Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
411 MOTOR SPEEDWAY, SEYMOUR, TENNESSEE
DAY 1 – IT’S ONLY FOR NGD POINTS TRACKCHASING TOUR
EDITOR’S NOTE
I would like to thank everyone who called or emailed us regarding the
The fires were all around us to the North, East and South. Thankfully, the
We have had virtually no rain over the past 12 months. When the
Again, thanks to everyone of thought of us.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
This trip started in
Do you want to know the REAL reason, I went trackchasing in
Did you ever do the “twist” to Chubby Checker 45 RPM records? …………..details in “Race Review – 411 Motor
Click on this link or paste it in your browser to take you to today’s Trackchaser Report via my website at
GREETINGS FROM
I WOKE UP IN SEAT 17A OF A DELTA AIRLINES BOEING 757 THIS MORNING (LAX-CVG) AND WENT TO SLEEP IN GEORGETOWN, KENTUCKY, BEFORE RETURNING TO SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA ON SUNDAY. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Objective
The trackchasing season is winding down. I’m trying to wrap up some loose ends while laying the groundwork for a successful 2008. I’m considering the option of increasing my trackchasing penetration in non-English speaking countries in the coming year.
With that in mind, I made a “pre-decision” trip to
You can read all about the
I returned from my
I entered the day ranked #12 in
There are normally 25-40 or more individual trackchasers who are ranked in each state. When the NGD program was developed five years ago, it was decided that all trackchasers outside of a state’s top 10 would get 15 points rather than the points that would equal their rank. That seemed better than saddling a 40th place state trackchaser with 40 points. That would have been too big of a penalty for poor performance.
I currently have 13 individual states where I do not rank in the state’s top 10. This gives me a total of 65 (13 X 5) penalty points. My overall NGD score is 6.65. Since each NGD point equates to .02 points of the overall NGD score, those 65 penalty points account for 1.3 points or about 20% of my overall NGD score. It would be great if I could improve my position in these 13 states and get a top ten ranking or better.
By the way, I rank out of the top 10 in these states. My current track total follows each state’s name in ( ).
Do you see anything that these states have in common? They are almost all Eastern states. There’s a reason I rank so poorly in these Eastern states. Probably the biggest reason is that almost all of our leading trackchasers live in the East. They are mainly regional trackchasers who have mined these states for the better part of 30 years. I am facing a double whammy. There are many Eastern trackchasers and they have been adding tracks in their home territory for a long time.
I have strong numbers in
I have not given up hope in all of these 13 states. That is why I am in
Nevertheless, this might not be enough to unseat three-time NGD lifetime champion Gordon Killian who currently sits just nine state positions behind me with a score of 6.69. If Gordon would simply send me a sign that he is throwing in the towel, then I would not have to take all-night flights in an attempt to beat him.
I’m doing the best I can here.
The Trip -
During a 72-hour period from Monday to Thursday of this week, I flew just over 10,000 miles round-trip to
During three of the past six nights, I have slept overnight on an airplane. I have a very simple philosophy in trackchasing. I will do whatever it takes. This way I don’t have to think very much. I simply do whatever it takes.
After flying all night, I had a cool 305 miles to drive to this afternoon’s show featuring senior champ karts. This sentence should prove the point made in the above paragraph.
I must admit that trying to sleep in an airplane seat for the three hour and forty-two minute flight from LAX to CVG was difficult at best. I was forced to take two power naps along the drive today. Not to worry, the show ran late (so what’s new) and I didn’t miss a thing.
The Trip -
Tuesday
I have seen more tracks than anyone else in
I decided to make a “pre-decision” trip to
Why did we pick
Do you have any idea what United Airlines charges each passenger for a first class ticket? They never discount their first class tickets in any way. How does $10,300 strike you? No, I did not make a mistake with my zeros. That’s TEN THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS AND NO/CENTS. Business class seats are bargain priced at around $7,500 per ticket. I am happy to report that in true RANLAY Racing fashion, we did not have to pay full price.
The flight time from SFO to NGO was a little more than 11 hours in length. Fortunately, the flight back to
International first class flying is a very pleasurable experience. First, the seats fold completely down (flat) into beds. Each passenger has his or her own video monitor. Flight attendants call you by your name when they offer some twenty or more current movie titles for you to chose from and play on your own individual movie player. When we boarded, we were greeted with orange juice and
The food just kept coming. I felt like I gained five pounds on this flight alone. There was a fine assortment of breads and even ice cream sundaes following my sea bass entrée.
Each passenger is given a “free” goody bag. This bag contains eyeshades, earplugs, face cream, toothbrush, etc. There are even socks and slippers so passengers can walk around the first class cabin in comfort. Of course, those ner’do’wells in the coach cabin (dare I say steerage) are not allowed anywhere near the first class passengers.
Do I enjoy first class seating and service? Of course, I do. Would I pay $10,300 for it? Not on your life. I can’t imagine ever being rich enough to pay that price, but then I never imagined as a junior high student I would have what I have. Suffice it to say that J.J. and I very much enjoyed our royal treatment.
We landed in
By the way, everyone should know that Carol was invited along on this trip. However, Carol is sort of the “Cinderella of
Nagoya, Japan is the fourth largest city in the country behind Tokyo,
When I travel, I almost always rent a car. When J.J. travels, partially because first and second year pilots are so underpaid, he normally uses public transportation (trains, subways, buses). We would be spending most of our time in the city, so driving didn’t make much sense. I was surprised to see that all Japanese cars are right side steer and they drive on the “wrong” side of the road.
Logistics in foreign, non-English speaking countries can be daunting. Upon landing we needed to clear Japanese customs. This was rather simple and took almost no time at all. I was happy to get a Japanese stamp in my passport.
Next up was a change of clothes. In order to fly “non-rev” on United in first class, we were required to wear long pants and a shirt with a collar. Soon I was in shorts and a
We would be riding the train and then the subway to our downtown hotel. I had reserved the “b
Let me say that buying train tickets when most of the instructions are in Japanese is not the easiest thing in the world to do. On this trip, J.J. is in charge of logistics such as these. Normally, I run my own logistics program. I must say it was nice and relaxing to have someone else doing most of the legwork. However, as with all good things, there can be a drawback. When you’re not doing your own planning, you don’t learn as much.
In order to buy train tickets, you need money. We figured we would just use credit cards. Wrong! We were surprised at how few merchants and machines accepted plastic. That meant we would be using ATMs. We did not bring any Japanese currency with us on the trip.
Sometimes our ATM cards worked in the Japanese ATMs and sometimes they did not. After a while we came to look at the ATMs as if they were slot machines. When they “paid off” we were happy.
The Japanese currency uses the Yen. Right now one U.S. dollar can buy about 113 Yen. When we saw a price in Yen, we simply moved the decimal point two positions to the left. As an example, an item that cost 10,000 Yen converted in our lingo to $100
I don’t really know how J.J. and Matt were able to decipher the train ticket situation. I was off taking pictures of the airport. However, soon we were seated on one of the more luxurious trains I have ever ridden on. We would discover the train even had a flat screen TV monitor that gave us the same live time picture the train’s conductor was seeing.
However, we quickly found out we were on the wrong train! We were on the right train to take us downtown, but we had unreserved tickets (peasants) and we were seated in the reserved section. Soon our fellow passengers began entering our train car and sitting in their reserved seats. By the time we realized our error, it was too late to switch. Of course, J.J. and I are Lewis’. We knew immediately, we could extricate ourselves from this situation by simply pleading ignorance if it came to that, and it did.
Soon, the train’s ticket agent appeared. He stood at the head of the car in a very neat brown uniform and said several words in Japanese. He might have been saying, “If you don’t have reserved tickets, you’re idiots and need to get your butts out of here right now”. After whatever he was saying was finished he put his hands together in a praying motion and bowed his head toward us.
When he approached our seating area, he immediately surmised we were
We each had a rolling luggage bag that made moving around fairly easy. I also had my briefcase and laptop. This was less convenient as we had steps, both up and down, in the subway to negotiate. This meant a decoupling of bag and briefcase each time we encountered steps.
We were hitting the subway at just about rush hour. The Japanese people that we encountered were a well-groomed and well-dressed populace. They are slight of build. I’m not sure I saw a Japanese person who was overweight during our entire trip. The men all wore dark suits. The woman wore lots of knee high boots and/or knee socks. Everyone was quiet and kept to themselves. They didn’t seem to be too surprised that “three white guys” who looked like they “weren’t from around here” were in their presence.
We bought all day subway passes for 850 Yen. The subway proved an excellent way to get all around the city. Our hotel was just two subway stops and a two-block walk away. By the way, we walked a lot on this trip. The average person walks 3 M.P.H. We walked at least 2-3 hours everyday. You can do the math.
Our hotel was modern and reasonably priced for
Our hotel room was not large, but I’ve seen smaller in
I was pleasantly surprised to see we had a fridge and a flat screen TV monitor. The only English-speaking channel was CNN. They told about the
The bathroom was the most unusual. It was small. It was also mostly plastic. Standing on the bathroom floor or in the bathtub while taking a shower reminded me of being in an RV. The toilet was unusual. When I sat down on it, water began to run inside the toilet bowl. I don’t know if they were trying to get me in the mood or just preparing for the inevitable.
After checking in on Tuesday night, it was time to find somewhere to eat. I always notice American branded restaurants when I travel internationally. I don’t want to eat in them; I just want to observe them. It took us a long time to see the very first. During our entire travels, we saw a few McDonalds and a couple of Denny’s. We also saw two Mister Donuts that we (I?) had a hard time passing up.
The boys wanted sushi. Although I like most kinds of foods, I am not a big fan of sushi. Our first stop was at a very small Japanese ma and pa eatery. The place had about five tables. J.J. and Matt were alerted to this place when they saw what appeared to be “dollar beers”. These guys are economy travelers. It turned out that the beer special was being offered “tomorrow” night. Just our luck!
Nevertheless, we entered and were required to remove our shoes. We sat on pillows provided at our table. We enjoyed Japanese beer and some sort of “chicken on a stick”. This was a pleasant first Japanese dining experience. It really didn’t seem like it was 4 a.m. in the time zone we had just left.
We walked around a bit in what felt like a very safe environment. Even though several of the streets were dark we never saw or heard anything that made us fearful like we might have in most American big cities. The city was as neat as a pin. We ended up stopping at another Japanese café for some fried rice. I was surprised to learn that most eateries of this type serve Coca-Cola but not Diet Coke.
Wednesday
I don’t want to deprive any of you of the complete details of this trip. I mean you paid for your subscription and you deserve to hear it all. When Matt and I awoke this morning, there was no J.J. Since our room was so small, it did not take us long to come to this conclusion.
I glanced over at his pillow. A “tent” card, read, “I’m in room 809, see you in the morning”. It turns out that J.J. was being kept awake (according to him) by my snoring! It was apparently so bad (according to him) that he rented another room to get a good night’s rest.
I asked Matt if he had heard me snoring. He told me he had not. He said the only thing that woke him up all night was when J.J. woke him up to ask if my snoring was bothering him! J.J. is an economy traveler. I can only imagine what level of noise it might have taken for him to get up in the middle of the night and actually rent another room. On the other hand, Matt has perfectly good hearing and didn’t hear a thing. I told them that until they could get their stories straight I was assuming I didn’t snore!
Wednesday morning started off with breakfast at the
Although J.J. and I wore shorts, I did not see one single Japanese person wearing them. The women often wore some provocative outfits, but the men were very conservative in the blue suits and dark shoes.
The Japanese are very polite and rules based. I think it’s important to obey the rules as well, but I don’t think you have to be a robot about it. Let me give you an example. When we were walking we often came up to pedestrian crosswalks. We would wait patiently until the light changed and the crosswalk warning lights told us we could cross the street.
We were at one such crosswalk where the street was much narrower than normal. The street might have been 20 feet wide. We could see for 2-3 blocks that there were no cars in sight. Nevertheless, the Japanese waited to cross the street for nearly a minute until the crossing light gave the O.K. even though the street was narrow and there was no traffic coming from any direction anywhere. We thought that adherence to rules was a bit much.
It was also unusual to see some people wearing white masks to cover their nose and mouth. I would estimate that one person in one hundred was doing this. I didn’t know if they were trying to protect themselves from the environment or trying to protect the environment from them. I suspected the former. Check out www.ranlayracing.com, click on “Trackchaser Reports” and then click on “Pre-decision trip” to see examples of this and everything I’ve talked about.
Cell phones are huge here. I didn’t hear people talking on them as much as I saw them playing games and checking email. More than 50% of subway riders were actively using a cell phone.
Today’s major activity was a tour of a Toyota Motor Corporation production plant. Normally, visitors are required to seek permission for this tour 2-3 weeks in advance. We had not planned ahead. Our strategy was simple. We would arrive unannounced and simply beg to take the tour.
We rode the subway west until it ended. At that point, we bought a train ticket and rode it out toward Toyota City where the Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is headquartered. We were not finished with public transportation. We then boarded a bus that took us the last little bit.
TMC was established in 1937. The first prototypes of the
J.J. was selected as our envoy to approach the young Japanese women who seemed to be in charge of the tour. After lots of pointing and smiling and laughing and more smiling by the women and J.J., he returned to give us the news. We were not going on the tour! There was no room for us. We should have made reservations 2-3 weeks ago.
This was disappointing. We decided to look around the museum some more.
You see, we Lewis’ never give up. It is just the way we do things. J.J. was again selected as the “Man of the hour”. He approached the women and there was more smiling and laughing. J.J. returned to our group. As if by divine intervention, or something less, we were going on the tour!! That was good news.
We boarded a beautiful new tour bus. Our Japanese guide was both friendly and knowledgeable. She answered everyone’s questions on the 20-minute ride to the plant in reasonably good English. We would be touring the Tsutsumi plant.
The
Following the assembly part of the plant tour, we boarded the bus again and rode a short distance over to the plant where the welding is done. This turned out to be one of the most unusual things I have ever seen.
As the cars went down the line, several giraffe-looking robots waited on each side of the line. There were probably twenty robots in our view. The car bodies would stop momentarily and the robots would go to work with sparks flying from their activity. This scene looked to be right out of some modern day “Star Wars” movie. The robots looked like your kid’s transformer toys.
Overall, a very impressive tour. I recommend you try it if you ever get the chance. Following the tour, we had a traditional Japanese lunch of misokatsu, which is a fried pork cutlet with a rich, red miso sauce on it in the
Following the plant tour and lunch, we retraced our steps and got back to
We spent the evening taking the subway back into the center of town and doing some window-shopping and exploring. At one point, we hopped on a bus just to ride it to see what we could see. There was one drawback to this strategy. When we got off the bus, we couldn’t find a subway station or a bus going the right way to get us back where we started. We spent a good deal of the time walking until we came across a subway stop.
During our sightseeing travels, we stopped in a “100 Yen Store”. This is similar to the dollar stores in your town. There were several convenience stores throughout the city including both Circle K and 7-11. We also visited a couple of “Pachinko” parlors. These are something. The most noticeable feature is the noise generated inside. Take the loudest slot machine casino you’re ever heard and multiply it by ten. What an environment, but those involved don’t seem to mind.
By the way,
We also went into a Japanese bowling alley. This was nearly identical to what might be found in
We wrapped up our second evening with a visit to an indoor/semi-outdoor shopping mall. This place went on for several blocks. They seemed to be selling a good deal of clothing, much of which bore American brand names.
We visited a grocery store just to see how the products were displayed. The egg “cartons” were very different as well as seeing so many products with only Japanese letters. Our only purchase was three cups of a Mexican flan looking pudding. We were shocked as well as pleased that the cashier had small spoons so we could eat the flan more easily.
By now, it was nearly 10 p.m. We had had a very busy day. We must have walked more than five miles. We had seen a lot. We had a hard time deciding on what to have for dinner. We ended up sitting on a huge polished rock in the shopping mall just watching people.
I don’t like to admit this, but we stopped at McDonalds for a late night snack rather than get involved with a full-scale Japanese dinner. Their food was very good and under the circumstances fit the bill very well.
Thursday
Today was getaway day of our 50-hour trip to
We made a second visit to Mister Donut, after having a hard time finding any place (other than Denny’s) serving breakfast. We walked the city heading for the
Admission was 500 Yen. The exterior of the castle was spectacular. I wasn’t very impressed with the interior, which looked like a house under rehab with a lot of work still to go. If you come to
We found it very difficult to buy postcards. I nearly always send postcards to friends and relatives. We looked for nearly two days before finding some at the castle. A stop at the post office on the way back to the hotel provided us with postcard stamps. Each stamp cost about 70 cents.
Our final lunch was spent at Indus Tateno-machi, one of the most popular Indian restaurants in
Now it was time to retrieve our bags from the hotel. I had been concerned about bringing my laptop on this trip. I secured it whenever I could with a wire cable lock. It came in handy a time or two to check email, but I probably could have left it at home.
We retraced our steps, with our bags, and boarded the subway and then the train. This seemed a little bit easier now that we had boarded the learning curve two days earlier. We had plenty of time to clear Japanese customs (it took less than five minutes), do some shopping in the mall-like atmosphere of the airport and then walk outside to watch planes landing and taking off.
The best thing about our return flight to
When I landed in
The People
The Japanese people were great. I was surprised that I never heard one Japanese person speaking English on their own to anyone during the trip. We saw only a handful of Americans during the entire trip. Whenever we needed emergency directions, the Japanese folks we stopped were more than glad to help although it was difficult for us to communicate with each other.
STATE RANKINGS
These were my 16th and 17th lifetime tracks to see in the Volunteer state. This puts me in a tie for 8th place with the racing Eckels and Roger Ferrell. I trail
RACE REVIEW
BEECHNUT RACEWAY,
So many of the little go-kart tracks that I visit in the south and
I called the track and asked what time actual racing might start. A young woman told me that racing would begin about 3:30 p.m. Like a rookie, I believed her. Wrong as usual. Although I arrived at just before 3 p.m., the first go-kart race (super heavies) did not begin until 4:30 p.m. My countable group, the “Champ Heavies” would race in the sixth of fourteen races. Today’s special, the “5th Annual Monster Madness” program, was a feature only event.
I was able to park about 30 feet above turn one and watch the races from my rental car. I like being able to watch from the car, especially for shows like this where my interest level in several of the races is low. I can get so much done in the car during the down periods.
Like most go-kart tracks I visit, the track’s dirt surface was as smooth as glass. There was some banking to the “red dirt” surface. About 15 cars parked around the top of the track. Another advantage to my position was that I didn’t have to pay to watch.
There were 14 classes racing today. All of them had 10-25 competitors in their feature race. The track P.A. was used to call competitors to the track only. Doesn’t the track have any interest in entertaining the spectators with a call of the race? From my position at the track there were no concessions available. The track pit area was located beyond turns three and four. The track has lights but did not need them by the time the champ cars raced.
This was my 12th “small car” racing event of the year. Only a minority of trackchasers are interested in adding “go-karts” to the trackchasing countability list. I suspect this idea will gain more rapid acceptance as chasers see their nearby trackchasing opportunities drying up faster than water from a fire hose in a
The 14-car senior champ kart race lasted about ten minutes. I’m guessing they ran for 20 laps. There was a good deal of side by side racing and about five yellow flag periods. Too some, flying cross-country overnight and then driving 305 miles for one 10-minute race might seem like a big commitment. That would be correct. However, I don’t regret because it is what I do.
411
I hustled past the 118 miles from the Beechnut Raceway to the 411
Fortunately, I was able to park directly across from the ticket booth and track entrance when I arrived. The parking lot and grandstand views told me there was a big crowd on hand. I was even more fortunate to learn they were no longer charging admission. This made both tracks free today. Of course, that’s important to a retired pensioner such as myself who is trying to get by on the few shekels I’ve saved along the way.
You must get tired of me telling you how nearly every track I visit does not start on time and then runs their shows in a slovenly manner. If you get tired of hearing about it, you should try sitting on a board and experiencing it. It was with this background, that I was especially looking forward to tonight’s program.
They were having a few preliminary races and last chance events that were to begin at 5:30 p.m. However, the website’s track itinerary for tonight told me the big late model “National Championship” would be starting at “9:15 sharp!” Wow! This promoter knew what we was doing. Maybe he had been reading my Trackchaser Reports. The biggest race of the season was going to start at “9:15 sharp”. I knew for certain that I could arrive at the track in time for this big race.
You’re probably saying to yourself, “Randy, you sly devil. You’re setting us up for disappointment. You’re just going to tell us, they didn’t deliver on their promise and actually started this big race an hour or two late.” I would never set my readers up for disappointment. By Trackchaser Report mandate I am required to research all of the facts that I present and guarantee they are true. If what I write is not fact, then it is opinion. Of course, opinions are like elbows. Most people have one or more.
Alas, they did NOT start the race at the appointed time of 9:15 p.m. However, and this may be why you read the Trackchaser Report (I’m talking about the surprise factor), they started the race early. When I was putting on one more windbreaker for the 55-degree temperatures in the parking lot, I heard them beginning the big race. They were starting the “National Championship” more than an hour earlier than the website had promised. Oh, my!
I must digress for a moment. When I was in junior high (7th and 8th grade) I hung out with a crowd that had a number of parties. These parties were typically at my friend’s homes and quite often in the basement. Normally, about 20-25 people were invited. The boys would normally stand on one side of the room, and the girls on the other until everyone warmed up to each other. This was in the mid-60s and the kids did the “twist” to 45-RPM records by Chubby Checker and others.
Now, you might be saying, “But, Randy, you’re really drifting far a field at this point.” The reason I bring this up is that for one of these parties, I misunderstood the starting time. I showed up an hour early. My female host greeted me at the door, with a few curlers still in her hair and a look of anguish on her face. I was directed to the basement where I “hung out” for about an hour by myself until the next guest showed up.
Gerry O’Reilly always told me “that if you’re not early, you’re late”. However, what are you if you’re TOO early? Extremes are rarely good. It’s not good to be late and it’s not any better to be early. The 411
I arrived at the top row of the poured concrete spectator area after about five laps of the feature event had been run. The announcer said very little, so I had to query my fellow standing spectators as to where we were in the program. Yes, this was the late model feature they told me. The lighting was really bad. There was little chance of reading a car’s number while it raced on the backstretch. That’s my gold standard for determining how good the lighting is.
The racing wasn’t bad. This is down home Southern stock car racing. This is where it all started, so I always appreciate these types of tracks (even Toccoa, which I actually liked very much in several ways). There were a few yellow flags for minor spins, but overall the race ran along promptly. I couldn’t understand why the announcer didn’t say more. He seemed knowledgeable and had a good voice over an O.K. P.A. system.
As the website schedule promised, the late model feature was followed by the pure minis (7 cars) feature event. They were surprisingly fast, even though the field was small. They were originally scheduled to race at 10:15 p.m. However, their race was finished at 8:37 p.m. I had been at the track for 26 minutes.
At this point, while the entire huge crowd remained in their seats, the flagman began to put his flags in his travel bag and descended the elevated flag stand. The announcer told us that the cars would be coming onto the track for “trick or treating”. The original schedule had called for a “kid’s costume contest” and “points champion awards” ceremony earlier in the evening. They must have reversed the racing with the non-racing activities. That was good for me, although a bit confusing.
My good fortune of having arrived earlier than I thought I needed too along with the program ending earlier than I thought it would affected my hospitality plan for the evening. I knew I would have a 258-mile drive from the 411
I bade the 411
RENTAL CAR UPDATE
On the one hand, I was disappointed that none of the National rental cars available to me offered satellite radio. I was stuck with scanning stations during the entire trip with less than good reception most of the time. On the positive side, the National Rental Car Racing
I drove the nearly brand new Grand Prix 687 miles in the slightly less than 24 hours that I had it. I paid an average price of $2.79 per gallon. The
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Everything I know, I learned from someone else.
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA – Cincinnati, OH – 1,901 miles
RENTAL CAR
Greater
Greater
AIRPLANE
Cincinnati, OH – Los Angeles, CA – 1,901 miles
Total Air miles – 3,802 miles (2 flights)
Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 4,489 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
Beechnut Raceway – Free
411 Motor
Total racetrack admissions for the trip – Free + Free = Free
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,