Season 15 celebrates TJSlideways.com becoming old enough to get a driver’s permit, this blog will look back at the places and people we have covered over the years along with some insight on how this crazy operation has managed to stay in business.
From T.J. Buffenbarger
Plenty of things have changed since TJSlideways.com had a gaudy green background and an incredible photo of Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell on the header. The amount of change seen in the 15 years of running this website is remarkable. The turnover in people and personnel alone at long standing venues and series could make for a month’s worth of blogs. So over the next few months I am going to look back and give you some insight of some of the more memorable things that have happened.
I can’t think of a better place to start than Readers Digest version how the website started. The story is pretty boring actually. I’m a lifelong fan and student of the sport of open wheel racing. I don’t remember the first race I ever attended; I just remember that’s something our family did on weekends. My mother gives a collection of children’s books with records credit on helping me read at an early age, I credit photo captions in National Speed Sport News. I read everything I could get my hands on about the sport. Favorite writers included Rick Lejeune (highly under rated), Dave Argabright, Scott Hall, Kevin Eckert, and countless others.
In 1996 I was studying music education and was bored one night, so I taught myself html and wrote a website to cover Michigan sprint car racing. My Mom and Dad put up the first $20.00 to host the site, Mike Nelligan provided spectacular photos, JRG Media did the logo, and the rest is history. The website grew quickly, and I soon realized I was not attending that many races in Michigan. So the website went from Michigan to Midwest Sprint Car Page to reflect my personal passion. That first year was my first trip to the Knoxville Nationals, and my outlook on the sprint car world changed dramatically.
From there the first five years were a whirlwind of growth. The site caught on quickly, and soon I went from fan in the stands to rubbing shoulders with many of the people I grew up reading (though I never mention that because I don’t want people to take it as me calling them old). I had plenty of good advice along the way, some bad advice, but overall I can’t complain about where we have ended up. The last ten years I joke were to tweak everything to finally accomplish what I want to do in this decade. I’ve ruffled feathers at times, but have accomplished some pretty amazing things along the way.
Through it all I have managed to not become jaded at the sport. I still get just as excited to go to the racetrack as I did when I was child. At times the demands of life and running this site have put aside my personal touch to the reports and news you read on here. Hopefully the Season 15 blog can restore that. Between this, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and good old fashioned typing I hope you get a passenger seat view of my racing season.
I never imagined in 1996 this would last 15 seasons. Now I’m pumped to share the next 15 with you as we prepare to head to the race track for another great season of open wheel racing.