The Apex Crew
If you're here, it's likely that you find The Apex to be worth your hard-earned dollars and have been wondering: How can I support this thing?
Every word and design element of The Apex was put where it is by Aaron Durant and Ben Hinc. We're a team of two motor sports fans — just like you — who believe world-class racing deserves high-quality writing.
The Apex Crew are regular readers interested in supporting our mission of producing articles and a podcast about the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and NTT IndyCar Series with depth and uniqueness that make them worth our time and yours.
Good writing, thoughtful design and attention to detail all matter to Crew members. They see the value in a beautiful place where they can go to indulge in their passion for racing — one that lacks advertisements that track them across the internet, paid content that provides little value, sensational headlines that leave them feeling cheated and cluttered layouts that make it difficult to identify what's worth reading.
We're excited about the opportunity to maintain a publication without all those detractors. Being ad-free and supported by readers means:
- Every page loads fast. Pulling up one article on three popular motor sports websites introduces an average of eight internet trackers to a browser. The Apex has just one to collect analytics — and it's open-source software that lives on our server, not Google's. No clutter and no intrusive code allowed here.
- We're accountable to you. You'll never see clickbait content on The Apex because our standards are too high but also because it would bother you. We're incentivized to turn you into a paying Crew member, so why would we run you out of town with sensational headlines and cheap articles?
- This project is honest. We think it would be pretty silly to place ads around the site and steal attention to generate ad revenue just so we can fund a hobby of writing about racing. If our motor sports journalism vision doesn't align with what fans want, we won't get the support we need and we'll move on to something else.
When making a one-time, monthly or annual contribution and becoming a member of The Apex Crew, you're directly supporting the following:
- Daily — or near daily — articles, including news memos, session reports, analysis pieces and occasional opinion writing. Examples of each are linked.
- Race Reports that bring entrant facts, weekend schedules, session results, post-race statistics and more to one place for every race.
- The Braking Point podcast, produced entirely in-house each week and featuring conversation about important happenings and themes before, during and after racing season.
- Expert photography from Gannon Burgett, plus occasional work behind the camera from Aaron and Ben. Most of the gorgeous photography on The Apex comes from Spacesuit Media and we hope with your support to one day deepen our partnership with the collective.
- Biweekly email newsletter for readers who want insight into The Apex — e.g., traveling to races, Ben's Race Report workflow, why we host our work on our own server, etc. — and are curious about what's ahead. We'll start this once we have 100 members, so tell your friends!
- Travel expenses, including fuel, flights, food and hotels. We do our best to keep costs low but strongly believe being at the racetrack is critical to doing what we do with depth.
- Operating costs, covering server hosting, equipment and software.
In all, our main work on The Apex adds up to an annual total of about 500 hours of writing and 200 hours of podcast production. We won't say the Crew makes any of this possible — it's possible to do all this without any income for as long as we wanted — but your support certainly increases the odds of a sustainable future for The Apex.
"Perks"
You've probably gotten a sense of how integral honesty and direct connection are to The Apex Crew. We do what we do on this website and put up this page to form one main value exchange with you: our work and your support.
That's why t-shirts and bonus content aren't on the other side of becoming a paying reader. Supporting The Apex is totally optional and we want you to come aboard because you love what we make, not for perks. (Just email us if you want a t-shirt.)
The warm, fuzzy feeling you'll get supporting something you enjoy plus a connection with us via email and/or in person at the racetrack — these are the important perks, and they're definitely on offer.
With that said, the following are a few preset options for recurring support. Each is represented in the contribution box and achieved by selecting the amount and frequency (monthly or annually).
- Spotter — $5/month: You can help keep The Apex on a steady path toward success for less than $0.20 a day. Drivers would tell you their spotters are critical and so would we!
- Engineer — $50/year: This annual commitment, a bit cheaper over a year than the Spotter option, is for readers who want to help The Apex be in top form every time it hits the track.
- Apex Predator — $100/year: Apex predators are at the top of the food chain in the wild but can also be racing fans who demand the best. This option is for those interested in being one of The Apex's 1,000 true fans and demonstrating a strong belief that world-class racing deserves high-quality writing.
Hypothetically Asked Questions
Is this safe?
We never see your payment information and neither do Donorbox, the company behind the box above, nor Stripe, the payment system behind Donorbox. Canceling a recurring contribution is easy, so you’ll never unintentionally send money our way. Every page on The Apex, including this one, is secure via HTTPS, so your information is kept very safe that way, too. Unless you donate anonymously or ask us not to, we’ll mention your name when thanking you on The Braking Point podcast, but that's it.
Are you putting up a paywall?
We are not. All our articles and podcast episodes are freely available thanks to Crew members, even to those unwilling or unable to contribute. When you support The Apex, you’re keeping it up for everyone! We don’t believe support commands exclusive access to extra stuff, so this is the deal.
Why not just use Patreon?
We aren’t interested in outsourcing our audience or income source to a third party. Letting another company control our destiny would be about as logical as building a retail store atop a volcano. Patreon could disappear tomorrow, or Patreon could decide it doesn’t like us and make The Apex disappear — at least from its platform.
Are there other ways to support The Apex?
This page lists a few other methods. Besides those, simply sharing our work with others makes a big difference.