Important ApexSpeed Forum Announcement

[dc]

I know this will probably be verbose, but hang with me—it's important.

In the late 90s, my brother Keith, father Dale and I decided that we wanted to road race formula cars again after my dad dipped his toes into racing in the mid 80s with a Merlyn Club Formula Ford. When we decided to jump back in with wings by aiming at Formula Continental. We didn't know anything about the cars, but we knew it was where we wanted to be. Splitting the cost of racing three ways was our solution to the overall costs of racing. We needed information, and at the time, there was very little information about amateur formula car racing on the internet, let alone for FC. A free EZ-board forum existed, but it was unmoderated and ugly, and not a friendly place to learn about club racing.

I had some experience with building and managing internet communities after being a founding partner of VWvortex.com in 1998. Keith was instrumental in prodding me to try to recreate that magic with a formula car discussion community. When I balked at the idea, he said, "build it, and they will come." He was right.

ApexSpeed began construction in late 1999 and was originally launched as FormulaContinental.com, and then as F2000.com. We eventually added other classes like Formula Ford when Jake Lamont decided that he was done with the FF Underground, and then every other open wheel class quickly followed. Before I knew it, we had combined the individual class forums and gave it the name, ApexSpeed. The site as you know it today had been re-born in 2003 as a collective home for all purpose-built amateur road racing.

At that point, I was running the business pretty much on my own in my spare time. Working full time as a Creative Director for a marketing agency and managing a motorsports website after hours was catching up to me. In 2006, Kim and I got married and she started to take over more of the management side of the business—wrangling advertisers, tending to member problems and doing a lot of the web development on the back end of the site.

Fast-forward to today. It's 2023 and we have been managing this business for 23+ years. That's an eternity for an internet site, let alone a discussion community. We're exceptionally proud of what we have built over the last two decades, and the quality of this community is a testament to the members who continue to visit and contribute to the discussions every day. I'd hold ApexSpeed up to any other discussion forum on the internet with the quality of content and the character of its users.

But, it's been a long road for us. I stopped racing in 2004 and Keith and my dad sold their car a few years ago. We're now all out of racing. It ceased being a passion project for me many years ago and just became a side business that I ran in my free time. We have lost the motivation to keep going with the business.

It has become something that we are ready to move on from. It has become our past.

We are looking to sell ApexSpeed as a functional tax-paying and profitable business this year. We are looking to move the site to new, capable and enthusiastic hands to continue to build the things that we were never able to devote time to. We are looking to keep ApexSpeed moving forward into the future.

But we have also decided that we have an endgame, as well. With some changes to some of our code and server structure coming on July 1st, we are pointing to that date as a line drawn in the sand. It's our denouement, if you will. If we don't find a suitor for the site, we will be shutting the doors at the halfway point of 2023. If we don't have a new owner by July 1, 2023, ApexSpeed will be closing down.

This website and community has been a part of my life for almost 24 years—almost half of my life! I don't make this announcement lightly, but we have reached the end of our race.



If you or someone you know would be interested in the purchase of the business, please PM me directly for more details. At this point, the site and domain have great value to someone that could manage it properly, but what I really want is to see it continue and thrive. It's time for some new blood to run this place.




Onward,

Doug & Kim Carter

[Steve Demeter]

I only hope that someone competent steps forward. I do not know what I would have done without Apex all these years.

PS: I would not have a clue as where to start running it

The entire formula car racing community owes an undying debt of gratitude to the Carter family

[Earley Motorsports]

Some pretty big shoes to fill right there. Thank you for all your hard work over 2 plus decades. All the best on the sale.

[DaveW]

Echoing Steve, I am also hoping someone competent and enthusiastic pops up wanting to keep this going.

We owe a huge thank you to all of the Carters for this irreplaceable forum, and also hope that your life after ApexSpeed is as great as you want it to be.

[Rick Iverson]

Stunned. Need to stand in the corner and think about this.

[Robert J. Alder]

Someone must (will surely?) step up!

We joke about a fellow FF racer years ago, over a bunch of beers muttering philosophically to us all, "I can't image live without a Formula Ford." But we all nodded in agreed 'cause we totally understood.

Now, I can't imagine life without ApexSpeed. For crying out loud, it's the Home Page on my Browser.

An amazing resource for us all.

[-pru-]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to the Carter’s! For the past 23 years, you have provide a site that has no equal. For a lot of us, ApexSpeed is a “single source of truth” so to speak. I sincerely hope that new caretakers can be found…

[Ken Lawrence]

I have no idea how much I have learned from this site. I bought my 2nd FC from an AD here. At 82 I won't be racing a lot longer; started in 1968 with GP. A big change in 1993 to FC, so much help.

Thanks!!!

[stonebridge20]

Wow.

[Dee]

WOW !! If only I new more about computers, Many thanks to the Carter Family !!!!!!!

[Craig71188]

THANK YOU for this great resource. I do not have the skills to even begin to contemplate operating such a site. I certainly hope there is some "young blood" with the vision and passion to step up for another 20 years!

Best of luck!

[Purple Frog]

Doug and I spoke a few years ago about this eventuality. I guess because of Covid they hung with it longer than I suspected after that conversation.

What a great service to our community Kim and Doug have provided!

I do not have the computer skills to take over the operation. I do hope there is someone that can come forward. I understand in the current environment that may not be the case. We will see.

I was sitting on the porch last night with the Captain trying think how I feel about 10,668 of my rambling posts disappearing into just foggy memory.

Seriously, what could be lost that is of value are the posts from the likes of DaveW, Lathrop, Pare, Stonebridge, etc. that form a substantial treasure of valuable information for the owners of many purpose built race cars.

Facebook is nice. But try to go back two years and find a post that someone made that tells you how to fix a problem you face.

Thank you Kim and Doug, it's been a hell of a ride! I'll be forever grateful for how your family came to my aid in September 2005.

[TimH]

If a new owner needs a modest subscription fee I'll still be here.

[E1pix]

Sad news indeed — and that comes from a relative newbie, though a veteran of other forums far less cordial.

I do wonder how many of us it could take to collectively finance continued operation...

To the Carters, Thanks for the great work. And Thanks for the candor in this thread, it couldn’t have been easy.

[pacratt]

Stunned. Need to stand in the corner and think about this.

I'm thinking more like "curl up in a fetal position and whimper".
Glenn

[Steve Demeter]

If a new owner needs a modest subscription fee I'll still be here.

I agree 110%

Or even with the current owners

[bob darcey]

bump

[stonebridge20]

Doug and I spoke a few years ago about this eventuality. I guess because of Covid they hung with it longer than I suspected after that conversation.

What a great service to our community Kim and Doug have provided!

I do not have the computer skills to take over the operation. I do hope there is someone that can come forward. I understand in the current environment that may not be the case. We will see.

I was sitting on the porch last night with the Captain trying think how I feel about 10,668 of my rambling posts disappearing into just foggy memory.

Seriously, what could be lost that is of value are the posts from the likes of DaveW, Lathrop, Pare, Stonebridge, etc. that form a substantial treasure of valuable information for the owners of many purpose built race cars.

Facebook is nice. But try to go back two years and find a post that someone made that tells you how to fix a problem you face.

Thank you Kim and Doug, it's been a hell of a ride! I'll be forever grateful for how your family came to my aid in September 2005.

Frog, that's an impressive group to be included in, thank you but I've taken more more from this site than I've given. This site has given more than any book a thousand fold and absolutely needs to survive and continue to be run with the iron fist that the Carter's have run it with for all these years. The Carter's have done an absolutely amazing job with this site and it would be a travesty to see it wither up into a free for all like most sites end up.
I do know that there's a member here that has reached out to the Carter's that would make for an excellent new owner of the site. He possess the right skills all around to keep the Apex we all know and love running as smoothly as it does right now.
Fingers crossed!

[Steve Demeter]

bump

[bassracer]

I don't know the Carters but thank you for building this community.

I would support a subscription fee. I'm not really sure how to attract a younger generation to formula cars without an accessible online resource/community.

Of course, the right personal decisions will need to be made.

I hope that there is an option to archive content for future reference or best case, a foundation for the next iteration of Apexspeed.

[Steve Demeter]

I passed this information along to someone in my region who is a web site designer. I told him that6 in his professional circles there is much more possibility to find some one who might be interested than my my professional circles.

Gotta try anything!!!

[E1pix]

One easy way to expand is getting more sports car and tintop racers here.

[dc]

I figured I'd post an update to the original post to give everyone something to look forward to, instead of the impending dread of the end.


In the last week, we have been contacted by no less than 20 individuals and groups who are interested in buying and managing ApexSpeed to keep it going well into the foreseeable future. We have had three legitimate offers to purchase the site that we are strongly considering.

The outpouring of interest in the site has made me feel very confident that the site will be in good hands, no matter where it goes. Plenty of capable and enthusiastic people ready and willing to jump right in and carry the torch for the next 23 years.

No one should worry about ApexSpeed going anywhere, because it's very apparent to me right now that it is not going to skip a beat. It's going to be around for quite some time.



More soon,

Doug

[mikey]

Wonderful!! Thanks Doug

[Robert J. Alder]

Whew!

[Steve Demeter]

YIPPPEEEEE

[Richard Hybels]

I’ve been here since 2002, a little while after FF Underground got hacked and died .
I’ve never met anybody in racing that doesn’t know this site.
Thank you tor everything. I can’t think of a better site tor any purpose with the possible exception of Google. I think “thank you” doesn’t come within a country mile of being adequate but a million thanks.
The guys I know that are smart enough are most likely to be too busy and making way to much money already but I’ll ask.
I’ll cry myself to sleep every night if it goes away.

[marshall9]

All classifieds must include a sale price.

[dc]

All classifieds must include a sale price.

Winner, winner. Touch 'em all. Maybe the most clever post ever made on ApexSpeed.

[Steve Demeter]

Just wondering if anything good has happened since the post about the interested parties. I think we will all understand if the information must be kept confidential while negotiations are going on

[dc]

Lots of good things happening behind the scenes at this point. Negotiations are over, and an agreement has been made to sell the site. We're in the process now of making the transition as smooth as possible for the new owners, and we should be wrapped up with the transition sometime in the next 20 days, with any luck. Once we're in a better position with the hand-off, we'll make a full announcement of exactly what things will look like short-term (pretty much the same thing) and long-term (bigger and better ApexSpeed!).

I'm confident that the future of ApexSpeed is in good hands moving forward, and the users of this site will be the big benefactors of the new directions.

[swiftdrivr]

Been moving and somehow missed the original post [and any nuclear wars, episodes of sanity from Washington DC, alien visitations. and anything else that happened in the last 6 months.] That is a good thing, as I missed all the anxiety and sadness and came in at the happy ending. It is no exaggeration to say that I simply could not have raced without the help of the ApexSpeed community. This forum is irreplaceable, It has literally kept me on track when without it, I'd have had to fold my tent. Thank you for all you have done for the racing community! I wish you all the best in the future, wherever it may take you!

[Rick Iverson]

My only concern is the new owners will be “fixing” something that is not broken. Almost inevitable in every acquisition.

But we will see.

Lots of good things happening behind the scenes at this point. Negotiations are over, and an agreement has been made to sell the site. We're in the process now of making the transition as smooth as possible for the new owners, and we should be wrapped up with the transition sometime in the next 20 days, with any luck. Once we're in a better position with the hand-off, we'll make a full announcement of exactly what things will look like short-term (pretty much the same thing) and long-term (bigger and better ApexSpeed!).

I'm confident that the future of ApexSpeed is in good hands moving forward, and the users of this site will be the big benefactors of the new directions.

[Robert J. Alder]

Lots of good things happening behind the scenes at this point.. . . .

Yeah !!!!!

[dc]

My only concern is the new owners will be “fixing” something that is not broken. Almost inevitable in every acquisition.

It is most definitely inevitable, in any acquisition of anything. You buy a new car or house, and you want to make it yours. I get that, and I'm pretty sure that things on ApexSpeed will be for the better. Change was coming to the forums, whether we kept the site or moved it to someone else.

This site as it is configured has a lot of shortcomings in the technical department. It has for years, but you don't see them. It's very old software driving this forum, and in internet metrology, it's a lifetime. Yes, it works and has very few obvious functionality flaws, but it was written for 2009 internet technology. It doesn't interact with mobile very well, doesn't interact with social media at all, and is going to have some real issues when old versions of PHP are no longer commonly found. There are changes coming somewhere in the future, but they will be necessary for progress and not just superfluous for the sake of change.

The new owners are long-time members of ApexSpeed, racers and very much a part of this community. The site is not being sold to a vertical looking to add it to a catalog of generic, heartless automotive websites. You can be assured that the new owners have as much interest in making ApexSpeed the best version of itself as they can, and will certainly build on the foundations that make this community so strong.

[stonebridge20]

It is most definitely inevitable, in any acquisition of anything. You buy a new car or house, and you want to make it yours. I get that, and I'm pretty sure that things on ApexSpeed will be for the better. Change was coming to the forums, whether we kept the site or moved it to someone else.

This site as it is configured has a lot of shortcomings in the technical department. It has for years, but you don't see them. It's very old software driving this forum, and in internet metrology, it's a lifetime. Yes, it works and has very few obvious functionality flaws, but it was written for 2009 internet technology. It doesn't interact with mobile very well, doesn't interact with social media at all, and is going to have some real issues when old versions of PHP are no longer commonly found. There are changes coming somewhere in the future, but they will be necessary for progress and not just superfluous for the sake of change.

The new owners are long-time members of ApexSpeed, racers and very much a part of this community. The site is not being sold to a vertical looking to add it to a catalog of generic, heartless automotive websites. You can be assured that the new owners have as much interest in making ApexSpeed the best version of itself as they can, and will certainly build on the foundations that make this community so strong.

[emoji481]

So, it's a done deal Doug?

[dc]

So, it's a done deal Doug?

An agreement has been made and the sale is still in process. Should be fully completed before the end of March, if not much sooner. We'll announce the details and new owners as we get further along into March.

[Rick Iverson]

Sir;

No disrespect intended. An old guy, fairly resistant to change. Thank you for what you brought to the fight. You have been fair, just, and honest.

It is most definitely inevitable, in any acquisition of anything. You buy a new car or house, and you want to make it yours. I get that, and I'm pretty sure that things on ApexSpeed will be for the better. Change was coming to the forums, whether we kept the site or moved it to someone else.

This site as it is configured has a lot of shortcomings in the technical department. It has for years, but you don't see them. It's very old software driving this forum, and in internet metrology, it's a lifetime. Yes, it works and has very few obvious functionality flaws, but it was written for 2009 internet technology. It doesn't interact with mobile very well, doesn't interact with social media at all, and is going to have some real issues when old versions of PHP are no longer commonly found. There are changes coming somewhere in the future, but they will be necessary for progress and not just superfluous for the sake of change.

The new owners are long-time members of ApexSpeed, racers and very much a part of this community. The site is not being sold to a vertical looking to add it to a catalog of generic, heartless automotive websites. You can be assured that the new owners have as much interest in making ApexSpeed the best version of itself as they can, and will certainly build on the foundations that make this community so strong.

[EYERACE]

suspect subscription model to follow

[BeerBudgetRacing]

suspect subscription model to follow

Maybe. This must be carefully thought through.

I noticed a huge up-tick in 'for sale' groups on FB when listing fees were introduced here.