The-Paddock.net and John Dagys' Future

First off, I’d like to give kudos to John Thawley for creating this awesome “forum” for fans of the American Le Mans Series. I really believe fans will take this idea and run with it. I look forward to making contributions to the community, hopefully on a frequent basis.

Anyways, as many of you know, I was the chief editor for www.The-Paddock.net since its inception. I started the website on a hope and dream with a colleague of mine in Germany in 2005. It quickly grew in popularity and soon began one of the leading independent sources for sports car racing news and features on the web.

However, after two and a half years, I had decided to put out the checkered flag for the website. With an increasing amount of popularity, it brought higher expectations. That equaled more day-to-day tasks to complete. Robert Prange, the editor/photographer who co-founded the site with me, had less and less time due to new business ventures. I didn’t have as much time to put into the site either for various reasons. We also lost a few of our reporters over the summer due to their busy schedules. We were left with a tough decision: carry on with mediocre work or shut down the site and look for new opportunities.

We chose the latter – it was a very tough decision but it had to be done. Since starting the site, I’ve had the time of my life. And the same could be said for numerous other staff members. We all shared a passion for sports car racing and it reflected in our work. I still remember our first few stories on the site back in 2005. It had so many grammatical mistakes in them; they should have never been published! But we soldiered on and learned the techniques of journalism. All of this sparked my interest in pursuing it as a career.

And I think our most recent work (mainly from this summer) reflected how serious we were with this. We were no longer amateurs, trying to fit in. We had our own place in the sports car racing media community.

But, it became apparent by the end of the summer that the site wasn’t able to continue in its current fashion. I had transferred to a college in downtown Chicago focusing on my journalism degree and Robert randomly came and went without updating the European content.

That’s when we both made the decision to shut down The-Paddock.net. We had options of handing it over to our British GT reporter but felt it would have been too much for him to handle (as he also had time constraints). I also thought about selling or merging with another site. Unfortunately by that time, I had lost contact with Robert, who owns the webspace. He has yet to make contact with anyone associated with the website in over a month. It’s a very disappointing situation since I thought we had trust built between each other. This has forced no other option but to close the website.

I’ve always been an honest person and its disappointing when someone who you thought you trusted just vanishes in this way. There were warning signs, some of which I failed to pick up. Now I know better and will learn from these lessons.

So I’ve started working for motorsport.com. It’s been a fantastic experience so far, mainly due to the fact that I’m able to cover all forms of racing. I’ve been doing some NASCAR stories these past few weeks and hope to cover a handful of those races trackside next year. But I won’t lose my roots in sports car racing. The plan is for me to again be back in the ALMS paddock for much of 2008, as well cover a few Grand-Am and IRL races. It’s a great variety of racing and I look forward to the new year.

I look back some days and reflect how I got here today. A number of things fell into place, enabling me to take the next step in my journey through life. First, it was my passion for auto racing. Then came my interest in writing, thanks to one of my High School teachers who pointed me in the right direction. At that time, I started The-Paddock.net but initially concentrated on photos when I was trackside. It really wasn’t until earlier this summer when John Thawley offered his photos for use on The-Paddock.net. That enabled me to concentrate solely on reporting. I began to start writing more in-depth stories, thus getting me where I am today working with motorsport.com. I don’t know where I would be right now if all those pieces in the puzzle didn’t fit.

These last few weeks have been challenging, with closing The-Paddock.net. But on the other side of the coin, I’ve been able to get a taste of my future. And with a solid foundation, I feel I have what it takes to succeed in motorsports journalism.