We’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the new eKartingNews.com. While the surroundings have been updated, our focused approach to news reports and event coverage remains the same as it’s always been, so what this new site brings is vastly increased opportunities. The functionality of this new platform is far greater than the old EKN site – which we now call ‘EKN Classic’ – and we’re excited to see what we’ll be able to bring to the table in the future. There’s so much potential and we’ve only just scratched the surface of what we’ll be doing with this new site design.

This goal of this document is to provide you with some insight into the new layout, and to give you a brief tour. We’ll work through the Menu Bar and highlight each section and drop down menu, so that you’ll know how to find all of the information that the EKN staff offers up each and every day.

MENU BAR ACCESS

MENU BAR > HEADLINES

To support all of the information published on the EKN site, the new Headlines section of the website will be the hub for all news within the sport. All of the race reports, interviews, breaking news stories, industry updates and everything to keep you informed on what’s going on in karting can be found here. The section is broken into four different sub-categories:

Top Stories: The new Top Stories section will be reserved for the major race reports, including all the EKN Trackside Live daily race reports. Major breaking news stories, and everything you were used to seeing in the Top Story location of the old site will be found in this section. The other added bonus is the new slider on the homepage – which we refer to as the EKN Lead Story position – which allows you to view the most recent articles or race reports. The previous site only gave you one top story, depending on the day you viewed the site. This way, if you missed visiting the site because of a few long nights in the garage working on the kart, you can view what some of the Lead Stories have been the past few days. Also on the homepage, the Top Stories section will publish the two newest articles for your viewing pleasure.

News: Not much has changed in this section, as many of the press releases, industry news stories, series updates and organizational news pieces will be published here. Two articles will always be displayed on the home page below the Top Stories position and a full list can be viewed through clicking on the EKN News banner or in the Menu Bar.

International: Like News, International will continue with its same purpose as it did on the old site – updating viewers on the major karting events from around the world. Below the Features section will be the latest article to publish, with a full list accessible by clicking on the International banner or through the Menu bar.

PR Wire: One of the largest sections of the website during the past few years has been the PR Wire. Press releases from all over North America and around the world are published daily, including submissions from drivers, teams, industry members and manufacturers. The PR Wire is viewable on the homepage on the right side of the website, alongside the Top Stories and EKN News sections, showing the most recent eight releases that have been published. Of course, all PR Wire articles can be viewed by clicking on the section in the Menu bar.

MENU BAR > FEATURES

Driver Rankings: One of the most popular features on the site over the past few years has been the EKN Driver Rankings. The series now has its own section on the site under the Features header, allowing for easy access to our standings for the TaG, Stock Moto, and the United States Rotax Max Challenge.

Driver of the Month: Each month, a driver is highlighted for his or her performance on and off the track, and is awarded with the EKN Driver of the Month award. This program now has its own section on the site, and will also include all the GoRotax.com Driver of the Month selections as well.

Constructors Championship: In an effort to highlight the success of the sport’s chassis manufacturers and to measure up the many different builders in the industry, we established Constructors Championship in 2006. The program tracks the results of all of the major events in the sport, providing an interesting overview of the equipment that is being utilized on the national level.

MENU BAR > COLUMNS

EKN staffers Rob Howden and David Cole now have a dedicated section of the site to house their editorial commentaries. We’ll be bringing you many more columns in the future, as we aim to give our take on the sport.

MENU BAR > FORUMS

The EKN forums have always been incredibly popular, and while we now have the ability to comment directly on each and every story that is posted, we will continue to offer up the forums as a platform for discussion and Q&A. The past forum from the old EKN site will remain intact for the foreseeable future at www.eknclassic.com , but those forums will be locked down as an archive. Anyone interested in posting to the new EKN forums will need to REGISTER for the new site, and this will also provide the opportunity to comment directly on the articles themselves. Note: Registering is simple and required, as is providing information about yourself. You can choose a nickname to you use publically, however, anything chosen that is deemed in poor taste will be deleted.

MENU BAR > PHOTO GALLERIES

The new website design provides us with a much better opportunity to present photo galleries, and we intend to provide visual reports from all the events we attend. These galleries will include photos from such talented shooters as Todd McCall, Sean Buur and Ken Johnson.

MENU BAR > LIVE

EKN produces over a dozen live audio broadcasts events each year through our unparalleled EKN Trackside Live coverage. This link takes our readers directly to our EKN Live page, which displays the audio broadcast screen, live timing and the official discussion thread in the forums. We are currently working on an updated EKN Live page, including even more features.

MENU BAR > EKN CANADA

eKartingNews.com’s parent company – the Howden Media Group – publishes a total of three racing websites. In addition to EKN and eFormulaCarNews.com, they also produce eKartingNews.ca, which is the Canadian edition of EKN. EKN Canada is dedicated to the coverage and support of karting clubs from coast-to-coast and focuses on grassroots club racing. This link will take you directly to the site.

ADDITIONAL SITE FEATURES

DIRECT COMMENTING

One of the exciting new features of EKN v2.1 is that you will now see a comment section at the bottom of most individual stories and features, as well as all news-related articles published on the site. This brings your membership to the EKN Forums to the next level, as all EKN members will be able to publish comments when logged in. Beginning immediately, we’d like to see much of the online conversations moved to this part of the site. We are sure that there are many of you who are scratching your heads thinking, “why would they want change that…isn’t the forum why we love EKN?” Sure, it’s why we love it too, as they’re also one of the primary reasons why we are here today. The boards have become THE place to go for information, especially for newcomers to the sport. The dialogue on the boards over the last decade has changed the sport as we know it, in fact, much of the discussion there has been responsible for changes of policy in race series, manufacturing and more. Those discussions will continue to happen, and we’ll even add new topics and categories down the line. However, in order for the sport to truly grow, we must conform to the new normal – and that is discussion in and around or features, editorials, race results and down the line – even team or driver generated PR Wire stories. We’ll need you to register for the ability to do that. It will keep the conversation on topic and help reduce spam. If you have not already done so, you can REGISTER HERE.

MORE TO COME

Now that we’ve taken you on a little tour of the site, feel free to poke around and get comfortable with the new layout. We’d also love to get your feedback on the new version of EKN. We’ve got many new features waiting in the wings and a few other ideas on the drawing board. EKN is now a work-in-progress, and was built for expansion in the future and flexibility for the present. The entire staff is thrilled by the possibilities, so look for more design and development to appear in the header of the site, as well as some adjustments to the overall design and layout from time to time. We hope that you enjoy EKN v2.1 and looking forward to hearing your comments below!

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