In 1999, my father Dale, my brother Keith and I were getting back into road racing after a very long layoff, and were struggling with getting up to speed in our new-to-us reynard FC. The options to find good help at the time were minimal, and those that were available were not welcoming to new racers. In a burst of energy, creativity and selfishness, I used my background in managing automotive discussion communities and created version 1.0 of what is known as ApexSpeed.com today.
Fast forward to current time, and I have long been away from racing—and my brother and father who continued on for years in FC and FE have sold everything and also gotten away from racing (though my brother Keith is now instructing part time with Skip Barber).
Early this year I made a post about our desire to sell ApexSpeed and walk away from the site. It generated so much genuine interest, it was overwhelming. In the end, more than 20 groups or individuals expressed interest in keeping this site going. Since then, we were able to narrow it down to one group who will take the reigns and continue to build and grow this site moving forward.
The site has been sold and fully transitioned to Keith Roberts and Will Horn, and I can't thank them enough for the ease and simplicity for this transition. I couldn't be happier with the passing of the torch. I'm sure they will chime in shortly so that you can put a user account to a name and start to learn of the new leadership. Keith's user number is in the 900s here, which means that he's been around for almost the entire life of the site. Will has an immense background in IT and software management, so I don't think we could found a better team to take over and continue ApexSpeed moving forward.
Kim has already disconnected completely from the forum here and the day-to-day operations. I will be sticking around for a short while to help smooth out the transition of the site and community to new hands, but at some point, I will slide to the back of the room and then out the door completely. My time here is done.
I want to personally thank all of you for your ongoing support for these 23-odd years here. The help you have all provided to everyone on the forums has been monumental in keeping the quality of ApexSpeed's community at a very high level. This place isn't anything without the members who generate the discussions and the content.
It's been an incredible run for us on a site that was almost completely a whim and an accident. I can't believe how long it's been—more than half of my adult life. Crazy when you think about where we started and what we've seen.
Thank you guys again, and please give a warm welcome to Keith and Will as the new owners of ApexSpeed.
Cheers,
Doug & Kim