I have lost count of the number of times people will ask me a question about one thing or another related to NASA, and I will have to tell them, “Yes, we did a story on that in Speed News. Did you see it?”
Speed News is the primary conduit for information for NASA members nationwide. It is the portal through which NASA disseminates vital information designed to help you extract the most value from your NASA membership. It is by and for NASA members. If you want the official purpose of Speed News, here it is:
Speed News exists to celebrate and highlight the achievements of NASA members through features and event coverage. It also serves as the platform to inform NASA members about what is new and relevant to them as NASA members. Through its content, Speed News seeks to help NASA members become better drivers and racers and mechanics, to maintain their engagement with the NASA family, and to help them make the most of their membership and all the benefits it provides.
Two highlights come to mind. One, we always run an “Inside the CCR” blurb at the bottom, which provides snippets of information from the NASA Club Codes and Regulations on a weekly basis. Read them each week and after a year, you’ll will have picked up 48 different excerpts from the rules. That’s no substitute for actually reading the CCR, but it certainly can’t hurt.
Second, we now also run a weekly reminder of all the member benefits and contingency programs that are available to – and only to – NASA drivers. For example, this week’s reminder is about TrackDayTire.com and the preferred pricing it offers to NASA members. In last week’s Speed News email, we told you about the great “Summit Bucks” contingency program from Summit Racing, which is available to racers, Time Trial competitors and to HPDE drivers when they advance from one level to the next.
Let’s give this point its own paragraph because it is important: NASA is the only sanctioning body that offers contingency rewards to track day drivers!
NASA’s contingency and member benefits programs can save you money on the things you need to make the most of the time you spend at the track. They also can help save you money while you are away from the track, on things like hotel stays, rental cars and even computer equipment. We used to say that you can recoup the cost of your NASA membership by taking advantage of all the programs, but now it’s possible to recover the cost a few, if not several, times over. You just have to take advantage of them and Speed News is the place to get the updates. Capturing those savings might involve a bit more screen time, but these days what doesn’t?
One weekend when I was instructing for the second month in a row and competing in Time Trial, where I won Time Trial Target for the weekend, I drove home having earned $650 in Toyo Bucks, Hawk Bucks and Summit Bucks! I didn’t even know I had won TTT until I got home, but that contingency money was immensely helpful to my season. That’s how powerful these programs are.
If something is important enough, we usually will hit you over the head a few times with the news, in Speed News, via email, through series leadership and social media.
If it feels to you like you have read something like this before in this space, it is entirely possible. This is the time of year I am putting the finishing touches the editorial plans for the coming year and when lots and lots of new contingency and member benefits programs are either originating or getting renewed from the past season.
When more information comes available, it will be right here. Just watch this space.
