“Left Turn Likes” – Hayes, Palmer, Skidmore Among Most Recent To Join Facebook Race

Successful race teams will tell you that while your on track performance is important, your off track package and image is vital to keeping fans and marketing partners alike engaged in your racing program.

Many grassroots racing teams in the region have set up social media pages for their fans to follow along throughout the season, whether it be in the winter as the car is in the garage being built for the year, or on the track when the races themselves are being run. Dozens have turned to the likes of Twitter and Instagram to keep their fans up to date, but most find their home on Facebook, which seems to be the social media platform of choice of most.

It is not just your top Touring Series teams or top weekly teams getting in on the action of promoting their race program on social media. For example, in the last week, three teams have produced new fan pages on Facebook, each of whom have a different story that attributes to their racing success.

Brad Hayes, of Head of Jeddore, Nova Scotia brought his #17 Thunder Car Facebook page to life early this past week. Hayes won the 2014 Tim Horton’s at the Airport Rookie of the Year Award in the Thunder division at Scotia Speedworld, one season after making the move from the track’s Lightning division. In addition, Hayes does some traveling post-point season, which included a top five run last October at Cape Breton Miners Memorial Speedway.

Palmer Boys Racing made their Facebook page debut on Thursday evening. The team fields three cars at Oyster Bed Speedway, the #5 and #45 Outlaw cars of Coady and Kendell Palmer, along with the #5 Late Model for Matt Palmer. Along with their launch, they have posted build photos of Matt Palmer’s #5 Late Model, as it comes together in advance of the season opening event on Prince Edward Island, slated for Monday, May 18th.

Early Friday morning saw the launch of the Skidmore Racing page. Brandon Skidmore of Springhill, Nova Scotia got his racing start with the Mini Stock class at the CENTRE For Speed before hoping to the Atlantic Modified Tour. The youngster fields the black and red #4 car on the series and will look to build on his seventh place finish in the point standings in 2014.

“Well liked” – Popular Maritime Based Facebook Fan Pages

It’s not hard to see John Flemming has fans.

The five-time and defending Parts for Trucks Maritime Pro Stock Tour champion tops the list of active Maritime drivers when it comes to likes on their Facebook page, with 1,295 likes. Amherst, Nova Scotia’s Ryan Mackintosh, who is a former National Semi Pro Legend champion and made his Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour debut last season,  has 1,096 likes on his Fan Page. Current Tim’s Corner Motorsports Most Popular Driver champion Sarah McKay made gains on them both after her run at the 49th World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway and currently clocks in with 895 likes heading into the 2015 season.

The newest race track in Atlantic Canada leads the way when it comes to most liked Facebook Fan Pages for tracks in the region. Avondale, Newfoundland’s Eastbound Park tips the scales at 5,610 likes. Okay, so they also promote a successful country music festival each season, have drag racing, monster trucks and they think outside of the box for events, which includes the Parts Canada Sled Wars and Powersports Expo on March 21st and 22nd, that is sure to boost page views and likes. Whatever you want to attribute it to, what they have done in a short period of time works and they have created a great online footprint.

Shediac’s CENTRE For Speed comes in second with 4,617 likes and, like Eastbound Park, hosts a variety of unique motorsports events and concerts annually. The CENTRE also is known to promote their Facebook page through Facebook ads, which in turn will add to the like count on their page. Third is Speedway 660 with 4,279 likes as of this post. The Speedway 660 page, like the race track, has passed through two different ownership groups and their respective reach has given the track’s page two boosts of likes over its lifespan. It also might not come as a surprise, after Speedway 660 edged out its competition to win the TCM Fan Favorite Weekly Racing Series track in Atlantic Canada last October.

Of note, the top touring series based in the Maritimes on Facebook is, no surprise, the Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour, with 3,886 likes.

Of course, one of our favorite Facebook pages, and we may be biased, is Tim’s Corner Motorsports. We surpassed 2,000 likes in January and are up to 2,140 likes as we inch closer to Radical Speedsport in Moncton, New Brunswick next month. Be sure to throw us a like to keep up with all the latest motorsports news in Atlantic Canada, and hey, you never know when the next promotion or giveaway will be around the corner!

**Do you have a Facebook page for your team you’d like us to share? Head over to the posting of this article on our Facebook page and post a link to your page! Please, no friend pages or group pages – keep it to Facebook Fan Pages!

Photos by McCarthy Photographic