2018 was a big year here at The Gentleman Racer® from ripping across Baja California with Wide Open Baja to buying a historic building in Central Texas and moving from the Los Angeles area, 2018 was a major season of change.
We worked with Harvest Initiative in Nicaragua, a charity I have worked with since 1998, building a solar panel system for a computer lab in the jungles of eastern Nicaragua, we got out just days before the civil unrest erupted in the country, sadly we have many friends who were caught up in violence and protests, but things seem to be settling down now.
It was a great year to work with manufacturers as well, GMC, Chevrolet, Mazda, McLaren, Toyota, Acura, Royal Enfield, Volkswagen, BMW, Harley Davidson, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and many others partnered with us on stories and road trips in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. In 2018 the site won an Excellence in Craft award from the Texas Auto Writers Association, for a story on high performance driving experiences in the USA.
My new hometown of Groesbeck Texas has been great, progress on the building has been slow, but we are hoping to get the main section of the building open in the next few months. Restoring a 100-year-old building has a lot of challenges, but we are excited about space and what it means for our creative process for both our in-house work and the work we do for clients around the world.
Moving to Texas has also meant I had several opportunities to work at Circuit of the Americas and Texas Motor Speedway, two amazing tracks within driving distance of my new hometown. Thanks to partnerships with brands like Suave Men, Hard Rock Hotels, Bays English Muffins, Hyundai, Mazda, BMW, Dovert, M&P Speed Shop, Zero Halliburton, and even Walmart we were able to tell some amazing stories and take you our readers along for the ride.
In 2018 we also hit over 90,000 followers on Instagram and have seen amazing growth on the site reaching nearly 200,000 readers on average per month. In mid-2018 a complete overhaul of the site was done, refreshing the design and logo and of course for our major partners the 2018 Year Book is being printed right now, recapping the top stories of 2018 in a beautiful print magazine.
2018 also saw more focus on expanding content, stories on DIY, relationships, fashion, watches, and travel. By the numbers, the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Norway were the top five countries readers were from. Top cities were Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, and London.
2019 is already off to an amazing start and I am so excited to see where this year goes. If you aren't following along be sure to sign up for our weekly email and to follow on Instagram.
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