Trouble in Turn2

This week it’s time to avoid trouble and get fabulous. That means a few questions for Valli Hiliare of The Fast and Fabulous.

How long have you blogged?
I’ve been blogging about my personal life for about 8 years, but for NASCAR it’s been since 2006.

Why do you blog? Or what made you start blogging?
I started writing “The Fast and the Fabulous” when I was a web producer for a newspaper website. I managed our motor sports page and I wanted another space to post information that you couldn’t find in regular news articles, things like where a driver would be appearing before the race or commentary on what a driver’s wife was wearing, things like that. Eventually I left the company and they didn’t care enough about the blog to want to keep it so I took it with me and have been growing it ever since.

What are your goals for your blog?
My goal is to become popular and to just do more in general. I want to go to more races, so that I’ll have more to write about and build upon some of the connections that I have to give my audience more unique content. I really want to be able to write my blog full-time and quit my day job. That’d be heaven on earth.

Where do you blog from?
I blog mostly from my cubicle at work. If something crazy happens on the weekend and I have to write something I will do it from my computer at home, but I really like being elsewhere when I write, it just makes me feel more structured I guess.

How long have you been a NASCAR fan?
I have been a NASCAR fan for 7 years. I’ve been aware of NASCAR my entire life and knew the major driver’s names and what not (plus Jeff Gordon is from Vallejo, CA which is only 20 or so miles from where I grew up) but it wasn’t until Dale Earnhardt’s death that I really focused on the races. I’m sad it happened that way. Around that same time the MTV True Life documentary “I’m A Race Car Driver” was aired and that really pulled me in to the sport. It was really fascinating to me all of the tradition and pomp and circumstance that goes into each and every race.

NASCAR is granting access to more bloggers this year. How has your experience been with using press passes?
Hmm. This is funny. I write about this every time I attend a race using media credentials. The first time I received credentials it was because I was associated with a major local newspaper and there were no questions asked, but it really depends on which track you’re going to because every one of them has a somewhat different way of judging who gets credentials. I had to do a lot of convincing with the Auto Club Speedway to give me credentials as a blogger when I was with a newspaper, they didn’t quite get it. Now I’m lucky to have an affiliation with Pole Position magazine which has made it ten times easier to get credentials. I know that there’s no way I’d be getting any kind of credentials if I asked for them on my own.

I think that once someone breaks through and becomes known as a major NASCAR blogger on mainstream level then that person would be able to get credentials without any fuss or extra affiliation, but until that happens I think you still need a traditional media partner to do it.

What do you enjoy about your blog and the NASCAR blogging community?
I love knowing that people like what I’ve written and that I’m not the only one who feels a certain way about any given subject. I definitely feed off the validation I get from the feedback I’ve received from
visitors to my site and other bloggers. I think the NASCAR blogging community is great because everyone is so nice and welcoming, everyone’s willing to swap links and use each other for content.

How did you get connected with Pole Position Magazine?
The publisher contacted me directly, he liked my site and my writing and he wanted to expand the magazine’s coverage of NASCAR wives and girlfriends. It’s been a great relationship for me because it’s
allowed me to do so many things now that would have taken me a heck of a lot longer to achieve on my own.

Is there anything you don’t enjoy about blogging, or the NASCAR online community?
Hmm, the only thing I don’t enjoy about blogging is that feeling of the clock is always ticking. At every racetrack there’s a “Deadline Media Room” and that’s where all of the newspaper writers are seated
for the races and they all have their own set deadlines to get their story in, but for me, as a blogger I always say that my deadline is right now. It’s not 5 hours from now, or 10pm each night, it’s right this minute and it never stops. That’s the thing that causes me some anxiety and I always feel a million times better when I put something up on the site, but then the minute after it’s up I’m thinking about
what I’m going to write next.

How much time per day do you spend blogging?
It’s sporadic. I don’t write every single day of the week, but when I do it probably takes me all told, including research, linking, cropping photos, about an hour per post. I usually already have the idea of what I want to write about in my head so it comes out pretty quick.

Do you have a favorite driver?
I do and it’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. I like a lot of other drivers but he’s gotta be my fave.

Is there one thing that was key to your blog’s success?
I think it’s my perspective and writing about things that maybe other people don’t think about. Plus NASCAR WAGs have become so popular lately that I think that’s had a major impact on my blog, everyone is so curious about NASCAR drivers lives away from the track.

Name something cool that has come as a result of your blog.
Every time I’m at a race and I get to be on pit road during the pre-race ceremony that’s a huge cool thing to me. I am always in awe of the event and getting to be so close to the drivers is the coolest
thing ever. I also like being in the media room when the top three finishers meet with the press after the race. It’s really cool just to be in the same room with those guys, I don’t think I could ever get tired of that. And because of my blog and now my association with Pole Position I’m attempting to go to at least one race a month this year starting with the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

Do you have any strange or funny stories about your blog (funny or outrageous comments or emails from people, etc.)?
Anytime someone leaves a comment addressing the person I’ve written about in the blog directly it cracks me up. I totally don’t understand that at all and I find it funny. One woman wrote multiple comments to one NASCAR wife as if she thought the wife had written the blog entry herself. It was crazy.

What is something your readers wouldn’t otherwise know about you or your blog?
I don’t know, I guess it would be that I’m from Northern California and I’m black. When people meet me they’re always taken aback by the fact that I’m a NASCAR fan. I always have to explain myself, which can get a little old sometimes, but I also kind of like it because I like to challenge the stereotypes people have about NASCAR fans.