DAY 1 – WANTI WANTI CAN’T GET IT, GETTI GETTI NO WANT IT TRACKCHASING TOUR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TODAY’S HEADLINES

 

How could things turn so badly so quickly from a logistical standpoint?................more in “The Objective”.

 

When my computer failed and my transportation plan left me grounded I felt doomed. …………..details in “The Trip”.

 

Strike three!  The racing was not very good tonight either. …………..details in “Race Review”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS

 

 

Congratulations to Ed Esser of Madison, Wisconsin.  Ed just moved into fifth place in the trackchasing world rankings.  He passed former world leader Rick Schneider and now has his sights set on fourth place.  According to Trackchhaser.net, he needs only 18 more tracks, about 6-8 weeks worth, to move into fourth place.  At the rate Ed is going he will be challenging second and third spots in the not too distant future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Don’t forget to try my new picture format at my website.  There are more pictures to see and they load a lot faster.

 

 

 

 

GREETINGS FROM HARTWELL, GEORGIA AND THEN LAVONIA, GEORGIA.

 

 

 

 

I WOKE UP IN SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA THIS MORNING.  I WENT TO SLEEP IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA.  THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.

 

 

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

 

 

 

The Objective 

 

My objective is nearly always the same in a couple of important areas.  I want my trips to go as smooth as possible from a convenience and comfort point of view.  I find that the more I plan and prepare, the better the trip goes. 

 

You may recall my noting that last week’s trip was my best ever from a logistical point of view.  I must have spoken too soon.  This week’s trip was one of the worst I can ever recall for things going smoothly.  Overall, it doesn’t much matter to me.  I am trained to make the best of it, no matter what happens.  I also know that when things don’t go as planned, it makes for a better story!

 

 

     

The Trip

 

Thursday, March 20

 

Last Thursday afternoon, I was sitting in my office making preparations for a four-day trackchasing trip that would begin the next day.  I had 6-8 hours to make all of my final plans and checks.  That was before J.J. came walking into my office.

 

He had a great plan for us.  UCLA was playing in the NCAA tournament just 40 minutes from our house.  The game was to begin in four hours and J.J. had a line on some tickets.  “Would we like to go?” he asked.  He knew we would….and we did go.  This cut my 6-8 hour planning window down to about 20 minutes.  I would pack when we got home from the doubleheader at about 11 p.m. for my 6:45 a.m. flight the next day.

 

J.J. had heard about the tickets from “Craig’s List”.  We battled some traffic to get to the game and then paid 20 bucks to park.  The first piece of bad news, in a long line of bad news encounters, came when the guy who had promised to sell the tickets could not deliver on his promise.  He didn’t really have the tickets he said he did. 

 

What to do?  I asked the parking attendant if we could get our parking money back.  She told us we could.  As we were having that conversation her boss overheard us.  Of course, HE had a line on tickets.  Soon we were buying four upper level baseline tickets for just 80% of face value (still $40 each).  The seats were very good and UCLA dismantled Mississippi Valley State 70-29!  Before the game was finished we ended up sitting in a private suite, eating free food, by knowing a friend of a friend.

 

I ran into another friend at the game.  He was most creative in getting his tickets.  Although he’s a white guy living in Orange County, he called the folks at Mississippi State, an all black school located on the other end of the country.  Somehow he was able to talk to the school’s president!  Soon the president was providing tickets for my friend.  Yes, very creative.

 

Friday, March 21

 

I wasn’t too wild about getting home from the games at 11 p.m. with a wakeup call for 4:30 a.m.  My pre-planning was woefully short and my morning flight was tight.  It was Good Friday on top of all that, one of the busiest flying weekends of the year.  Add in spring break and the NCAA basketball tournament airline traffic and flying on a standby basis would be all the more difficult.

 

To make a long story short, I did not make the first flight of the day.  I was attempting to fly to Atlanta.  If I did not get on an early morning flight I wouldn’t get to the southeast in time for a Friday night race.  Any races during Friday and Saturday would be a pure bonus.  I was going to Atlanta primarily to be better positioned for an international trip.  However, you’ll have to read the NEXT Trackchaser Report to find out where that destination would be.

 

The flights for the remainder of Friday didn’t look good.  I decided to cut my losses and returned home.  However, Saturday flights did not look good either.  I had to be in Atlanta for a Sunday outbound flight.  I could not afford to miss the chance to get to Atlanta on Saturday.  I caved in and actually bought a ticket for $350 one-way to Atlanta.  I was able to reduce my rental car expense from $102 to just $38 by needing just a one-day rental (rather than the original two) and using Priceline.  I didn’t think an incremental expense of $290 considering the last minute plan was too bad.

 

J.J. and I spent Friday reconfiguring my new Lenovo laptop.  My Dell laptop was nearly three years old and rapidly running out of hard drive space, mainly from all of the trackchasing pictures I had on it.  J.J. is a computer whiz.  It took us eight hours, but when we were finished not only did I have enough stuff on my laptop to launch the next four space shuttles but also I should be able to keep those dreaded East coast trackchasers at bay for a few more months.

 

Saturday, March 22

 

Even though I had a paid ticket and therefore a reserved seat, I had a very early wakeup call.  I was now going out of LAX which is 40 miles further from my house than the original plan of leaving from the Orange County airport.  My 7 a.m. flight necessitated a 4 a.m. departure from the house.  At least J.J. would ride up with me because he needed the use of the car for the rest of the week.  I was very anxious to get to know my new laptop during the quick three days I would be gone.

 

There isn’t much traffic at 4 a.m. on a Saturday morning even in greater Los Angeles.  I cleared airport security at 5:20 a.m.  I now had more than an hour before my flight.  I decided to power on my laptop to see what the baby could do.

 

I reached over to the upper left portion of the keyboard area and pressed the button.  I didn’t have my reading glasses on yet and was re-positioning the wrapper on my Burger King croissant when I nearly choked on the bite I was chewing.

 

The computer screen read, “Reformatting C drive”.  I thought I was just turning on the danged gum thing!  The geniuses at Lenovo had put the reformat button within one inch of the “on/off” button.  I guess their guys and gals were not smart enough to know that people like me would be dumb enough to push the wrong button at the wrong time.  To make a long story short, this effectively disabled my computer for the balance of the trip.

 

I don’t know if that sounds like a big deal to you or not.  For me, it was a deal breaker.  I spend 6-8 hours each day on my laptop when I’m home.  I spend nearly 100% of my time on airplanes on my laptop.  I would not have access to any mapping software, track information, internet shopping capabilities (hotels/rental cars, etc) or anything else.

 

I can now tell you this after I have returned home from this trip.  I could never ever spend the time I do on airplanes without a laptop.  When I am engrossed in some project on the computer while I’m flying I curse when it’s time to land and I’m not finished.  Without a laptop the flight to Atlanta seemed like I was flying to Hong Kong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The People

 

I had the pleasure of trackchasing with my friend, Dale Terry tonight.  Dale is originally from the Ft. Wayne, Indiana area.  He has now been living in the Atlanta area for some 20 years now.

 

Dale owns and operates a very specialized information database business that focuses on the sport of soccer.  I marvel at the creativity it took for him to develop this business from scratch.

 

We had an enjoyable time chatting on the ride up from Atlanta and back.  Dale is more of a racechaser than a trackchaser.  He goes back to the same tracks he likes because he knows he will normally enjoy the racing.  I can’t fault that.  It’s what I used to do.  I now prefer to go to tracks I have never visited because I enjoy that form of auto racing fandom.

 

 

 

 

STATE RANKINGS

 

Georgia

 

I started the night in a tie for sixth place with Andy Sivi and Paul Weisel.  After seeing two new Georgia tracks, I moved past Allan Brown’s 22 Georgia tracks and am now tied with Guy Smith for fourth place in the state with 23 tracks.  The change nets two lifetime NGD points for me. 

 

 

You can see the entire up to date trackchaser rankings for Georgia.  Just click on the link below or paste it in your browser:

 

http://trackchaser.net/statregion.asp?country=USA&region=GA

 

By the way, whenever I quote trackchasing stats (most of the time anyway) I will be using the trackchaser’s on line Bible, www.trackchaser.net.  I will get my fellow competitors’ totals from there unless they have provided me a more current update.  I will use whatever information source of information that is most current at the time I write each Trackchaser Report.  I don’t think I can make the statistical information any more accurate than that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRACK TYPE

 

In the world of trackchasing, we have three types of tracks that are considered countable.  These include ovals, circuits (road courses) and figure 8 tracks.  Generally, a road course includes both left and right turns.  Figure 8 tracks cross over themselves.

 

This evening I saw racing on two dirt ovals in separate locations.  These were my 22^nd and 23^rd lifetime tracks in the Peach state.  On a lifetime basis, this brings me up to 1,050 oval tracks (world ranking #1).

 

 

 

COMPLETE 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

 

Ice Track Standings

http://trackchaser.net/statsurface.asp?surface=Ice

 

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

 

HARTWELL MOTOR SPEEDWAY, HARTWELL, GEORGIA

 

The overall spectating experience at this track could best be classified as a disaster.  Dale and I arrived at 6:30 p.m.  Although it was a blue-sky day, the track was very wet from the efforts of the speedway’s water truck.

 

I took several pictures since it was still daylight.  We hung around for 30 minutes.  Since there was little or no attempt to dry the track while we were there, we knew they would not be starting anytime soon.  There were already 150-200 people in the stands and the pit area was full.  I didn’t know how long those people had been there before we arrived at 6:30 p.m.  I just knew they were going to be sitting on those concrete slab-seating areas for a lot longer before they saw any wheel-to-wheel racing.  We decided to drive over to the Lavonia Speedway just 16 miles away.

 

Note to reader:  In order to read this story in a chronological order, you will now need to page down to the Lavonia Speedway race review.

 

It was now 8 p.m. at the Hartwell Motor Speedway and just two cars were packing the track.  They did not start the first heat race until 8:30 p.m.  They didn’t have a very big crowd, but the crowd they did have had been waiting nearly three hours to see the first heat race pull onto the track.  Was somebody sleeping during the winter promoter’s meeting?

 

We first attempted to watch the races from our car right at the catch fence outside of turn two.  We didn’t stay there long.  The mud was heavy and the Hertz Rental Car Racing Chevy Impala would have been unrecognizable in less than 15 minutes had we stay there.

 

We moved over to the grandstand area.  From there we watched the street stocks; hobby stocks and crate engine stock cars complete their heat racing.  This must have been about 7-8 races.  The cars entered the track from the infield at the first turn.  Rather than give the cars the green flag when they returned to the starting line, they gave them several laps for some unknown reason before beginning the race.  Then each race had several yellow flags.  Finally, when one race was finished the next race did not begin for 3-5 minutes.  These were only 4-7 car heats run over a small number of laps.  Taking an hour to run these races was about twice what it should have taken.

 

The P.A. was bad and it was nearly impossible to hear the announcer.  I will say this.  The place looked very clean and everything appeared to be freshly painted.  Whenever, I provide criticism or acclaim for a track’s program I will try to be as objective as I can.  However, I must point out that I am seeing a track on just one day.  Therefore, I have just one data point.  You, the reader may disagree with the conclusions I come too based upon the data.  You may enjoy sitting on a course concrete bench for three hours with nothing much happening.  Actually, as I think about it, you the reader would not do that.  All Trackchaser Report readers have been screened for their intellect, although a few folks have been admitted simply as carriers to dispense the TR to those who couldn’t pass the I.Q. entry exam.

 

It was now 9:30 p.m.  We had been on the property for two hours.  Then the track decided it was time for late model time trials.  I love the South and I love southerners.  However, my blood pressure goes off the charts when any track tries to run time trials this late in the evening.  For the most part it only happens in the south.

 

I explained to Dale that it was now time to leave.  Dale is a racechaser.  He knew the real racing was going to take place at Lavonia tonight, so he was more than happy to go along with my plan.

 

I would have liked to have seen more racing at the Hartwell Motor Speedway.  However, blended doubles were created for exactly these kinds of situations when a track just can’t seem to get their racing act together.  I have now been to 1,321 tracks.  This was my 29^th lifetime blended double without a feature on the front end.  This was the 9^th time I have left a traditional track without seeing a feature event at the first track.  The other 20 blended doubles were at champ kart or novelty events.  You don’t have to look it up because I just did.

 

I will say this.  When Dale and I left the track no one else followed us.  Wait!  There was one guy who left when we did.  Maybe he was going for a blended double as well.  I guess I’ll never know.

 

 

 

LAVONIA SPEEDWAY, LAVONIA, GEORGIA

 

We arrived at this track at 7:15 p.m.  Tonight I was planning to complete a blended double.  I didn’t know if this would be a blended double with a feature on both ends or with a feature only at the second track (Lavonia) or not.  Given the Easter weekend, I don’t think any other trackchaser could have completed this trackchasing double…….or could they?

 

Even at 7:15 p.m., it was still light out, so I got some decent pictures of the Lavonia Speedway environment.  They were in the midst of hot laps.  We hung around for 30 minutes before driving back to the Hartwell track.  We were searching for some actual racing and it didn’t seem like either of these tracks was too anxious to get started.

 

Note to reader:  In order to read this story in a chronological order, you will now need to page up to the Hartwell Motor Speedway race review.

 

The Lavonia track grandstand was packed at an admission price that was twice as high as what Hartwell was charging ($20 vs. $10).  I must admit that I was admitted for free at both tracks.  Despite being admitted as a guest (I did not initiate the idea of free admittance) I cannot let my freeloader status influence the objectivity of my reporting.

 

The promoter at Lavonia had stated on the track’s website that the program would be run in a timely manner.  Apparently, the Lavonia Speedway has had a recent history of tardy shows and a dusty track.  I would have to say they failed in their attempt to complete the program in a timely fashion.

 

We had arrived back at the track at nearly 10 p.m.  They were just wrapping up with the heat races.  Then they went into a 7-car consolation event that was plagued with yellow flags.  Things didn’t appear to be going too well here either.

 

There were just three classes of stock cars racing tonight.  The headliner class was the Southern All-Stars.  The headliner in this division, for me, was NASCAR’s Kenny Schrader.  I was happy to see him racing his own Federated Stores sponsored late model, even though he was now edging one track closer to Trackchasing’s First Mother in lifetime tracks.  The Lavonia Speedway was a new track for Mr. Schrader.

 

Because the program was running late, they decided to move the Southern Late Model feature up to number two in the three feature line-up.  The local late models were first.  Their feature was shortened from 50 laps to 40 laps.

 

Initially the big 3/8 mile slightly banked dirt oval looked like it might be racy.  However, there wasn’t much passing and it got dusty toward the end of the night.  I think the track’s straights were too long for much passing.  They could have used more banking as well.

 

Kenny Schrader started 8^th in his feature event.  After the first couple of laps, he made it up to fifth in the mad scramble of cars sliding everywhere.  From there he could only manage to move up to fourth place.  The winner came from the front row after either having fast time or winning his heat race.  He was never really threatened.  I’m rapidly losing interest in big late model shows because they insist on starting the fastest guys in the front.  If you subscribe to a racing paper look at how often these big races are won from the front row.

 

There were a good deal of yellow flags.  The P.A. couldn’t be heard at all.  It also got dusty.  With one feature event remaining, it was now midnight.  We had a two-hour drive back to Atlanta.  It was time to go. 

 

It was great to get a “double” tonight.  However, as you might guess I was disappointed in the racing.  That’s what is great about trackchasing.  I don’t have to go back to places I don’t like.  It is unlikely I will ever return to these tracks, although it might be nice to give Lavonia another try but I wouldn’t bet that I ever will.

 

I believe my expectations as a race fan are fairly minimal.  I expect a track to begin their program at a reasonable hour within 15 minutes of the advertised start time weather permitting.  I want to see more green flag laps than yellow flag laps.  I want to be able to hear the P.A. and listen to an entertaining and informative announcer.  It would be nice to have some control over the dust and some decent food.  While we’re asking for the moon, how about some inverted starts and decent parking.

RENTAL CAR UPDATE

 

Atlanta, Georgia – Saturday/Sunday

 

Today’s National Rental Car Racing Chevy Impala had just 564 miles on it when I picked it up.  If I were in the market for a car in this price range, I might go for an Impala.

 

 

 

I drove the National Rental Car Racing Impala 278 miles in the one day that I had it.  I paid an average price of $3.26 per gallon.  The Chevy gave me 23.7 miles per gallon in fuel mileage at a cost of 13.8 cents (U.S.) per mile.  The car cost 17.6 cents per mile to rent, all taxes included.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

 

Randy Lewis

Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser

The truth seldom brings complaint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRAVEL DETAILS

 

 

AIRPLANE

 

Los Angeles, CA – Atlanta, GA – 2,113 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR

 

Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport – trip begins

Hartwell, Georgia – 145 miles

Lavonia, Georgia – 161 miles

Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport – 278 miles

 

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

 

Hartwell Motor Speedway – Free

Lavonia Motor Speedway - Free

 

 

 

 

 

 

RANKINGS

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:

 

There are no trackchasers currently within 100 tracks of my lifetime total.  It’s not my fault!

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,321

 

 

Full 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.  Kevin Eckert, Indianapolis, Indiana – 450

 

27.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 358

 

28.  Ken Schrader, Concord, North Carolina – 354

 

29.  Max Allender, Des Moines, Iowa – 349

 

 

 

 

 

2008 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 23

 

2.  Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania – 16

 

3.  Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 12

 

4.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 9

 

4.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 9

 

 

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, San Clemente, California – 1,679

 

2.  Allan & Nancy Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,672

 

3.  Guy & Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,666

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:

www.ranlayracing.com

 

 

Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:

www.trackchaser.net

 

 

Some of the data in this report comes from www.trackchaser.net and my Garmin GPS aka “Dusty”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

 

My next new track will be located in what will be my 14^th different trackchasing country.  Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2008 (** not the first time to visit this track)

 

 

1,299. Barnes Lake Ice Track, Ashcroft (road course), British Columbia, Canada - January 13

 

1,300. Bira Circuit, Pattaya (road course), Thailand - January 19

 

1,301. Cameron Lake Ice Track (oval), Erskine, Minnesota - January 26

 

1,302. Birch Lake Ice Track (oval), Hackensack, Minnesota - January 27

 

1,303. Mille Lacs Lake Ice Track (road course), Garrison, Minnesota - January 27

 

1,304. Mille Lacs Lake Ice Track (oval), Garrison, Minnesota - January 27

 

1,305. Ozark Empire Fairgrounds (oval), Springfield, Missouri – February 1

 

1,306. Atlanta Motor Speedway (road course), Hampton, Georgia – February 2

 

1,307. Brainerd International Raceway Ice Track (road course), Brainerd, Minnesota – February 3

 

1,308. Bay of Green Bay Ice Track (road course), Marinette, Wisconsin – February 9

 

1,309. Lake Speed Ice Track (oval), Tilleda, Wisconsin – February 9

 

1,310. Shawano Lake Ice Track – North Shore (oval), Shawano, Wisconsin – February 10

 

1,311. Cecil Bay Iceway (oval) – Cecil, Wisconsin – February 10

 

1,312. Mototown USA (oval) – Windsor, Connecticut – February 15

 

1,313. Moosehead Lake Ice Track (oval) – Greenville Junction, Maine – February 16

 

1,314. Clarence Creek Ice Track (oval) – Clarence Creek, Ontario, Canada – February 17

 

1,315. Durban Grand Prix (road course), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa – February 24

 

1,316. Lake La Biche Ice Track (road course), Lake La Biche, Alberta, Canada – March 1

 

1,317. Rice Lake Ice Track (oval), Rice Lake, Wisconsin – March 8

 

1,318. Ashland Ice Track (oval), Ashland, Wisconsin – March 9

 

1,319. Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez (road course), Mexico City, Mexico – March 16

 

1,320. Hartwell Motor Speedway (oval), Hartwell, Georgia – March 22

 

1,321. Lavonia Speedway, Lavonia (oval), Georgia – March 22