Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
RIVER'S EDGE ROAD COURSE, MISSION, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
On my way to Vancouver, I had an appointment at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It was tailgate party time with James, Kristy, J.J. and Carol.
I love tailgating. However, today was a sellout crowd. The traffic was much worse than we expected which curtailed the time we had to tailgate.
Our tailgate party also served as a birthday celebration for J.J.
This is the "smaller" parking lot at the Rose Bowl. We parked in the oppositie direction more than a mile from the stadium. Almost all of the at the stadium parking is on the grounds of a golf course that surrounds the historic Rose Bowl.
The Bruin faithful were out in force today. The game was sold out in the Rose Bowl that seats more than 80,000 people.
J.J., Kristy and James had seats on the "sunny" side of the stadium. Can you spot them?
Today's game against Notre Dame was being broadcast on national TV. They brought the Goodyear blimp out for the game.
Here the Bruins had the Fighting Irish backed up against their own goal line. However, that wasn't good enough as ND ended up winning this game against a hapless UCLA offense.
Just a few hours after leaving the Rose Bowl I arrived at the Vancouver (Canada) International Airport.
This is the first time I have ever seen a canoe in an airport!
The Mission Raceway Park property is only about 50 miles from the Vancouver airport.
I was in for a very rainy and cool day. It rained solidly the entire time I was at the track. The temperature was a chilly 55 degrees with a steady wind blowing.
Here's a map of today's road course. The track is 1.5 miles in length. About 50% of the racing was out of sight from most spectators.
Today's sanctioning group was the Sports Car Club of British Columbia. This building housed the club's media center.
Almost all road courses will race in the rain. I knew the forecast for the area was bad. However, I wasn't too worried (O.K. I really was) that they would race today.
It couldn't have been too comfortable working on the race car in the cold and the rain.
I am no expert on vintage foreign race cars. I'll let my viewers tell me the make and model of these great looking racers. Obviously this race driver has avoided making much contact with his fellow competitors.
I think it would be a blast to drive these little Cooper Minis.
This building housed the track scorers and announcers. No, the building in not named after me. My real name is not Randall or Randolph. It is simply Randy.
I loved this car's body style. However, there didn't seem to be much protection in the car's rear.
This was a fun looking little number. They didn't seem to have the proper rain protection for their racing gear like the teams across pit road did.
Yes, I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I'm not as fat as my rain gear makes me look here.
This is the pre-race staging area for today's West Coast Sport Car Championship 60-minute race. It was raining and blowing hard for the start of the race.
The race car "spotters" were ready for anything.
The cars come down the front straight in anticipation of the race start.
Green flag!
This is a very unusual sight to see at an auto race.
This is the turn that the folks in the umbrellas were watching.
DAY 1 – FIGHTING IRISH HANGOVER TRACKCHASING TOUR
TODAY’S HEADLINES
I retired more than five years ago today. I have decided to return to work. …………..details in “Upcoming Trackchasing Plans”.
What was the benefit of taking a trip to
I’ll give you a blow by blow from this one-day trip. If you’re planning to become a trackchaser, I want you to know what you’re in for. …………..details in “The Trip”.
TRACKCHASING MEDIA
This brief new flash appeared following my visit to the Victorville Auto Raceway on September 29, 2007 in the local daily newspaper.
Desert Dispatch
By J.J. Calvacca
The Trackchaser visited
The Raceway had a special visitor last Saturday night by a fellow who holds the record for visiting more racetracks than any other living human. Randy Lewis, who actually has a home in San Clemente when he's there, paid a visit here. It was the 1,277th racetrack that Lewis has visited, both here and in eight foreign countries.
So far this year alone, Lewis has been at tracks in 33 states, 4 Canadian provinces and
Lewis claims that his best year was 2005, when he visited 182 tracks and in just the past 4 years he's been at about 600 tracks. You can visit Lewis' Web site, www.ranlayracing.com or at www.trackchaser.net.
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
GREETINGS FROM
I WOKE UP IN
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Objective
I believe your activities in life should support your overall life objectives. If they do not, then you’re probably just wasting your time. I seriously questioned whether or not this trackchasing trip supported my overall trackchasing objectives. Recall those objectives are:
1. Increase lifetime trackchasing total
2. Increase annual trackchasing total
3. Improve lifetime National Geographic Diversity score
4. Improve individual ranking in 13 Far Western states
Of course, ANY track meets the first two of those objectives. However, it’s best that an individual track be combined with others during the same trip when I’m trying to increase both lifetime and annual trackchasing totals.
It is with these question marks in mind that I pondered the feasibility of the trip. However, I had to drive J.J. to LAX on Saturday night following the UCLA disaster. Additionally, Carol had a Sunday activity planned with friends. Therefore, I decided to make this trip. After I was on the airplane, it dawned on me, that this would be a worthwhile trip for another reason.
I would be seeing my 116th lifetime road course. This ties me with Guy Smith for the
The Trip
If you’ve been reading these trackchasing reports for very long, and most of you have, then you know that I sometimes take on some challenging travel plans. I’m not sure where this one ranks, but I know that I was tired on the plane ride home. That gives me some indication that I had been burning some of the proverbial “midnight oil”.
Let me tell you how this trip went. I’ll keep everything is Pacific (
Friday – 8:03 p.m. I left the Mid
Friday – 10:15 p.m. I spent nearly 30 minutes at a
Friday – 11:00 p.m. I checked into my
Saturday – 3:20 a.m. I arose after less than five hours of sleep to head to the
Saturday – 4:55 a.m. I boarded a United Airlines flight from
Saturday - 6:55 a.m. I boarded a United Airlines flight from
Saturday – 10:15 a.m. Carol picked me up at the
Saturday – 11 a.m. I arrived home to shower, change clothes and repack my bag. I also had a few moments to check potential Sunday racetracks. After just two hours at home, it was time to hit the road again.
Editor’s note: Since I returned home to
Saturday – 1 p.m. Carol and I packed the car and headed to the Rose Bowl for a game with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. This was Notre Dame’s first ever game against the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl. Their last visit to the Rose Bowl was in 1925 when Knute Rockney was their coach! We had enough food in the car for a group of 40, even though our tailgate party was planned for just 6-7 people.
Saturday – 3:45 p.m. We rendezvoused with James and Kristy in their car and J.J. in my car (that he had picked up at LAX from the Friday night trackchasing trip!) near the Rose Bowl. This strategic play would allow us to enter the Rose Bowl at the same time and thus be parked near each other. We had spent nearly three hours driving 65 miles in dense, make that DENSE traffic. This is more than one hour more than it has ever taken us to drive to
Saturday – 4 p.m. We arrived at our parking space ON THE GOLF COURSE at the Rose Bowl. That’s right! Nearly all parking at the Rose Bowl is done on a public golf course that is obviously closed to golf on game weekends. We were more than a mile from the stadium entrance. In record time, we set up our tailgate party. That included tables, beach chairs, and lots of Mexican food as well as some yummy sweet stuff. We were more than one hour behind schedule with food for 40 people. I ate enough tacos, enchiladas, butterscotch cookies and more for about five people. Carol, J.J. Kristy and James consumed only what a normal person would. This left us with enough food for 30 people. After being at our tailgate party for less than 45 minutes, we hurriedly pack up our tables, chairs and food. We had more than a mile’s walk to the game that started at 5 p.m. I’m sad for Carol who went to such an effort to prepare for the party and we didn’t have enough time to enjoy it. Traffic can be unpredictable.
Saturday – 5:14 p.m. Carol and I arrived in our seats. We had missed only the first two minutes of the opening quarter. UCLA’s offense stinks. It has stunk since day one of this season. Our quarterback went down in a heap in the first quarter and was replaced by our only other healthy quarterback named, Mcleod Bethel-Thompson. That sounds like a football name doesn’t it? Not! He’s a non-scholarship player. We ended up losing 20-6, giving the Irish their first win of the season. We came into the game a 20-point favorite! Notre Dame is really bad, but then so are we. Look for both of these teams to have more than disappointing seasons.
Saturday – 7:45 p.m. J.J. had to leave the game early so he can make the last flight of the day from LAX to SFO (
Saturday – 9:30 p.m. We battled more heavy
Saturday – 10:00 p.m. We have arrived at LAX. I have decided to fly to
Saturday – 10:15 p.m. Our plane leaves at 10:34 p.m. There are 27 standbys for 13 open seats. I am 22nd on the standby list. It looks like I won’t make the flight. In a way, I’m happy. It’s been a hectic time since I left the Mid
Saturday – 10:30 p.m. My name is called from the standby list! I have made the flight. Was the gate agent swayed by the butterscotch tailgate cookie that J.J. gave him? We’ll never know. J.J. learned to smooze from his old man.
Saturday - 11:55 p.m. We had taken the last flight of the day from LAX to SFO. It was nearly midnight when we landed in
Sunday – 12:46 a.m. J.J. and I arrived at the Hyatt near SFO, our late night slumber location. We passed by a major “swing dance” convention that is going strong in the lobby of the hotel. No swing dancing for us.
Sunday – 1 07 a.m. We hit the sack.
Sunday – 5:45 a.m. My cell phone alarm goes off to start the trip to
Sunday – 6:26 a.m. I boarded the hotel shuttle to the airport.
Sunday – 8:12 a.m. I soon boarded a United Airlines flight from SFO to YVR (Vancouver). The plane is only half-full.
Sunday – 10:31 a.m. I landed on time in
Sunday – 11:10 a.m. Clearing customs in
Sunday – 11:31 a.m. The walk to the rental cars at the
Sunday – 11:51 a.m. I’ve picked up the National Rental Car Racing Chrysler 300. I have my portable GPS unit to guide me through the confusing local road system around the airport. Without it, I never would have made it to the track.
Sunday – 11:52 a.m. I begin to worry if they will really be racing at the track today. My emails and phone calls have gone unreturned. I have made this trip solely on the word that their website says they are racing and they race “rain or shine”. The website says they qualify in the morning and race in the afternoon. I have no more specific schedule than that. In the trackchasing biz, this is very weak “word”.
Sunday – 12:52 p.m. I pulled off Route 11 and could see the track. There are a large number of racecar haulers in place. It’s raining and blowing to beat the band. Nevertheless, they are racing!
Sunday – 12:54 p.m. I buy my ticket and the woman tells me the first race of the day is the “West Coast Sports Car Championship”. This is the biggest race of the two-day meet. It is also the longest. The other races run for 20 and 30 minutes. The WCSC Championship runs for 60 minutes and begins at 1:15 p.m. What timing!
Sunday – 1:31 p.m. The race goes off a little behind schedule.
Sunday – 1:33 p.m. I walked around the rain-soaked paddock taking pictures and scouting out the place out. It’s cold. It’s wet. I had my full Scottish golf rain gear on from head to foot. I even had an umbrella and I never carry an umbrella.
Sunday – 2:33 p.m. The West Coast Sport Car Championship is in the books. With such deplorable weather conditions and the fact that I have seen the main race of the weekend, I decide to head back to the airport for the last non-stop flight of the day. This would avoid me having to stay overnight in
Sunday – 4:01 p.m. After refueling and grabbing a drive-thru bite to eat, I reached the
Sunday – 4:19 p.m. I cleared
Sunday – 4:29 p.m. - I cleared airport security. They don’t do the “gels and liquids” thing in
Sunday – 5:03 p.m. I checked in at my departure gate. SkyWest operates a United Express non-stop flight from YVR to LAX. First class is oversold, but there are five coach seats available. I am the only standby passenger. Can you spell slam-dunk?
Sunday – 5:20 p.m. The plane left
Sunday – 8:18 p.m. We landed on time in
Sunday – 8:48 p.m. I rode what seems like my 10th shuttle bud of the day to the Parking Spot to pick up the Carol Lewis owned and Life of Virginia sponsored Lexus LS 430.
Sunday – 9:03 p.m. I can barely stay awake, but I have a 65-mile drive on a 10-lane freeway to negotiate before I can reach the sleepy little Spanish city by the sea,
Sunday – 10:17 p.m. I arrive home to the loving arms of Trackchasing’s First Mother.
Sunday – 10:23 p.m. After less than five hours of sleep on each of the two previous nights and a non-stop hectic pace during the day, I crash (without even brushing my teeth)!
Editor’s note: This type of weekend is not dissimilar to nearly every weekend of the year for me. I must like it or I wouldn’t do it. I’ve a volunteer!
The People
Of my 1,280 lifetime tracks I have seen 127 tracks in foreign countries. Fifty-one of those tracks have been in
That was the case again today. I ran into a young man who would be a substitute driver in today’s main event. He would be jumping into car #37 at the midway point of the race. He spent several minutes with me talking about the history of the track and the sanctioning body. The Sports Car Club of
PROVINCE RANKINGS
This is my 6th lifetime track to see in
Surprisingly, only 13 trackchasers have ever made it up here. Only 13 official trackchasing visits have been recorded in
RACE REVIEW
RIVER’S
Thank goodness for my portable GPS unit. As soon as I got off the airplane I picked up my rental car as quickly as I could. I then plugged in “
To my great surprise and joy, they were going to race regardless of the deplorable weather conditions. I asked the ticket seller for a schedule of events. The first race of the afternoon was the main event of the day, the West Coast Sports Car Championship. I had come all the way up here without knowing for certain what the day’s schedule was going to be or whether they were going to race in what looked like certain rain. This was my 104th successful day of trackchasing in 2007 with only three rainout days.
There are two things I really like about road racing. They race in the rain and your admission ticket gives you access to the paddock (pit) area. Those are huge advantages. It’s especially nice to know that even in bad weather you’re going to see a race. Since I normally travel a great distance to each race, that’s important to me.
According to one fellow I met, they had some 140 cars for yesterday’s racing. Today they had half that number if that. He told me that was mainly because of yesterday’s Honda Challenge and partially because of the bad weather.
The temperature was about 55 degrees. It was windy. It was also rainy. However, I was protected with all of my golf raingear so it wasn’t too bad. There were several good-looking vintage cars racing today. Check out my photos at www.ranlayracing.com. I was able to get some very good shots of these old cars and the track’s ambience even in the rain.
The drawback for me with road course racing is that I usually can’t see all or even much of the racing. Road courses frequently have a big portion of the course that is out of sight of the fans. That was the case today. A diagram of the course explained the track was 1.5 miles in length. There was no change in elevation. I estimate that 50% of more of the course could not be seen by the fans. With the rain, it made it even more difficult to see. Most of the fans were prepared for the bad weather. They all brought umbrellas.
About 15 cars started the championship race. The race ran for 60 minutes. Most of the racers were 1970s-80s sports cars. There were a couple of Can-Am type looking cars. Most road courses do a poor job with the P.A. system. Today there was at least some attempt to describe the action. There was a good deal of water spray from the race tires. I believe lap times were much slower because of the rain.
They had some shorter 20-minute races that followed the main event. I felt, given the weather conditions, that I had seen enough after watching the 60-minute race. This track has only been seen in the past by trackchasers Paul Weisel and Bing
The logistics of getting here were tough. However, if a trackchaser keeps plugging away one race at a time even on days like this, the results can be very good. I was glad I came today. I was glad to get home tonight as well.
RENTAL CAR UPDATE
I drove the Chrysler 300 177 kilometers. I paid an average price of $1.053 per liter. The Chrysler gave me 12.1 kilometers per liter in fuel mileage at a cost of 8.7 cents Canadian per kilometer. The car cost 21.6 cents Canadian per kilometer to rent, all taxes included. If you can translate all of the above to
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Everything I know, I learned from someone else.
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA – San Francisco, CA – 337 miles
Overnight in
San Francisco, CA – Vancouver, BC,
RENTAL CAR
AIRPLANE
Vancouver, BC – Los Angeles, CA – 1,081 miles
Total Air miles – 2,220 miles (3 flights)
Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 2,318 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
River’s
Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $10 CAD
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.
27. Ken Schrader,
28. Max Allender,
29. Carol Lewis,
2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Roland Vanden Eynde,
3. Ed Esser,
4. Mike Knappenberger,
5. Paul Weisel,
6. Pam Smith, Effort,
7. Carol Lewis,
8. Guy Smith, Effort,
9. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs,
10. Roger Ferrell,
Tracks have been reported by 40 different worldwide trackchasers this season.
LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS
Results current thru 10/5/07**
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs,
3. Allan Brown,
** Results are unofficial.
Past trackchasing reports are available at:
Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:
Some of the data in this report comes from www.trackchaser.net
and my Garmin GPS
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
I will not be going to any more new tracks until “October 11th” is taken care of. This date holds a great deal of significance in our household. Our first child, J.J. was born on this day in 1974. We purchased the property where our house sits on this day in 2000.
October 11th is a work day for me. It is the only day of the year that I work. As you know I am not allowed to do any chores around the house or any work at all for that matter. Carol does everything. However, she knows that I will report for work on October 11th.
Why is October 11, such an important date? This is the date that our retirement portfolio is rebalanced. You see, I am a disciple of William Bernstein. Mr. Bernstein advocates investing in a wide range of assets. Asset allocation is the most important aspect of investing as it relates to overall return on investment. In order to keep a retirement portfolio’s asset allocation in “balance” it must be “re-balanced”. I do this on an annual basis.
Our retirement portfolio of stock and bond mutual funds has done very well over the five years since I have been retired. Our return on investment (ROI) numbers look like this:
2002/03 – 22.8%
2003/04 – 10.3%
2004/05 – 9.6%
2005/06 – 11.4%
2006/07 – 15.8%
Cumulative 5-year annualized ROI – 13.9%
Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I am not telling you I am some expert stock-picking investment guru. I will say that I was smart enough to enlist the support of professional help. I also took the time to educate myself, for many years, about this important topic. Most importantly, I then took all the help and advice that had been offered and IMPLEMENTED it. It’s one thing to study things theoretically and another to put it on the line.
Following the re-balance I will do something that is also very important. I will discuss my actions and explain the concept of all of this to “Trackchasing’s First Mother”. Will she understand it? No. Could she understand it? Yes. She knows that I’m responsible for this and that’s good enough for her. It’s just like I know what she is responsible for and that’s good enough for me. Nevertheless, I would not be maintaining my fiduciary responsibility to her without a sitdown to discuss this important part of both of our lives.
Many people are hesitant/afraid to talk about money in public. I don’t feel that way. Talking about money is no different to me that discussing the brand of toothpaste I use. I am always trying to learn from others. If you are not an expert in the financial world, then maybe what I am talking about will help you. I certainly hope so.
Nevertheless, if you don’t know what any of this or most of this means, you need to find someone who will explain it to you. You will have a much earlier and more enjoyable retirement if you have some money to trade for the goods and services that you might desire in your “golden years”. Those golden years could last for a very long time. You will need to invest your retirement funds wisely. Once you’ve done that, you can then become a trackchaser like me! On the oft chance that you might like to do something else, you will be able to do that as well.
Please don’t wait to start saving your money for retirement. I know many people who did. They regret their procrastination. Please don’t wait to get some good advice from someone who doesn’t stand to benefit (too much) from giving you the advice.
However, if you really enjoy working most days of the year and the idea of working just one day of the year does not appeal to you in any way, then you can ignore the words written above.
By the way, my next planned track will hold some statistical significance to me. It should also add a new foreign country to my trackchasing resume.
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.
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