GREETINGS FROM MALDEN, MISSOURI

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I WOKE UP IN SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIAA AND WENT TO SLEEP IN PORTAGEVILLE, MISSOURI.  THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy                                                                                    

 

Remember that the strategies employed in my trackchasing are not exclusive to this hobby.  They can be reapplied.  Today I needed to employ my, “keep flying the airplane” trackchasing strategy.

 

What is the “keep flying the airplane” strategy?  It is another way of saying never give up until there is absolutely no hope left.  Airplane pilots use this lingo when a problem arises.  They need to keep flying the airplane until a solution can be found for whatever problem exists.

 

I use the same approach in golf.  Golf is a game where you can find yourself in some nearly hopeless predicaments.  I never give up until there in no possibility for me to win the hole, the match or whatever.  If you never give up, you just never know what might happen.  Today was a day, when my “keep flying the airplane” strategy paid off.  You’ll be able to read more about that in the “Trip” section.

 

 

The Trip

 

I might have sensed that this trip would begin on the downside when I awoke at 3:30 a.m. on Friday morning and walked into my office.  I found my computer battery dead because I had not properly plugged in the AC adapter.  This caused my overnight computer backup to also die in the middle of the backup, making it useless.

 

There was no time to cry over that spilled milk.  My flight was leaving at 6 a.m. and I needed to be out of the house by 4 a.m.  I was happy to be leaving on this trip.  The weather forecast was beautiful in North Carolina for my three-day trip.  I was going to make some trackchasing hay.

 

The plan was to fly into Chicago from Los Angeles.  Once in Chicago, I could choose from three different North Carolina locations.  I could fly into Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham or Greensboro based upon which flight left first with an open seat.  This itinerary did not go according to plan.  Here’s the nitty gritty on actually what did happen.

 

n     My 6 a.m. flight to Chicago was unexpectedly oversold.  I came up about two seats short of getting on.

n     I looked across the hall at the Washington, D.C. flight.  I would take anything that would fly east.  They had a flashing sign at their gate.  The sign read, “Volunteers needed.”  That meant they were so oversold, they were looking for volunteers to give up their seats in return for compensation.  I would not be flying to Washington, D.C. this morning.

n     My final shot in the United Airlines terminal was Denver.  My research last night told me they had plenty of seats.  I ran over to gate 74 and caught that flight just two minutes before the plane pulled away.

n     I figured that once I got to Denver, a major United Airlines hub, I could catch something heading even further East.  Isn’t this how the hobos did it?  I struck out on a United flight to Atlanta in terminal B. 

n     Denver is a large airport.  Several of my readers are veterans of this airport.  I don’t know how many terminals they have but I was in terminals A, B and C this morning.  My next option was to go from Terminal B to Terminal C where a non-stop flight to Charlotte would soon be leaving.  It’s about a 10-15 minute walk, plus a trip down two long escalators and a two-minute underground tram ride to change terminals in Denver.  At the last minute it looked promising that I would make this flight.  They had one seat left and began to call standby passengers.  One family of four refused to spilt up to get the one seat.  Two other passengers did not show when their name was called.  There were just two of us standby passengers left in the waiting area.  I didn’t get that final seat, the other guy did! 

n     My final shot for all of the planes leaving in this block was a Delta flight in Terminal A.  Again, the 15-minute power walk turned out to yield a big zero.  The Delta agent told me that all of the flights to the three cities they service from Denver were full all day.  He said it was a combination of winter break, spring break and the last hurrah of ski season.

n     I was wearing thin black dress socks with my deck shoes.  This combination is for “show” more than “go.”  The airlines require shoes other than athletic shoes, so I go with this to get on the plane.  This combo is not meant for long distance or speed walking.  I was back in Terminal B now.  I had eight Friday trackchasing locations that might work for me.  North Carolina was getting more and more remote as a trackchasing possibility as the hours went by.  I also wanted to avoid the Midwest.  It was raining there.

n     I tried to get on a Dallas flight that had been delayed.  I could go trackchasing in Louisiana if I could get on that airplane.  They called all of the standby passengers they could accommodate and I wasn’t one of them.

n     I scanned the departure monitors for United.  United services about 75 cities from Denver.  There must be something that would work for me.  I saw two flights heading to Tampa and Miami.  There were races tonight near both of those cities.  Those flights were leaving from the far end of the B terminal.  By now, the balls of both feet were burning.  I didn’t think I could walk much further.  Nevertheless, I made it down to those gates.  The flights were jammed packed.  I was told there was no use even trying to standby.

n     By now, there weren’t many flights that would get me into any trackchasing location in time for a race tonight.  My only choices were from Texas to the East and Missouri to the South.  I was even getting concerned that I might not even make it out of Denver tonight.  Maybe I had made a bad decision to come to Denver.  Maybe I should have hung on for a later Chicago flight out of Los Angeles.  I had only a minute or two to make that decision at 6 a.m.  I would have to sink or swim with Denver.

n     My very last alternative was a flight to Springfield, Missouri.  I hadn’t flown into Springfield since my days of calling on Wal-Mart.  There was rain in Missouri.  However, I could no longer get to the East coast in time for any racing.  I would have to change terminals one more time in order to try for the Springfield flight.  Could my feet take it?  By the way, I can walk forever.  I just can’t walk in shoes like I was wearing.

n     I was riding along in the underground airport tram (for the third time today) and missed my change to terminal A.  I was now headed for baggage claim.  If I got off the tram in baggage claim, I would have to clear security again to get back into the airport.  When the tram stopped and everyone exited for baggage claim, I stowed away.  It was sort of like staying in Disneyland after everyone had cleared out for the night or not really.

n     The flight going to Springfield was a SkyWest flight.  J.J. flies for SkyWest.  We have top priority on SkyWest, so if they had a seat I would get it.  They did!  Now, what about the weather?

n     When I landed in Springfield, Missouri, it was pouring down rain.  It was about 4 p.m.  I would need to drive some 225 miles through parts of the Ozark Mountains in order to make the first day of a two-day show at the Malden Speedway.  Would the rain that ran throughout the region cancel their show?  I called the Malden track.  They were racing.  What was the weather forecast, I asked.  The man didn’t know.  Right!

n     Off I went.  I couldn’t get a track every day of this trip, if I didn’t get one on the first day.  I kept calling the Malden Speedway about every hour of the drive.  They were only having time trials and heat races tonight.  I asked what time the heat races would begin.  I was told about 8 p.m.  I’m such a gullible individual.  I’m one of those people who believes nearly everything I’m told.  Then I get really disappointed with people when I find out they were not truthful with me.  I always believe track people when they tell me what time they will be starting.

n     I pressed on in the rain.  About 75 miles from Malden, the rain had let up some.  There might be hope.  I didn’t get to the Malden Speedway until 8:30 p.m.  It was dark.  When I arrived, they were still qualifying.  Qualifying doesn’t count in trackchasing, but heat races do.  So far, they had not received any rain.  I hadn’t missed a racing thing.

n     I am happy to announce that at about 9:30 p.m. the first heat race went onto the track.  I was going to get a countable race tonight.  The rest of my trip was up in the air, since I was now in rural Southeastern Missouri.  There are not a lot of good airline connections in this part of the country.

n     Nevertheless, I’m hear to tell you that the “keep flying the airplane” strategy has saved me repeatedly.  I hope it works for you.

 

 

 

 

The People

 

Why is it that small town airports like the one in Springfield, Missouri offer free internet connections, while most of the larger airports do not?  I always think that the small town folks are just nicer than those city slickers are.  I don’t know if I’m right or not.

 

 

 

 

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

 

MALDEN SPEEDWAY, MALDEN, MISSOURI - TRACK #1,165

 

This was my 30^th track to see in the Show Me state, home of the state tree, the Flowering Dogwood.  My Missouri rank does not change with this new track addition.  I’m still in seventh place, now just one track behind Allan Brown.  Ed Esser leads the state with 52 tracks.  Forty-six worldwide trackchasers have seen at least one Missouri track.

 

 

 

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

MALDEN SPEEDWAY

 

I don’t like tracks that don’t start their races on time.   Yes, that must mean I don’t like most tracks!  I’m inclined to give the Malden Speedway a partial pass here.  They did announce that tonight would be only time trials and heat races.  Tomorrow night would be feature racing for all of their many classes.

 

Time trials on the smallish one-half mile dirt oval lasted until 9:30 p.m.  I don’t know when they started.  I sat at the top of the steeply pitched, eight-row grandstand for an hour watching qualifications.  It was a pleasant evening with a temperature of 68 degrees.

 

I listened to the track’s radio frequency at 451.3250.  The P.A. was very weak and the announcer did not do much of a job in informing or entertaining the crowd.  They also had a problem with the speaker cutting in and out.  It’s on nights like this that I really enjoy listening to the track’s internal communications on my race scanner.

 

The track was well lit and a fairly large crowd of 500 people or so looked on.  I’m guessing this was a result of the local folk’s spring fever.  I met one of the track’s owners.  She wanted to know how I had selected her track to visit tonight.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her!

 

It seems like there is always something that I see for the very first time at a track regardless of the fact that I have done this 1,165 times.  Tonight the flagman stood on the backstretch and flagged each division through time trials.  When it was time for the heat races, he came over to the flag stand on the track’s front stretch and started the races.  I’ve never seen such a thing before.

 

I wasn’t expecting much from the racing.  With so low expectations, the racing actually came in a bit better than I anticipated.  The first heat began at 9:33 p.m. with five mini-stocks racing 10 laps.  The remaining heats were all 12 laps long.  There were eight street stocks, 22 hobby stocks, 13 late models, 14 emods and about 30-40 modifieds.  That seemed like a pretty good turnout of racecars.  They ran about ten heat races and ten hot laps for the seven sprinters who showed up.

 

This area might be the beginning of the “Bible belt.”  I saw several religious signs and slogans on the backs of racecars.  One such sign read, “Jesus Saves.”  Another car in the same race had this written on the back of his racecar, “Kiss my country ass.”  Although they were in the same heat race, I doubt they go to the same church.

 

The concessions were very good.  I’m a sucker for a bologna sandwich.  I grew up on ‘em as a kid and still buy them at the racetracks.  They are much more popular in the South than anywhere else.

 

You might recall my experience in Poplar Bluff, Missouri last year.  The bugs and skeeters nearly ate me alive.  The bugs were a problem tonight as well.  My windshield looked like I had been driving during the middle of the summer with all of the smashed bugs on it.  Tonight’s track is only 25 miles or so, from Poplar Bluff.  Haven’t these folks ever heard of bug abatement? 

 

The track remained super smooth all night.  There was no dust.  They did a nice job of minimizing yellow flag stoppages.  They left some cars stopped on the track to the degree that I felt I was in England with their nearly no yellow flag policy.

 

I left after the third modified heat at 11:05 p.m.  An hour of time trials and an hour and a half of heat races seemed like enough, considering my day started at 3:30 a.m.  I had also walked more than five miles INSIDE the Denver airport.  I believe there was just one more heat race to run tonight before the track turned off the lights.

 

I also hadn’t reserved a hotel yet.  This is not a very populated area and services were spotty.  I ended up in a minor “hell hole” of a motel, but I’ll save that story for the next report.  Net, net, I was lucky to add to my trackchasing totals tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

 

The weather was warm and somewhat unsettled.  Not only was I lucky to even get here, but to avoid the rain at the racetrack once I did get here.

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

 

The National Rental Car Company is the easiest company to work with of any I deal with in any aspect of my life.  It normally takes about 120 seconds to make a reservation.  They send me an email confirmation of the reservation.  As soon as I return the car, they send me a .pdf file showing a copy of my invoice.  Couple that with being able to get the best cars without waiting at a rental car counter and you can see why they are my most preferred vendor anywhere.

 

Today I was making my reservation to pick up in Springfield, Missouri and return at Memphis, Tennessee.  A normal day’s rental expense is $20-30 plus tax.  However, when I return the car to a location different from where I picked the car up, the daily rental fee is in the $40-50 range before taxes. 

 

I have been one of the few trackchasers to use commercial airplanes very much in trackchasing.  In fact, one of our top 10 trackchasers has NEVER flown to a racetrack and he has more than 800 tracks to his credit.

 

Last year, I became the first trackchaser to routinely fly beyond a simple round-trip airline route.  I discovered that I could fly into one location, watch a few days of racing, then fly to a second destination and watch a few races, before returning home.  I have expanded that theme to include picking up a rental car in one spot and returning it to another.  This eliminates the need to make a long “dead head” trip back to the rental car origination location.  It also drives up my rental car expense but decreases my gasoline expense.  Of course, the reason I do it is to save time.

 

In addition to all of the pluses offered by National, I also accrue “free” days with my frequent rentals.  Today, my two-day reservation including tax came in at about $148.  The price was so high because I was dropping the car in Memphis after picking it up in Springfield.

 

The customer service agent, with no prompting from me, gave the reminder that I had seven free days coming.  He asked if I would like to use two of them today.  “Why, yes I would,” I told him.  I would still have to pay some tax even with the two “free” days.  I could handle that.  My rental car bill came to the princely some of just $2.87!!  I might at well use my free days when the daily fee is the highest.

 

 

Friday total driving miles - 278

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 – 1,165

 

2.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,106 (-59)*

 

3.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,090 (-75)*

 

4.  Rick Schneider – Bay Shore, New York - 1,067 (-98)*

 

7.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 983 (-182)**

 

 

* 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 Idaho, New Mexico and Wisconsin, I have now erased a .08 deficit (four positions) and have a .06 lead (three positions.) 

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 7.04

2. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 7.10

3. Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 7.55

 

**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, San Clemente, California - 309

 

32.  Chris Economaki, Ridgewood, New Jersey – 302 (-7)

 

33.  Gary Jacob, Turlock, California – 301 (-8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 27

 

2.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 18

 

3.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania - 15

 

3.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 15

 

5.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 13

 

6.  Rick Young, Maxville, Ontario, Canada - 8

 

7.  Will White, Quakertown, Pennsylvania – 5

 

7.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 5

 

8.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 5

 

10.  Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 4

 

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 Mississippi

 

The dogs bark, the caravan marches on.

 

 

 

 

CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:

 

AIRPLANE

 

Los Angeles, CA – Denver, CO – 861 miles

Denver, CO – Springfield, MO – 635 miles

 

RENTAL CAR – SPRINGFIELD, MO

 

Springfield Regional Airport – trip begins

Malden, MO – 238 miles*

 

* 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:

 

Malden Speedway – $10

 

 

 

 

 

Past trackchasing reports are available at:

www.ranlayracing.com

 

 

Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:

www.trackchaser.net

 

 

Some of the data in this report comes: www.trackchaser.net

Garmin GPS

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

 

Tonight was my sixth different trackchasing state in the month of March.  I’ll try for one or two more states this weekend.  I may increase that total even more before the month is finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

1,139.  Meremere Dirt Track Club, Meremere, 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 6

 

1,147.  Angels Stadium of Anaheim (outer oval), Anaheim, California - January 6

 

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

 

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

 

1,150. Grand Prix De Lanaudiere, Lavaltrie, Quebec, Canada – February 3

 

1,151. Ste-Eulalie Ice Track, Eulalie, Quebec, Canada – February 4

 

1,152. St Guillaume, St Guillaume, Quebec, Canada – February 4

 

1,153. Caldwell Rodeo Arena, Caldwell, Idaho – February 10

 

1,154. Balsam Lake Ice Track, Balsam Lake, Wisconsin – February 18

 

1,155. Northeast Pond Ice Track, Milton, New Hampshire – February 24

 

1,156. Lee Pond Ice Track, Moultonborough, New Hampshire – February 25

 

1,157. New Hendry Country Speedway, Clewiston, Florida – March 3

 

1,158. Florida Sports Park, Naples, Florida – March 4

 

1,159. Honeoye Lake Ice Track – Road Course, Honeoye, New York – March 10

 

1,160. Houston Raceway Park, Baytown, Texas – March 16

 

1,161. Houston Motorsports Park, Houston, Texas – March 16

 

1,162. Dawgwood Speedway, Chatsworth, Georgia – March 17

 

1,163. Toccoa Speedway, Toccoa, Georgia – March 17

 

1,164. Tazewell Speedway, Tazewell, Tennessee – March 18

 

1,165. Malden Speedway, Malden, Missouri, Tennessee – March 23