I will be the first to admit that I am NOT into NASCAR racing, on road or off – unless of course you count my afternoon dash to pick up the kids before daycare closes.
However, I am into innovative uses of social media, and Robby Gordan, last year's winner of the Baja 1000, is using a combination of YouTube, Twitter and a purpose built Website to let you follow him as he races today to defend his title. There is even a GPS site to track the race in action as it starts sometime today.
The kicker: Robby is racing in some of the most remote country known to man, so in order to stay in touch, they are having to be innovative and use new media to connect.
I learned all about this from Jason Falls, whom I follow on Twitter. He has a great post about what they are doing. He is also the man behind the satellite phone that is being used to send Twitter updates.
The whole point of the exercise is to provide communications from a place not normally well-connected. There ’s a general update person they call “The Weatherman” that gives status updates from checkpoints on some off-road racing message boards, but following the Baja 1000 from afar is next to impossible.
Now Jason, when you get back you need to close the loop and give us an update on the results of this initiative. In the meanwhile, happy racing and good luck.
tags: NASCAR, Bobby+Jordan, Jason+Falls
