Racer (magazine)

Overview

The magazine has feature articles relating to most of the world's major auto racing series, including NASCAR, Formula One, the IndyCar Series, the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, NHRA Drag Racing, and the World Rally Championship, as well as local racing categories and feeder series. The magazine includes extensive photography of race vehicles. In addition to the magazine, Racer also has a custom publishing division, that has produced SportsCar magazine for the Sports Car Club of America.

In June 2019, Racer Media & Marketing acquired Vintage Motorsport magazine.

History

The magazine debuted with the May 1992, issue with the cover story about the "engine war" in the CART, and the cover photo was a head-on shot of Emerson Fittipaldi’s Penske-Chevrolet Indycar by Michael C. Brown. The magazine was launched by Paul F. Pfanner, and originally published by Racer Communications, Inc. which was a sister company of Pfanner Communications, Inc. that published SportsCar magazine for the Sports Car Club of America and Champ Car magazine. Racer's founding Publisher was Bill Sparks and the founding Editor was John Zimmermann. Jeff Zwart was also a co-founder. The company and the title was later purchased by London-based Haymarket Publishing (now Haymarket Media Group) in early 2001. The magazine was sold back to its founders in 2012 and is now run by Racer Media & Marketing Inc. Laurence Foster remained editor-in-chief. The main investors of the magazine also returned to the publication, including Chris Dyson and Rob Dyson.

Publishers

• 1992: Racer Communications, Inc.
• 2001: Haymarket
• 2012: Racer Media & Marketing Inc.

References

References

1. (2007). "Racer Communications Launches New Magazine, Champs Car in May". PR Newswire.
2. "Publication Changes In The Motorsports Realm". MH Sub I, LLC.
3. Norman, Jan. (April 9, 2012). "O.C. racing magazine is sold".
4. (2019-06-27). "Racer Media & Marketing, Inc. acquires Vintage Motorsport".
5. "About Racer". Racer.
6. (14 April 2012). "Publication Founders Re-acquire RACER Magazine and Racer.com on Eve of 20th Anniversary". NewsRX.
7. Kirby, Gordon. (2012). "Auto Racing - The Way It Is".
8. (1999-02-25). "min magazine Names Industry's Best; Commemorative Publication Becomes Quarterly Magazine-about-Magazines". PR Newswire.
9. "Industry Insights: Paul Pfanner".
10. (27 March 2012). "Haymarket Sells Majority Stake in Racer Magazine".
11. (2017-03-10). "RACER@25: Issue No. 0, Jan. 1992 – The prototype". RACER.
12. (2017-03-13). "RACER@25: Issue No. 1, May 1992". RACER.
13. (2017-04-07). "RACER@25: Issue No. 109, May 2001 - A new era begins". RACER.
14. (2017-04-28). "RACER@25: Issue No. 241, May 2012 - Game Changer - the RACER 3.0 era begins". RACER.