Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
Cross Roads Motorplex - asphalt oval, Jasper, Florida
Before any good trackchasing day can begin in the south, I must make a stop at the Waffle House.
My drive from Valdosta, Georgia took me back into Florida.
Just after I crossed into Florida, I came across the Jennings GP. This is a motorcyles only road course in Jennings, Florida.
The biker boys were having fun on a sunny afternoon.
Colorful signs like these can be found all over the southeast. They are a remembrance of days gone by and times before interstate travel came about.
The landscape in Florida forests is unusual to a California boy like me.
The Cross Roads Motorplex is a very well kept and beautiful karting facility.
This is the dirt oval at Cross Roads. They were not racing today.
I was here to see the Senior Champ Karts race on the asphalt oval.
These used racing tires provide a very effective safety barrier for the cars and drivers.
This is the track office building and one of the grandstand areas at this meticulously maintained racing complex.
This was the entire field of Senior Champ Kart Lites!
This is a Senior Champ Kart Lite racer at speed.
Nobody said the track had to be politically correct.
Even the flagman seems a bit bored. This was the only countable race.....a 20 lapper for the two Senior Champ Karts in attendance.
When this checkered flag flew on the Senior Champ Kart Lite grand feature, it was time for me to fly home.
It was a long flight home from Jacksonville after the afternoon race. I hit the bedroon at 4:47 a.m. Eastern time. I slept late and this is the view from our bedroom that I awoke to the next morning in San Clemente. It was nice to be home!
GREETINGS FROM JASPER,
SPECIAL NOTICE
I will try to share some photos of my trips whenever I can. The feedback you’ve provided tells me that the pictures add value to the words of a Trackchaser Report. Just click on www.ranlayracing.com and you can see what went on in
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
I want to share some of my travel tips with you today. I take more than 25 airline trips each year so I’ve learned a few things along the way. Of course, only the most knowledgeable Americans and worldwide residents are admitted to the Trackchaser Report community. Therefore, I am speaking to a well-informed audience.
By the way, if my travel tips jog a thought in your memory bank that the readers may benefit from, please let me know. My trips almost always involve buying space on or in an airplane, hotel and rental car.
AIRPLANES
For this type travel, the best website I have found is www.sidestep.com. I have also just recently discovered www.farechase.yahoo.com, which looks to be very good.
On this trip, I flew down to and back from
However on this trip, my Saturday race was scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Don’t get me started on when that race actually got going! Since my Saturday race was nearly three hours driving time from the nearest large commercial airport (
My Air Tran Airways flight was scheduled to depart at 7:05 a.m. on Friday morning. As luck would have it, we had a UCLA basketball game on Thursday night. We don’t get home from those games until after 11 p.m. If I stuck with the 7:05 a.m. flight, I would have to leave the house at 4 a.m. just five hours after I got home from the basketball game. That plan didn’t seem like a good idea.
I originally picked this early Friday morning flight because it was more than $150 cheaper than anything else was. A flight this early from LAX, an airport some 65 miles away means, I must get up at about 3:30 a.m. to make it. For the trackchasers reading this, I ask you, “How often do you get up at 3:30 a.m. to start your trackchasing trips?”
Since I was leaving the day before my first scheduled track, I really didn’t need to arrive that early on Friday. I called the airline and asked about flying standby on a later departure. Yes, I could fly standby on a flight that left five hours later at no extra charge as long as there was space available. There was space and I did fly standby on a flight that was priced nearly $200 more than what I paid for my ticket.
The lesson here is buy the cheapest ticket you can at whatever time is offered. Then call the airline a day or two before and find out if there is a better time of day that you can fly standby on. If you have a little flexibility, you can save both time and money. Remember, if there is no better standby flight, you will have to go on your originally booked flight.
Savings this weekend from this tip - $187
HOTELS
Jim and I stayed in
We drove across the street to a recently remodeled Quality Inn. There we secured a Marriott Courtyard quality double room for just $45. Moral: don’t be afraid to go across the street.
It pays to shop around. It’s easier to let your fingers to the walking on the internet, but spending an extra 10 minutes once you’re already in the area will also net you savings.
Savings this weekend from this tip - $49 (including taxes)
RENTAL CARS
Finally, it was time to get a rental car. I first used www.sidestep.com. They offered a low rate after considering all the major car companies of $34 per day. If everything else is equal, I prefer National Rental Car since I’m a preferred member and get the pick of their very best cars.
Once I knew what the best rates for cars were I called National directly. They confirmed their $34 rate, which was mentioned at Sidestep. I then inquired about the AAA rate. Yes, they had a AAA rate and it was just $27 per day. That created another $18 in savings including taxes.
I find AAA discounts to be fantastic. It costs about $60 per year for Carol and me to be members of AAA. They provide roadside assistance up to four times per year. They also give discounts on hotels, rental cars and other entertainment venues that saves us hundreds, if not thousands of dollars each year.
Savings this weekend from this tip - $18 (including taxes)
The savings from just these three tips for just this weekend was $254. Someone once told me that if you save $254 every time you travel it can add up to some real money in no time! Not only did I save money I got a flight that left at a time of day that was great for me. I stayed in a quality hotel room and was able to drive a rental car that had just five miles on it when I picked it up. I saved money and got good stuff!
I hope these travel tips, which might seem basic to some folks, have been worthwhile for you. At least they should have more than offset the cost of your annual subscription to the Trackchaser Report.
RACE TRACK STATS:
CROSS ROADS MOTORPLEX – ASPHALT OVAL, JASPER,
This
RACE TRACK NEWS:
CROSS ROADS MOTORPLEX – ASPHALT OVAL
I believe we have established on numerous previous occasions that I am a very lucky trackchaser. The outcome below will support this “Lucky trackchaser” hypothesis.
Jim S. and I stayed overnight in Valdosta, Georgia on Saturday night following our race at Watermelon Capital
Of course, I had no choice. I was in town to see those champ karts. There would be no football games for me. Following our breakfast at the Waffle House, Jim and I bade each other farewell until we run into each other again in about three weeks. I headed south on Interstate 10 in search of my go-kart track.
Just as I crossed the
Just 10 miles or so from
The weather was much improved over yesterday. The temperature was only about 60 degrees, but there was nary a cloud in the bright blue sky and the sun shown brightly. Nevertheless, I was the only person walking the grounds in shorts. Even though I’ve been in
At the ticket booth, I met up with a congenial fellow who had relocated from
We got into a nice conversation and before long; I was being admitted for a price that cannot be mentioned in this area of the trackchaser report. (Hint: I always list my trackchaser admission prices at the end of each Trackchaser Report.) By the way, I NEVER ask to be admitted for free. Nevertheless, on some occasions, track personnel have a soft spot in their hearts for a trackchaser far from home.
There wasn’t much activity at the track and there didn’t seem to be that many go-karts on hand. Remember, trackchasers cannot count flat karts or go-karts that are driven by people who are not adults. This makes things a bit more complicated when it comes to planning future race events. First, I have to confirm that “Senior Champ Karts” are scheduled in the karting program. That is sometimes difficult to do. Even though Senior Champ Karts might be scheduled that doesn’t mean any will show up. Essentially, a Senior Champ Kart is a flat kart with a roll cage. It looks like a miniature sprint car or midget racing car.
I had spoken to the promoter a couple of weeks ago. He told me their should be “15 or so” champ karts. Hey, that would be great. As I walked around the pits, I noticed several champ karts. The only problem was that almost all the drivers hanging around their champ karts in their driving uniforms didn’t look like they were old enough to be adults. By the way, trackchaser rules don’t specify how old one has to be to be an adult. I’ve heard people make strong cases for the ages of 16, 18 and 21. Many racetracks charge adult admissions for people over the age of 12. How old do YOU think someone has to be to be an adult?
There were eight classes of karts on the official schedule. There were only about 25 karts on the property. I walked over to a tech official who was wearing a headset. I asked him how many Senior Champ Karts there were in attendance today. He communicated directly with race control for a few moments and raised two fingers. Two fingers was so much better than just one finger (and it usually is!).
Two fingers meant there were two Senior Champ Karts. Two champ karts made this track “Legal.” I would soon be seeing my 993rd new track.
I continued to walk around the pits striking up conversations with the at the track parts storeowner and several competitors. I was fishing (remember I’m in
I walked up to one of the Senior Champ Lite kart owners. His son was his driver. It was hard to tell the son’s age. He was a big strapping youngster and more than 6 feet tall and on the top side of 200 pounds. I still had one question to ask to make sure I was legal. I asked the kart owner what the age limit was for the Senior Champ Kart Lite division. His answer was sweet and short. “Fifteen,” he said. I replied with “15 and up or up to 15?” I waited nervously for his answer.
He told me the age restriction was limited to drivers that were 15 and up. “You hadda had your birthday by the Daytona race last month” to qualify for the age minimum he told me.
All right already! We had TWO Senior Champ Kart Lites that were being driven by “Adults.” That was just about the minimum that would allow me to count the track. I was happy.
By the way, the difference between a Senior Champ Kart Lite and a Senior Champ Kart Heavy class is weight. Lites have a minimum weight of 410 pounds and heavies a minimum of 425 pounds. That didn’t seem like much of a difference to me.
The karts are powered by 11-14 horsepower motors. A race ready kart costs somewhere between $2,000-4,000. I arrived at just before noon. Qualifying was taking place when I got there. It seem like the amount of time taken for breaks was about 10 times more than the time ANY karts were on the track.
My countable race for the two Senior Champ Lites would be one 20-lap feature event. Twenty laps on this track takes less than five minutes. Yes, I was spending the day in
The Indy 500 is sometimes called the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” What do you call a two-kart 20-lap race around a nearly flat one-fifth mile asphalt oval? How about, “Quick!” The race actually took around four minutes. The driver I described above won it by some 15-car lengths. The race ran non-stop as you might expect. I had seen the several flat kart classes and junior champ karts feature events, and felt I had gotten my money’s worth.
As soon as the race was finished, I headed for the
This was my 103rd consecutive trackchasing without a rainout and my 153rd track without a day rained out. Actually, my next couple of weekends look very good with regards to maintaining the streak. Beyond that I will be entering treacherous weather conditions which will make keeping the streak alive difficult.
Overall, I put 4,912 miles on my butt to see some legends race and then two champ karts dual it out for four minutes. Nevertheless, as I like to say “Trackchasing doesn’t have to be fun to be fun.” Two more tracks get me a little closer to my primary objective.
RENTAL CAR UPDATE:
The trip, by my trackchasing standards, was rather short in the National Rental Car Racing Buick Lacrosse. The car had a sunroof, which is unusual for rental cars. With just five miles on it when I picked it us it’s the third or fourth brand new car I’ve rented in the past year.
The driving trip was rather short, just 474 miles. I stopped for gas twice and paid an average price of $2.48 per gallon. The Buick gave me 22.6 M.P.G. in fuel mileage at an average cost of 11 cents per mile.
LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:
These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total.
1. Rick Schneider –
2. Allan Brown,
3. Any Sivi,
4. Guy Smith, Effort,
5. Randy Lewis,
6. Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring,
Other notables
41. Andy Ritter,
42. Colin Casserly,
43. Carol Lewis,
44. Bernie Harlen,
2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis,
2. Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs,
3. Roger Ferrell,
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21st century
Trackchasing doesn’t have to be fun to be fun.
CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA – Atlanta, GA – 1,941 miles
Atlanta, GA – Jacksonville, FL - 278 miles
RENTAL CAR
Jasper,
AIRPLANE
Jacksonville, FL – Atlanta, GA - 278 miles
Atlanta, GA – Los Angeles, CA – 1,941 miles
Total air miles – 4,438
Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 4,912 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
Watermelon Capital
Cross Roads Motorplex - Free
Total race admissions for the trip – $10
Past trackchasing stories are available at:
Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:
Some of my standings data comes from trackchaser.com
UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS
RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2006 (** not the first time to visit this track)
992. Watermelon Capital
993. Cross Roads Motorplex (asphalt oval), Jasper,
