INDY RACING/WEB: Indy Racing Online Soaring in Popularity in 2000
25 May 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
INDIANAPOLIS- Just as the World Wide Web has enjoyed explosive growth, the popularity of Indy Racing Online, the official Web site of the Indy Racing Northern Light Series, has grown exponentially in the last year.
The number of visitors to Indy Racing Online, www.indyracing.com, has climbed by nearly 200 percent during practice and qualification days for the 2000 Indianapolis 500 compared to the same days in 1999.
Page views, which are counted each time a person logs on the Web site and clicks to a different page, increased by an average of 431 percent from 1999 to 2000. On May 16, the fourth day of practice this year at Indy, page views increased an astounding 910 percent.
Total page views from May 1 through 10 a.m. (EST) May 22 were nearly 5.72 million. Growth in Indyracing.coms popularity has not been limited to the month of May. Throughout the first quarter of 2000, increases in traffic over 1999 were steadily in the triple-digit percentages.
The increase of visitors for the first three months of 2000 compared to 1999 averaged 130 percent, with a high of 146 percent in February. Page views jumped an average of 153 percent for the first three months, with a high of 182 percent in January.
Coverage of live online timing and scoring during practice and qualifying has been most popular with fans, followed by driver photos and driver biographical information.
The substantial increase in traffic at Indyracing.com is another strong indicator of the growth for the Northern Light Series, said Bob Reif, senior vice president, sales and marketing and chief marketing officer for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy Racing Northern Light Series. Indyracing.com has become an extremely successful resource for our fans, sponsors and media to keep updated on the latest Northern Light Series news. Our goal is to continue developing the most informative, entertaining and user-friendly Web site on the Internet.
In addition to providing series statistics, personality features and driver information, Indyracing.com offers extensive features and news updated daily from Northern Light Series events.
Special features include driver and event photo galleries, streaming audio clips of driver interviews and desktop wallpaper for fans to download. Fans can also view a lap of each Indy Racing Northern Light Series venue with video captured from in-car cameras.
Text provided by Paul Kelly
Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot photos
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