A state of the site at Short Track Scene on its 10th birthday

Hello everyone! Most of you know me but just in case you don’t, my name is Matt Weaver and I’m the founding editor of Short Track Scene.  

This month marks a decade that Short Track Scene has operated in the grassroots motorsports journalism space. Prior to that, I was published at Race22.com and even first started writing about short track racing while I was doing some NASCAR work at SBNation.com back in the day.

The website was created to serve as a true journalistic alternative to Speed51.com, which had evolved more into a public relations firm and eventual broadcast partner to tracks and sanctioning bodies. Which, hey, there was nothing wrong with that business model.

But what I learned in trying to figure out what I could offer to this community was a need to answer, ‘what actually happened’ and ‘what does this mean,’ as storytelling devices. It was a good personal brand builder too, because what I set out to accomplish with Short Track Scene aligned with what I have aimed to do in NASCAR over the past decade.

At the same time, Short Track Scene has personally allowed me to forge relationships that eventually carried onto the NASCAR Cup Series — what I did on Saturday nights eventually translating to Sunday afternoons.

Chase Elliott
Erik Jones
William Byron
Christopher Bell
Harrison Burton
Carson Hocevar
Ryan Preece
Josh Berry
Noah Gragson

I could go on, but this website first covered so many names that have been made at the highest levels before they were remotely eligible to start racing there. It’s been creatively good for me, and it has also provided me a degree of street cred when walking in the Cup garage, because everyone knows I don’t do this just to work in NASCAR.

Short Track Scene is the leader in coverage for entities like CARS Tour, ASA STARS, PASS and ACT. It’s very much become the publication of record for pavement short track enthusiasts.

My entire career has been a love letter to motorsports and I hope most people, even when they get frustrated with something that I write or something I tweet, know that my interests always align with what I believe is best for motorsports too.

I cover short track racing because I believe that connective tissue from Saturday nights to Sunday afternoons is an important one.

This brings us to the point of this post. For almost 15 years, I have taken whatever money I make covering motorsports at the highest level, once at Autoweek and now at Sportsnaut, and I turn around and invest it into Short Track Scene.

It’s a dangerous way to live but again, I believe that the stories told here are important. Short Track Scene is even more important now in a short track media landscape that doesn’t include Speed51 or Race22.

But it’s not sustainable.

The website was an investment in myself, a conviction that it could make me better on Sundays. It has. I also felt short track racing would benefit from having a dedicated news outlet that told the stories of weekend warriors across Late Model, Modifieds and Open Wheels. I hope we have delivered. Short Track Scene features coverage from Canada, New England and the Deep South.

Candidly, I’m not totally sure at 36 years old, that I have the bandwidth to continue operating STS at the level I do now largely completely out of pocket. Right now, there are a group of supporters that occasionally pitch in through Patreon or Paypal and I cannot thank you all enough for keeping the website going.

You have.

Every time I’ve driven across the country to cover a race, that has come out of my pocket and when you pitch in to support it, your pocket.

Significant changes to the advertising world, social media, and Google have continued to make it harder for websites to generate revenue without a subscription based model. I also don’t see any scenario where I would put this website behind a paywall. If it’s going to exist, I don’t want it to be inhibitive to growing the discipline in any way.

That’s why I made the decision to place Google ads on the site last summer but they were modest in amount and modest in return.

But the truth, in my opinion, is that Short Track Scene is viable enough to be a benefit to advertisers and marketing partners, especially those operating in motorsports. That’s what this entire post is about. For Short Track Scene to continue to exist at its current high level, it needs to find additional partners.

CARS Tour coverage was presented by RPM Trailer Sales last season, a tremendous partnership.
ValleyStar Credit Union 300 coverage was presented by Advance Auto Parts in September, big win.
Snowball Derby coverage was presented by Pit Pay App in December, great partner.

I bring these advertising agreements up, because this is where I want to pitch what Short Track Scene can do for anyone interested in a mutually beneficially partnership.

750,000 Short Track Scene page views in 2024
22,000 Facebook followers
200,000 monthly engagements
11,000 monthly 1-minute video views

Short Track Scene has the ability to get your brand or product activation out in a big way.

My X account, @MattWeaverRA, has 57,000 followers and reaches practically every notable racing personality and fan across North America.

Short Track Scene can generate business for you.

Ultimately, with so much of my personal attention diverted with a focus on my mainstream motorsports work, the long-term goal would be to have at least a part-time contributor to pick up additional news and content on weekends where I’m covering a Cup Series event. I want the website to continue growing but it has to be more sustainable than it arguably has been over the past decade, when it was an investment more than anything else.

Events or series coverage available for presenting partnerships:

CARS Tour
ASA STARS
NASCAR Modified Tour
NASCAR Canada Series
American Canadian Tour
Pro All Stars Series
ASA Southern Super Series
ASA Midwest Tour
World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing
ValleyStar Credit Union 300
All American 400
Winchester 400
Snowball Derby

In the meanwhile, what can readers do to support the website?

1.) Read, engage with and share our content! Every view, comment and like helps tremendously. Even if you disagree with an editorial or presentation of the news, the feedback also gives us an idea of how you feel about the direction of the website.

2.) Support our partners. This is especially true if you’re a racer and you can utilize a vendor featured on Short Track Scene. If you need a new trailer, reach out to Brad Sellers at RPM Trailer Sales. If you need parts for the truck you use the haul it, go to Advance Auto. Embrace Pit Pay app!

Ultimately, Short Track Scene is surely going to keep plugging along for another year. My biggest concern is just what happens if I lose my job covering NASCAR at Sportsnaut? Right now, my continued employment subsidizes Short Track Scene. One pays for the other — no different than how a weekly racer keeps his car on the race track.

I love the labor of love that is Short Track Scene and the community it has cultivated. I would just hate a circumstance where this discipline doesn’t get the coverage it needs to continuing growing in the worst case scenario where I can’t keep it afloat.

I would like to think the decade of debt that has gone into this endeavor at least buys me the chance to make this pitch in good faith.

But beyond that, I want it to grow. I want Short Track Scene to expand westward and into the podcast and YouTube spaces. I want its creative direction to expand beyond just what I put into it. I also believe Short Track Scene has a lot to offer entities within the industry investing in themselves too.

Lets grow together.

Matt Weaver
Short Track Scene Founding Editor
mattweavermedia(at)gmail(dot)com