personal preferences. I agree with that sentiment 110%. I would not want to NOT declare this track
when I should have and be found in contempt of the recent ruling that I
support.
Therefore, I will let the commissioner review the data I have
presented. If he needs additional
information, I will provide it in a timely manner. I will keep all Trackchaser Report readers
informed of the commissioner’s decision.
CAROL’S COMMENTS
The thunder roadsters were
beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen
them race. Their race was so much better
than anything we saw at the World of Outlaws show.
WEATHER CONDITIONS
It was a very pleasant evening for
racing just as predicted. It took a good
deal of effort to get to
RENTAL CAR UPDATE:
The National Rental Car Racing Chevy
This car had two annoying
maintenance issues. First, the “low right rear tire” warning light was
illuminated. We didn’t have a low right
rear tire. The remote locking mechanism
didn’t work either. It’s unusual to have
issues like these with National Executive Select cars.
Thursday total driving miles - 22
Friday total driving miles - 470
Saturday total driving miles - 3
LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total.
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Allan Brown,
3. Guy Smith, Effort,
4. Rick Schneider –
7. Ed Esser,
* Warning, you are within 50 tracks of being removed from this list.
** Special exemption.
LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS
2007 (current thru 2/18/07)**
With gains in
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs,
3. Allan Brown,
**Until the end of the year, NGD rankings are unofficial. Rankings are affected not only by the leader’s activities but by other trackchasers impact on the leader’s position.
Other notables
These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.
31. Carol Lewis,
32. Chris Economaki,
33. Gary Jacob,
34. Ron Rodda,
2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis,
2.
Ed Esser,
3. Mike Knappenberger,
4. Guy Smith, Effort,
5. Carol Lewis,
6. Rick Young,
7.
Will White,
7.
Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring,
8.
Roger Ferrell,
10. Several with three
Tracks have been reported by 27
different worldwide trackchasers this season.
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
#1 Trackchaser Living
West of the
God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked, the good
fortune to run into the ones that I do, and the eyesight to tell the
difference.
CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA – New Orleans, LA – 1,668 miles
RENTAL CAR –
* This is not always the direct
mileage from the airport to the first stop as detours along the way may add to
the stated mileage.
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
Past trackchasing reports are available at:
Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:
Some of the data
in this report comes: www.trackchaser.net
Garmin GPS
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
Each day of this trackchasing trip
should take us to a different state.
Today’s state,
RACETRACKS
VISITED IN 2007 (** not the first time to visit this track)
1,139. Meremere Dirt Track
Club,
1,140. Meeanee Speedway,
1,141. Top of the South
Speedway,
1,142. Woodford Glen Speedway,
1,143. Robertson Holden
International
1,144.
1,145.
1,146. Angels Stadium of
1,147. Angels Stadium of
1,148.
1,149.
1,150. Grand Prix De
Lanaudiere,
1,151. Ste-Eulalie Ice Track,
1,152. St Guillaume, St
1,153.