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Adaptability: Allen Berg Racing School – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Adaptability enforces creativity, and creativity is adaptability.

Pearl Zhu

This time we’re in requires adaptability. Many people resist adaptation under the auspice of not liking to be told what to do. They may not like that, but also likely: they don’t like change.

Change can be scary. But you either embrace it and go with it or resist. Resist you may with all your might, but the fact is you will have to adapt, at least on some level.

The Internet and of course digital marketing were completely different in 1999. I remember hearing about this new thing called Netscape Navigator while I was in college. Then hearing about this thing called Google. It was supposed to be better than AOL or Yahoo. It was certainly simpler.

And then came widened connectivity as people started to ditch modems. Then phones had internet connections, and people could text. Then facebook. And now, the current flavor of the month is…?

Through it, we had to adapt. We adapted as people. And here in this digital information realm especially, businesses that adapt can thrive. Others have tried to go too far and failed. But through it all is a major change in the way we find and process information.

If you refused to adapt, you might be okay. You may still get some calls from the Yellow Pages, but there are companies who thrive with tons of leads from nothing but social media. They adapted. They went with the change.

One such company who chose to adapt is Allen Berg Racing Schools. When I think of adapting, I always think of that fighter Allen, who insisted upon succeeding. He adapted, and in doing so put himself in a place to succeed.

Adaptability: An Interfanatic Quality

Adaptation is not unique to the business of the Internet. Adapting is almost always a difficult piece of progress. Adaptation requires compromise. Most people don’t like to compromise – they want to keep things the way they are, so they’re comfortable and know what to expect.

But there are some that relish the challenge. There are some people that recognize the need for change and for adaptation to that change. There are some who exploit changes with their ability to adapt. Others give up and fail. Those who succeed adapt.

For me, I enjoy doing what works. Unfortunately, there are many people of ill will who exploit what works to their advantage – but to the detriment of others. So, “what works” in our business unfortunately changes rapidly and regularly. And so we must adapt. The sooner we adapt, the sooner we’re back to what works.

Zhu explains that adaptability and creativity are one in the same. Being creative, bringing a creative approach to a problem is adapting to conquer it.

The Indomitable Spirit of Allen Berg, He Who Adapts to Succeed

The industry of motorsports racing schools is a difficult one. There have been many players, and most have fallen by the wayside as they struggled to adapt. Allen Berg marches on.

“Berg continues that success with what has become one of the largest open wheel racing school on the planet. He did it with adaptation.”

Allen Berg is a Canadian man who raced Formula One with Michael Schumacher. Well, even he would say that he raced in the same races with Schumacher, but not really with him. To succeed in Formula One, as in life, as in business, you must have a critical combination of skill, perseverance, and perhaps most important: luck.

Many people fail to acknowledge that last one. Luck is perhaps the most important factor. And yes, I’ve heard time and time again, “we make our own luck”, but the truth is we do what we can and others around us may help. There are plenty of great ideas and nearly successful people out there who are able to recognize the importance of luck. There are some extremely successful people who are unable or unwilling to recognize that luck played an important part in their success because they’d rather believe they did it all themselves.

Allen Berg is both. He made it to the top tier of motor racing, only to be stymied before further progress. But making it into Formula One is and always has been an incredible feat in itself.

Now, Berg continues that success with what has become one of the largest open wheel racing school on the planet. He did it with adaptation.

The plucky Berg would not be defeated. It is that determination that has made his own luck and helped his school to be successful. He continued to come up with creative ideas, to enlist the help of bright people, and to work hard until his school became the prominent one that it is.

So when he came to us years ago searching for new ways to adapt his website and his digital marketing to a changing world, it was a great honor and pleasure to consult and work with Allen Berg.

It’s easy for successful people to talk about their success. Now that Allen Berg has adapted to create success, he can tell you his story.

Interfanatic Service Focus: Interfanatic Power Site Production

Interfanatic‘s brand of website production requires constant adaptation. Adapting to the constantly changing digital environment of 2021 is demanding, but we’re up for the challenge. We do what works until it doesn’t, or until there is a better way. Then we add that better way into our systems, into our processes, and that becomes what works. Until it doesn’t, and then we adapt again. We’re always on the search for and implementation of what works.

But we do so slowly – not quickly abandoning what has worked. Sometimes what worked in the past will work again. Sometimes what seems like a better way forward is not after further testing and more experience. So we take our time to adapt – we adapt to do what is best, but not for the sake of change. We want our customers to trust our systems and processes.

I think that’s why we have built many great customer relationships through the decades.

Interfanatic: Continual Adaptation

2020 and 2021 surely require radical adaptation we as a people are not accustomed to. When adaptation is convenient and comfortable, we hardly notice how much things have changed. But when it is inconvenient and uncomfortable, our default as a society is to resist.

Sometimes the price of resistance is too great. At Interfanatic, we have grown comfortable being uncomfortable so that our customers don’t have to be – so our customers don’t even have to notice.


This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

Adaptability, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Adaptability, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

A sunrise of a new day. 2021 did not bring with it a clear, bright new future. 2021 will be hard. But hopefully, it has brought us all a renewed spirit to adapt, do what’s right, and understand that life will not always be as we wish it to be. But the more we work together, the better we can make it for ourselves, for those closest to us, and for everyone.

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Love: Laguna Seca Raceway – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”

Aristotle

A single soul inhabiting two bodies. A beautiful thought… It reminds of marriage vows… and of racing a motor car.

You probably have a different thought when you think of racing a motor car than I do. But doing it well is especially reflective of a beautiful love affair.

When you’re racing a car, when you’re in the zone, you feel the cars tires as an extension of your own body. The two of you become one and glide fluidly through space, without drama. Everything else disappears and the lap times fall, relentlessly.

At first, it’s just you, and your car. Then, the car becomes you, and it’s just you. It all just happens.

So it is with Laguna Seca Raceway. I think they call it WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca these days. But when we designed and built an incredibly high-tech, forward thinking website for them fifteen years ago, it was Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The track, at the time, was run by SCRAMP: love for motorsport and the cherished circuit inhabiting many bodies. Now, there will always be protagonists and antagonists, but the fact remains: everyone does it because they love racing.

Love: An Interfanatic Quality

We designed and built an incredible website for them. It was incredibly high-tech and advanced for its time. Some thought too advanced. Perhaps a little before its time. But we created Laguna Seca’s site with love.

Interfanatic created Laguna Seca’s site with love.”

If you don’t know Laguna Seca, let me try to explain it to you.

In the middle of an Army ordinance range, some crazy folks decided to create a racetrack. They ran a ribbon of gray asphalt around a small brown mountain. Then they hurled their bright red, blue, orange, yellow, and silver sporty cars around that ribbon of asphalt. And it became racing. And it was good.

Laguna Seca has a character all its own. If you know what I’m talking about, skip ahead. There are only so many descriptions of the corkscrew a real racer can take. But if you don’t…

After coaxing your beast up the back of the hill, it reaches the top, breathless. It’s time to dig your heel hard into the binders and dance your hands and feet into second gear. A hard left and the world disappears beneath you as you lift off the brakes and accelerate. Your steed searches for footing, you gently coax her right and catch third in the air. When she settles in, you’re heading to a fast left with all hell screaming behind you.

When Phil Hill first hit that fast left in the Chapparel 2J, everyone held their collective breaths. There was NO WAY he could make it through Turn 9 at that mach number. But he did. And Jim Hall was right, and ground effect in motorsport was borne.

It’s a track filled with history. Young James Dean passed on driving his Porsche to Laguna Seca. Mark Donahue hustled the mighty “if you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower” 917/30 there. And Alex Zanardi gadzooked Bryan Herta, turning his IndyCar into a rally machine to make a nutty pass stick for the win.

It’s a place I kinda grew up.

Laguna Seca Raceway: A Project We Cannot Forget

So when Laguna Seca approached Interfanatic (nee Web Site Maintenance & Design) after hearing Carroll Smith crow about our site, it was a thrilling moment.

We love doing cutting edge. We love doing what can’t be done. And we, like the people behind Laguna Seca, love racing.

This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

To make up for last week’s screenshot, this week we have a real photograph. An image of love. I took this slide with love; love for my father, love for motor racing, and love for photography. This, for me, has everything. I took this photograph at a dinky little throwback track called Moroso. It was phenomenal. I remember there wasn’t much in the way of safety back then. As I recall there were gators in a culvert at one of the turn exits. You didn’t want to get upside-down there (not that you would want to get shiny-side down anywhere). But apparently some guy got himself eaten after tipping over there the month before. But the lack of guardrails and corner-workers who gave a damned what I did allowed me to do this. To get the image I wanted. And, for me, it remains glorious.

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Courage: The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

Anaïs Nin

Nin knew about courage. My goodness, did she know. So she saw the effect of courageous behavior, both first- and second-hand many times through her life.

Life expands. Life shrinks. But we’re here for business, and we’re here for expanding business. It takes courage.

Life definitely expanded for Wally Parks, the namesake of the National Hot Rod Association Museum. He was a pioneer, a journalist, and an advocate. He increased the safety of drag racing with incredible effect, mostly by making sure there were safe venues for racing, instead of letting it continue on the streets.

In a macho world, fresh off the loss of thousands in wars, when we accepted drastic loss as a part of living, Wally Parks stood up and made a difference.

It took courage.

And when you go to the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, you see how much courage the drivers of these insane vehicles had. They took their life in their hands regularly to push the boundaries. To be faster. To make progress.

And Parks pushed for that progress, safely.

So when we think about courage around here, we think of our old partners at the NHRA. It was our great pleasure to work with them on a beautiful website design that their museum kept for about a decade of existence. The NHRA is all about the courage it takes to make progress.

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