Randy Lewis
World's #1 Ranked Trackchaser
PART 1 - SPRING 2008 EUROPEAN TRACKCHASING TOUR
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RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Report
DAY 1-4 – HOW EXPENSIVE COULD EUROPE POSSIBLY BE TRACKCHASING TOUR
EDITOR’S NOTE
You are about to read about our European trackchasing adventures. As with all RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Reports everything presented as fact is, well, a fact. On the other hand, everything presented as an opinion is in fact MY opinion. As you know opinions are like elbows, almost everyone has one.
If you feel that the graphic and straight talk presented below might be so realistic as to take the luster off of a future European visit for yourself…….do not read any further. If my description of European pricing might make you so sick to yourself that you can’t take it…..do not read any further.
However, if you feel comfortable regarding the warnings issued above, sit back and come along on a journey through the “old country”. You may pick up an idea or two for a future journey of your own. At the very least, you will see how one couple runs all over the world and you won’t have to spend a dime of your own money “experiencing” Europe.
If, on the other hand, you don’t have time to read some 6,000 words right now, you can see the photos taken during Part 1 of the 2008 “How Expensive Could Europe Possibly Be Trackchasing Tour”. Simply click on or paste the following link into your web browser:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ranlay8/080504EuropeDublinPart1Of3
TODAY’S HEADLINES
Do you think gas prices are high in the U.S.? Stop your whining...................more in “Day 4 – Wednesday, May 7, 2008”.
Where’s the best panoramic view in all of Dublin? …………..details in “Day 4 – Wednesday, May 7, 2008”.
What offsets the high cost of living in Europe for me?…………..details in “Day 2 – Monday, May 5, 2008”.
Click on this link or paste it in your browser to take you to today’s Trackchaser Report via my website at
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Reader Questions for Randy
Q. From Illinois – In the trackchasing rules what does the term “no visits on off days count” mean?
A. This simply means that in order for a trackchaser to be able to count a track they must see actual wheel-to-wheel racing. A trackchaser cannot show up on an “off” day, a day when the track is not holding wheel-to-wheel racing, and count the track.
GREETINGS FROM DUBLIN, IRELAND AND SURROUNDING AREAS.
WE WOKE UP THIS MORNING IN SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA. WE WENT TO SLEEP OVER THE NEXT THREE NIGHTS IN IRELAND. THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED DURING DAYS 1-4 OF OUR 11-DAY EUROPEAN TRIP.
Preparation
I guess I could be called a road warrior. I didn’t take my first airplane ride until I was 21 years old. Back in the summer of 1970, I flew into Billings, Montana to visit a young woman living in Wyoming. I guess I was a late bloomer. During that trip, I also caught a race at the Belaro Speedway in Billings. Belaro Speedway is estimated to be my 14th lifetime track. Who was the young woman I was visiting in Wyoming? Trackchasing’s First Mother, of course. As you might rightly surmise she was not a mother at the time.
About two years later, in July 1972, I began flying for business. I would fly nearly every week since then for the past 36 years. I’ve accumulated my share of frequent flyer miles. On American Airlines alone, I’ve been credited with more than 6 million miles. During that time the average frequent flyer award ticket required 25,000 miles. I estimate I’ve earned a like number of frequent flyer tickets on all of the other airlines I’ve flown on a combined basis. That’s about 500 frequent flyer tickets spread over more than 35 years.
I have given well over half of those tickets to my family, relatives and friends. I didn’t need to use them because I could fly nearly anywhere I needed too on business. By the time our three children reached the age that I took my first flight, they had been too numerous countries all around the world. Travel is a very broadening experience for children. I think that flying and travel was most valuable in the development of our kids. They are more “world” people than most of their American counterparts.
Alas, I have not spent all of our frequent flyer miles. I have saved a few for those special trips for Carol and me to take in our golden years. We would be using American Airlines frequent flyer miles on this trip. Our plan was to fly to Dublin, Ireland and then Copenhagen, Denmark before returning to Los Angeles.
I try to shop for good values as we travel the world. American Airlines requires 40,000 miles to be used for a frequent flyer ticket to Europe from October 15 to May 15 each year. After May 15 and until October 15, the mileage requirement is 60,000 miles.
Often times in today’s world frequent flyer miles are easier to earn than they are too spend. Only a few seats on each plane are allocated for “award” tickets. You have to plan ahead in order to get the flights and destinations you want.
A couple of months ago, I came up with the idea of traveling to Europe. I hoped that Carol and I could catch 2-3 tracks in countries we had never visited. Going into the trip, I had seen racing in 14 different countries. I found some good flights and made my reservation but did not ticket the trip. I had 14 days to finalize the reservation.
Somehow, I lost track of time. When I called the airlines, I was told I had missed the 14-day cutoff to confirm my reservation. Ouch! However, I was in luck. I was able to rebook the exact flights we needed for a trip to conclude on May 14, the last day for the reduced mileage award of 40,000 miles per person.
The main plan was to go to Copenhagen, Denmark. However, there were no non-stop flights available from Los Angeles to Copenhagen on American Airlines or any of their partners. We would need to stay overnight in Ireland. We’d never been to Ireland so that was fine with us. I was asked how long we would like to stay in the country. Since I wasn’t planning to do any trackchasing in Ireland (I didn’t think anyone would be racing on Tuesday/Wednesday), I made the reservation for us to spend two days there.
I asked for the help of European trackchaser Roland Vanden Eynde of Brussels, Belgium in planning the racing portion of our trip. Roland has been trackchasing in 37 different countries and ranks first in this category. He came up with a race in Ireland on Monday, May 5, a bank holiday (aka three-day weekend) in Ireland. This required a last minute change (again!) in our itinerary. We would need to come in a day earlier than planned.
We would fly all night, land at 10 a.m. Ireland time (2 a.m. San Clemente time), then drive for 2-3 hours to see the race in Central Ireland. That was fine with me. I was more than willing to add a day to the trip in order to get an extra trackchasing country.
Then, less than a week before we were scheduled to depart, the Ireland race date mysteriously disappeared from the website schedule of the Tipperary Motor Speedway. They had canceled the race. I found another track in Mallow, Ireland that had a scheduled Monday autograss race date on the bank holiday. Autograss racing is done mostly in farmer’s fields. At the last minute, the Mallow race was canceled because they could not get permission to use the race site.
We were back to our original plan of no racing in Ireland. With the new flight plan, we would now have three days in Ireland, which worked for us.
I also had a beefed up plan for using my GPS unit. For the first time ever, I would be using my Garmin global positioning unit (GPS) outside of North America. I use my GPS unit 100% of the time when I’m traveling in the U.S. It’s the best piece of technology I’ve ever had. I will be borrowing son-in-law James’ European mapping software for this trip. The maps come on a small chip that simply pops into the GPS unit.
In advance of the trip, I used Google Earth (first introduced to me by son, J.J.) to find longitude and latitude coordinates for the destinations we expected to visit. I then used a POI (Point of Interest) software program to download the L/L data into my GPS unit. This stuff works like a charm. It truly is the best thing since sliced bread.
Day 1 – Sunday, May 4, 2008
Our overnight flight from Los Angeles to Dublin worked out very well. Both Carol and I were able to commandeer a middle section of four seats together. This allowed us to lay flat and sleep most of the way to Europe. It wasn’t the most comfortable “bed” but it was better than sitting upright in an airplane seat for more than ten hours.
Day 2 – Monday, May 5, 2008
This was our first ever trip on Aer Lingus Airlines. We were very satisfied with them. As you might expect from an Irish airline, their airplane colors are green. Their service was efficient, the food was free and it was good, which is somewhat unusual in today’s flying world.
During this travelogue, I will tell you about what services we used and what the cost was whenever I can. I figure you might be able to use our experience as a guide for your own travels.
When we landed, the weather was gorgeous. Ireland is noted for rain and wet weather. We did not get a drop of rain in the three days we visited. The temperature was also very comfortable. It was 60-75 degrees under bright blue skies each day.
I used www.sidestep.com to book a three-day rental car with the Thrifty Dollar Rental Car Company. Ireland is part of the European Union. Their currency is the Euro. Currently, the exchange rate for the Euro is one Euro to $1.61 U.S. The U.S. dollar is the weakest it has been in recorded history. This makes everything more expensive for Americans.
As you read the details of our trip, you may be surprised at how expensive everything was. Many times, it was somewhat comical at what the Euro price translated too in U.S. currency. There was only one redeeming feature in the weakness of the dollar for us.
Over time, I have owned a large number of Procter & Gamble shares. I also own a good deal of American companies that do a large volume of their business overseas. As an example, P&G gets more than 50% of their profits from outside of the U.S. They earn those profits in foreign currencies. When they bring that money back to the U.S., they can buy more U.S. dollars because of the weakness of the dollar. This translates into increased profits and a higher stock price. Although I can’t be specific, I am certain I have made many times more dollars from these increasing stock values than I have spent in foreign countries. Anyway, that’s my story and I sticking to it.
Our rental car in Dublin cost 71 Euros or about $115 U.S. for three days. That’s a great buy on a rental car in Europe. We would not do nearly as well in Copenhagen. We rented a mid-sized car, a Mazda 3. In America, it is next to impossible to rent a manual transmission car. However, in Europe, “stick” shift rental cars are commonly available. Cars with manual transmissions often cost about half of what a car with an automatic transmission does. For this reason, we went with the manual transmission. I don’t normally do this when I travel in foreign countries.
In Ireland people drive on the left side of the road in right side steer cars. I would be shifting with my left hand. I have a good deal of experience driving stick shift cars. The last time I did it with a right side steer car was when I competed in an autograss racing event in Turley, England. I figured my European racing experience would serve me well for this trip and it did.
Rental car insurance can be very expensive. I ran into one American tourist who told me the daily rental car insurance was more than the daily rental fee of the car. Fortunately, my MasterCard credit card covers me for rental car insurance in foreign countries. However, the Thrifty Rental Car rep needed to call MasterCard to confirm this fact.
At the end of our three days in Ireland, we would be departing on a 6:45 a.m. flight. The Thrifty Dollar rental car location did not open until 6 a.m. each day. This meant I would either have to return the car the night before our flight or park the car on the morning of our flight in a long-term parking lot. We would be charged 20 Euros ($32 U.S,) for this privilege. They try to get you coming or going!
The rental car did have a very unique feature I have never seen in a car before. The words “drive on left” were printed on a card that was glued to the dash board just above the steering wheel. Those words were written backwards so that they left a reflection on the windshield just a few degrees from where the driver looked when facing forward. You’ll see this “touch” is some of the photos I took.
Clearing Ireland customs and getting our checked luggage was easy. We hopped in our rental car and began to drive southward in the central and southern portions of Ireland. The plan was to spend our first two days traveling the countryside and our final day in Dublin.
Roland had suggested we stop by the Tipperary Motor Speedway, site of the scheduled and then canceled Monday racing event. You never know what might come of such an event.
At about 2:30 p.m., we found the track. I was shocked to see some 500 or more cars in the racetrack parking lot. Were they racing? It sure looked like they were. However, when Carol and I approached the ticket window, we discovered a “drifting” event was going on. This is a relatively new form of motorsport.
I’m not sure I fully understood what they were doing. It appears the driver tries to put his/her car into a controlled spin for as long as possible. This creates a good deal of tire smoke as the cars go full speed into a turn and then slide all the way round.
Drifting is not a countable form of trackchasing. Nevertheless, I was interested in seeing my first ever event of this type. However, with ticket prices at 20 Euros ($32 U.S.), I didn’t want to see it that badly. I struck up a conversation with the security guard at the main gate. His name was Michael and he was the son of the track owner.
It didn’t take long for me to tell Michael about my trackchasing background and hand him my business card. Soon Trackchasing’s First Mother and I were being admitted as guests of the Tipperary Motor Speedway. Please note that I never ever asked to be admitted free, but gladly accepted the gracious offer made by the track.
Carol and I spent 30-40 minutes taking pictures of the track and the drifting action. Most of the crowd was of the “twenty something” variety. This was definitely a younger crowd similar to what you might find with “Speedway” for the motorcycle set.
The drifting didn’t really set my world on fire, although I was glad to see what they were doing. The best part was simply seeing the track layout. I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up here again sometime. On our way out, I heard the announcer saying something about the “World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser” visiting today. Yes, I believe I am the first trackchaser ever to get a mention at a drifting event.
Carol and I continued southward to the tourist town of Killarney. We would overnight here before taking the “Ring of Kerry” circular drive. For our dinner, we selected a restaurant that advertised “steaks and pizza”. It was a nice sit-down place. We were about ready to experience the weakness of the dollar.
We ordered a four-cheese with garlic 13” pizza from Salvadors on High Street in Killarney. Their slogan is “Traditional Irish cuisine with a continental touch”. This was thin crust gourmet pizza. For what it was, it was one of the best pizzas I had ever tasted. How much would a 13” pizza sell for in a mid-range sit-down Irish restaurant? Twenty-seven dollars! We ate every last crum.
We will be overnight for nine nights during this trip. In order to control both the expense and quality of our overnight lodging I made hotel reservations online for five of those nine nights. However, we did not have a reservation for this our first night of the trip.
Killarney is a tourist town. If there is one bed & breakfast (B&B) hotel here, there are 300. It didn’t take long for us to find one to our liking. We would have a second floor bedroom in a two-story home. The home looked to have 6-7 rooms to rent. The kindly older Irish woman told us the fee would be 35 Euros ($56 U.S.) per person. The room had its own bathroom. They call that “en suite”. This is not always the case with B&Bs. A full Irish breakfast was also included. With the price of things over here, we figured that was probably worth $15-20 per person. We gladly accepted our accommodations for our first night in Ireland.
Day 3 – Tuesday, May 6, 2008
We awoke in our bed and breakfast second floor bedroom fully rested. Our host had asked us what time we wanted breakfast before we went to bed last night. We figured a 9 a.m. breakfast would work well with our sleep plan.
Although Ireland is 10 hours ahead of our time zone in California, after three days we are almost fully acclimated to the time change. Our breakfast was served in a quaint little “breakfast room” that had maybe six tables for the B&B guests.
Our breakfast table was bountiful. We dined on “Frosties” (sort of like Frosted Flakes), toast and jam, coffee, juice, Canadian (probably Irish) bacon, sausage and an egg fried sunny side up. We certainly had all we could eat.
We had stayed overnight in Killarney, Ireland. Killarney is a great base to see the entire South West of Ireland. We had driven about three hours south of Dublin to get here. Killarney is at the top of the “Ring of Kerry”. We would be driving the “Ring of Kerry” today. You can view a live web cam of Killarney’s most scenic view by clicking or pasting in your browser the link below:
http://www.vacationkillarney.com/webcam.htm
The Ring of Kerry is a tourist drive that follows a very rough circle. The distance around the ring is a little more than 100 miles long. The roads are extremely narrow. For the middle of May, the number of tour buses was surprising. I can only imagine what it’s like in the middle of the summer.
Carol felt like we were driving in a “tunnel” with the narrow roads and rock fences or vegetation that bordered the roadway. She was also sitting in the passenger’s seat on the left side of the car and on the left side of the road! To add to the “excitement” of driving on extremely narrow roads and on the “wrong” side of the road, we had a stick shift car. Nevertheless, it was all good.
We had blue sky weather with temperatures in the low 60s. The “Ring” might not have been as scenic as we were expecting, but there were some very beautiful spots. This is a rural drive. We passed through a few small towns. It was difficult to pull over to the side of the road for pictures and views, because the roads were so narrow. It was especially exciting when it came time to pass a tour bus or truck coming in the opposite direction.
I was most impressed with the houses of Ireland. They were immaculate. The house exterior’s often sported vibrant colors of orange, yellow or blue. We never did see any rundown housing in the three days we were in Ireland.
One of the most striking features that we saw in Ireland as well as Denmark and Sweden were the Canola Oil farm fields. The Canola plants are in full bloom now. They produce a bright yellow flower. I can’t describe the beauty effectively enough. I recommend you view the photos of the trip to see for yourself. Although the pictures of the Canola fields are striking, they are not as good as being there.
In the middle of our trip, we had a nice lunch at Danny O’Shea’s in a seaside town along the bottom of the ring. I was also surprised, although I probably shouldn’t have been, at the dominance of Irish names here. In the U.S., we have Irish names along with nearly every other ethnicity known to man. In Ireland, there are ONLY Irish names for the local business proprietors. We came across our share of O’Malley’s, O’Reillys and the like.
Following our four hour drive around the ring, it was time to drive back to Dublin. That was another four hour drive. However, the scenery was entertaining and it didn’t seem like a burden to make the drive at all.
We would be spending two nights in Dublin. Our stay was pre-booked at the Regency Airport Hotel in Dublin. I located this hotel on www.hotwire.com. Our rate was about $117 U.S. per night.
If you know where you’re going and how long you want to stay, pre-booking hotels can be a convenient and money saving idea. The walk-in rate for our room was more than $150 per night, so we definitely saved money.
I read reviews by guests who had stayed at the Regency. Some were good and some were bad. It’s difficult to read online reviews from individual customers. What I’ve found out in reading these reviews is that everyone looks at the same situation through their own glasses. Some folks are wearing rose colored glasses and other are wearing glasses with the lenses spray painted with flat black paint. Although I like to read the reviews, I take them with a grain of salt.
One thing I did notice is that when a European hotel has the word “airport” in its name that does not necessarily mean it’s located very close to the airport. We ended up taking a taxi from the Regency “Airport” hotel and the fare was $32!
Our room was similar to a Marriott in quality. Unfortunately, it did not have any air-conditioning or a phone. The phone wasn’t a problem as we didn’t know anybody to call anyway. However, the weather was unseasonably warm for Ireland and our room was very hot to sleep in. Even with a window open, it was still somewhat uncomfortable to sleep.
We were not traveling with a workable cell phone. I don’t necessarily advocate such a plan. To offset, our inability to make any calls, I did as much advance work with my GPS unit as I could. I had plugged in the Longitude/Latitude locations for all of our pre-booked hotels and racetrack locations. This worked perfectly. It was much more relaxing not having to worry about finding street names and making the right turns. This was the first time I have ever used my GPS in Europe and it was a lifesaver. From a logistical point of view, it rocked!
The Regency Airport Hotel was within a 10-minute walk from a few nice dinner restaurants. The hotel desk clerk recommended we walk, but we didn’t know what the neighborhood might be like so we drove. That was a mistake. We ended up parking on a residential street that was wide enough for one lane of driving with cars parked on both sides of the street.
Our Italian restaurant meal was good, although not great. We had Guinness beer and normal Italian entrees. Our bill totaled about $80. We found food to be two and sometimes three times more expensive than back at home.
The drive back to the hotel from the restaurant was a challenge. The streets all seemed to be one-way in the direction we didn’t want to be going. Without my GPS system, we might still be driving around the streets of Dublin.
Day 4 – Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Yesterday was a day of touring in rural Ireland. Today, our second full day in Ireland would be a day of city touring. We drove into the city of Dublin, a drive of less than 10 miles. We chose the “City Tour” Dublin sightseeing tour bus company. The double-decker open air tour bus company stops at 24 different points all over the city. The tour is fully narrated. We could “hop on” and “hop off” at any of the 24 stops. Then when we had toured the local area, it was normally about a 10-minute wait until the next bus came along.
As we got into the city, we began to see what everyone who had been talking about the expense of Europe really meant. The all-day tour bus fee was 15 Euros. That was about $22 U.S. I didn’t think that was too bad.
However, the parking fee to park our car in the city for the day was $20 Euros (almost $34 U.S.). Fuel for our rental car was also expensive. Although we got good mileage with the car (32.8 miles per gallon), we ended up paying an average of $7.46 per gallon for petrol. Currently, the average price of gasoline in the United States is $3.77 per gallon. Fuel in Ireland is TWICE as expensive as the U.S. Nevertheless, people in the U.S. are having major heartburn at “just” $3.77 a gallon.
During the middle of the day, we were looking for lunch. We found another Italian eatery (our third in three days). We were alerted by a sign that read “Lunch or early bird special – starter or side order plus pizza or pasta plus glass of house wine – 8.95 Euros.” This seemed like a good value for “8.95”.
The food was excellent. I had garlic toast for my starter and spaghetti carbonara for my entrée along with a tasty glass of white wine. The food was actually gourmet. However, the 8.95 Euro price was really about $15 U.S. I had a Coca-Cola Light and we enjoyed a chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream dessert as well. With a 10% tip, our bill topped out at just over $50 for lunch. The food was fantastic but it wasn’t quite the budget price we had initially thought it would be.
The tour was fun although there are not that many famous or notable sights to see in Dublin. We were lucky that the weather was gorgeous with blue skies, sun and a temperature in the low 70s. This made riding on the top deck of the open-air tour bus a delight.
The highlight of our tour was stop #23. This is the Guinness Storehouse location. Here we took a tour what is called the “Guinness Experience”. Although they don’t use this location to make beer any longer, it is the spot that back in 1759; Arthur Guinness began brewing his famous “Porter” which is now produced around the world at the rate of 10 million glasses per day.
Like the beer, the admission fee for the Guinness tour was a little “stout” at 13 Euros (about $21 U.S.). However, it was fun and we did get a “free” pint of the product to consume in the Gravity Bar. The Gravity Bar sits on the seventh floor of the storehouse and offers a 360 degree view of the city. Folks say this is the best panoramic view you can find anywhere in the city. We finished off the day when a visit to the Guinness gift shop to test the limits of our Visa credit card.
Speaking of credit cards, we found a curious requirement that made charging things somewhat less convenient. Many retailers required a “pin” number in order to accept our credit card. We don’t use a pin number with credit cards in the U.S. Therefore, we had no idea what our pin code was or if we even had one. Sometimes the retailer would override this requirement and sometimes they would not. In Denmark, this nearly created an international financial crisis that I will tell you about in a future report.
We ended up having our final dinner at the Regency Airport Hotel restaurant. This was a mid-scale dinner house. I was still being shocked by the high prices of Europe. The cheeseburger on the menu went for $24 U.S.! The prime rib was just a few dollars more, so I chose that.
Our three days in Ireland was coming to an end. No, we did not see any countable racetracks but we did have a fun time. Being in Ireland was helpful in understanding what it will take to successfully trackchase here in the future.
Before we could leave we faced possibly the toughest challenge of the trip. Our flight tomorrow to Copenhagen would depart at 6:45 a.m. This meant we would need a 3:45 a.m. wakeup call Dublin time. We would be “waking up” at 7:45 p.m. San Clemente time. That seemed strange and it was.
My friends at the Thrifty/Dollar Rental Car Company did not open until 6 a.m. (those late sleepers). Unlike the U.S. they did not have any place on their property where I could drop the car before they opened. Their only choice was for me to drop the car in the long-term parking lot and take the parking lot shuttle to the airport. There would be a $32 U.S. charge to do this.
I didn’t like that idea. Therefore, we returned the car the night before, took a cab to the hotel and then another cab back to the airport at zero dark thirty on Thursday morning.
I did notice in my rental car contract that the only “foreign” country I could drive my car to was Northern Ireland. There would be a surcharge of $48 to do that. Fortunately, my MasterCard covered all of the insurances for my rental car. That provided a nice savings as the cost of rental car insurance in a foreign country can be greater than the cost to rent the car.
Additionally, there was a surcharge of 9 Euros per day for renters aged 70-74. I don’t believe folks over 75 years of age are even permitted to rent a car. I hope that by the time I’m 75, they will have modified this rule. I don’t want to have to go into the fake I.D. business….again.
RACE REVIEW
No countable racing seen during first three days of the Spring, 2008 European Trackchasing Tour.
RENTAL CAR UPDATE
Dublin International Airport – Monday-Thursday
I’ll be driving the Thrifty/Dollar Rental Car Racing Mazda 3. The car features a five-speed manual transmission and has a good deal of pep. The car’s interior road noise was a distraction.
I drove the Thrifty/Dollar Rental Car Racing Mazda 3 594 miles in the three days we had it. I paid an average price of $7.46 per gallon for petrol. The Mazda gave me 32.8 miles per gallon in fuel mileage at a cost of 22.7 cents (U.S.) per mile. The car cost 19.4 cents per mile to rent, all taxes included.
Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,
Randy Lewis
Alberta’s #1 Trackchaser
It’s O.K. if you have to feel bad to make yourself feel good….just don’t blame it on me.
TRAVEL DETAILS
AIRPLANE
Los Angeles, CA – Dublin, Ireland – 10,340 miles
RENTAL CAR
Dublin International Airport – trip begins
Drove all over Ireland
Dublin International Airport – 594 miles
TRACK ADMSSION PRICES:
No new tracks visited during part 1 of European Spring 2008 trackchasing trip.
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 – 1,334
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. Ken Schrader, Concord, North Carolina – 365
28. Carol Lewis,
29. Max Allender,
2008 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS
1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 36
2. Mike Knappenberger, Reading, Pennsylvania – 32
3. Ed Esser, Madison, Wisconsin – 23
4. Guy Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania - 11
5. Carol Lewis, San Clemente, California – 9
5. Paul Weisel, Orefield, Pennsylvania - 9
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 – 1,692
2. Allan & Nancy Brown, Comstock Park, Michigan – 1,675
3. Guy & Pam Smith, Effort, Pennsylvania – 1,669
LIFETIME NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIVERSITY STANDINGS
2007 NGD results are posted at www.ranlayracing.com
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
Now it’s time to do some serious European trackchasing. I expect to add two new countries (#15 & #16) to my trackchasing resume over the next week.
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
