Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
PORT ANGELES SPEEDWAY - PORT ANGELES, WASHINGTON
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RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report
DAY 1 – LET’S GO RACING WHERE IT RAINS TRACKCHASING TOUR
TODAY’S HEADLINES
What does the fact that I do not drink coffee and paying your bills on time have to do with each other?...................more in “The Objective”.
The future of trackchasing has arrived and it doesn’t look good………..details in “The People”.
Tonight I knocked off a “signature” track. What the heck is a “signature” track…………..details in “Race Review – Port Angeles Speedway”.
Click on this link or paste it in your browser to take you to today’s Trackchaser Report via my website at
Don’t forget to try my new picture format at my website. There are more pictures to see and they load a lot faster.
Reader Questions for Randy
Q. I didn’t get a chance to listen to your interview live on the ESPN radio affiliate from Washington. Will you be making it available is some other format?
A. Yes. The radio station sent me an mp3 file of the 15-minute interview. I will be putting it on to play in the background of my homepage at www.ranlayracing.com. I may also distribute an email with the mp3 attachment.
GREETINGS FROM BREMERTON, WASHINGTON AND THEN PORT ANGELES, WASHINGTON.
I WOKE UP THIS MORNING IN SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA. I WENT TO SLEEP IN SEQUIM, WASHINGTON. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Objective
I don’t drink coffee. For some reason, I have never enjoyed the taste of it. I couldn’t tell you how much a cup of coffee costs. Could it be 50 cents, a dollar or maybe two dollars? I know there must be a reason that Starbucks is often called “four bucks”. Even if I were a coffee drinker, I likely would not be able to tell you how much a cup of java might sell for. I would be a horrible contestant on the “Price is Right” show.
Why is it that I have no idea what a cup of coffee, or many things for that matter, costs? Because it really doesn’t matter. If I were a coffee drinker, my consumption wouldn’t be affected by any of the prices most likely to be charged. There are just too many things in life to keep track of (and I keep track of many of them) to sweat the small stuff.
This discussion brings me to my current trackchasing budget. At the beginning of each year, I try to estimate what I will spend on a daily basis in seven expense categories. These categories include airfare, airport parking, hotels, rental cars, gasoline, food and race tickets.
I try to estimate how many days I will go trackchasing. I also come up with a number of round-trip airline trips I expect to take. I then multiply each daily expense budget by the number of days I expect to trackchase. The total number of round-trip airfare expenses is added to this total. This gives me an overall number that will come to be my annual trackchasing expense budget.
I normally fly 35-50 round-trips each year. Over the past several years, I have been trackchasing 100-125 days each year. People give me estimates of what they think it costs to go trackchasing the way I do it. Usually those guesses are way off the mark both high and low. I had one knowledgeable fellow guess that I was spending $250,000 per year. RANLAY Racing protocol never permits me to publicly comment on the absolute amount of my trackchasing budget or of my actual expense.
It is likely that I spend more on this hobby that any of my fellow competitors. That stands to reason, since I’ve probably earned more in my lifetime that any of the other trackchasers. What’s important about this is that no one should spend more than they can afford.
My attorneys advise me that I should mention at least twice a year that I am in no way responsible for encouraging or affecting how much my fellow competitors spend on the hobby of trackchasing. I know the hobby is competitive. Nevertheless, I do not want any other trackchasers accusing me of being responsible for their rapidly depleting savings accounts and IRAs.
You have all read about the drunk who leaves the bar, goes out, kills somebody and then tries to blame to bartender, the bar, the contractor who build the bar and anybody else they can think of for “getting them drunk”. I cannot be held in anyway responsible for the spending patterns of my fellow competitors. It makes me feel good that they have finally come up with the idea of traveling together to reduce gasoline and other travel expense. I simply hope that I am given credit for the idea since I have been issuing my attorney induced warnings for several years. I can only say so much.
Speaking of expenses, I wanted to relate some recent personal experiences. As you know, I work just one day per year. That’s October 11, the day I rebalance my retirement portfolio. No, I don’t work a full day, but I do usually put in a good two hours.
However, I do volunteer to help others manage their household budgets and retirement portfolios. I’ll also help with an occasional mortgage refinancing. Some of my past “clients” are readers of the Trackchaser Report. I NEVER receive compensation for this type of effort. If I did, it would seem like WORK and that word gives me the “heebee geebees” since I retired six years ago. If I were paid, it might create an obligation on my part. It wouldn’t be volunteering if I felt obligated.
Right now, I am working with a woman who needs to refinance her adjustable rate mortgage. She is not a reader of the Trackchaser Report so I feel safe in sharing some of the general concepts of her situation. Her current interest rate is 7.3% and adjusts monthly.
She has three payment options. She can pay the principal and interest. She can pay interest only. Alternatively, she can pay a “minimum payment” that is less than interest only. Somehow, she fell into the trap of making only the minimum payment. Three years ago, her principal balance was $255,000. Today, because she has not even been paying the “interest only” option, her balance has increased to $272,000. This is because she has begun to pay “interest on interest”.
The bank has offered her an option to lock in a rate of 6.125% for five years. Although she would like to lock her rate for a much longer period, she does not have the income to qualify for a long-term fixed rate mortgage.
We were all set to wrap up her new five-year mortgage when her credit report was checked. She needed a FICO score of 660. She actually received a 616 score and didn’t get the loan!
Her outstanding credit card balances are too high relative to the credit card maximum limit on three different credit cards. Her outstanding credit card balances are cumulatively only $3,800. That not much in today’s “I gotta have it now” world. However compared to her credit card limits that’s too much.
Compound this with the fact that her name was still on the car title with her recently divorced husband. Of course, the ner’do’well missed a payment or two and that showed up on her credit report.
She also had an “inquiry”. This means that somebody for some reason checked her credit report during the past week. Inquiries can lower your credit score. The potential lender sees it as somebody else getting ready to lend the borrower ever more money creating more debt.
She will need the next few months to try to straighten out these problems if she can. By that time, she might or might not be able to get the loan she was shooting for.
I know that some things are easier to say than they are to do. However, it’s important to pay your bills on time. It’s important to know how much you make and how much you spend. It’s really important to not spend more than you make. However, in retirement that strategy is not true.
Let’s say you have one million dollars in retirement. Let’s also say that you knew you had just two years to live. There would not be much point in spending just $20,000 per year is this example or you might have a ton of money left over.
Some folks might say, “But, Randy I want to leave a good chunk of money to my kids”. Although I didn’t say the following, I believe it. “If when your kids are 50 years old, they need a big wad of money from mom and dad, then they haven’t been much of a success in their personal financial lives”.
Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on how my volunteer efforts in this case go. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I just have to be certain there’s a will on my client’s part.
The Trip
I really enjoy trackchasing in the Pacific time zone. In the U.S. I can’t think of one trackchaser who does not do 75% or more of their trackchasing in their home time zone. On the other hand, I do more than 75% of my trackchasing in foreign (to me) time zones. It’s always more difficult to continually be waking up and going to sleep two or three hours earlier or later than you are used too.
Even though I would be trackchasing in Washington state today, I had an East coast type wake-up call. My alarm went off at 4:18 a.m. I know that some of you work for a living and that 4:18 a.m. might not be all that early for you to “rise and shine”. However, I hope that when you retire, you don’t see a need to get up that early.
I chose that early wake-up call so I could board a 6:45 a.m. flight up to Seattle. The three-hour flight would get me in with plenty of time to rent my car and drive one-hour to the Bremerton Motorsports Park. Their first event wouldn’t start until 2:30 p.m.
If this weekend works as planned, I will see a day/night trackchasing double (my favorite) on Saturday and an afternoon race on Sunday. This will give me three new tracks in just two days with only one overnight. If every trip were like that, this trackchasing travel thing would be a piece of cake.
The People
I’m a big fan of the Trackchaser.net website. On this site, you will find links to thousands of racetracks all over the world. Zillions of trackchaser rankings (national, regional, state or whatever, but still no couples rankings) dot the site. You can also find the official rules of trackchasing listed at www.trackchaser.net.
Will White, the official or unofficial “trackchaser commissioner”, depending upon your politics has run the site for years. Some time ago, he added a section that I very much enjoy. It’s called “most recent track visits”. In this section, Will lists the 200 most recent tracks seen and which trackchaser saw them. This is a great source of new track information as often a trackchaser’s discovery of a new track is not made known in advance of his/her visit.
Just a few days ago, I visited the “most recent track visits” section of the site. I have to be honest with you. I have to be blunt with you. Overall, this is a collection of some of the most unusual and general unentertaining tracks just about anybody could find. That’s right. Overall, it’s a collection of dud racing venues.
You won’t find any Indianapolis’, or Daytonas or very many good entertaining ovals and road courses. There are a few exceptions to be sure, but I would estimate that maybe only 10-20% of the tracks on this list would have even been considered by people trackchasing 10-15 years ago.
I’m sad to say that our hobby has digressed into counting just about anything. I’m as guilty in searching these tracks out and going to see them as the next guy. How did this happen? I guess folks just ran out of the quality entertaining and competitive tracks to see. That only stands to reason. A trackchaser was likely to visit the very best tracks earlier in their trackchasing careers. As time went on, they had seen all their favorites, some many times over.
Now we are faced with going to tracks that don’t even offer traditional racecars. Many times a slight chicane turns an ordinary oval into a “road course”. Often the car counts are less than anyone would have considered acceptable from the first 100-200 tracks they saw. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m explaining.
There can be no doubt that the majority of these inferior and often unentertaining tracks are being seen so that trackchasers can maintain or improve their track ranking in one area or another. That part of trackchasing can be fun too. It’s just too bad that the top 20 or more trackchasers face a long string of really rinky-dink trackchasing opportunities in their future as they visit more and more tracks.
RACE REVIEW
BREMERTON MOTORSPORTS PARK, BREMERTON, WASHINGTON
Today’s weather was better than what I expected from the weekend forecast. It was 66 degrees and generally sunny. For Northwestern Washington in late April that is pretty good.
There were several basic elements of today’s program that were appealing. However, the one and most important aspect of the program (after getting to officially count the track that is) was woefully lacking. I’ll tell you about that in a moment.
I found the track very easily. This is the first full weekend where I have used Google Earth to first locate the track and then provide the longitude and latitude coordinates. The system worked perfectly for both tracks that I saw today.
Admission to the races today was free. That’s good. Admission also included admission to the paddock (pit) area. That’s good. They started on time. That’s good. With all of these positives what could be wrong?
Well, like most road course tracks spectators could not see much. However, this was really bad. Imagine a Coca-Cola bottle if you will. In your mind lay the Coke bottle flat (not vertical) on a table. Now imagine that cars will race around the elongated bottle. You the spectator will be allowed to stand and view the races from just beyond the edge of the bottle cap. As you might imagine, it’s a long way from where the bottle cap is located to the other end of the bottle.
Today’s track was long and narrow. Each lap took the cars about 45 seconds to complete. From where the spectators were allowed to watch from, the spectating opportunities were bad.
There was also no P.A. system or announcing for the spectators. The only public announcements were directed to the competitors telling them who was going to race next.
All of the above is not unusual for club road racing in the United States. This type of racing is not nearly as well attended as events I have seen recently in Mexico, Jamaica or Barbados. In reality, the racing event is primarily designed for competitor comfort and not for spectators. Given that is the case, I consider myself lucky to be admitted to these events for the purpose of adding to my trackchasing totals.
Even though I could not see much of the racing, I did get many good photos of the ambience that SCCA road racing offers from the paddock and other areas on site. Check ‘em out at www.ranlayracing.com.
PORT ANGELES SPEEDWAY, PORT ANGELES, WASHINGTON
This is my 33rd new track to see during the 2008 season. Surprisingly, to me anyway is the Port Angeles Speedway is my first asphalt oval track of the year. That statement says something about how the hobby of trackchasing has changed.
Port Angeles was my Washington “signature” track. I have identified a “signature” track as the one track in each state that I would most like to visit. Sometimes a track gets this special designation because it’s famous or holds some unique spot in racing history. Sometimes, it’s as simple as I happen to like the track’s name. Now that the Port Angeles Speedway is in my trackchasing rear view mirror, the Ephrata Raceway Park is my signature track in Washington state.
What was most striking to me was that the track sits at the bottom of a huge snow-covered mountain. When I first arrived I thought I was in the shadow of the Swiss Alps.
What was equally noticeable, but on the negative side, were the track workers attempting to park the cars in the track’s grassy parking lot. What a bunch on incompetent fellows these guys were.
When I arrived, I had to wait 3-4 minutes while they attempted to precisely get the car, just ahead of me, parked. First, they had the driver keep putting his car ever closer to the vehicle already parked next to him. Then they had the driver move his car first a couple of inches forward and then an inch and a half backward. This was excruciating, especially since it was an hour before racing was to begin and the lot was wide open.
Then, it was my turn. I would be beginning a new row. The parking guy was trying to motion me to do something near an orange traffic cone. I tried to follow his suggestion, but apparently my sign language skills are lacking. I pulled in one way in an attempt to satisfy him. My performance was not O.K. I tried a different angle. Again, I must have missed his expectations by just a few degrees. Finally, I had the car where he wanted it after nearly five minutes of trying. I rolled down my window and said, “You guys are hurting not helping!” He told me he was doing the best he could. Here’s a lifelong phrase this fellow should never forget, “Don’t mistake activity with achievement!”
I have now seen 1,331 tracks. I have written a Trackchaser Report for most of those track visits. I can hardly ever remember commenting on the skills, or lack thereof, of the parking attendants. During intermission, I went out to my car to escape the cold. I looked up and down the aisle way of my parking row. The cars looked like they had been parked by a drunken sailor. In some spots the drive-thru lane was hardly wide enough to permit a car through.
However, after my parking experience, the rest of the night was most enjoyable. The car counts were small in these classes: trucks (4), demos (4), outlaw compacts (6) and hornets (8). Nevertheless, the cars raced closely on this smallish ¼-mile asphalt oval.
Following time trials, which I “heard” while semi sleeping in my car, the announcer told the crowd that all of the cars would be coming onto the track to park for a spectator “meet and greet” session. The fans would be allowed to come down on the track’s racing surface to meet the drivers and inspect the cars. This is always fun and I wish more tracks had this practice. I spent several minutes down on the track. I did notice the cars were pretty well beat up. It was also easy to see how important families are to this type of racing. Wives, girlfriends, moms, dads and all kinds of kids were visiting their racing heroes.
The Port Angeles Speedway (frequently called “PA” by the announcer) has been here a long-time. In many ways, the track has a good deal of “deferred maintenance” going on. It reminded me of the little tarmac ovals I’ve seen in England……pretty run down with some good racing.
The track ran five different trophy dashes of four cars each. For some reason they ran different sets of hornet dashes and heat races with four cars in each. This made me think the hornets were actually two different divisions. However, by feature time all eight hornets raced together in a very entertaining 30-lap feature. Remember, I was just coming from a not very entertaining event at the Bremerton Raceway.
By the way, the hornet division is very popular in the Northwest. These are small four-cylinder stock cars. They are almost always painted yellow. I once asked a Washington racing expert why that was. “Hornets (as in the bees) are usually yellow”. Sometimes it pays to ask. When there’s a decent field they put on close hard-fought racing.
I purchased a cheeseburger for $4. It was only when I walked away that I learned the “speedway burger” was only five dollars and it was a double burger. Too late. I enjoyed my good-sized cheeseburger anyway.
The P.A. system was good. The announcer was enthusiastic and entertaining. During intermission, they had some spectator drags. The feature races were finished by 9 p.m. It was hardly dark. I imagine in the summer time, they will never have to turn on their track lighting system.
I crisscross the United States multiple times every year. I see every nook and cranny of our country up close. There’s a lot of very unique scenery to see. I will say that this part of Washington has some of the most beautiful scenery of all. They have mountains that are tall enough to have snow on them most of the year. They have more water via straits, seas and oceans than nearly any part of the U.S. They also get some rain which makes there heavily forested land features emerald green. Overall, this is one of the most beautiful spots in the country.
STATE RANKINGS
Washington
Today I saw my 20th and 21st new tracks in the Evergreen state. According to my “all North American” tracks database, I have only five more tracks in Washington that I have not seen. Today’s trackchasing effort breaks my tie with Allan Brown for first place. Allan has seen 19 tracks here. I am the #1 ranked trackchaser in eleven states in the USA. Thirty-three listed trackchasers have visited the state of Washington in pursuit of their hobby.
Now you can see the entire up to date trackchaser rankings for Washington. Just click on this link or paste it in your browser:
http://trackchaser.net/statregion.asp?country=USA®ion=WA
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
RENTAL CAR UPDATE
Seattle, Washington – Saturday/Sunday
I’ll be driving the Alamo Rental Car Racing Chevy Malibu. I rented it via Priceline.com for the unbelievably low price of just $10 per day for the two days I will use it. Actually, the various taxes came to more than $22! That means the politicians get more revenue than the rental car company. That just seems wrong.
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser
If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.
TRAVEL DETAILS
AIRPLANE
Orange County, CA – Seattle, WA – 976 miles
RENTAL CAR
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport – trip begins
Bremerton, WA – 60 miles
Port Angeles, WA - 139 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
Bremerton Raceway – Free
Port Angeles Speedway - $10
RANKINGS
LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
There are no trackchasers currently within 100 tracks of my lifetime total. It’s not my fault despite what you might hear!
1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,331
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,
28. Ken Schrader, Concord, North Carolina – 354
29. Max Allender,
2008 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 33
2. Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania – 25
3. Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 18
4. Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 10
5. Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 9
5. Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania - 9
Tracks have been reported by 25 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 – 1,688
2. Allan & Nancy Brown,
3. Guy & Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,668
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
I’m in “we race rain or shine” country. There are very few racetracks in all of the United States that will run in the rain, especially oval tracks. Tomorrow’s weather forecast calls for a 60% chance of rain and I believe them. However, I couldn’t care less about the chance of rain. Tomorrow’s racing goes on rain or shine.
There are two major things I like about European racing. They race “rain or shine” and they race during the day. Why would racing during the day be important too me? Day racing allows for a pleasant and leisurely dinner at the unique restaurants that dot the continent.
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. Shawano Lake Ice Track –
1,311.
1,312. Mototown USA (oval) –
1,313. Moosehead Lake Ice Track (oval) –
1,314.
1,315.
1,316.
1,317.
1,318.
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
1,322. Dover Raceway (road course), Brown’s Town, St. Ann, Jamaica – March 24
1,323. Lake Country Speedway (oval), Ardmore, Oklahoma – March 29
1,324. Swainsboro Raceway (oval), Swainsboro, Georgia – April 3
1,325. Screven Motor (oval), Sylvania, Georgia – April 4
1,326. Centerville Super Speedway (oval), Centerville, Arkansas – April 5
1,327. Central Arkansas Speedway (oval), Plumerville, Arkansas – April 5
1,328. Clinton Country Speedway (oval), Alpha, Kentucky – April 6
1,329. Pleasant Valley Raceway (oval), Boise, Idaho – April 20
1,330. Bremerton Raceway (road course), Bremerton, Washington – April 26
1,331. Port Angeles Speedway (oval), Port Angeles, Washington – April 26
FAR West “Chase to be #1”
In the business world, the
The far west probably has the most beautiful scenery per square mile anywhere in the
Below is a listing of these thirteen Far Western states. The state’s name is followed by my current rank and how many tracks I need to see to gain at least a tie for 1st place. As an example, I’m currently in ninth place in
Colorado – 2nd by 1
Wyoming – 1st
