High Gear closing down October 1st 2002
19:09 cet (+1 GMT) | by Kenneth Verburg | Source:  
 
 
 
On October 1st 1998 High Gear opened its doors at www.simracingnews.com, then hosted by Gamer's Alliance. We're now 4 years on; one of the biggest simracing sites around and being hosted by GameSpy at www.sportplanet.com/hg/.
 
As we're nearing the 4th birthday of the site I have made the very difficult decision to close it down. I know this will probably come as a shock. Posting news on the site has become a daily job instead of the hobby it's once started out of and it's just too much for me now. I have also seen the community change the past for years and it's certainly not become any more fun. Especially the amount of flack the West brothers are receiving and the constant flame wars on some of our forums are heartbreaking and incomprehensible.
 
I will not be turning my back on the community though and I will certainly hang around when Racing Legends shows up. I just want to get out of the limelight and flack for now and enjoy games like they were intended.
 
I want to thank all developers, publishers, forum moderators and of course our visitors for their fantastic support on the forums and the site over the past years. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you and the site wouldn't nearly be as big.
 
I will be updating the site like I have always done until October 1st. On October 1st the site and forums will contain a single-page statement with the decision and then it's up to GameSpy to take down the site when they want to.
 
It's been a very hard decision and I have been toying around with it for a couple of months now. I'm sad because of the decision, but also glad I made it. A lot of weight has come of my shoulders.
 
Thanks all for understanding, I hope to see you around in the community every now and then.
 
A special thanks to Stefan Petrovic, my help for 4 years and Peter Moolenaar, the PHP-guru.