Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
CAPITOL SPEEDWAY - WILLOW, ALASKA
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RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report
DAYS 5-6 – THE GREAT WHITE NORTH TRACKCHASING TOUR
TODAY’S HEADLINES
I had my second airplane emergency landing of the 2008 season today...................more in “The Trip”.
Carol has now moved into the #27 position in the worldwide trackchaser rankings by passing NASCAR’s Kenny Schrader …………..details in “State Rankings”.
You could have had 40 acres of free Alaskan land…………..more in “The People”.
AND THE READERS RESPOND
From time to time interested readers write me about one thing or another. Many times, I feel that my other readers would be interested, informed and/or amused by the comments I get. Here’s what one of my foreign based readers had to say about my country and western musical tastes during this Alaska trip.
“Well , Well, Randy !
I didn't realize you were an 'in the closet' country music fan. That was brave of you to admit that ! I took you as being more of a rocker !
PS ... I had a spell where I liked some of the 'new' country , Shania Twain , Dixie Chicks etc but have gone off it again, as it seems to have returned to the moaning and groaning about 'dead dogs' , pickup trucks and heartbreaks, that it used to be associated with.”
Click on or paste this link in your browser to see the photos from this trip.
NORTH STAR SPEEDWAY
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ranlay8/080525NorthStarSpeedway
CAPITOL SPEEDWAY
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ranlay8/080525CapitolSpeedway
GREETINGS FROM WASILLA, ALASKA AND THEN WILLOW, ALASKA.
WE WOKE UP THIS MORNING IN HEALY, ALASKA. WE WENT TO SLEEP IN A DELTA AIRLINES JET WHILE WE FLEW OVERNIGHT FROM ANCHORAGE TO SALT LAKE CITY. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED ON SUNDAY AND MONDAY, THE FINAL TWO DAYS OF OUR TRIP.
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The Objective
Today I saw my tenth trackchasing “double” in 37 days of trackchasing. That gives me 47 tracks as of May 25. Last year by the same date I had seen 54 tracks on my way to a 160-track 2007 season. I won’t get nearly that many tracks this year. I will get a minimum of 102 tracks. My maximum will depend on what it takes to finish in the top three for my ninth consecutive podium finish.
Today’s double was a “blended double with no feature on the front end”. This was my third such double of the ’08 season. The blended double was invented, no, named by me. Trackchasers were actually completing blended doubles without seeing a feature on the front end long before I ever did my first BD. I just came along and gave it a name.
The tracks we saw today were the absolute perfect combination for a blended double. The situation had all of the ingredients for such an event. First, the tracks were fairly close together. The North Star Speedway and the Capitol Speedway are just 40 miles apart or about 45 minutes driving time.
We were a long way from home. The chances of us getting back to Alaska anytime soon are remote. I think it’s much better to spend an hour and a half at each of these tracks, as we did today, versus spending 3-4 hours at just one track and not being able to see the second track at all.
I suspect other trackchasers must agree with that line of thinking. Trackchasers Bing Metz, Paul Weisel, Guy Smith, Pam Smith and Will White have all recorded the North Star/Capitol double before Carol and I attempted it.
Alaskan racing does not offer large car counts. I guess the population just doesn’t support a large number of people getting into racing. We went to the North Star Speedway as the first half of our blended double. Their car counts were very low. This is what they looked like, Bandeleros (5), Legends (12), Thunder Stox (3), Late Models (7), Mini-Stocks (6) and Baby Grands (6). This is an average of just 6.5 cars per class. None of the classes ran more than one heat race. Each class did run two ROUNDS of heats and a feature. This meant that each heat race had the same cars that each feature would have. We stayed for exactly 90 minutes. During that time, we watched nine heat races and sat through the first of two intermissions before heading up highway 3 to the Capitol Speedway.
Let me be perfectly clear. I do not think blended doubles without a feature on the front end are a good idea in all circumstances. I would never leave the Indy 500 (even though I think the Indy 500 blows) with 50 laps to go in order to make it to a county fair figure 8 race. I would never leave any important race or sanctioning group to get the second half of a blended double.
My favorite classes of race cars (in no particular order) are NASCAR Sprint Cup, major late model shows, D.I.R.T. modifieds, midgets, wingless sprints and any kind of racing where there is lots of passing and a little banging. I would never ever complete a “blended double without a feature on the front end” when my favorite classes/sanctioning bodies race and I never will. However, more than 80% of the tracks I visit are the perfect candidates for this kind of double.
On another note…….There are several trackchasers that take the time to chronicle their trackchasing activities. They are to be commended. No one does it in the detail that I provide. It’s very easy for anyone to go back through the archives of my trackchasing results to see what I have and have not done.
By the way, I think that any trackchaser that does not share the results of his efforts via some sort of communication to the trackchasing community in general is ripping off the system IF he/she reads about everyone else’s trackchasing efforts.
Of course, that communication could take several forms. I happen to think a website with photos is the best way to go about sharing trackchasing experiences. That information is available 24/7. It’s free and the photos can create a “virtual” trackchasing experience. Currently only Ed Esser and I take the time to create a trackchasing website that shares our trackchasing travel experiences. Websites are not that difficult to create and some are even free to the creator. There is really no reason other than the time it takes to do the work not to create an individual trackchasing website.
I would rate email communications as another good way to share the experience. Summaries published in racing newspapers are O.K., it’s just that a trackchaser has to operate on a budget. He/she can’t subscribe to 20+ racing papers and who would have time to read them if they could afford the subscriptions. We have a large number of sharers and we have a few who just consume the information created by others but contribute nothing on their own. I don’t read everyone’s contributions but it’s nice to know I could if I wanted too.
The Trip
I will do whatever it takes in order to make a trackchasing trip work from a travel point of view. My policy is simple. If there is enough time to get from point A to point B, then I will do it. I don’t care how much strain it puts on me or my equipment. I just do it.
However, when Trackchasing’s First Mother is with me, I alter my approach. First, I try to bring her along on my most entertaining and least demanding travel itineraries. I don’t want to “burn her out” so to speak. Even with these minor travel limitations, Carol still maintains a travel schedule that no other woman in the history of trackchasing has ever attempted let alone completed.
Our plan to return from Alaska to Orange County did push some of the limits I don’t want to push when I’m with Carol. When we wrapped up our fifth track of the trip at the Capitol Speedway it was about 6 p.m. on Sunday night. We had an 80-mile drive to get down to the Anchorage Airport.
Our flight from Anchorage to Salt Lake would not be departing until 12:55 a.m. early Monday morning. This allowed for a leisurely dinner at the local IHOP and then a movie (What happens in Vegas) just to kill some time.
Of course, Monday was the final day of the Memorial Day weekend. It took some special planning to get a flight that would have space for us when everyone else would be returning home from their holiday. We slept the best we could on the 4.5-hour flight into Salt Lake City.
Once we landed in SLC, we had only a 30-minute connection to make our flight back home to Orange County. We boarded our flight home with seats in the coach cabin. Just before we took off the flight attendant came back to talk to us. She wanted to upgrade us to first class. Well, O.K.!
So here we were. We had flown all night from Alaska. Now we were enjoying the benefits of a first class flight. It’s great when a plan comes together.
However, just after I had asked Carol is she felt that our trip had been “flawless”, the pilot came over the P.A. with an announcement. We had been in the air for about five minutes. Apparently, the landing gear would not retract. The pilot informed us that we couldn’t make it to Orange County with the landing gear down. We would have to return to Salt Lake City. Oh, by the way, the emergency vehicles would line the runway to greet our return. Of course, they were only there…….as a precaution.
I wasn’t as concerned about us making a crash landing as I was about getting on another flight. If the plane we were on ended up being taken out of service, they would attempt to put all of the passengers on the canceled flight on the four remaining flights from Salt Lake City to Orange County. I knew those flights were nearly full. It was Memorial Day Monday. Everyone was trying to get home and back to work on Tuesday.
The airline DID decide to take our plane out of service after we landed safely. In a stroke of luck, the airline had a backup plane we would be able to use. We re-boarded the flight in first class and continued our journey, losing only an hour and a half.
With all of the international travel I’ve done this year, I have gone over the 125,000 miles travel level. It’s not even June yet. I may break my all-time record of 187,000 miles of trackchasing travel in one year. That record was achieved in 2007.
The People
Would you like to have 40 acres of land for free in Alaska? It can happen and it did. I was talking to the woman, Joyce, who runs Blue Ridge cabin rentals along with her husband in Healy, Alaska. We stayed in their cabins for nights #1 and #4 of our trip this week.
Back in 1978 both she and her husband had an opportunity to “homestead” land in Alaska. The state government allotted one weekend in February where homesteaders could stake out their land. Folks who wanted to get in on this land deal had to be residents of Alaska. To reserve their forty acres they had to go out onto the land, in February no less, and physically stake out the property. They had to bring along a “witness” and then file all of the paperwork with the state.
Joyce and her husband were both eligible to get 40 acres. They ended up with two parcels of land totally 80 acres. The land had no roads, no electricity and no water. But, it was free!
They build their home on the land. About 12 years ago, they built the first of six cabins for travelers to use. The cabins are very nice, clean and comfortable. They don’t have a phone or a TV, but do have a fridge and microwave oven. The ceilings are vaulted and made from knotty pine wood. We paid an off-season rate of $90 per night, which seemed like a fair price for the units.
I don’t believe Alaska offers free homesteading anymore. Even when it was offered in 1978, without any services or conveniences, it might not have seemed like much of a bargain. Joyce told me there weren’t many people willing to go out in sub-zero weather to get free barren land. The Blue Ridge cabin property is for sale now. Joyce and her husband are returning to her home state of Michigan to retire. I don’t know what they are asking for their property, but if you’re interested I can put you in touch.
RACE REVIEW
NORTH STAR SPEEDWAY, WASILLA, ALASKA
The North Star Speedway was the nicest facility of any of the five tracks we visited during this trip. They may also have the prettiest setting of any track I can recall visiting. The entire backstretch is ringed in snow-covered mountains. It really is beautiful.
The track is a banked ¼-mile asphalt oval. There is an “X” in the middle of the oval, but I don’t think it is wide enough for any figure 8 racing. The grandstand is huge. It 18 rows tall from top to bottom and built into a natural hillside. The grandstand runs from turn four to turn one. Several thousand people can be accommodated.
The pit area is located beyond turns one and two on a large asphalt covered area. The P.A. system and announcer are both good. The announcer had a little bit of “D.J.” in him. The track offers souvenirs and some rather expensive refreshments. A couple of nights ago, we had a delicious double cheeseburger at Wendy’s for $1.75. A double cheeseburger at the North Star Speedway sells for $6.50!
I was using the Jim Sabo sponsored Uniden Bobcat scanner for the first time on this trip. I was lucky to find a woman already listening to the track’s radio frequency at 151.6250. As I listened to the flagman direct the action I noticed two things. First, he did his best to keep the show moving. Secondly, he was dealing with a lot of new people. He had to go into great detail to explain how to pick up debris and give him the race lineups.
In Alaska, all of the oval tracks we saw had each class run two-heat races and a feature event. In the four oval tracks we visited we did not find one that had enough cars where it was necessary to split the cars into multiple heat races. This meant that three races (and sometimes four when a trophy dash was run) had exactly the same cars racing.
Today the track started on time at 2 p.m. with wheel-to-wheel racing. They had hot laps and time trials earlier. We arrived at just before the official start time. We stayed until 3:30 p.m. During that time, we watched nine heat races that had an average of six cars racing. Several of the classes ran 3-5 cars in their races.
Although this was a nice track, especially by Alaskan standards, the car counts were so small, that the racing was mediocre at best. A crowd of about 200-300 people watched under sunny but cool conditions. This was opening day. Maybe the car counts will pick up as the season progresses.
RACE REVIEW
CAPITOL SPEEDWAY, WILLOW, ALASKA
We arrived into the Capitol Speedway parking lot at about 4:15 p.m. This was the third time we had been in the parking lot since we arrived on Wednesday. We stopped to talk to the track owner on Wednesday night during our drive up to Fairbanks. We stopped again this afternoon (Sunday) just to make sure they were racing today. We learned their Saturday night program had been rained out. This meant the Saturday/Sunday show would now be run on Sunday/Monday of the Memorial Day weekend.
The Capitol Speedway is a rural ¼-mile dirt oval. Their race plan today called for time trials to begin at 2 p.m. with racing to follow. Since the North Star Speedway advertised wheel-to-wheel racing to begin at 2 p.m., we elected to go there first. I would say that generally asphalt tracks run a timelier program than dirt tracks. We made a good choice in going to North Star first and making the Capitol Speedway the second half of our daily double even though it did increase our driving mileage by 60-80 miles.
When we arrived at the Capitol Speedway they were just finishing up their second round of heats. This speedway has been racing for 31 years. From the looks of the facility it seems they might have been racing here for twice that amount of time.
The track has an average sized wooden bleacher seating area that spans most of the front stretch. There is a front stretch crash wall but no other barriers around the rest of the ¼-mile dirt oval. The pit area sits beyond turn four.
There were five classes of racing today. Each class had from 3-5 cars racing. They featured a large pickup truck class, sprint cars and three divisions of old-line stock cars. By anyone’s standards those are anemic car counts.
The two highlights of the day had nothing to do with the countable racing. The first was a foot race for kids. The race was one lap (quarter-mile) around the racetrack. There were kids of all ages in the race. One boy, who seemed quite a bit older than the rest and about six feet tall, passed a girl in turn four for the win.
The final event of the day was a 13-car demolition derby held on the track’s front stretch. The crowd really got into this event. At the end, the track was strewn with enough metal carnage to tear up thousands of dollars of race tires in the weeks to come.
I gave my trackchaser press release to all four of the oval tracks we visited. I received a mention at each. The recognition from the Capitol Speedway announcer was a classic. Here was a guy (me) who travels all over the world visiting racetracks. I’ve seen more tracks than anybody else. I’ve traveled more than one million miles since the 2000 season seeing these tracks. I had taken the time to come and visit this very small rural dirt track.
The Capitol Speedway announcer looked over my resume. He told the crowd of my presence at the track today in a very low-key manner. Then he said, “This fellow’s been to 1,345 racetracks. How about that?” Yes, it was one of the more understated welcomes I have received.
As always, I have photos of our racetrack adventures as well as pictures of several Alaskan moose that we encountered and in some cases nearly run down. We had a very fun five days in Alaska.
STATE RANKINGS
Alaska
Today’s trackchasing had me seeing my 5th and 6th lifetime tracks in Alaska. This moves me into a first place ranking in the state. Carol is right on my heals. She saw her 4th and 5th Alaskan tracks, all coming during this trip. This was the biggest lifetime NGD position gain (11 positions) that I can ever recall getting from one trip.
Carol now has 366 lifetime tracks. She’s just 34 short of getting to that magic 400- track level. Once she reaches that point, she becomes a voting member in the trackchasing group and can propose any rule she wants. Watch out!
Carol has also moved into sole possession of 27th place in the world trackchasing rankings. She passes NASCAR’s Ken Schrader who currently has 365 lifetime tracks. Major congratulations to Carol for passing Mr. Schrader and for seeing her 49th trackchasing state during the trip.
Now you can see the entire up to date trackchaser rankings for the state. Just click on this link or paste it in your browser:
http://trackchaser.net/statregion.asp?country=USA®ion=AK
RENTAL CAR UPDATE
Anchorage – Wednesday/Sunday
We’ll be driving the Budget Rental Car Racing Ford Taurus on this trip. At the last minute, I went with Budget over National to save 65 bucks. It seemed like the responsible thing to do.
The Budget rental agent told me I could have a Ford Taurus or a Dodge Charger. I asked her which one was best. She told me she liked the Taurus because the ’08 model was bigger than it ever had been. I doubted that statement but decided to go with the Taurus anyway.
The agent was correct. The Taurus was huge. It looks like it’s been put on steroids or forced to eat at McDonalds as often as I do. We parked next to a Toyota Camry and it looked like we could put the Camry in the trunk of the Taurus!
Carol and I drove the Budget Rental Car Racing Grand Prix 1,375 miles in the slightly more than four days that we had it. We came close to hitting a very large moose. We paid an average price of $4.06 per gallon. The Taurus gave me 24.4 miles per gallon in fuel mileage at a cost of 16.6 cents (U.S.) per mile. The car cost a reasonable 15.4 cents per mile to rent, all taxes included.
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser
4 out of 5 voices in my head say go for it. TRAVEL DETAILS
AIRPLANE
Orange County, CA – Salt Lake, UT – 588 miles
Salt Lake, UT – Anchorage, AK – 4,240 miles
RENTAL CAR
Anchorage International Airport – trip begins
North Pole, AK – 459 miles
Tok, AK – 729 miles
Fairbanks, AK – 929 miles
Wasilla, AK – 1,239 miles
Willow, AK – 1,279 miles
Anchorage International Airport – 1,375 miles
AIRPLANE
Anchorage, AK – Salt Lake, UT –4,240 miles
Salt Lake, UT – Orange County, CA –588 miles
Total Air miles – 9,656 miles (4 flights)
Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 11,031 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
North Pole Speedway – $5
Tanacross Airport – Free
Mitchell Raceway - $8
North Star Speedway - $8
Capitol Speedway - $10
Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $31
RANKINGS
LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
There are no trackchasers currently within 100 tracks of my lifetime total. I’m telling you, it’s not my fault!
1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,345
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 – 366
28. Ken Schrader, Concord, North Carolina – 365
2008 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 47
2. Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania – 32
3. Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 23
4. Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 17
5. Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 11
Tracks have been reported by 28 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 – 1,711
2. Allan & Nancy Brown,
3. Guy & Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,668
LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS
I came into this weekend’s racing activity with an 11-position lead on my nearest NGD competitor. By the end of the trip I had moved up from 10th place in Alaska to first. My fellow competitor had moved down in Alaska from fifth to seventh. My move up netted me 9 points and his move down netted me another 2 points. My NGD lifetime lead in now 22-position points, my biggest ever.
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
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
As this is written, I have absolutely no idea where I will be trackchasing next after our Alaska adventure. However, wherever it is, I’m sure it will be a fun trip because every trip I take is fun.
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
1,332. Evergreen Speedway (1/5-mile oval), Monroe, Washington – April 27
1,333. Virginia Motor Speedway (oval), Jamaica, Virginia – May 1
1,334. Natural Bridge Speedway (oval), Natural Bridge, Virginia – May 2
1,335. Sturup Raceway, Malmo (road course), Sweden – May 10
1,336. Ring Djursland, Tirstrup (road course), Denmark – May 11
1,337. Nisseringen, Naestved (road course), Denmark – May 12
1,338. Valentine Speedway (oval), Glenrock, Wyoming – May 17
1,339. Gillette Thunder Speedway (oval), Gillette, Wyoming – May 17
1,340. Phillips County Speedway (oval), Holyoke, Colorado – May 18
1,341. North Pole Speedway (oval), North Pole, Alaska, – May 22
1,342. Tanacross Airport (road course), Tok, Alaska, – May 24
1,343. Robert Mitchell Memorial Raceway (oval), Fairbanks, Alaska, – May 24
1,344. North Star Speedway (oval), Wasilla, Alaska, – May 25
1,345. Capitol Speedway (oval), Willow, Alaska, – May 25
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
Alaska – 1st by 2
Arizona – 1st by 8
California – 2nd - trail by 46
Colorado – 1st - tie
Hawaii – 3rd – trail by 1
Idaho – 1st by 3
Montana – 1st by 1
Nevada – 1st - tie
New Mexico – 1st by 4
Oregon – 1st - tie
Utah – 1st by 2
Washington – 1st by 3
Wyoming – 1st by 2
