Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
QUALCOMM STADIUM, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
Tonight's racing takes place in the Qualcomm Stadium which was formerly the Jack Murphy Stadium. Murphy was a prominent sports writer for the San Diego Union newspaper. Qualcomm is the home of the San Diego Chargers and former home (they now play in Petco Park) of the San Diego Padres.
Our event ticket entitled us to attend the pre-race "Pit party." Here Carol tries to decide if she should give up trackchasing and buy this TQ midget and then work her way up to NASCAR.
There were 10-15 three quarter midget race cars here for the event. The drivers were very friendly with all of the fans on a coolish SoCal day.
The Monster trucks are the primary attraction today at Qualcomm Stadium, although the remote control cars attracked the biggest crowd at the pre-race pit party.
This small, flat dirt oval was track #995!
Two large Jumbotron screens (not captured well with this photo) allowed the fans to see replays and lots of ads.
The checkered flag flies on this TQ midget heat race.
In Monster truck racing, two trucks compete at a time. They both start on opposite sides of the track and race for two laps. They have to drive/jump over two sets of junk cars and make several turns.
These trucks get some serious "Air time." Each of the monster trucks has its own name. This is the famous "Grave Digger" monster truck. He seems to sell the most souvenir merchandise.
One of most popular activites of the evening was the free style motorcycle riders. It was unbelievable how high these guys flew into the air.
I can only imagine the bumps and bruises this fellow took along the way while learning to ride like this.
RANLAY Racing does not endorse this type of activity and is not liable for anyone who sees this photo on the website and kills or injures themselves trying to replicate this type of riding.
Rescue workers run to the aid of this disabled monster truck driver. The monster trucks raced during the first half of the program and did "Freestyle" for the second half. During the freestyle program several trucks were torn up.
Here's an example of "Freestyle" monster truck driving.
GREETINGS FROM
AND THE READERS RESPOND
This comes from Rick Young up in
“I had to smile ... that photo on there, with you and another guy with a blanket LOL...
What a couple of "softies" .... It would have killed you today LOL..Even I couldn’t stand the cold for too long today ..Luckily they had a tent by the track that played loud rock music, so I was able to jump around , tap my feet and generally stop my toes from going numb.”
SPECIAL NOTICE
You can click on www.ranlayracing.com to see photos from this weekends new track visits in
PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS
The People
Special thanks to my “Secret Santa” for giving me the initial heads up on this trackchasing opportunity. I get 98% of my new track opportunities from my own research on track websites and to a lesser degree from racing newspapers. It’s always a big plus to get a race date from someone else. I never would have found it by myself.
Today is wife Carol’s first new track of the season. She begins defense of her “2005 most tracks by a woman trackchaser” title just an hour south of our home. She has some special surprises planned for her trackchasing season in the coming months.
The Strategy
In trackchasing, I like to live life by the following quote, “Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit.” Yes, I had to read it a couple of times before it started to make sense to me too!
There’s a good deal of strategy in the game of trackchasing. You not only need to know WHERE the tracks are, but most importantly, WHEN they will be racing. With more than 1,200 tracks on my radar screen, this can prove to be challenging.
Countable racetracks race on several different types of frequency. Most tracks run on a weekly basis during the warm weather season of their geographical locale. Tracks in south race about a month longer at both the beginning and end of the season compared to most other
County fairs are becoming a much bigger factor in the world of trackchasing. More and more fairs are running figure 8 events some time during their 5-7 day summer fair. Most county fairs have just one countable event each year. Prior to a few years ago, I cannot remember ever going to a county fair to see a track. This past year I went to more than 30 new tracks at county fair venues.
There are also several tracks, such as road courses, that race just a few times each year. Most road courses have countable events 1-2 times per month. These tracks race during the day. This makes them a great trackchasing double opportunity.
Today’s track is yet another example of racetrack operating frequency. The event at Qualcomm Stadium tonight is the only countable trackchasing event held there in 2006. To my knowledge the stadium, home to the
The countable track at Qualcomm is a small oval specially constructed for a local three quarter midget sanctioning group. The midgets are really an under card event on the headliner “Monster Trucks” program.
I’ve seen a few such countable tracks at other major American stadiums such as the Rose Bowl and
The trip
I’ll start out by saying the planning for this trip was poor. I did the planning, so I have only myself to blame.
My trip to
Carol would be coming to the track from a different direction. She drove down from our home in
I like to think of myself as a good planner, but I didn’t plan this very well. Our tickets included admission to the pre-race “Pit party”. Although I knew it was to happen in the afternoon, I didn’t know when. I also didn’t really know what the pit party was all about, but it was included in the price of my ticket, so I didn’t want to miss it.
There wasn’t time for me to drive the 60 miles from
She picked out a Black Angus Steakhouse near the stadium. Of course, with hardly any time to spare, I couldn’t find her.
We arrived in time for the pit party (described below) which wasn’t much. I then received a parking pass to re-enter the Qualcomm parking lot without charge and we went off to dinner.
I had my heart set on eating at Boll Weevil (http://www.bollweevilonline.com/). This is a
By the way, the Boll Weevil warrants a RANLAY Racing Money Back Guarantee. If any reader goes there and doesn’t like their dining experience, I will cheerfully refund their money. As a matter of fact, anyone who is reading this can receive a $20 refund off their dining bill by simply submitting their receipt from Boll Weevil. This offer is limited to the first person responding and expires on June 30, 2006.
We didn’t have much time to eat since we were leaving the pit party and the stadium at 4 p.m. I used my Lexus GPS to find the nearest Boll Weevil. Of course it was located INSIDE a NUDE dancing bar. That wouldn’t work for Carol. Boy, do I wish I had taken a picture of their sign.
This only made me more determined to drive even further from the stadium, even though the first heat race was scheduled (according to a driver I spoke with at the pit party) for 5:20 p.m. We would surely miss the first heat, but the second one was set for 6:05 p.m. We could make that race.
We enjoyed our cheeseburgers, onion rings and chocolate peanut butter milkshake at the Boll Weevil at the
We used the GPS to get back to the stadium and made it for the 6:05 p.m. heat race. When we returned to the parking lot, I made the executive decision to switch from my surfer shorts to my blue jeans since there was a
I took everything out of my shorts; expect something very important, my car key. After changing in the car, Carol and I were off to the races. We left the event at about 10:30 p.m. I made sure Carol found her car in the parking lot safely. Then I went in search of my car.
After I had parted ways with Carol, it dawned on me that I didn’t have my car key! I tried to go back to where Carol’s car was but she had already left. I was hoping she was carrying her copy of my car key. As I was walking back to my car, I saw her exiting the parking lot just a few yards away, but I couldn’t get her attention. I tried to call her on the cell phone. Her phone went to message and she was gone.
So……I didn’t have my car key, I couldn’t get in touch with Carol as she was rapidly driving away for the 60 mile trip home and now……I couldn’t find my car. My normally good planning was turning to S—T. Finally, I found my car and luckily for me Lexus engineers are a lot smarter than I am. The car won’t “Lock” if the key is left inside. Of course, that meant that I had left my car unlocked in the parking lot for the last several hours, with my laptop in the trunk! Nevertheless, what are the odds of the bad guys figuring that out? I was safe.
It sure wasn’t my best planning effort in my trackchasing career. Nevertheless, I will take the lessons learned and try to improve so I don’t miss any races, lose my laptop or my car!
RACE TRACK STATS:
QUALCOMM STADIUM,
This
This was my 105th consecutive trackchasing day without a rainout and my 155th track without a day rained out.
RACE TRACK NEWS:
QUALCOMM STADIUM,
I didn’t fully realize how close Carol and I came to missing the countable racing at the Qualcomm Stadium tonight. The TQ midgets were scheduled to run heat races at 5:20 p.m. and 6:05 p.m. They were then scheduled to race their feature event at 8:30 p.m.
We missed the 5:20 p.m. heat race because we were at dinner. We arrived back to the stadium at 6 p.m. and five minutes later, they ran a short 6-8 car heat that might have lasted 5-6 laps.
We then settled into our reserved seats to watch all of the non-countable (by trackchasing rules) activity for the evening. The main attraction tonight was the monster trucks. I don’t know if you follow monster truck racing very much, but this stuff is very popular.
The Qualcomm Stadium seats 71,500 for football. Tonight the lower 15-20 rows were off-limits to spectators for safety reasons. I would estimate that 75% of the remaining seats were occupied at $10-25 each. They probably had a crowd of 50,000 or so. Compared to most short tracks I see racing at, this is huge.
Virtually the entire grass stadium floor was covered over in plastic and then the plastic was covered with dirt. I have some good photos of what everything looked like at www.ranlayracing.com.
The official event was supposed to start at 7 p.m. They had the TQ heats and some Quad racer practice before the initial start time. Normally, these shows run on time, but they did not even sing the National Anthem until about 7:30 p.m.
There were 12-14 monster trucks on hand. The monster trucks are limited to two trucks racing against each other at one time. This limitation makes their racing uncountable by trackchaser rules. Each truck starts on the opposite side of a somewhat circular/oval course.
Each straight section of the course had five old cars that were incorporated into a “Jump” for the trucks. The trucks would initially crush these junk cars before the dirt hillside propelled them into the air. I have photos of some trucks being 20-30 feet off the ground. The camera flashes lit up the entire stadium during the first few monster trucks elimination rounds.
Another entertaining class of vehicles was the “Quad racers.” These were four wheel ATVs. There were two teams of six each representing the states of
During one of the intermissions, a group with radio control cars came out to entertain the crowd. The cars would get up some tremendous speeds, run up a ramp and launch themselves some 30-50 feet in the air before landing on the ground with a thud. This was very popular with the crowd and with Carol. Radio control cars are specifically excluded by trackchaser rules.
There was also a demonstration of “Freestyle” motorcycle riding. There were four riders that entertained the crowd by riding their bikes up some very steep ramps and launching themselves into the sky. Again, I have some great pictures of these people doing some crazy things. The crowd loved it. Any and all motorcycle racing is specifically excluded by trackchaser rules. Are you getting the message that we trackchasers are a pretty picky group?
The TQ feature was scheduled to start during the first intermission at 8:30 p.m. That intermission came and went with no TQ racing. I wasn’t too worried because we had already seen a heat race and that was enough to count the track. I always give Carol a congratulatory kiss when the track is officially countable. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to the feature event.
We watched more of the activity described above until the 9:30 p.m. intermission took place. Now, we’ll see some TQ racing! Nope, there were no TQs in sight. It was starting to get cold. We had been in our seats for three and one-half hours and only seen five minutes of countable racing.
Next up was the monster truck “Freestyle” event. The freestyle program allows the monster truck driver to do anything he wants with his truck for 90 seconds. Three judges give each driver a score of 1-10, as they do in the Olympics. The monster trucks get pretty wild during freestyle. Two of the trucks were badly damaged trying to do some crazy stunts over the large dirt mounds that were placed in the middle of the track.
It was now 10:30 p.m. Where were our TQs? I had been up since 3:30 a.m.
Somehow, I sensed there would be no more TQ racing. I had corresponded before the event with the president of the National Midget Racing Association (http://www.wstqmidgets.com/).
I felt compelled to write him again and ask what happened to the TQ feature event. This is the reply I received.
“RANDY, WE RAN THE 1ST HEAT@ 5:20 & 2ND HEAT @6:05. THE RACING SURFACE STARTED TO GO AWAY IN THE FIRST HEAT , DOWN TO THE PLASTIC,THEN TO THE GRASS. THE TRACK WORKERS WORK ON THE TRACK ALL NIGHT, SO AS TO NOT DESTROY THE GRASS SURFACE, THIS TOOK ALOT OF TIME OUT OF THE PROGRAM. SO WE WERE UNFORTUNATE NOT TO GET OUR FEATURE IN. SORRY FOR THE DISAPOINTMENT. KEEP IN TOUCH WITH
We didn’t get to see much trackchaser countable racing, but we had a good time nevertheless. Seeing the nationally known “Gravedigger” race as well as the freestyle motorcycles was worth our admission price.
I must admit that both Carol and I were fearful that the TQ midget would be disappointing to the crowd tonight. All of the other events had the proper amount of “Wow factor”. We were concerned the TQ midget racing would pail in comparison to what we were seeing during the entire monster truck promotion. We didn’t get to see how the crowd would have reacted to their racing since so few people were in their seats during the TQ heat races.
In summary, we made this track by the slimmest of margins….five minutes. We were in the stadium for four and a half hours in addition to the time we spent at the parking lot pit party. I’m most pleased to add the Qualcomm Stadium to my list of 995 tracks.
RENTAL CAR UPDATE:
No rental car today. This is a driving trip. I’ll be visiting the Qualcomm Stadium event in the Frontier Airlines sponsored and Carol Lewis owned Lexus LS 430, a great road car.
Carol will be arriving in the 24 Hour Fitness sponsored and again Carol Lewis owned (For security reasons, I can’t tell you why she owns both of these cars) Jaguar S-type automobile.
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,
3. Carol Lewis,
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:
San Clemente, CA – San Diego, CA – 68.5 miles
San Diego, CA – San Clemente, CA – 137 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
Qualcomm Stadium - $25
Total race admissions for the trip – about $25
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,
994.
995. Qualcomm Stadium,
