Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
LAC LA BICHE ICE TRACK (ROAD COURSE), LAC LA BICHE, ALBERTA, CANADA
| Lac La Biche |
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RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report
DAY 1 – IT’S GONNA BE COLD TRACKCHASING TOUR
SPECIAL NOTICE
A big thank you goes out to each of the folks who provided their feedback on my new photo sharing process. My final decision was to go with option B that allows each user to view photos one by one or via a slide show where the use can decide how long each photo appears on the screen. If you have not checked out my site lately, try it. The photos of my trackchasing trips, beginning with
ONE FINAL NOTE ON
Readers know that I missed seeing a track in Richard’s
From me to the promoter:
Neville,
I showed up at your track on Saturday, February 23 and nobody was there. That doesn't seem like a very good way to run a business.
Randy Lewis
From the promoter to me:
Randy
Sorry about that, our email has been off for a month, so I only just got all my emails. I apologise for the inconvenience caused, we were forced to cancel the last meeting due to the A1 and having no officials.
We are racing on the 15 March and the 3rd of May is the South african Championships. If you come up for the 15th March meeting, let me know and I will give you complimentary tickets for the gate.
Kind Regards
MICHELLE LOOSEMORE
From a South African racer who had been providing race info to me regarding Richard’s Bay not racing:
Randy,
Racing is not called off on short notice very often, but it does happen (usually it’s because of rain). Cancellation during the week preceding the event is not really considered short notice, since most of the cancellations (especially when it’s only a club race) are decided upon about 4 hours before the event. I’m not sure if and how the spectators hear about the cancellation, or if they weren’t coming anyway, but I’ve never seen people queuing up when an event has been cancelled. It may be that most of the spectators are connected to the competitors in some way and that they get the info from them.
When I took up racing in 2003, the calendar was for a full year and racing continued come rain or shine. At one event we were sent onto the track to race, and straight after we finished one of the officials realized how deep the water on the track was and actually took a swim in turn 2! Since then, the number of spectators has declined and so have the number of events that are scheduled for the year. I don’t know why, but I think organizers are more easily swayed to cancel an event than they were 5 years ago.
TODAY’S HEADLINES
This trip was filled with trackchasing “firsts”. ...................more in “The Objective”.
Would I be asked to pilot today’s airplane in an emergency? …………..details in “The People”.
Click on this link or paste it in your browser to take you to today’s Trackchaser Report via my website at
Click on the link below to see photos from this trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ranlay8/LacLaBiche
GREETINGS FROM LAC LA
WE WOKE UP IN
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Objective
I enjoy getting trackchasing firsts. Trackchasing firsts are trackchasing achievements that no one else in the hobby has been able to achieve. Obviously, some “firsts” are more significant than others are. Today we would be seeing a simple ice-racing track. However, the remote track carried with it a good deal of trackchasing firsts.
- Carol’s first ever trackchasing visit to the Canadian
- My first ever ice racing track in the
- Seeing the northernmost ice-racing track ever recorded by any listed trackchaser.
- Becoming the #1 ranked trackchasing married couple for the first time ever.
I will give you some more detail about these milestones throughout today’s Trackchaser Report.
The Trip
There are a good number of my non-trackchasing friends who think I’m absolutely crazy to go after the trackchasing hobby like I do. Heck, there are even people WITHIN the trackchasing hobby who think I’m crazy. I’m content to have people think whatever makes them feel good.
I will say this. I don’t think anyone can question my commitment to the hobby of trackchasing. To do this from the most remote corner of the
This weekend’s adventure would net us just one track. We left our home in
Then, couple the above with the fact that our chances of even beginning the trip were 50/50 or less. The flight we were standing by for was nearly full. The night before the flight there were just five open seats remaining. This morning, we drove to LAX. I dropped Carol at the ticket counter and went to park the car. I told her to call me on her cell phone if anything required my attention during our brief time apart.
She called. “The plane is overbooked” was her message. This was not good news. This flight was the only non-stop flight of the day from
What should we do? We had a quick breakfast at the airport Burger King. I guess, if we didn’t make the flight, we could just say the event of the day was a drive up to LAX to have breakfast at BK. However, that wouldn’t be much of a day, would it?
I double-checked with the airline. The information that Carol had received wasn’t exactly accurate. Airline employees, like employees all over the world, vary in their expertise, commitment and preciseness. Unless an airline employee is giving me an EXACT seat count, their subjective statements such as “It looks good”, It doesn’t look good”, etc are be taken with a grain of salt by me.
My agent quizzing netted the news that there were five open seats and four stand-by passengers. This brought a smile to my heart. We weren’t on the plane with that news, but we had a shot.
Saturdays are normally the slowest day of the week in our nation’s airports. However, today the place was packed. I didn’t understand that. I had already reserved a car in
I wanted to use Priceline.com to get a hotel in
As we got closer to the time of our takeoff, our stress levels increased. I like a little stress in life. It adds some spice to your chocolate milk. Frequently, in the standby airline game, when my name is called, I receive a boarding pass and am told to board the plane immediately. If that happened today, there would be no time to contact Priceline.com.
In anticipation of the above, I fired up my laptop and went directly to the Biddingfortravel.com website. There I checked what hotel rooms were going for in
A few minutes later, the agent was calling “Lewis” to come get a boarding pass. Great! We’re going to
I had five minutes before we would board the plane. Priceline.com here we come. I bid $75 for two nights at a 4 star hotel. Yes, when I’m with Carol, I can’t give her too much. I know it sounds somewhat sappy, but that’s how I feel.
Priceline wasn’t quite as generous. They said “no” to my offer of $75. Didn’t they realize I was trying to care for Trackchasing’s First Mother? That’s O.K., I was prepared to go higher and I did. I went to $80, then $85 and finally got the room for $91 per night for two nights at the Westin in
Editor’s note: To some folks the above paragraph might have a 100% different meaning to them than how some other Trackchaser Report readers would be thinking. I have some readers who might say, “Randy, you scoundrel. Ninety one bucks! You could easily afford much more than that. Can’t you treat Carol any better?”
Still other trackchasers might say, “Randy, you wild spender you. Don’t you know how to practice good financial management? You could have easily had a very acceptable room for much less money than this. Think of your children and their future inheritance”.
Of course, I can’t control how people interpret the words that I write. I wouldn’t want too. The absolute amount of money spent didn’t mean anything to me. I knew this was a good value compared to what others would spend tonight on this property. Most importantly, our stay at the Westin was probably more than the guest (Carol) I was trying to entertain was expecting. I always want to over deliver whenever I can.
The People
I nearly always encounter interesting people on my trackchasing visits. This is one of the best parts of the hobby for me.
Today, while Carol and I were flying on the plane, the business class flight attendant stopped for a chat. Flight attendants know when airline employees and dependents are traveling on their flight. They just don’t know if the passenger is an employee or a dependent as Carol and I am.
This flight attendant was nice and very friendly. For some reason, she assumed I was a pilot. She went on for about five minutes talking about the industry and pilots and my being a pilot. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. She made so many assumptions in her soliloquy that it would have been uncomfortable to correct her misassumption.
I figured if I just nodded my head as she talked that she would soon go away and that would be the end of it. However, she kept talking. It wasn’t long before she had me projected as the first pilot to ever fly a plane after the Wright brother’s historic flight at
When the flight attendant left, Carol couldn’t stop laughing. “I can’t wait for the pilot to have a heart attack and see them coming running to you to fly the plane!” It was a funny situation, I must admit. I secretly hoped our pilot would have good health for the rest of the flight.
However, I did feel bad about being part of a conversation that was misleading. I feel very strongly about personal honesty. I take the George Washington approach, “I cannot tell a lie”. The worst thing in my opinion about lying is that you can never get away with it. It would be impossible to remember what you told to one person and what you told to another if you didn’t tell them both the same thing, the truth.
We had yet another interesting people encounter with the check-in clerk at the Westin Hotel in downtown
Why would this be true? Do the upscale places pay more? Do they recruit from a more talented pool of job candidates? Are the managers at the more upscale places better identifiers of good employees? I don’t know the answer. I suspect all of the above assumptions might contribute to the success of places like the Westin Hotel chain.
Nevertheless, we ran into a young woman named Sheena when we checked in. She would be responsible for getting us tickets to our trackchasing tourist attractions (Macbeth – Saturday night and
I had not had time to do much prep in these areas before getting on the airplane. Heck, I didn’t even know if we WOULD get on the airplane. Sheena was so good! I gave her phone authorization to buy two tickets to the Citadel Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with my credit card number at a price of $66 per ticket. Shortly thereafter I received a call back from Sheena telling me that the theatre had a special policy for customers who bought their tickets just before show time at the box office. Those people would be able to buy their tickets for half-price. Sheena’s concern for good customer service saved us sixty-six bucks. I was happy to make a special trip down to the desk to both thank and compensate Sheena for her good work. I will also take the time to write a letter to the General Manager of the Westin Hotel in
TRACKCHASING TOURIST ATTRACTION
I very much enjoy the racing when I go on trackchasing trips. However, I am not the type of person who would feel the trip was complete if I simply left home, went to the race and came back home.
I do a good deal of traveling. I want to do my best to see the local area when I come for a visit. There are almost always unusual attractions that one area is noted for more than any other locale. I want to see those places. I want to touch them and feel them. When I leave an area, I want to have memories of these special places that I call Trackchasing Tourist Attractions. I will remember those experiences long after the checkered flag has fallen on whatever race I have seen that day.
Macbeth – The Citadel Theatre -
Carol and I enjoy seeing live theater productions. We see 1-3 of the very top plays somewhere in the world every year. We had a free night tonight and
Tonight we would see a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This might not have been my first choice, but I let Carol choose. The theatre complex in downtown
To say we were disappointed in the performance would be a gross understatement. First, I can barely understand many people’s English let alone English spoken from the 16th century. There were more rapid fire “where for art thous” than I could handle. It also came as a shock when we learned the play was being set in the World War II era.
The play was two hours and forty minutes long. I believe I slept for more than half of it. Carol slept through some of it. I literally didn’t understand more than 10% of what they were talking about. In that vein, it was a little bit like watching a road course street race.
We are rarely disappointed in our “Trackchasing Tourist Attractions”. We try to screen our entertainment choices carefully. Seeing a Shakespearian play was “walking on the edge for me” in terms of entertainment enjoyment. Tonight I guess we just stepped over that edge. That’s O.K. I’m glad we went because it helps us establish boundaries for our future entertainment choices.
Not!!! We had planned to attend this hockey game following our afternoon of ice racing. However, we did not have tickets. Normally, that’s not a problem for me. Since we were staying in an upscale place like the Westin, I decided to delegate the responsibility of getting some tickets to the hotel staff. That was likely a mistake.
When we returned from the races, the desk clerk had left a message. She couldn’t find any tickets. No problem, I followed up with the hotel staff on duty just two hours before the match. They referred me to the valet parking staff. Those guys were “wired in” to the underground
I could have braved the cold (5 degrees Fahrenheit) and gone to the stadium myself in search of the tickets. I probably would have gotten a positive result. However, Carol and I are not major hockey fans. We would be going to tonight’s game just to say we had been to the
I must make a comment on the expense of
Bread pudding dessert at the Italian restaurant we dined at for dinner sold for $15. A hamburger and fries at the Westin was $15. Our breakfast buffet at the Westin was $22 per person. A steak sandwich at the coffee-shop type place we ate at in Lac La Biche was $18.50. Regular gasoline equated to $4.12 per gallon.
PROVINCE RANKINGS
This afternoon I saw my sixth lifetime racetrack in the Canadian
This was Carol’s first ever
Now you can see the entire up to date trackchaser rankings in
http://trackchaser.net/statregion.asp?country=CAN®ion=AB
Ice Track Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statsurface.asp?surface=Ice
TRACK TYPE
In the world of trackchasing, we have three types of tracks that are considered countable. These include ovals, road courses (circuits) and figure 8 tracks. Generally, a road course includes both left and right turns. Figure 8 tracks cross over themselves.
This afternoon we saw racing on an ice track that was a road course in configuration. This was my 21st ice oval track (Carol’s 7th) in our trackchasing careers. This gives me a fifth place ranking on the ice and Carol comes in at 14th breaking a tie with
In the road course category, this was my 131st circuit visit. I rank third in this category just nine tracks behind legendary
OTHER TRACK TYPE CATEGORY RANKINGS OF NOTE:
Dirt Track Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statsurface.asp?surface=Dirt
Paved Track Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statsurface.asp?surface=Paved
Mixed Track Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statsurface.asp?surface=Mixed
Oval Track Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statoval.asp
Circuit (road course) Track Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statcircuit.asp
Figure 8 Track Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statf8.asp
Indoor Track Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statindoor.asp
RACE REVIEW
LAC LA BICHE ICE TRACK, LAKE LA
Today’s racetrack was way up north. In fact, with a latitude reading of some 54.77 degrees, no trackchaser in the history of the hobby had ever seen an ice-race this far northward. On a globe of the Earth, lines of latitude are circles of different size. The longest is the equator, whose latitude is zero, while at the poles--at latitudes 90° north and 90° south (or -90°) the circles shrink to a point. You can imagine that the further north you go during the winter, the colder it’s going to get.
The major drawback to today’s racing was the cold temperatures. I think it was about five degrees Fahrenheit. There was a steady wind. This was the coldest I’ve been this season at the 13 ice-racing tracks I’ve visited. Nevertheless, it didn’t come anywhere close to my very first ice-racing experience north of
Lac La Biche is a huge lake some three hours north of
Today in addition to the ice-racing road course for cars, they had a separate oval for motorcycle racing and a separate course for snowmobile racing. The lake was a busy place.
We arrived just in time for the first race of the day. We couldn’t take our car into the paddock area. I suspect they prohibited this to cut down on congestion in the paddock and possibly keep the overall vehicular weight down in this area. Remember, we were all on a frozen lake!
We parked the car and walked a short distance into the paddock area. The lake was mainly snow-covered. This gave us more traction for walking. There was also a good deal of “glare ice”. This ice was as clear as the ice cubes in your last cocktail. It was also as slippery as just about anything I can imagine.
Despite it being very cold, I was dressed for it. The only part of my body that couldn’t hack it was my hands when I took off my gloves to take a photo. Nevertheless, I felt a personal responsibility to the readers of the Trackchaser Report. It didn’t matter if my hand was permanently frost bitten and had to be removed. I would keep taking photographs for your viewing enjoyment until my hand was frozen stiff as a board.
I was pleased that Trackchasing’s First Mother took it as well as she did. She hung in there without complaint. We watched the first few races from a 6-8 row high grandstand with another 4-5 people as crazy as we were.
Car counts were good. There were 10-15 cars in each race. There was no P.A. or any printed schedule information that we saw. That made it difficult to figure out who was racing when. What’s funny about that to me is that ice racers seem to be able to line themselves up well without delay or any prodding whatsoever from a non-existent P.A. system. How is it that their “summer brothers” can’t line up properly and race without delay even after the announcer has begged them for 15 minutes. Nope! I don’t understand it.
The racecourse seemed to be about two miles in length. When the cars reached the far side of the track, they were difficult to identify. After a few races we descended the grandstand steps, with my right hand dragging several feet behind and headed for the car.
We then drove on more glare ice to a spectating area near the last turn on the track. I showed Carol some of my best glare ice racing moves in the National Rental Car Racing
I’m appreciative of the information I got from the
These fellas race at another lake in
CAROL’S COMMENTS
Wow! Is this place flat! They didn’t speak much French in this province. The race was run in the coldest conditions I’ve faced this year. I’d rather be a driver in this weather than a member of the pit crew. I love our toe and hand warmers. It was nice to have a grandstand; we wouldn’t have seen a thing without it due to the snow piles on the lake. Even though the Westin was “American lite”, the service people were very very helpful and nice. It was surprising to see it snowing this morning. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the white stuff. It’s not good to be an American in
RENTAL CAR UPDATE
We’ll be motoring around in the National Rental Car Racing
I drove the National Rental Car Racing Grand Prix 328 miles in the two days we had it. I paid an average price of $4.12 per gallon. The
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
One cannot think well, love well or sleep well if one has not dined well.
TRAVEL DETAILS
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA – Edmonton, ALB – 1,355 miles
RENTAL CAR –
Lac La
AIRPLANE
Edmonton, ALB – San Francisco, CA – 1,162 miles
San Francisco, CA – Los Angeles, CA – 363 miles
Total Air miles – 2,880 miles (3 flights)
Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 3,208 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $5 Canadian
RANKINGS
LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
There are no trackchasers currently within 100 tracks of my lifetime total.
1. Randy Lewis,
Complete Lifetime World Rankings
http://trackchaser.net/trackchasers.asp
Other notables
These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus or more) of Carol’s current trackchaser total.
26. Mike Knappenberger,
27. Carol Lewis,
28. Ken Schrader,
29. Max Allender,
2008 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Mike Knappenberger,
3. Carol Lewis,
3. Guy Smith, Effort,
4. Paul Weisel,
Tracks have been reported by 24 different worldwide trackchasers this season.
Complete 2008 Trackchasing Standings
http://trackchaser.net/statyear.asp?year=2008
LIFETIME COUPLES TRACKCHASING STANDINGS
1. Randy & Carol Lewis,
2. Allan & Nancy Brown,
3. Guy & Pam Smith, Effort,
It’s taken Carol and me 59 years to reach the top of the married couple’s trackchasing standings. I am surprised that the three couples listed above have seen more than 5,000 tracks amongst them.
LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS
2007 NGD results are posted at www.ranlayracing.com
Official Trackchaser Rules
http://trackchaser.net/rules.asp
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 aka “Dusty”
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
The ice racing season in North America is short. It runs pretty much during January and February only. This means there might be just one weekend remaining for ice racing. I’ve already seen 13 new ice tracks in 2008. Is there enough hardwater left to increase that total before the ice racing season melts like Frosty the snowman? I’ll keep you posted.
RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2008 (** not the first time to visit this track)
1,299.
1,300. Bira Circuit, Pattaya (road course),
1,301.
1,302.
1,303.
1,304.
1,305. Ozark Empire Fairgrounds (oval),
1,306.
1,307. Brainerd International Raceway Ice Track (road course),
1,308.
1,309.
1,310.
1,311.
1,312. Mototown USA (oval) –
1,313. Moosehead Lake Ice Track (oval) –
1,314.
1,315.
1,316.
