The future of the site has been in question in recent months/years. As most know I get no major support for this site covering less that 50% of the cost to run the site with banners, donations etc… After years of doing this, paying for the hardware, software, admin, and the connection (in the early days T1s were not what they cost today) added to the hassle the site brings me in various ways I was near ready to eBay the whole thing. But, the racer in me and love for this class along with the great people that have supported the site (topics and funding) prompted me to find a way for the site to live on and grow.
I’m very pleased to announce that we have secured long term funding from a single corporate sponsor for the site. Charlie and John James and their company, SafeRacer.com, have entered into an agreement with me to take over the SM site relieving me of the hosting and admin responsibilities. Charlie and I have been friends for a number of years. Along the way I’ve built him a couple of cars and in recent years he has supported me personally including enjoying the MX5 championship with me in 2006. He has built a great national company surpassing many of the old guard safety organizations in sales in a very short period of time. This means my (and your) baby, this site, can live on and grow less worry over funding. I’ve at last found a home for the racing activities I’m involved with.
Through member input we plan to expand the site, offer more features for free and develop member benefits. You will be seeing banners at the site but only from those companies that SafeRacer.com is a vendor for or those that are prepaid for previous marketing programs. My new role will be to do the things I enjoy, helping the racers lesson their learning curve and talking smack with the SM gang. I will have a section for setup, write a monthly column and bring guests to the site for live Q&A along with finishing v2 of the setup guide. I will also be developing a “kit car” package for the home builder/small shop. The “kit” will have everything needed (less the donor car) to assemble a JD SM sold at discount prices. Keeping the class growth going has and always will be a goal of mine and I plan to be a SM racer year in and year out until I eventually retire.
A week from this Friday (Feb 23) at 5 PM CST the site will temporarily close. At that point the last upload of the site and the content it has at that moment can be moved to its new location. This is done so no member content is added and subsequently lost during this period. A team if web folks are working on this and we will do everything we can to expedite the process. This has been in the works for weeks now, all that is left is to pull the trigger, work out the bugs and turn the site back on. It seems simple but is actually very difficult due to the evolution of the site through the years.
I want to thank the many members, companies and silent individuals that supported the site. I want to especially thank Charlie and John James (yes I call them the James gang) for their progressive thinking regarding the SM site. Although I was approached by several organizations from sanctioning bodies to non SM related companies, I’m very glad a group of SM enthusiasts and friends are the ones involved with the site.
It has been a good ride gang, I’m looking forward to many more years of the fun!!
See you at the track
[ 02-15-2007, 12:52 PM: Message edited by: Jim Daniels ]
Region: SFR
Car #: 82/73
Year : 1991 Posts: 2015
Status: Offline
posted
Dang...had me worried for a minute....
Sounds like a plan. I look forward to the changes, they sound interesting.
Thanks JD, Charlie, and John!
-------------------- Kim
91 BRG SMT RIP 06 MX-5 Cup
"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting 'Holy sh*t...what a ride!'" - Unknown
I'm going to close this one so any new posts can go in the other topic.
One PM question I'm getting frequently is how much I cashed out for? The answer is, NOT ONE DIME!!
SR supported me long before the site got going good based on my personal performance and notoriety. The site has turned into a way for me to help them back while offering the members discounts at SR. The site is a labor of love for me, never for the money.
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