RacingJunk Sold; Headquarters To Stay In North Adams

Staff ReportsiBerkshires
04:17PM / Monday, April 23, 2012Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — iBerkshires.com's big sister RacingJunk.com, the world's largest online motorsports marketplace, has been sold with two affiliated motor-sports sites to Internet Brands, based in California.

The three websites, RacingJunk.com, CollectorCarNation.com and Sprocketlist.com, will continue to be managed and staffed from their current base of operations in North Adams.

"The sale of RacingJunk.com to Internet Brands is going to infuse it with what it needs to scale it to the next level, while keeping the company here in North Adams," said Osmin Alvarez, president and chief executive officer of Raceway Media, and publisher of iBerkshires.com under the Boxcar Media brand. "Becoming part of the Internet Brands network of websites will provide RacingJunk and its sister websites great growth opportunities in terms of branding and membership.

"And since the RacingJunk offices will stay here in North Adams, we're anticipating opportunities for job growth as the websites continue to grow."

RacingJunk.com was created in 1999 by Paul Renaud of Clarksburg and Ryan Maturski of Pownal, Vt., and purchased by Raceway Media in 2003. It provides free online classifieds for performance enthusiasts, with an average of 70 million page views every month and more than 600,000 registered members. RacingJunk.com subsequently inspired the two additional websites, CollectorCarNation.com and Sprocketlist.com, which offer free online classifieds for collector-car enthusiasts and powersports equipment buyers.

Internet Brands owns and operates more than 200 websites, including more than 125 automotive-related sites, with over 90 million unique visitors per month. Founded in 1998, the company was listed on NASDAQ for three years until going private again in 2010 when it was acquired for approximately $640 million by an affiliate of private equity investment firm Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners VI.

"We are incredibly excited to add the RacingJunk properties and its team to our Automotive Group," said Alvin Fong, vice president and general manager of Internet Brands. "RacingJunk will continue to focus on building a world-class classified platform that will enable car enthusiasts to fuel their passions."

Reflecting on the sale, Alvarez said, "While it's a little bittersweet to say goodbye to these sites after nine years of watching them grow, it's great to be able to turn them over to a company with the resources to help them have even more success. I also expect that there will be ongoing opportunities for job growth as the sites continue to develop under Internet Brands."

He expected that there will be more jobs gained as Internet Brands transitions the sites, including two — general manager of online operations and a product manager — currently posted on BerkshireJobs.com. "All of the current employees will still be located at 106 Main St.," he said.

The sale has required some shifting of resources and the offices for iBerkshires.com and its affiliated sites have moved to the west end of 106 Main St., which provides more room for expansion.

"The only affect on iBerkshires is the addition of resources to help continue the growth we have experienced over the past few years," said Alvarez.

Tags: Boxcar Media, iBerkshires, Internet, Raceway Media,

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Veteran Spotlight: Coast Guard Capt. Thurman 'Tom' Maine

By Wayne SoaresSpecial to iBerkshires
04:42PM / Sunday, September 13, 2026

MASHPEE, Mass. — If I were to describe the best attributes of this week's veteran, they would be an infectious personality, role model, leader, wonderful family man and a person that leads by example in the very best way.

The aforementioned, are the primary reasons why Thurman "Tom" Maine enjoyed a successful and distinguished military career in the Coast Guard from 1983 to 2014.

Born in North Stonington, Conn., Maine entered the Coast Guard at the age of 21 and was sent to boot camp in Cape May, N.J. His first assignment was at Coast Guard Station in Provincetown, R.I. From 1994 to 1997, he was a helicopter pilot for Coast Guard Air Station at Otis Air National Guard Base and was elevated to operations officer, chief pilot at the base from 2004 to 2007.

During his 31-year career, Maine flew some of the Coast Guard's most elite helicopters; the Sikorsky H-3 (the Coast Guard's last amphibious aircraft), the Sikorsky H-60 (the most widely flown military helicopter in the world) and the H-65 (a smaller, faster helicopter that deploys on ships).

Maine continued to rapidly climb the ranks and in 2009 was promoted as the Coast Guard's liason to the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, a position he held until 2011. Following that assignment, he was promoted to captain and rose to be the commanding officer at the Coast Guard's prestigious Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala.

During his tenure as commanding officer, he suffered a devastating blow when four Guardsman were killed during a night training exercise. He conveyed that his greatest achievement in his entire military career, was the leadership he provided

to his 600-member unit and the families of the fallen Guardsmen, by always being accessible, communicating constantly and holding vitally important family nights.

He said this tragedy, "gave him the ultimate opportunity to live out his faith." He also lobbied intensely for the student pilot who was killed to be awarded his designation posthumously, which he did.

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