This portfolio originally appeared in Jump Point 11.04.

When two students with a passion for racing created a spectrum channel to share videos of their amateur races, they never expected that their hobby would eventually evolve into one of the universe’s most popular racing organizations. However, without such grassroots beginnings, Wildstar Racing may have never achieved the passionate community of loyal enthusiasts it enjoys today. The founders’ genuine enthusiasm and unruly creativity were key to establishing an organization that would never “sell out” at the expense of the fans that rallied to their banner. Today, the founders’ ethos remains firmly etched into the organization’s very DNA. But such integrity hasn’t been easy to preserve across the near century and a half since the company’s founding. So, just how did Wildstar grow from its meager start to its current success without ever losing its spark?

EXTRACURRICULAR ORIGINS

Sila Karf and Jos Nurel met in 2809 during their first year at the University of Rhetor on Reisse. Sila was a wingnut, obsessed with flying, but was unable to afford an expensive starship, so she instead applied her passion to her grav-lev bike and was often seen speeding across campus. When her bike broke down and she couldn’t afford the required repairs, she went to the school’s engineering department to ask for help. There, she was referred to Jos, and the two quickly bonded over their shared passion for the adrenaline-fueled sport of racing.

After Jos repaired Sila’s bike, they quickly grew inseparable, spending many nights together tweaking components and taking turns riding. Before long, they sought out racetracks to test the vehicle’s improvements in a competitive setting. However, the pair quickly encountered an issue. Established racetracks were either prohibitively expensive or off-limits to amateur racers. On the other hand, local, non-league tracks were difficult to find.

In 2811, after a few months of struggling to find racing venues, Sila and Jos began to realize that there were a lot of enthusiasts out there that, like them, were simply looking for ways to pursue their passion but didn’t have the money or corporate backing to enter a professional circuit. They decided to create a spectrum channel where they could share information about these hard-to-find tracks and started to track race times among enthusiasts. Named Wildstar after Sila’s beloved bike, the channel was launched with a half dozen vids of time trials taken at their favorite local racing sites and included directions on how others could join in on the fun.

A SERIES OF VIRAL MOMENTS

Progress was slow at first, but Sila and Jos continued to upload more vids and track information to the spectrum channel and, gradually, a community grew around Wildstar.

That early community was particularly passionate about the unique feel of the tracks shared on the channel. Unlike official circuits, which often featured recognizable patterns, the local tracks that Wildstar highlighted made creative use of abandoned infrastructure, interesting planetary environments, and whatever other meager resources the local community could muster. It was even fairly common for routes to be improved and updated based on the feedback from comments on the channel.

With tracks to use and a passionate community of hobbyist racers, it didn’t take long for channel members to begin organizing events of their own: grav-lev races, starship races, and even wheeled races. Of course, when these events were held, they too were filmed and uploaded to the channel. It was the start of a virtuous cycle, and the growth of the community began to pick up pace in dozens of star systems.

TAKING THE RACING WORLD BY STORM

With their sudden surge in popularity all within a couple years, Sila and Jos decided to put their studies on hold and focus on growing this community as far as they could. The friends began to travel around the ‘verse, documenting as many interesting racetracks as they could, connecting with fellow amateur racers in person, and helping to organize accessible and affordable races for the passionate community that called Wildstar home. During this time, Sila found that her aspirations of racing professionally were supplanted by her passion for sharing her love of racing with the ‘verse. She and Jos felt that the work they were doing was important, showing that anybody, anywhere could race – even without the latest ship, grav-lev bike, or racing gear.

Soon, they drew attention from several established companies and professionals in the racing scene who wanted to utilize the community’s passion to support their own endeavors, offering large sums of credits to sponsor the channel, advertise their own events and products, or buy the community outright.

But Sila and Jos refused to sell out. Instead, they were extremely selective of the advertising partners they took on and, in a move that won them the continued loyalty and support of their members, used the money they earned to reinvest in their community. They allowed Wildstar channel members to vote on the most beloved tracks featured on their channel and used Wildstar’s growing revenue to adopt those locations, buying out abandoned infrastructure, or purchasing racing rights to low-traffic city sectors where necessary. They’d then improve upon the track layouts all while keeping access affordable for hobbyists and weekend racers.

From underground races, like the infamous Able Baker Challenge in the Baker system, to time trials on the overgrown islands of Cano II, to the thousand-person rally races through the abandoned mining settlements of Asura, in the Ferron system – Wildstar became a hub for amateur racers that showcased racetracks you couldn’t find anywhere else, and therein lay their success.

A LEAGUE IS BORN

Wildstar’s growth continued this way for several years. Over that time, Wildstar’s affiliated tracks had become an unofficial proving ground for racers looking to be recruited into professional or semi-professional teams. One such racer, Zem Kolto, a teenager from the Cestulus biodomes in the Davien system, even made it all the way to the Murray Cup, further bolstering the organization’s popularity and legitimizing it as a pool of talent.

With success stories like Kolto’s becoming more common, many racers with professional aspirations began to pressure Wildstar to officially become a feeder league for one of the major racing orgs. Here, again, Sila and Jos made a critical decision. While affiliating with an existing league would expand their audience and provide them with all the infrastructure they needed to support future growth, the duo decided to forego this path. Instead, in 2817, they chose to incorporate their own independent racing league. Rather than leaving races to be organized solely by members, Sila and Jo expanded their organization’s purview to directly manage racing events and schedule amateur competitions. Wildstar, once just a small community spectrum channel, became Wildstar Racing.

Sila and Jos feared the move might disappoint their audience, but felt they had to stay true to the organization’s roots. When the news was announced, they were surprised at the huge outpouring of support from their community. Though some of the aspiring professionals in their audience were disappointed that Wildstar didn’t become the feeder league they were hoping for, the core of their fanbase was still comprised of hobbyists and enthusiasts – and they were elated that even with all Wildstar’s success, the organization still put them first.

A RACE WITH NO END

Without the support of an existing league, Wildstar forwent directly managing tracks and instead adopted a more distributed structure in which individual tracks or racing clubs would manage themselves, with the central organization serving to support these many “partners” with logistics and funds to improve infrastructure. While this management style may have limited their profits, it helped the organization remain true to its amateur spirit.

It’s been over a century since Wildstar Racing’s early days. Today, it’s clear to see that Sila and Jos’ bold decisions have paid off. In a recent interview, Wildstar Racing’s current president, Tosko Nunnar, attributed the brand’s continued success to their genuine enthusiasm for racing as a sport rather than a business.

Though not as prestigious as other mainstay leagues, Wildstar Racing remains the most popular amateur racing league in the ‘verse, with a community of fans whose engagement rivals any of those larger organizations. Today, they continue to grow, with recent expansions throughout the UEE and beyond. As a professional league, Wildstar would likely be restricted from establishing tracks in as tempestuous of a system as Pyro, but as an independent organization, well, President Nunnar puts it best: “Wildstar goes where the people are. We don’t care who they are or what they do, if they want to race, we’ll make it happen.”

With such driving intent behind its work, it’s no surprise at all that Wildstar Racing continues to enjoy the success and support that has followed it since the organization’s founding.