Randy Lewis

Which of the following would you consider to be the most significant trackchasing accomplishment in a season or a career for an individual trackchaser? 

 

- A trackchaser who saw one new track in each and every one of the 50 United States.

 

- A trackchaser who saw 50 new tracks in one state.

 

In the above example, each trackchaser saw 50 new tracks.  From that standpoint, they are tied.  However, one trackchaser traveled the country and one did not.

 

How about another example?  Which of these trackchaser’s accomplishments are most noteworthy? 

 

- This trackchaser saw 100 new tracks in 20 different states.

 

- Our next trackchaser saw 50 new tracks in 40 different states.

 

If you’re like me, it can be difficult to judge which trackchaser’s accomplishments rate the highest when we’re comparing both quantity of tracks and the geographical diversity of the tracks visited.

 

Because I’m retired and have a lot of time on my hands, I decided to devise a system that would compare the apples (quantity of tracks) and oranges (quantity of state locations) of trackchasing.  I first came up with the system back in 2003.  Here’s how the “National Geographic Diversity” rankings work.

 

But wait…..let me offer some insights as you consider these rankings.  First of all, it’s just for fun.  Secondly, try as I might, this is the first year I have ever one an NGD title and it's an annual title and not the more prestigious NGD lifetime crown.  Maybe someday I will someday get that lifetime title, but at least I can’t be accused of developing a system that allows only me to win.  Finally, there are other ways to compare trackchasers than the method I developed.  How many ways?  Try an infinite number.    

 

Here’s how the trackchasing National Geographic Diversity rankings were developed.

 

The rankings only apply to tracks seen in the United States.  That’s where the word, “National” comes in.  Each year there are two different rankings.  One is for the current year only and the other is for a trackchaser’s lifetime total.  I use the base data from trackchaser.com for each trackchaser’s track totals within an individual state.  A secret date is used each year as a cutoff for tracks to be considered.  If a trackchaser has not submitted his season totals and/or had them posted on trackchaser.com following the completion of the year by this mystery date, then his track totals won’t be counted.  This affects very few people, but we can’t coddle these trackchasing procrastinators.

 

By example, here is how the NGD point system works.  Let’s say that 15 different trackchasers visited new tracks in the state of Illinois.  The person who ranked number one in the state gets one NGD point.  The trackchaser who ranks second gets two points, etc.  If there are two trackchasers tied for second place, they each get two points.  The trackchaser who ranks just below these two second place trackchasers would get four points.  It looks something like this:

 

- 1.  Jon Smith – 23 tracks – 1 NGD point

- 2.  Kerry Jon – 14 tracks – 2 NGD points

- 2.  Steve Shaw – 14 tracks – 2 NGD points

- 4.  Sarah Hierdt – 13 tracks – 4 NGD points

- 5.  Russ Ingram – 12 tracks – 5 NGD points

- 6.  Pryce Laub – 10 tracks – 6 NGD points

- 6.  George Gordon – 10 tracks – 6 NGD points

- 8.  Mary Skonicki – 9 tracks – 8 NGD points

- 9.  Carol Polakovic – 7 tracks – 9 NGD points

- 10.  Phil Vorel – 4 tracks – 10 NGD points

 

Everyone who ranks worse than 10^th in the state, whether they saw any tracks there or not gets 15 NGD points for that state.  The theory here is that if a trackchaser can’t even rank in the state’s top 10, we should penalize him/her.  Yes, that’s right, try to make them feel really bad about themselves.

 

We had several states in 2005 where no listed trackchaser saw a new track.  These included:  Washington, D.C. (yes, it’s included with the 50 states), Hawaii, Maryland and Maine. In those states everyone was credited with 15 points.  By the way, this is the second consecutive year that  no one made it to D.C., Hawaii or Maryland.

 

Some states have had many trackchasers visit and some have had relatively few visits.  As an example, I have been to 59 tracks in Pennsylvania, but my state rank is 23rd.  I get 15 points added to my NGD totals for that result.  Andy Ritter has been to just four tracks in Utah, but that gives him a number 1 ranking in the state.  He gets one NGD point for his four tracks in Utah.

 

This is actually one of the more strategic elements of the entire National Geographic Diversity scoring system.  There may some states where the competition for tracks is the greatest.  States like New York and Pennsylvania come to mind.  These states have two aspects that make it more difficult to gain a high rating, 1) lots of racetracks and 2) lots of trackchasers. 

 

On the other hand, small remote states, many of which are in the far west, don’t have many trackchasers or racetracks.  Think of it like the U.S. Senate.  In the senate, each state gets two senators no matter how many people live in their state.  It might be more competitive to become the senator in New York than it would be in Wyoming.  Some NGD states are more competitive than others, but each state “Pays” the same NGD points.

 

To get to the final NGD score, all of the trackchaser’s NGD points are added up and then divided by 51 (50 states and Washington, D.C.).  The trackchaser with the LOWEST score wins (Ya, it’s like golf). 

 

This will be the second year that prizes will be awarded to the winners.  What is the prize?  A full year’s subscription to, what else, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine!  There are four winners in the National Geographic contest.  We have both men’s and women’s champions for the 2006 season only as well as the lifetime results.  All that is required for a champion to receive their subscription is for them to send me an email with their mailing address.  By the way, effective January 1, 2007 all past probation periods have expired.  This means that everyone in the world of trackchasing is eligible for award receipt.

 

This year’s winning lifetime NGD score was 7.08.  When one trackchaser's score improves another person's score is likely to get worse.  There were 43 participants in this year’s lifetime rankings.  By the way, when a trackchaser increases their state ranking by just one position in just one state, that lowers their overall score by 0.02 (that’s two one hundreds) of a point.  The second place finisher had a lifetime score of 7.16.  That means the difference between the first and second place lifetime finishers was just four individual positions spread over 51 states.  That’s pretty close.

 

There is more variation in the 2006 annual NGD results.  The winning score was 6.35 with second place following by a greater margin at 9.12.  There were 43 trackchasers credited with seeing at least one new track somewhere in the U.S.

 

There is one very important final note.  Two minor mathematical errors in the thousands of calculations it takes to complete the annual and lifetime National Geographic Diversity standings.  This was done to satisfy the folks looking for such things.

 

So….now you’re probably asking yourself one of two things.  “First, why in the world did I read all the way to this point?”  Secondly, “Since I did read all of the above, shouldn’t I click on www.ranlayracing.com and find out who the winners were in this year’s National Geographic Diversity Championships?”

Of course, you can go directly to www.ranlayracing.com and click on these tabs "NGD Lifetime Results" or "NGD Annual Results" if you would like as well.
 

I hope everyone enjoys seeing the results of who went where and how often.



Note:  All National Geographic Diversity results were tabulated by the National Geographic Diversity Institute, a think tank located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.