






TODAY’S HEADLINES
Can you guess why we picked the “Delmarva” area for this weekend’s trackchasing
trip?...................more in “The Trip”.
I’ve seen 80 new tracks in
2007. Tonight, I saw the best racing of
the year ………………..details in “Race Review –
Which race drivers are considered “countable” in the hobby of trackchasing and why?……………….more
in “Race Review –
Click on this link or paste it in your browser to take
you to today’s Trackchaser Report via my website at www.ranlayracing.com
http://www.ranlayracing.com/july682007.htm
GREETINGS FROM
MIDDLEFORD
WE WOKE UP IN
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Strategy
July is a big trackchasing
month. With county fairs, there may be
more trackchasing opportunities in July, and maybe August, than any other month
of the year. If you can’t add a good
number of tracks during this month, you’re going to lose to the field.
Even though I needed some valuable
National Geographic Diversity points, to fend off an expected attack from my
fellow competitors, I chose to go for as many tracks as I could get even though
there was no NGD benefit. I’ll go NGD
point chasing in the near future.
The Trip
Two things are always true about a
trackchasing trip. First, I put all
kinds of time, effort and creativity into each and every trip I plan. Secondly, no trip EVER goes according to my
original plan. That’s just a fact of
life. It’s trackchasing version of Murphy’s
Law, what ever can go wrong will go wrong.
In my life nothing much goes wrong,
it just goes different. Different can be
good. It can usually be
challenging. This trip was no exception. Stay tuned for the second and third reports
from this trip to see what I mean.
The original plan was to go to
After our usual early morning
departure from
With a wide-open flight, we have a
much better chance of being upgraded from coach class to either first or
business class. Today, there was one
business class seat and one coach seat available for Carol and me. Who would get the business class seat? I insisted that Carol take it. She insisted that I take it. What happens when we both insist on opposite
things? We do it the way she wants to do
it. Usually, that’s not what I’m looking
for, but today she won out and I benefited with a luxurious business class
seat!
The quality of a first class or
business class seat can vary depending upon the type of aircraft being
used. Today’s plane on United Airlines
was a Boeing 777. Business and First
Class seats are very expensive compared to coach seating.
As an example, a one-way no advance
purchase coach seat from LAX to Washington-Dulles goes for $347. Business class costs $819 and First Class for
$814. Yes, business class was more
expensive than first class on this trip.
Pricey, huh? I was able to get my
business class seat for a good deal less than any of these prices today.
What do they offer in business
class? First, the seat reclines to a
nearly flat position. That’s good if you
want to get some shut-eye. The seat in
front is about three feet away. That
means there is plenty of legroom. The
business class seat also offers a nice extending footrest and an individual
reading light and video monitor. There
is a choice of complimentary movies and satellite TV. We also were served a nice meal, while the
coach passengers received a package of peanuts.
Oh, yes! Beer and mixed drinks
are free! I was most grateful that Carol
insisted that I take this seat, although I would have preferred she did.
Friday night
Hotels along the East coast are the
most expensive of any area I visit in the
Back in the pre-wireless internet
motel days (not that many years ago), I stayed in some real rat holes. Some of those places would make a Motel 6
look like the Ritz
I don’t recommend the Relax Inn in
The People
When Carol and I entered the
Bob also told me he had been the
track announcer at the King’s Speedway in Hanford,
Did you notice “Delmarva” in the track’s name? Do you have any idea what “Delmarva” means?
At first, I didn’t. Then I
started to see this name on several local businesses. “Delmarva”
is another name for
STATE RANKINGS
These were
my 4th and 5th tracks to see in the First state. This ties me for 17th place with
Kevin Eckert and Bing
Carol now
has three
RACE REVIEW –
First, the directions we had for
this track were terrible. The track’s
website direction page was not operational and my other source just missed the
boat. Without good directions or a
specific address, my GPS unit was rendered ineffective. We resorted to the “old
way” of finding a track. We
stopped and asked a local. The fruit
stand cashier wasn’t sure about her directions, but they turned out to be good.
The admission price to the
DMP is a “small
car” track. It’s only 1/5-mile in
distance. That’s normally too small for
more traditional stock car and open wheel racing. Nevertheless, racing on a track this size can
still be good. This track has been at
this location since 1962. In the
racetrack business, that’s a long time.
Concessions were unusual and
cheap. The popcorn was “microwave” popcorn. It was only a buck. My ice cream bar was just 75 cents. These were pre-WWII prices! Our server could have used some lessons in
customer service, however.
The racing was good; however, most
of it was not countable. Why were some
of the races not countable? The drivers
were not adults. Trackchasing rules
require the drivers of all countable classes be adults. Do you know what age constitutes an
adult? I don’t.
It is often times difficult for the
trackchaser, while he/she is at the track, to determine whether adults are
racing or I guess, the alternative, “kids”. The announcer usually does not explain what
age requirements, if any, exist. This
makes counting tracks somewhat difficult when a track website or track rules
are not made available to the public.
I don’t understand why
trackchasing’s “founding fathers” thought it
was important to limit trackchasing to racing done by “adults”
anyway. Racing classes are catering to
younger and younger classes all the time.
Tonight the first three feature
events were races for non-adults, by trackchaser definitions. These included a 270cc mini-sprint race and
two mod-lite races. I really like the
mod-lite division. They are so similar
to one of my favorite classes, the DIRT modified.
The fourth feature of the night was
for mod-lites driven by adults. There
was no age restriction in this class. I
would challenge any race watcher to view a video tape of these four features
and determine which class might be driven by “adults”
and which were driven by whatever alternative definition to the word “adult” you might like to use.
Following the fourth feature of
sixth, we headed for the exits. There
was more trackchasing to do tonight.
RACE TRACK STATS:
Track
details
Website: http://www.delmarvamotorsportspark.com/
Weather: It was warm with temps in the high 80s at
race time. It’s going to be a warm
weekend.
Track
type: oval
Surface/Length: 1/5-mile dirt
Grandstands: Seven row wooden bleachers. There is also room to bring a lawn chair or
watch from your car.
P.A.: Good.
Announcer: Not very informative.
On
time: We arrived a few minutes late due
to the bad directions we had.
Pit
area: The pit area is located behind the
backstretch at the DMP.
Classes: 270cc mini sprints (6), rookie mod lites,
kid’s mod lites, adult mod lites, 600 cc mini-sprints and a mini-stock type
class. No class had more than 10 cars.
Radio
Frequency: When I am trackchasing with
Carol, I rarely use my race scanner.
Concessions: Varied and cheap.
Scoreboard: No
Extras: The 50/50 went for $167. Considering there were not 167 people in the grandstands that convinced me people are looking for a way out! We’re near the beach. All of the walkways were sand. This and the dust from the track doused our National Rental Car Racing Chevy Impala.
RACE REVIEW –
We arrived at the
The track is a long 5/8-mile
fairgrounds track with barely adequate lighting. When we arrived, there was not much
happening. Were they at
intermission? Nope. They weren’t racing because the backstretch
lights had failed! A few people were
leaving. I asked one fan how many races
remained. He told me, “They still have all the feature events yet to run.” That was perfect news!
We grabbed a seat in the grandstands
and waited for the lights to come back on.
This did not look like a good track.
It was too big. The backstretch
looked like it was “way out there”. The front stretch lighting didn’t look very
good and the backstretch lighting wasn’t working. The announcer told us, “Our track is old.
The wiring is old. We have not
had time to upgrade the wiring since racing started last year.” Great!
I’ve seen a lot of tracks and I was certain this was not going to offer
good racing.
How wrong I was. The
The super late model race might have
been the best of the night. Kenny
Pettyjohn, a long-time area regular started on the front-row of the 20-lap
feature. Ricky Elliott started back in
tenth position. Pettyjohn raced to a
huge lead while Elliott began to pick off one driver after another all the
while eating into the leader’s advantage.
On the 18th lap, they were neck and neck and then something
broke in Pettyjohn’s car giving Ricky Elliott the win.
All I ask from my racing is that the
cars pass each other. I would still be a
racechaser and not a trackchaser if that happened frequently. Carol said, “We
get a good race like this once out of about 300 tracks we visit”. That might be an exaggeration, but not by
much. On restarts, they used double file
lineups. That’s fan friendly, but maybe
not driver friendly. Double file
restarts promote passing and side by side racing. Single file restarts do not. The racing at the
The announcer gave me a nice
trackchaser mention. When he finished,
the crowd gave this West coast trackchaser a nice round of applause. There was a good deal of seating in the
15-row wooden grandstands. It looked
like the place was nearly sold-out.
They had a REAL trophy queen
tonight. She had a sash and all, just as
they used to do it.
RACE TRACK STATS:
Track
details
Website: http://www.georgetownspeedway.com/
Weather: By the time we reached the track, the weather
was perfect for shorts and t-shirt.
Track
type: oval
Surface/Length: 5/8-mile dirt
Grandstands: Old wooden grandstands. Not much light in the grandstands.
P.A.: Very good.
Announcer: The track had a good announcer in the press
box and an announcer who handled on track interviews.
On
time: We arrived during a delay for track
lights that were down.
Pit
area: Located beyond turns three and
four.
Classes: Big block modifieds (one of my favorites),
crate modifieds and two classes of late models (my favorite). The feature events ran 12-24 cars.
Radio
Frequency: When I am trackchasing with
Carol, I rarely use my race scanner.
Concessions: Our late night snack included a very good
slice of slightly burnt cheese pizza, a bottled water and Diet Coke all for
$6.25
Scoreboard: No
Extras: One of the track’s pace cars was a 1960
Cadillac convertible. The other was a
new Dodge Magnum. These cars did a nice
job of pacing the field and delivering the track trophy queen. Each feature winner was interviewed and
photographed with just about every kid who wanted to walk down to the track’s
racing surface.
CAROL’S COMMENTS
The
RENTAL CAR UPDATE
We will be driving the National
Rental Car Racing Chevy Impala today. It’s
an O.K. car, but the interior road noise is unacceptable.
I’m picking up this car in
Washington, D. C. and hope to return it three days later in
Nevertheless, I am tracking at 117% of my annual rental car budget. This is somewhat surprising since I increased my budget for rental cars from the amount spent in 2006. Rental cars and gasoline are the only two trackchasing expense categories where I am currently over my year-to-date (YTD) budget.
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
On the plains of hesitation lie the
bleached bones of millions who, when within the grasp of victory sat and waited
and waiting died.
AIRPLANE
RENTAL CAR –
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
RANKINGS
LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
There are no trackchasers currently
within 100 tracks of my lifetime total.
1. Randy Lewis,
Other notables
These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.
29. Tom Schmeh,
30. Carol Lewis,
31. Dwight Bucks,
2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Roland Vanden Eynde,
3. Ed Esser,
4. Mike Knappenberger,
5. Carol Lewis,
6. Guy Smith, Effort,
7. Gordon Killian, Sinking
Springs,
7. Paul Weisel,
9. Pam Smith, Effort,
9. Roger Ferrell,
Tracks have been reported by 37 different worldwide trackchasers this season.
LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS
2007 (current thru 6/29/07)**
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 also by other trackchasers impact on the leader’s position in each state.
Some of the data in this report comes from www.trackchaser.net
and my Garmin GPS
We’ll stay on the East coast. The weather is dry, although very hot and
somewhat humid.
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.
1,154.
1,155. Northeast Pond Ice
Track,
1,156. Lee Pond Ice Track,
1,157. New Hendry Country
1,158.
1,159. Honeoye Lake Ice Track –
Road Course,
1,160.
1,161.
1,162. Dawgwood Speedway,
1,163. Toccoa Speedway,
1,164. Tazewell Speedway,
1,165.
1,166. Dacosa Speedway,
1,167. Swinging Bridge Raceway,
1,168.
1,169. Foothills Raceway,
1,170. Mileback Speedway,
1,171. Grand Prix of
1,172. Vegas Grand Prix,
1,173.
1,174. Low Country Kartway,
1,175. Dillon Motor
1,176. Valley Dirt Riders,
1,177.
1,178. Sertoma Speedway,
1,179.
1,180.
1,181. Hollywood Hills
1,182. Meridian
1,183.
1,184. Rocky Mountain Raceways
(oval),
1,185. Rocky Mountain Raceways
(figure 8),
1,186. Modoc
1,187.
1,188.
1,189. Fairplex at the
1,190. Lowes Motor
1,191. Lowes Motor
1,192.
**
1,193. Thunderbird Stadium (figure
8),
1,194. Thunderbird Stadium (oval),
1,195. Whispering
1,196.
1,197.
1,198.
1,199.
1,200. Castrol Raceway,
1,201. Hidden
1,202. Boyd’s
1,203. Fayette County Fairgrounds,
1,204.
1,205.
1,206. Vinton Speedway,
1,207. Hilltop
1,208. I-70
1,209. L A Raceway, La Monte,
1,210. Valley
1,211.
1,212.
**
** Iowa
1,213.
**
1,214. Kart Kanyon Raceway, Aztec,
1,215. Aztec
1,216. Sunvalley Speedway,
1,217.
1,218.