It’s the end of October, and there is a picture of me from a birthday track day, so that could mean only one thing: Asphalt & Rubber has aged another year. Now into our third year of this crazy online motorcycle blog experiment, I pleasantly get to reiterate some of the text from last year’s anniversary announcement, as A&R continues to grow beyond anything that this dyslexic kid, who routinely failed writing classes, could have imagined.
This year has been one marked with notable events, as Asphalt & Rubber has come to you live from a bevy of remote locations for our race and event coverage, such as Qatar, Australia, and the Isle of Man. Storming perhaps the last refuge for motorcycle print journalism, we’ve also become one of only two pure-online publications regularly seen in the MotoGP paddock.
But most impressively this year, Asphalt & Rubber passed the 500,000 reader mark, and fittingly this October is shaping up to be our best month ever in terms of traffic & readership…as was the month before that, and the month before that — with all of that math culminating into the fact that A&R has almost doubled in size since last year’s birthday announcement.
One of the questions I often get in regards to A&R is the use of the royal “we” on the site, and the answer I give is that Asphalt & Rubber wouldn’t be possible without the hard work, encouragement, and support of a very loyal group of people. So, I’d like to give a quick shout out to everyone that helped A&R this past year, with a level of gratitude bordering on indentured servitude to Daniel Lloyd, Dustin Gibbs, Peter Lombardi, Jason Yu, Jessica Pichora, Joanne Donn, Scott Jones, Tim Hoefer, Victoria Reid, and lastly our network of Bothan Spies, who continue to provide us with industry-leading news tips despite their own almost certain peril.
Also a big throttle-full of gratitude goes out to all our friends (you know who you are) and family (thanks Mom for letting me start this whole blogging nonsense in your basement), who for reasons beyond my comprehension continue to support this occasionally profitable endeavor. Lastly and most importantly, thank you to all our readers who make all the work worthwhile. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, friend us on Facebook, or just leave a comment below. See you next year.
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