The one thing that I KNOW would make this blog GREAT (well, it already is great, but ya know, a lot better) is if I could attend all 36 races on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule. You, the readers, have said it yourself, the best part of my blog is when I write about my race weekend experiences. And I have to agree with you. Not just because it’s fun for me to have those experiences but the proof is in the analytics, Google Analytics to be exact. I get a lot of traffic from those posts, but because my race attendance is sporadic (at best) I feel like I’m in limbo. And I also feel like I’m not giving you everything that I could & should.
I’m one of those people that if I’m going to do something I want it to be great and I want it to reach its full potential. Since I finally married the two things I’m really passionate about, writing & racing, I feel like I can’t give up on it. I’ve been writing this blog for 5 years now and I want this to be my sole priority when it comes to the thing we call “work.”
I have tried everything I can think of to get myself to all of the races. I had an idea to travel to all of the races and document the whole thing on video, ultimately creating a documentary. That didn’t fly. I had an idea to shadow a race team & driver for a full year. Pitched it to EVERYONE (name a team, I asked them) and nobody was going for it. I had an idea to travel to all of the races in an RV and get sponsors to, you guessed it, sponsor the road trip. I pitched it and got nowhere. While I do reach thousands of people each month (and have a column in a NASCAR magazine), I don’t command the kind of numbers that an entire network of blogs might (think SBNation or Yahoo! or YardBarker, etc).
The reason why I can’t let this go is because I happen to be in the perfect position in my life right now to make this thing happen. Because of a series of unfortunate events I don’t have a real full-time job (although I do have a freelance web production gig) and I don’t have rent to pay (I’m living with my mom & her husband, while I love them it’s highly embarrassing to admit that). So if there was ever a time in my life to make the leap from just doing something that I’m good at to doing the work that wouldn’t feel at all like work — something I love — this would be the time.
The incredibly cool thing that I do have is a passionate, loyal audience of women (and some awesome men) that love NASCAR. You guys dig what I do and I am so incredibly grateful and thankful for that. Which is why I was hesitant to ask what I am about to ask of you. How would you feel about donating money to get me out to all of the races next year? I have a goal of $125,000 to make it happen. That is a lot of money but if you donated just $5 (or more if you want!) and your friends did too, I think it’s entirely possible to reach that goal before the start of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. So far this year over 40,000 people have visited this site. If all of those people gave $5 I’d have $200,000.
I’ve created a corporate sponsor level so that if a company wants to pitch in $5,000 they’ll receive static logo placement on the site and ad runs throughout The Fast and the Fabulous, ‘Fabulous’ News & The Fabulous Girl’s Guide to Racing. There’s a $50 ‘Fabulous’ Friend level if you donate that or more. You’ll be listed on the “Fabulous Friends” page as a supporter and it’ll be linked to anything you want (within reason of course, think Twitter, Facebook or your own website).
Truthfully, I never wanted to have to ask you to do this. While you might read this site all the time I’m still just a stranger (learn a little bit more about me here) and you don’t owe me anything. But this is the best idea I have right now. I am committed to this blog and I know that I’m on to something with it and I can’t bare to see it fail. I’ve been to 2 races so far this year and I know I’ll get to at least one more (Infineon) for sure, but after that I have no idea when the next one will be and that makes me so frustrated.
The idea of getting to spend every minute of my time focusing on just this blog alone and telling stories from “the road” would be a dream come true. You — in a really simple & easy gesture — would be helping me live my dream, changing my life with just $5.
So please tell ALL of your friends, neighbors and strangers. 🙂 We’ve got between now and the end of December 2011 to reach the goal.
Your support means the WORLD to me!
(Note: Donations are NOT tax deductible. You have the option to give anonymously, just select “Private” when you go through the donation page.)
