Taking a (big) step back

"When you think about quitting, you've already quit." - John Madden

"I know it's time." - Brett Favre*

I’ve joked that I’ve been around racing since I could “pee in a pot,” nearly all of my 41 years on Earth. My earliest memories stem back from Mid-Continent Raceway (now Mid-Nebraska Speedway) in the mid-late 70’s. Back then I was a Late Model fan, and Clayton Petersen, Jr. was my favorite driver. I vaguely remember the sprint cars that occasionally frequented the track. When my family moved to Lincoln in the early 80’s, I remember a friend of my father’s being involved with a car and visiting Midwest Speedway, with the new “Modified” sprint class, which after some rules tweaking, later became the 360’s of today.

From there, my father - Dean Orth owned Sprint cars and, in varying capacities, I worked on the machines until the mid-90’s, my final year culminating in spending it on tour with the now-defunct NCRA Outlaw (410) series. Of course, we made many trips to Knoxville, Husets, and various World of Outlaws shows in between our NCRA schedule. It was a great experience.

Soon after my Dad, along with long time racing partner/client/friend Craig Cormack decided to go after the ownership of Eagle Raceway. I joined along working for the track, even after my father retired from the racing scene in ‘99, up until Cormack sold the track to Roger Hadan in 2005. From 2002-2005, I was a full-time employee of Eagle. It was my sole income, and a decent one for someone in their 30’s. I worked part-time for Roger in 2006, and decided to become a blogger/photographer that same year, and was on my own since then. This site was merely a hobby, which on occasion turned a little money - but my day-to-day income is outside of racing.

In 2010, my life took a different turn, with the birth of my son. I’ve been truly blessed. It’s a lot of work, but the rewards are incredible.

It’s said that family makes a different person out of you. That’s no lie. My daily outlook is very different, and sometimes those things that seemed important are now trivial. I don’t know if it is a physiological change, but the priorities in life don’t just fall down the ladder, the urgency fades away.

For years of my late teens to early 20’s, I was a big gun nut and hunter. Knew about anything there was to know about guns and fancied myself a pretty decent shot. I still think I could hold my own after about a hundred practice rounds. But, married life changed that, even when I lived out in the country and had a shooting range outside my own door...I just didn’t care that much. Still don’t. I’ll thumb through a gun magazine now and then at the bookstore, still read some occasional books - but I don’t shoot much and haven’t hunted for over 15 years.

Now, family needs the time I used to give to racing, and the passing of my mother in 2011 made me realize that with a young child and being a father at a relatively late age (some of my high school friends have kids in high school or have graduated), my time with my wife and son was limited, and was very important.

I’ve devoted a lot of my life to the sport. Short of driving, I’ve done it all. While it’s provided me with income, friends, fond memories and relationships that hopefully last the rest of my life, it also tore my family apart, and created animosity amongst long-time associates. Racing can consume one’s life. At times, it’s an important fabric of being, others it’s the bane of one’s existence. Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell the difference between the two.

To that end, I think it’s time for me to step back. Way back. In my post last season, I said that I would see how I felt come 2012. I've assessed my feelings. The excitement just isn't there the way it used to be. 

There are a lot of things I’m not really a fan of anymore: the back-gate nature of the show and the long time it takes to run it, the various drama (four of the top five threads on dirtdrivers.com this weekend were someone bitching one way or the other), and that I’ve taken my racing photography about as far as I wanted to go with it. What little time I have to shoot - and photography is my passion - I need to take that time elsewhere.

I'm still a motorsports fan - the vintage circuit is what piques my fancy these days, and now I've become that 'old guy' wishing for the good ol' days.

It’s hard to devote family time, with a young son and mother for something that isn’t lighting my fire anymore.

But despite all the things I have issue with, I’ll miss the people, some of whom I consider trusted friends. That’s the one thing that kept me coming back. I wish I could condense it into 3 hours instead of 8-10 hours on a Saturday.

So, for the first time in over thirty years, I don't have any connection to a car, track, media - I am just a simple fan now.

It doesn’t mean that I won’t be out at the track ever. It just will be much less frequent, maybe one to two times a month. I have to admit, that as long as Lincoln is still playing my new-found interest - Hockey - I’m committed to the Ice Box as my “Jason time.”

After that...I'm not sure. I may still shoot pictures on occasion, but it won't be just a bunch of cars going left all the time. I may blog about the times I go to the track, something that probably will have more meat than just another press release about an upcoming event. I’m not sure what to do with the site yet. I still own the domain and the hosting charges - so I’ll keep it alive. The photo galleries will move but I plan on doing some work to keep the site “simmering” for the time being.

I still enjoy a lot of the people in racing, and still want to maintain my relationships. There are people who still have the same passion for the sport as they did 10, 20, 40 years ago. There are the same stories being told to a new generation and the same memories being made for them.

I want to thank the people who’ve made racing so enjoyable these past years. I don’t want to name names, because there are SO many and I don’t want to be accused of putting the names in some order, missing anyone or slighting anybody. I just want to say there are dozens, if not hundreds and I think highly of ALL of them. True respect.

I hope to see you all at the track - it just may not be as often. 
 

Jason

*The Favre quote is a deliberate joke

The new season

I had noticed that it's less than a month before racing starts up in Nebraska - the annual USMTS Spring Thaw at Junction Motor Speedway takes place the first week of March - it's either in the 50's and spring-like or winter still lingers; sometimes both in the same weekend.

But I'm excited. Given that my work has a peak around Chili Bowl time, that's been out of the question for several years, so this race is my first visit back to the track in four months. I'll admit, it's a bit of a shakedown cruise for the cameras and getting in the swing of the season.

A few things this year:

1. I WILL get online photo ordering active this year - may not be by USMTS time, but definitely in time for the regular season. I'm putting some touches on it now and thinking about pricing.

2. I think I'll open up to some more frequent posting, not so much long editorials, but thoughts during the week - a few sentences in a twitter or 'facebook status' style format. The long editorials will stay.

3. One of the other things I'll finally do are some interviews for the site. Either sit downs, or 'five questions with' where they answer the same thing, or...

4. Ads - I'm working on pricing, but it's coming.

-Jason

What's up

Baby and work are taking priority now. But, I've got some notes scribbled in between naps and looking to update soon.

I've got some 2010 thoughts and a wish list for the 2011 season on deck.

In the meantime go vote in the sprint car poll --->

What's Up

You've seen that I haven't been posting lately. My life has been preoccupied by the busiest work of all, becoming a new parent.

I'll have some takes on the recent sprint car meetings later. I've been graciously filled in.

What's up

Been slow on the updates. Busy, busy, busy outside of the racing world - in fact I took the past weekend off entirely, spending time with the wife and getting things done at home.

I'll be back in full swing this week however.

I also have an editorial coming up on the "Diminishing Car Counts" thread on Dirtdrivers.com.

I guess since my previous editorial was the starting point, I'll follow up. Right now, I'm just trying to organize my thoughts, but here's a hint of my take: parts and purse are just a small part of the issue.

And, I may have another editorial in the works.

Until then...

-

This blog has moved - but you have to do nothing!

There's nothing you have to change, unless you subscribed to the posts in a newsreader. I've set the domain "www.heartlandracenews.com" to redirect to the .blogspot.com address...so all your bookmarks should be the same. The photos (for now) will still be at the same address. The only change you'll notice is in the address bar when the page loads up.

This is a temporary move to hosting with Google since the way I was doing this was not going to be supported by Blogger after May 1.


This blog is now located at http://heartlandracenews.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://heartlandracenews.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Site Changes, Uptime, Downtime...

You'll probably see a lot of changes (and a little downtime) over the next couple weeks. In some cases it will look like I stepped back, but the most important thing to me is getting old data to come over. Look and feel are down the road...

Some changes in the Blogger platform I used to update this site are coming that require me to host with Google or some other lousy alternative.

Plus I wanted to use a platform that offered more customization possibilities. I guess Google forcing the issue is as good as any other motive!

And, it may come with other changes as well...


Thanks,
Jason

I'm (back) on Twitter

I'm back on Twitter, with a bit of a plan. I'll tweet bits of racing info, and photo stuff. Sometimes related, sometimes not at all. As you can tell, it will probably tilt toward the photo end, but I certainly don't forget my racing roots.

Either way - it's just a click.

Follow me at: www.twitter.com/jasonorthphoto

This site's future

After four seasons worth of "general" racing coverage, I've decided that it's time for a change.

You may have noticed I've quit posting results. Some tracks post nothing for days and even with transponders at some places, information is incorrect or slow coming. Sometimes drivers names are spelled wrong, sponsors names are incorrect.... No, it's not everyone in every case, but I would say it happens often enough to become an annoyance. Maybe I'm too picky.

I've lamented before about all the technological advancements such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (if anyone's there), and the near ubiquity of text messaging being underutilized, and the halfway attempts are essentially worse than not doing it at all. Again, not everyone at every time.

The problem is, the downturns in the economy have forced many tracks to do more with less and one thing I've seen a LOT less of is advertising and press releases, despite all these new tools. Frankly, I don't have the desire to hunt the basics like results and upcoming event down and edit it like I used to, and to be honest - it wasn't what people were reading on the site anyway.

So, I'm going to focus the new site on two things: editorials and photos. There will be regular updates, news from tracks, and race recaps - but different in that they'll be from my point of view.

Writing my own pieces are probably the part I do best. So, the updates will be frequent, in many cases shorter, covering a variety of subjects, from interviews to thoughts on the food at the concession stand. Given my racing background I think the best way to start is with what I have a genuine interest in: dirt racing at the top level specifically sprints, modifieds and late models. Those classes will be the focus of this site in 2010, and races featuring those classes will dictate my schedule next year.

One of the other things I'm wanting to do is take my photography to the next level. After some feedback from professional sports photographers, one comment is that I need to focus more on the human element. To do that I need to specialize a bit...I also need to spend time off the track, and thus missing some classes. Speaking of photography, I need to improve order fulfillment dramatically. But I also believe in editing images and not dumping the entire memory card online. To do that I need to spend more time working on images and less on editing press releases and such. Therefore it will be my best work, fully edited and available to order online in 2010. Click and buy, from the printer straight to you - ASAP. And possibly, I'll include gift items in that as well.

So does that mean "Heartland Race NEWS" isn't so much that - if it only covers certain classes? Maybe, but a name change is likely anyway. In fact I've already purchased the domain name I plan to relaunch under. I'll announce it soon, continue posting here until it's ready and cross post between the two sites shortly after the release.

It's been an enjoyable four seasons and I think this new approach will keep me going for several more.

Jason

What's Up

Nothing much right now - but I've had issues with email lately. LOTS of spam for some reason. Trying to get the filter tweaked has been a mess.


Bear with me. I've got a few things, mostly just some off-season thoughts.

Three Years Old!

Hey everyone – didn’t think I could do it, but this site is three years old now and I have all the desire to keep it going for 2009! I’ve received a lot of feedback from everyone, and it’s been a blast. I’m still looking for new things, and new ideas. If you have any, shoot ‘em my way! I’m pondering video, ads and certainly more interviews.

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone for helping me keep this going. Here’s to a safe, happy, and fun 2009.

-Jason

What's Up

After getting a few emails, I'm alive and well - I just hadn't really had much updating to do, but I haven't had time or desire to go through other track's sites and convert their results from another service to something I can post online.

I hear there's a race this weekend out west, but I didn't get anything about it.

What's it take to just write a simple 5 w's release? And you wonder why the paper doesn't write anything about you...

But I digress.

Anyway, I do have a few things in the pipeline, including a couple of editorials...one has been sitting on my laptop for about 3 months now. I also think I have a few photos I never put online...

What's Up

A quick little update:

Work's been crazy and I've been working late so I haven't had time for the site.

• I've got photos from Saturday's and Sunday's events at Eagle
• One or two editorials
• And once other tracks get stories updated - maybe some of that too.

Some clarification

When I said I wanted a recess, that didn't mean I would be abandoning this site completely. I'll still have photos, editorials and other goodies. The recess would be in combing the sites for results and other material and/or editing it for presentation. For that information, please check each track's website, linked on the right.

For now, the best way to get stuff to me on site is to send it to me directly (email's on the front page) in a clear, spell-checked, newspaper style release (who, what, when, where, why) without "first person" verbage as in "I" when you mean "Joe Blow, Promoter of XYZ Speedway" and "you guys" when you mean "drivers and owners."

One comment I heard from an editor of a racing paper is that editing content is getting to the point that it's making it difficult to get the info into print. Do yourself a favor and take one minute to turn that message board post into a real release.

Follow the examples of USMTS, NRP/I-80, and Randy Lawrence's info for Team Dover and see how they put everything together when it comes to advance info. You're only helping yourselves.

Slight delay

I'll try to update with some pics and a little bit of my thoughts from the weekend later this week. However my paying job is going to keep me busy day and night for the next few days - but I get to watch basketball games so it isn't that bad!

Back home

I'm back from the 'Sunshine State' (Florida) - and the weather was actually colder than in Nebraska.

Anyway, I've got sleep (got home really late) to catch up on and some more work. But, I've got the following:

• Stickers are DONE. I'll have them ready at Eagle's Icebreaker this weekend
• Some USMTS photos from this past weekend at JMS
• An editorial
• Whatever else seems to come to mind

So, stay tuned.

2008 Special Events Schedule

I've compiled a list of some of the big events in a roughly 4-hour radius of Lincoln, NE. I noted the feature class (AKA, the class that's the reason you're paying more money to get in). I didn't include "sub specials," that is, events where there's no real bonus or outside sanction such as "Mid-Season Championships," "Fan Appreciation nights," etc.

For convenience, I've attached the schedule as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

If you see any additions or changes, let me know.

Here's the link to the PDF file: 2008 Special Events Schedule

Happy Anniversary to me...

It's been a little over two years since Heartland RaceNews.com got started. The hits and visits continue to grow and I'm looking for an even bigger 2008. Last year saw over 2 million "hits" to the site - double the traffic of 2006.

Some plans for 2008 include

• FINALLY getting some stickers out. Last year with the hectic summer, the move to Omaha (and then back to Lincoln) kind of put a damper in that plan. This year I plan on getting stickers ready before the season. I MAY even think of having a third-party (such as cafepress.com) do HRN-related merchandise (tees, sweatshirts, etc).

• Ads - I'm going to start selling ad space on the website. The goal: pay a little bit of internet bills, fund some newer ideas I have for the site, and yeah - maybe a little gas money for some of the races. I haven't quite figured out pricing.

• More driver/owner/promoter/etc. interviews. At the very least, I may do a "10 questions with so-and-so email." Give each person the same 10 questions and see how they answer. I think it would be a fun way to get to know the people involved in racing. If you're interested in participating, let me know with an email

• Video? Maybe, but I'm not sure about how to implement that. Those who know me personally know I'm a huge photography buff and I'm partial to still photos. Plus, I'm not sure I'll have time to do much video editing. What I may do is shoot the victory lane interviews and post them to the site for starters. On the subject of of photos...

• Online photo ordering - no more emails/delivery at track/etc. I'm looking to set up with an online ordering system where the billing is handled externally and the pics are shipped to you. Continuing with photos...

• Shooting more candids/people shots - Action stuff is fun, and there will be plenty of it but I'd like to get more shots of people in the pits doing the things they do to keep the show going. There may have nights were the action stuff is thin and I may take the camera up to the pits/stands and do some shooting there. Drivers: you may see me wandering around your pit area a little more this year - but I'll keep out of your way!

• Changes to the look/feel of the site. These will be implemented slowly though. I MAY think about providing a "mobile" version of the site formatted for cell phone/PDA, if it can be done easily.

• Creating something along the lines of Chris Moses "Oval Operators." The plan is that anyone running a Heartland Race News sticker on their car would get a link to their driver home page/dirtdrivers driver page/and if the driver has neither, a brief "blog post about the driver" that would have a link on the "links" section of the website.

Of course, if you have ideas for things you want to see - let me know by sending me an email

And finally THANK YOU to the readers, the drivers and tracks for making this whole thing possible and one of the most enjoyable things I've done.

-Jason

What's coming up

Well, I'm now moved BACK to Lincoln, and need to get stuff unpacked.

I've got a few things coming up:

1. pics from Wednesday's USAC/POWRi midget show at Junction
2. pre-rainout pics from Saturday at Eagle
3. maybe an editorial or a GUEST editorial...

Update

On one hand - here's your new poll.

On the other, no stickers. Soon...soon.

Editorials and photos to come.