Drag Illustrated Issue 141, February 2019 | Page 30
Dirt
COREY MICHALEK
through in order to accommodate for their users’
transition to mobile web,” Michalek reveals. “They
said by 2020, 82 percent of consumer traffic on
the web is going to be video based. The more you
can begin to really harness the different technol-
ogy, whether it’s standard video or 360 video or
virtual reality, the better suited you’ll be to take
advantage of that trend.”
4. KEEP AN EYE ON THE INSIGHTS Business pages
on Facebook and Instagram offer powerful analyti-
cal tools, allowing page admins to track statistics
like how many people viewed a post, how many
times the website link in a post was clicked, and
how many times a post was shared with other
people. Think of these insights like Racepak graphs
for your social media posts. “We use these tools
to follow up on the content after it’s gone public,”
Michalek says. “You can take the information and
change up your social media strategy based on the
content that your followers engage with the most.”
5. FIND A PARTNER If you have great content
but a small audience, reach out to sponsors and
offer to send a post or two for them to post on
their social media channels. Similarly, Michalek
has had success with doing “takeovers”, where
he posts photos, videos and stories on a spon-
sor’s profiles for a day during a race weekend. “It
doesn’t always have to be what you’re putting out
there for yourself, but also being able to provide
value and creating content for the brands you’re
working with as well,” Michalek says. “Having
that creative background, we’re able to come to
the table with racing and non-racing-related posts
that sponsors can harness on their channels. We
do cross-posts on our channels as well, but pri-
marily we do posts for their channels to get the
most engagement because they have significant
followings compared to ours.”
6. DIVERSIFY All of the social media platforms
have their own strengths and weaknesses. A post
that might go viral on Facebook might not be
received as well on Instagram. A series of time-
sensitive posts on Twitter might get lost in Face-
book’s complicated algorithms. Play off of the
strengths of each platform depending on what
you’re doing. “On a race weekend, we’re most
active on Twitter posting results and frequent
updates throughout the weekend because it’s a
quick-hit platform,” Michalek says. “We use Ins-
tagram stories a lot during the weekend as well,
where we’re able to show the ebbs and flows of
the day, then we can do a regular post at the end
of the day as more of a recap. Facebook is where
we have one of our larger followings, so we gen-
erally try to post on there just as much as we are
on Twitter and Instagram, but it all comes down
to the message we’re trying to communicate.”
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Brain
Power
Shane Tecklenburg joins
Elite Motorsports, Modern
Racing Pro Mod braintrust
By Mike Carpenter
T
he quickly expanding conglomer-
ate formed by Elite Motorsports and
Modern Racing has taken another
step forward. The team is proud to
announce the addition of record-setting tuner
and engine management expert Shane Tecklen-
burg to the braintrust led by Modern Racing’s
Justin Elkes.
The arrangement calls for Tecklenburg to sup-
ply the team’s three turbocharged NHRA Pro
Modified entries piloted by Erica Enders, Alex
Laughlin and Steve Matusek with complete ve-
hicle management systems.
“I look forward to combining the resources
of my firm, ST Consulting, with those of Elite
Motorsports and Modern Racing. I think each
business compliments the other and each brings
a high level of expertise in their respective fields,”
Tecklenburg stated. “I look forward to working
with Justin Elkes to help ensure the team is on
the leading edge of technology and performance
each time we pull to the starting line.”
Although he has never competed directly in
E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod presented by
J&A Service, Tecklenburg has worked behind
the scenes to supply teams in the series with his
custom software for the MoTeC engine manage-
ment system.
Outside of NHRA Pro Mod, Tecklenburg’s ex-
perience in writing custom software and tuning
record-setting drag racing vehicles spans from
the sport’s quickest and fastest doorslammer,
the EKanoo Racing Lexus RCF, which covered
the quarter mile in 5.379 seconds at 278 MPH
earlier this year, to the Team Tekno Toys Modi-
fied Pro Compact Nissan Silvia S15, which late
last year claimed the title of the world’s fastest
4-cylinder doorslammer with a 6.228-second
pass at 229.55 MPH.
During NHRA Pro Stock’s switch to electronic
fuel injection, Elkes tapped Tecklenburg to as-
sist the teams Elkes was working with, laying
the groundwork for the new arrangement with
the Elite Motorsports turbocharged Pro Modi-
fied teams.
“I’m really looking forward to having Shane in
our corner,” Elkes said. “It was a very successful
partnership when we worked together in NHRA
Pro Stock, and we clicked right from the start. I
have long respected Shane and I can’t wait to see
what he brings to this new Pro Modified team.”
Elite Motorsports founder Richard Freeman
echoed Elkes’ confidence in Tecklenburg.
“We continually seek out the chance to work
with the best and brightest the sport has to offer
as we make a hard push into NHRA Pro Mod,”
said Freeman. “We have worked with Shane in the
past and we like what he can add to this group.”
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