Hey, it’s me again. Haven’t talked since exactly one year ago.

131 Off-Road is one year old! Time flies, doesn’t it?

December 12, 2024 was the official launch date for the site. Technically, the groundwork was laid a couple days prior (I believe on December 10), but it went live after that. Fitting choice too: 12/12/24, 12+12=24.

Get it? No?

Anyway…

It’s been an interesting year, to say the least. In theory, it shouldn’t have been much different from my previous work at The Checkered Flag, and if anything should’ve been easier since I was my own boss. If I’m lucky, might even make a couple bucks if I can turn it into a positive endeavor.

In reality, it’s been a grind. TCF had a well-established platform that made it fairly easy to get into the off-road world, so all I really had to do was put my head down and write. While the network I made obviously didn’t just disappear and followed me to 131, I still had to build the site from the ground up and start anew in other aspects.

As for the money? Forget about it. This entire project is funded out of my own pocket using the money made at my day job (because yes, I have an actual paying gig), and whatever ad money I’ve gotten so far doesn’t even make a dent in the expenses. It’s not a catastrophic amount, but my wallet’s definitely getting looser by the year. I suppose that comes with the territory of a new media site, and while I like to think of myself as one of the few outlets solely dedicated to off-road racing, I’m also not insane enough to think my writing deserves like a Patreon (though we do accept donations). Maybe someday.

That being said, what matters most to me is finding a livelihood again. One of the reasons I started 131 was because off-road racing wasn’t really a sport that got a lot of attention, especially from American media. After TCF shut down, it pained me to not have an outlet to cover races like the Baja 1000, where there wasn’t really much in the way of live coverage. Dakar certainly gets daily stories from plenty of news agencies that are far more experienced than I am, but that’s usually it for them; you don’t get around-the-calendar stories on teams prepping for the Rally or especially the Classic outside of the big names.

TCF filled that void, and I wanted 131 to do the same. Just as much as I love covering the stars, I always pride myself in telling stories about competitors you usually won’t hear about from major sites (“JAGs”, or “Just Another Guy”, if you will).

Willem Avenant, a frequent contributor to 131, had this to say when I interviewed him for TCF before his Dakar debut earlier this year and has stuck with me for the longest time:

I think that it’s really, really, really important that people like you get the word out. The work you guys do are often overlooked because people are just always like, they read something and they just think it happened to me there. Journalists, for me, I have a deep appreciation for the work you do because at rallies, you are always the first guys that’s up and you’re always the last guys that go to bed. You are our mouthpiece to the world.

Very few rally or sportspeople are good at social media or good at these type of things. Without you guys, we wouldn’t be able to get our message out there.

So personally, I would just like to thank you for doing what you’re doing and helping us share the word of rally because without you guys, nobody would even know about us.

Sure, I’m doing all of this by myself without the help of an editor-in-chief because I am my own EIC. Sure, I spend as much time trying to make facelifts to the site while hoping it doesn’t suddenly crash. Sure, I had to still set up some sort of writing standard so that my stories are coherent and consistent. But that’s kind of the thing I love about running the site.

Writing is that livelihood for me. It’s not a perfect experience and no job certainly is, but it’s always fun getting to tell these stories of drivers and riders and whatnot in the months, weeks, and days leading up to and during races. It’s why I feel such a sense of pride whenever I compile stories for the “From Our Newsroom” archives and see just how much I’ve done for major races like Dakar and Baja.

Overt sentimentalism aside, if you’re curious about stats:

• 1,144 articles posted in total, though this number includes document pages like entry lists and transcripts
• Predictably, rally raid has the most coverage. 349 articles about the Dakar Rally, 200 about the broader World Rally-Raid Championship, and 75 about the FIA or FIM Baja Cups
• 70 articles about SCORE
• 84 articles discussing vintage racing, including the Dakar Classic
• 47 about the Africa Eco Race
• 42 focusing on military stuff
• 42 about pavement racing like NASCAR and F1. Yes, I tried to find the off-road angle for them
• 35 obituaries (damn…)
• 29 Championship Off-Road stories
• 27 Extreme E stories

It’s been a fun Year 1. Here’s to a great Year 2 in 2026.

Featured image credit: Stock image from DepositPhotos