GREETINGS FROM SALEM, OREGON

 

 

SPECIAL NOTICE

 

You can click on www.ranlayracing.com to see photos from this weekend’s new track visit in Oregon.

 

 

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

 

The Strategy

 

It is no secret that some think that our trackchasing competition is a “Dog eats dog” take no prisoners endeavor.  They believe it’s no different from what two big offensive linemen will be doing to each other in the Super Bowl this weekend.  When no one is looking they’ll be gouging each other’s eyes out, trying to twist each other’s necks around the resemble the girl in the Exorcist movie and just trying to smash their competition into the ground.  It’s a lovely hobby.

 

Actually, I don’t think trackchasing competition is like this at all.  I once asked the #3 ranked worldwide trackchaser, Andy Sivi, what his schedule was for the year.  I told him I needed know because I wanted to decide how hard I should to go at trackchasing to keep up with Andy.

 

Andy told me that no matter what he planned to do, it wouldn’t have an effect on my trackchasing plan.  His reasoning was that I was going to do whatever I was going to do regardless of what his plans were.  Andy was exactly correct.

 

Actually, trackchasing strategy is a lot like golf strategy.  Each player plays against the course.  It really doesn’t matter what the other person is doing, you’re just trying to do as well as you can as you play the course.  At the end of the day, you’ll add up your score and see how you did against your competition.  In trackchasing like golf, you might not even see your competition during the entire contest.  The people you’re competing against might be two or three holes ahead or behind (in trackchasing, they might be in a different state) and you never see them.

 

It’s very simple in trackchasing.  You do the best you can and at the end of the year add up your totals and see how you rank.  There is no “Dog eats dog” in trackchasing.

 

Even though I have now seen five new tracks in January, most of my trackchasing time has been spent planning and researching new dates for the rest of the year.  I currently have 772 different track websites to explore and 373 racing sanctioning body websites to examine.  From this work, I will develop a trackchasing plan that, hopefully, will allow me to meet my 2006 trackchasing goals.

 

I am happy to report that I am doing well against my goal of playing golf on as many days as I go trackchasing.  Recall, that in 2005 trackchasing beat golf about 125-55.  So far, this year golf is winning 8-5!

 

 

The People

 

In my world, there are trackchasers and there are “Civilians.”  If you are a trackchaser, you know who you are.  On the other hand, “Civilians” are a different breed.  For the most part, they don’t know and don’t care too much about auto racing.

 

As a trackchaser, I realize that “Civilians” must be treated very gently, you might say with “Kid” gloves when it comes to trackchasing.  I say this because from time to time my world of trackchasing crosses into the “Civilian” world.  This crossing usually takes two different forms.

 

The first example of the intersection of trackchasing and “Civilian” life is when one of my “Civilian” friends asks me about trackchasing.  This is quite common amongst all of my “Civilian” friends who read the Trackchaser Report.  They have a curiosity that good friends exhibit when they’re trying to show interest in someone else’s hobby.  Rarely, do these questions actually lead to my friend’s actually volunteering to visit a track with me.  Nevertheless, I most appreciate their taking the time to at least sound interested in my hobby.

 

The second example is the most common intersection of trackchasing and “Civilians” in my life.  This is when I am committed to attending a wedding, family reunion, fraternity golf outing or some other celebration.  The main reason for me being in the area is not for trackchasing but for the event of the day.

 

It is at this time that I become a trackchasing “Recruiter.” A wedding, golf outing or whatever only takes up so much time.  If I’ve gone to a wedding, a play or a daytime round of golf, we have to do SOMETHING in the evening, right.  It is in this situation that I offer up the trackchasing entertainment option to my “Civilian” friends.  I am most happy to say that virtually everyone accepts my invitation for a “Night at the races.”  For that, I am most grateful.

 

This weekend’s travel plan had nothing whatsoever to do with trackchasing when it was set up.  Airplane and hotel reservations were made with one thing in mind.  Carol and I were going on our annual UCLA basketball trip to Oregon.  The UCLA Bruins always play both the University of Oregon (Eugene) and Oregon State University (Corvallis) on Thursday and Saturday.  We fly up on Thursday morning and come home on Sunday night.  We’ve been doing this and other UCLA basketball and football road trips for years.

 

For the first time ever, our good friends the Moodys, (Wes and Jill) accepted our invitation to come along.  We first met the Moodys more than 10 years ago when our sons were in the Theta Chi fraternity at UCLA.  We’ve been on several other overnight football and basketball trips with Wes and Jill, but never to Oregon.

 

Before I go much further, I need to give you a little background about the “Moodys.” Wes is a self-professed “Car guy.”  He’s into classic cars (he owns two ‘60s Porches) and both he and Jill have been to sports car racing events at Laguna Seca.  The Moodys are even building a new home with a planned five-car garage to house his collection.

 

Some think of me as a detail oriented individual.  That view would be correct.  On the other hand, the Moodys blow me away when it comes to detail.  Wes is an engineer.  They don’t go anywhere without a car cover.  Carol and I would be happy eating Sunday dinner off their garage floor.  They are self-professed neat freaks.

 

When I learned there would be an indoor dirt open wheel race that we could make on Saturday night, the Moodys became my potential recruits.  This created a significant challenge.  Can you imagine trying to invite someone who puts their car cover on while they stop to fill-up for gas (all right, I’m exaggerating here, but not by much) to a dirty, grimy, cold environment where we sit on a wood board for hours.  Although I am known to be persuasive, I could only hope I was up to this, the ultimate challenge.

 

I waited until we were all in the car, on the way to the airport (so no one could turn back) to spring my idea on the unsuspecting Moody twosome.  I figured it would be too late for them to turn back once we were almost ready to board our flight.  It’s like asking your wife to marry you.  You don’t know exactly what words you used, but she you know she said, “Yes.”  That’s the way it worked with Jill and Wes.  I’m sure I stumbled across my words, but the Moodys wanted to be good sports (possibly they thought I would be crushed if they said no) and they accepted our invitation to join us at the Oregon State Fair & Expo Center, Forster Livestock Pavilion in Salem, Oregon.

 

The trip

 

For ardent readers of the Trackchaser Report, you know that frequently my trips have some sameness to them.  When I’m by myself, it can pretty much be drive, eat fast food, watch the race, and hit the motel.  The next day repeats the previous day.  That was not the case for this trackchasing trip.

 

When Carol comes along everything gets upgraded.  When guests join us, everything gets upgraded again.  If you ever plan on touring Oregon the information below may be valuable to you.  If you don’t think you’ll ever visit Oregon, you may wish to skip this section.

 

The primary purpose of our trip was to watch UCLA play two basketball games in Oregon.  As I mentioned, I didn’t even discover there was going to be any countable racing until all of the travel details of this trip were finalized.  Here’s how the trip went.

 

Thursday

 

We grabbed a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Portland.  At the airport, I upgraded our Thrifty rental car from a Taurus to a Chrysler 300.  We needed the bigger car to handle all of our luggage.  We then headed down in off and on rain to Eugene, Oregon.  By the way, this was Portland’s rainiest January in 30 years.

 

Eugene is the home of the University of Oregon.  It was 132 miles to Eugene from Portland.  Once in Eugene, we took a short driving tour around the Oregon campus before stopping in the university bookstore.  We always try to hit the campus bookstores for souvenirs and post cards for our friends.

 

Since game time was 7:30 p.m., we had time to stop for dinner at Chanterelles.  Carol and I discovered this French restaurant a few years ago.  This was our third time to eat there.  Chanterelle’s is the #1 rated restaurant in Eugene, a city of 140,000 people. 

 

Chanterelle’s is fantastic.  The décor is simple, the wait staffs some of the best I’ve seen and the food was delicious.  After dinner, it was off to the game.  The University of Oregon plays their games in “The Pit” at Macarthur Court.  Mac Court was built in 1926 and looks like it.  We had purchased tickets from UO the first day they came on sale, but ended upgrading our seats from two Ebay sellers.  UCLA came from behind to win 56-49 over a somewhat weak Oregon team.  In all the years of coming to Oregon, we’ve only won at Oregon a time or two.  Following the game, it was back to Portland where we would be staying at the Marriott on Broadway in downtown Portland.

 

Friday

 

Friday was an off day from basketball.  We started with breakfast at The Roxy.  Even though temperatures ranged from 45-55 degrees and it rained most of the time, we walked nearly everywhere.  Portland has some similarities to downtown San Francisco and is a good walking city.

 

The Roxy is a 24/7 café in a minorly rundown part of town.  Actually, they cater to the transvestite and tattooed crowd, but serve a great breakfast.  They were a little off their game today, but we enjoyed their toaster planters and full sized Christ on a cross statue anyway.

 

Next up was the Columbia Gorge and Multnomah Falls Day Trip.  This drive took us to Multnomah Falls the 2^nd tallest waterfall in the U.S. and most visited site in Oregon.  I was impressed with our drive through the forests and the large amount of bright green moss that seemed to attach itself to nearly everything.  We capped off the cold and rainy afternoon with some delicious French onion soup in front of a very warm fireplace at the Multnomah Falls Lodge.

 

We drove back to the Marriott to get ready for one of the landmark restaurants in all of Portland, Jakes.  I have visited Portland many many times during my business career.  My favorite restaurant has always been Jakes Famous Crawfish restaurant.  It’s one of my top 10 favorite worldwide restaurants.

 

We had a lovely dinner but needed to keep an eye on our watches.  We had tickets to the “The Ice Fishing Play” at the Main Street Theatre just across the river in Vancouver, Washington.  The Main Street Theatre seats 127 people.  On this Friday night, there were 17 people in attendance including the four of us!  The play centered on a Minnesota man holed up in his rustic ice-fishing lodge.  Although the Minnesota accents were good, ala the movie, “Fargo”, the play was slower than slow and panned by everyone in our group.

 

Saturday

 

Today was going to be a busy day.  The first stop was in Millersburg, Oregon at the Palm Harbor Homes factory tour.  Palm Harbor makes “Manufactured homes.”  Carol and I took this tour a few years ago and wanted the Moodys to see the attraction.  You get to walk the entire plant and see their assembly line approach that produces an entire home in 5 days.  We then walked across the street in a driving rain storm to tour their models.  If I were in the market for a home in this price range, I would strongly consider a manufactured home.

 

Next stop was Burgerville.  This is a local Oregon fast food burger chain along the lines of California’s famous In N’ Out hamburger chain.  It may not be In N’ Out, but it’s very good.  We wanted to compare their milkshakes with Carl’s Jr.’s new ice cream shakes.  First, we stopped at Carl's and bought a vanilla and a chocolate shake.  We then drove just a block to Burgerville and bought chocolate and vanilla shakes as well as lunch.

 

We then poured the shakes into eight smaller cups for a blind taste test comparison.  Imagine people in their late 50s with all of these cups, laughing and pouring shakes as if we were in the Napa Valley for a wine tasting.  Burgerville defeated Carl’s Jr. with a 75% preference rating for both their vanilla and their chocolate shakes.  Good job, Burgerville!

 

Following lunch, we were off to Oregon State University located in Corvallis, Oregon.  Corvallis is a town of just 50,000 people and that probably includes all of the students.  The crowd at OSU is not as rabid as those folks at Mac Court.  We had great seats and watched out Bruins make an Oregon sweep with a 63-54 win over the Beavers.  I must say that neither basketball game was all that exciting.  The Oregon teams are bad this year and I’m glad to say we are better.

 

Following the game, we toured the Oregon State campus.  Carol and I always do this, but we were happy to have the Moodys along to share our OSU adventure.  We stopped by the student center bowling alley before discovering the “Dixon Recreation Center.”  We tour a lot of campuses but I have never seen a student recreation center to match this one.  It’s huge.  They have multiple basketball courts, a large two swimming pool complex, tons of aerobic and weight equipment, a volleyball court and much more.  As we were leaving the campus, we noticed another large building.  We stopped in to explore.  The building was totally dedicated to an Astroturf practice football field.  I guess with all of the rain that Oregon gets, it’s important to have this facility.  I’ve never seen anything like it.

 

Dinner on Thursday and Friday nights were at five-star restaurants.  Tonight’s meal at Jonathon’s in Salem, Oregon could only garner a 3.5 star rating in my book.  The food was good, but the service was spotty.  Of course, Jonathon’s was up against some tough competition from the first two nights of our trip.  Next, we were off to the Oregon State Fairgrounds & Expo Center for our first ever racing with the Moodys.  I’ll discuss that in the racetrack news section.

 

Sunday

 

Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave Portland until 8:40 in the evening.  That left us with almost a full day to tour more of Portland.  After a relaxing breakfast buffet at the Marriott, we were off to visit the Portland Home Show exhibit.  We rode the free Portland city train to this show.  I had no idea that I would end buying a mattress that would cost more than our first ever new car, a butterscotch colored 1972 Mustang fastback.  Nevertheless, I can’t wait for the delivery of our Tempurpedic sleep system!

 

Our final meal in Oregon would be at the Portland City Grill on the 30^th floor of the U.S. Bank building.  What a view!  We had a window table during the late daylight hour and watched the view as darkness settled in over the rainy skyline.  I love calamari (known as squid to some) and have never had any better than the Kung Pao Calamari served 30 stories above the streets of Portland.

 

Our trip had gone perfectly.  We had only to get on our plane to finish an action packed successful weekend of basketball, touring and racing.  Unfortunately, Alaska Airlines could not deliver.  They cancelled our evening flight to Los Angeles.  At the very last minute, we were able to get a flight to the Orange County airport.  That airport was actually closer to our homes.  However, our car was at LAX!  In Orange County, we took the Super Shuttle to the Moody home and it was agreed Wes and Jill would travel to LAX the next day to retrieve their car.  Nevertheless, everyone agreed it was a most fun trip.

 

 

 

RACE TRACK STATS:

 

OREGON STATE FAIR & EXPO CENTER, FORSTER LIVESTOCK PAVILION, SALEM, OREGON – TRACK #996 – 1/28/06

 

This Oregon track is my 13th in the state.  This is Carol’s 5th new track in the Beaver state.  This breaks my second place tie with Allan Brown and propels me into a tie with Gary Jacob for the Oregon state lead.  Carol holds down 8^th place in Oregon.

 

I was aware that the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem had two separate and countable tracks.  However, it was Gary Jacob who reminded me to look into the possibility of the Forster Livestock Pavilion racing this year.  Thanks for the help, Gary.

 

The pavilion’s dimensions include a 420’ by 180’ feet clear span.  The roof covers 2.6 acres of space and the floor is asphalt.  Tonight that floor was covered with dirt.  The ceiling height is 38 feet high and the facilities feature a milking parlor, restrooms and showers!

 

This was my 106th consecutive trackchasing day without a rainout and my 156th track without a day rained out.  Of course, if we were not racing under a roof tonight, the program would easily have been rained out.  Under these parameters, this may be the most unbreakable U.S. trackchasing record of all time.

 

RACE TRACK NEWS:

 

OREGON STATE FAIR & EXPO CENTER, FORSTER LIVESTOCK ARENA, SALEM, OREGON

 

If I wrote the trackchaser rules, I probably would never have visited this track.  Tonight’s racing venue was an indoor track and virtually every indoor track is a temporary track.

 

There are a few rules in the trackchaser rulebook that were put there after I attempted or was able to interpret an existing rule to my advantage.  The rule I’m talking about regarding tonight’s track reads as follows:

 

“All temporary tracks of the same type are only separately countable if they physically exist and are active at the same time, even if they are located on different parts of the property (moving a temporary track during the course of the day does not constitute a new track), with the following exception, tracks located inside different buildings on the same property can be counted separately.”

 

The first part of that rule (in blue font) is a result of my attending a county fair race in New York.  The organizers ran a race or two on a figure 8 track that was situated in front of the county fair grandstand.  After seeing the cars race, they decided the cars were coming too close to a permanent light pole.  They decided to move the track to another location and resume the racing.  The two tracks were only a matter of yards apart but they didn’t overlap.  I maintained, as did three other top 15 trackchasers in attendance that night that this constituted two separate tracks.

 

The trackchasing hierarchy did not see it that way.  They immediately went to work and crafted the above wording to prevent me from counting two tracks that night in New York.  This would not be the first time that rules would be written specifically to exclude tracks that I had previously counted or wanted to count in the future.

 

The second part of the above rule (in red font) states that tracks in separate buildings on the same property can be counted as two tracks.  I believe that almost all tracks located in buildings are temporary tracks.  I can't think of any tracks located in buildings on the same property that are active at the same time.

 

Therefore, it seems like two temporary tracks that are located OUTDOORS on the same property are not considered two countable tracks.  However, two temporary tracks that are located INDOORS are considered two tracks.  Carol sometimes describes things as being “Dorky.”  I think this is a very “Dorky” trackchasing rule.  It isn’t consistent and I think rules should be consistent.

 

Alas, it really doesn’t matter what I think about the trackchasing rules.  If I can see a track that meets each and every trackchasing rule, then I will count it.  If a prospective track doesn’t meet the rules, I won’t waste my time with it. 

 

We have some trackchasers who can’t see to go along with “Consensus” thinking.  We used consensus thinking often in my work life.  Here’s a broad definition of the concept.  Let’s say you have 10 people in your group.  Seven out of ten want to have lunch at McDonalds.  I may not want to have lunch at McDonalds, but for the sake of group harmony, I agree to go along with the wishes of the majority.  I don’t say “I don’t care if the majority wants to eat at McDonalds, I want to eat at Burger King and that what’s I’m going to do.” If everyone agrees to consensus thinking, it means they will go along with the majority opinion for the benefit of the bigger group.

 

No one in trackchasing can count tracks that don’t meet our rules and are not approved by the trackchaser commissioner.  He is responsible for interpreting the rules.  However, some trackchasers don’t want to go along with consensus thinking. They don’t count some tracks because they don’t think they should count them even though trackchaser rules allow them.  I equate this to saying, “I’m going to Burger King, and I don’t care what the majority of the group has decided.”  That’s OK with me.  I still count every track that meets trackchaser rules.  The website at www.trackchaser.com lists the worldwide trackchaser standings.  If your track is not listed there, then you haven’t seen it, is the way I look at it.

 

Tonight’s track, the Forster Livestock Pavilion at the Oregon State Fair & Expo Center is located inside a building.  The building is only a few feet from another fairgrounds building.  That building is called “The Stadium.”  I saw a race at the Stadium at the Oregon State Fair & Expo Center on December 19, 2004. 

 

This will be the first time I have ever used the rule that allows a trackchaser to count two separate tracks if they are each located in separate buildings on the same property.  I still don’t like the rule.  It’s not consistent with the rules that say we can’t count two temporary tracks if they are located outdoors.  I think all separate temporary tracks located on the same property should count or no separate temporary tracks should be allowed to count.  I don’t think we should treat tracks differently simply because they are located inside a building.

 

Tonight’s program featured five classes of racecars.  These included 500cc Outlaw karts, 250cc mini-sprints, 500cc mini-sprints, dwarfs and full-sized midgets.  There were 7-12 cars in each class.  The racing was contested on a flat dirt oval where lap times were in the 12-second range.

 

The track at the Forster Livestock Pavilion was considerably larger than the Stadium track at the building next door.  The FLP had concrete block walls around 60-70% of the building, but was open air in the turn 3 and 4 area.  Grandstands were located along the front stretch and outside of turns 3 and 4 where we sat.

 

There was no heat in the building.  This was a major pre-race concern.  We had spent a good deal of time walking around rain swept Oregon in 40+ degree temperatures that included wind and blowing rain.  Even though we would not be affected by rain since this was an indoor event, the temperature still was in the low 40s.  It wasn’t as bad as we thought since everyone was dressed for it (I still wore surfer shorts!) and the wind didn’t blow where we were located.

 

Recall Carol and I were entertaining our “Civilian” friends.  When you throw a party for your friends, you want it to go well.  We wanted Wes and Jill to have a good time, but often racing is not entertaining due to dust and dirt, delays and just poor organization. 

 

We parked our Thrifty Rental Car Racing Chrysler 300 in a rain drenched parking lot that featured many two inch deep puddles.  We then had to walk more than 200 yards through one of the horse buildings and past numerous cleaned out (fortunately!) animal stalls.  What a way to entertain our friends.  Our “Party” wasn’t going all that well so far!

 

Race time was scheduled for 7 p.m.  Because our dinner ran late, we didn’t get in our seats until 7:45 p.m.  They were running heat races when we arrived.  We grabbed a seat in the eight-row high aluminum grandstand that was situated just a few feet from the fourth turn retaining wall.  We had a great view right down the front straight.

 

We stayed until 10:30 p.m.  I thought that sitting out in the cold temperatures for nearly three hours was pretty good considering I was with Carol and two racing rookies.  I give them all the credit in the world.  Here’s what each of my trackchasing partners had to say about tonight’s event.  By the way, I interviewed each person separately so there comments would not influence anyone else.

 

Jill’s Comments

 

It was more fun than I thought it would be.  The cars were cute.  It wasn’t as cold as I expected.  Maybe that’s because I had on a long sleeved t-shirt, sweatshirt, polar fleece sweater, ski parka with hood as well as gloves and an umbrella!  It was fun.  I thought the cars would be full size cars like I’ve seen at demolition derbies.  I thought it would be loud and dusty, but it wasn’t.  It was more structured than I thought it would be.

 

Wes’ Comments

 

The racing exceeded my expectations significantly.  The races were exciting and very competitive.  The track was close to the stands and very tight.  We could see everything very well.  After reading your Trackchaser Reports, I expected lots of delays.  I expected the public address system to be bad, but it wasn’t.  The announcer knew what he was talking about and entertained the crowd.  The crowd wasn’t the “Stereotypical” race crowd that I imagined it would be.  I thought it was too expensive.  (At $15, yes it was.)

 

Editor’s note:  I think it is “Stereotypical” of non-race fans to think of race fans as not having a full set of teeth in a “Stereotypical” fashion.  Just about every non-racing person I have taken to the races is surprised to see that most people don’t look like they just came off the set of the movie, “Deliverance.”

 

Carol’s Comments

 

It was nicer, bigger and warmer than I expected.  The announcer was very good.  The cars were cute and they had a good field.  It was nice to have the Moody’s with us and a great day to be a Bruin.

 

Randy’s Comments

 

We were blessed to see a good program tonight with our friends.  I must say that most of the time I bring friends to the races, we get a clunker of a show.  Tonight with the temperature in the low 40s, it could have been bad.

 

The show ran along smoothly, especially since this was the first time this building had ever been used for racing.  The P.A. was good.  Maybe everyone liked the announcer because he did a short trackchasing interview with me!  The racing with these small cars on this small track was close and exciting.  I love the 500cc Outlaw Karts that Jill referred to as being like a “Fart in a skillet.” I’m glad I didn’t eat at her house!

 

We were in the middle of the fourth (of five) feature events when the dwarf cars wrecked and caused a yellow flag.  I suggested since we had been there nearly three hours and it was starting to get even colder that we head for the exit.  Wes wanted to stay for the rest of their feature and we did.  That was a good sign. 

 

I reminded the Moodys that seeing an indoor race in the middle of the winter is not really representative of my “Normal” trackchasing activities.  I hope we’ll have a chance to see a race with our friends somewhere else along the line, so they can compare tonight’s trackchasing experience with our rainy night in Oregon.

 

 

 

RENTAL CAR UPDATE:

 

The four of us will be motoring around the rainy roads of Oregon in the Thrifty Rental Car Racing Chrysler 300.  This was not the most comfortable car I have ever driven, but it was good-sized.

 

Our driving trip was done almost entirely in the rain.  We covered 578 miles.  We stopped for gas twice and paid an average price of $2.24 per gallon.  The Chrysler gave us 22.0 M.P.G. in fuel mileage at an average cost of 10.2 cents per mile.  Oregon is one of only two states (the other being New Jersey) that requires the gas station attendant actually fills the tank. 

 

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE:

 

These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total.

 

1.  Rick Schneider – Bay Shore, New York - 1,038 (+42)

2.  Allan Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,020 (+24)

3.  Any Sivi, Clairton, Pennsylvania – 1,007 (+11)

4.  Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,005 (+9)

5.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 996

6.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania – 988 (-8)

 

 

 

Other notables

 

41.  Andy Ritter, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania - 233 (+1)

42.  Colin Casserly, Stevenage, England 232 (+/-0)

42.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California - 232

44.  Bernie Harlen, Goshen, Indiana - 229 (-3)

 

 

 

 

2006 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS

 

1.  Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California - 5

2.  Roger Ferrell, Majenica, Indiana – 4

2.  Gordon Killian, Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania – 2

2.  Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 2

3.  Several trackchasers – 1

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

Trackchasing’s #1 trackchaser of the 21^st century

 

Trackchasing doesn’t have to be fun to be fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES:

 

 

AIRPLANE

 

Los Angeles, CA – Portland, OR – 812 miles

 

RENTAL CAR

 

Portland International Airport – trip begins

Salem, Oregon – 507 miles

Portland International Airport – 578 miles – trip ends

 

AIRPLANE

 

Portland, OR – Orange County, CA - 812 miles

 

Total air miles – 1,624 miles

 

Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 2,202 miles

 

 

 

TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:

 

Oregon State Fair & Expo Center, Forster Livestock Pavilion - $15

 

Total race admissions for the trip – about $15

 

 

 

Past trackchasing stories are available at:

www.ranlayracing.com

 

Official trackchaser standings can be viewed at:

www.trackchaser.com   

 

Some of my standings data comes from trackchaser.com

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS

 

Auburndale Kartway, Auburndale, Florida – February 10

 

 

 

RACETRACKS VISITED IN 2006 (** not the first time to visit this track)

 

992.  Watermelon Capital Speedway, Cordele, Georgia - January 14

 

993.  Cross Roads Motorplex (asphalt oval), Jasper, Florida - January 15

 

994.  Norfolk Scope Arena, Norfolk, Virginia - January 20

 

995.  Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California - January 21

 

996.  Oregon State Fair & Expo Center, Forster Livestock Pavilion, Salem, Oregon - January 28