Need a little help ...

Hubert, this sounds awesome, congratulations...!

When's the deadline for the $3,500...? How much have you amassed hitherto...? i'd love to give you something but won't be able to send until mid-December...

 

Oh and good luck and keep us posted, no matter what...

 

good luck - i think it is great that you are taking a chance to follow your dreams

 

My sentiments, exactly... Would love to see you get to do this, Hugh...

 

Didn't one of the F1 drivers form a corporation or something similar and sell shares? People invested and then got a percentage of future earnings. Maybe something like that would work?

On another tack, just how much do you have left to raise, and what are your qualifications? Any previous racing experience?

 

Hey everyone!

I've been corresponding with Hubert on this site and through email for quite a while about racing and Ferraris. Hubert and I talked on the phone a few times about his opportunity to be part of a test program for a major manufacturer in Europe racing open wheel cars.

Some of you may know what program he is referring to and it's quite a prestigeous opportunity to enter the program.

Although I have never personally met Hubert, he seems like a standup guy and he didn't take lightly to posting a request for financial help on this board. Some of you on this board who either race, work in the race industry, or know someone in the industry, know that it takes money to start out and to advance. I convinced him to post here looking for help even though he was hesitant to do so for fear of offending anyone.

Hubert has had some successful years in karting and want to take the next step but needs some help financially.

I was recently amazed at the kind generosity of Bruce, who if I read the post correctly helped DES acquire a new car.

I don't think Hubert is expecting anyone here to hand over a $3500 check but possibly we can all chip in and help him raise some funds.

Think of it this way......have you ever benefited financially from F Chat either through advice given to you or through simply reading someone else's post that saved you money on maintanence or such.

Two years ago I was given a source from a fellow F Chatter on used tires for my Challenge car this saved me literally hundreds of dollars. And as recently as this week I posted something about the video game business and three F Chat indivduals gave me a wealth of information and some contacts at the top of this inndustry to talk to. One F Chatter sent me an email that must have taken at least an hour to type.

Bottom line is that we all benefit (or most do) from F Chat in some way.

I am willing to start off by offering to raise $250 for Hubert. Hubert himself is selling off some of his belongings to raise $1000. If we can get maybe 10-15 people to contribute $50-$100+ he can get close to funding this opportunity.

Keep in mind that Hubert has been a part of Ferrari Chat for a long time and is not someone who just joined last week looking for a handout.

Thanks to all for taking the time to read this and taking Hubert's request into consideration.

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
1995 F355 Challenge #23
www.flatoutracing.net

 

Hubert,
what's your address?

Best wishes,
Faisal (wishing I was 23!)

 

I'll follow suit with Faisal and Jon. PM me your address.

I do know the program you're talking about very well.

--Dan

 

Hubert, what do you do/have you been doing so far? Do you know how to set up a website? If so, you need to set one up and sell "shares" as mentioned on the board. A dollar a share would be good. I know there's nothing to offer right now, but you are selling the potential.

You will need to write about yourself and put up some pictures. Keep it simple and low maintenance. I figure you could do this in two hours. You can just use Microsoft Word with the Save As HTML feature if you don't have anything else.

For the venture, you can say something like: From all sponsorship monies received, I will withdraw a salary (low, something like $18,000 per year) for personal items like rent and food, and sensible racing expenses, and use the rest, if any, to repay the initial investors till each share has been repaid ten times over, at which time the shares will be retired. You could even offer a new round at that point. So you are "selling" an investment with a potential 10X upside. I don't think anyone really cares about being paid back. But it would be great to be an investor in a company that helps you, is doing something we are interested in, and have a potential for profit.

On a private link, you can also provide a monthly report of all race-related income and expenses so that the investors have some accountablity. You can create an Excel spreadsheet, use the save as HTML feature, and it will create a nice webpage for you. Upload it to your website every month and just provide a link to it in a private email to your investors. I think this will take you about two hours per month.

Lastly, provide a mechanism for people to "subscribe" to your racing news and send monthly updates. Also upload the same updates in your race diary. It will also take you two hours per month, I think. I can provide some guidance, if you like. Get a URL from www.godaddy.com.

Good luck, and see you at the races.

 

Hi Hubert,

I would be very careful about this. Often with these sort of events the six winners have already been chosen and the others just end up paying for them to go racing. I presume you are referring to the Formula BMW USA?

Also I thought the only way to obtain a FIA International C license without already having a race license is to have an International Kart license. Without this I would have thought you would have to progress through the normal license requirements (a certain number of races at various different tracks).

Best
Mark

 

Hubert,
do you meet the licensing requirements at this point?

 

Hubert,

It sounds like you're not just short a hundred bucks - but rather a bit more than that. If you let everyone know how much $$ you are short, then I think you may be able to get some to chip in and try to make that amount up.

In addition, as someone who has been involved starting numerous businesses often with barely a couple of nickels to rub together, here are some of the standard "quick cash" methods:

1) Get a credit card and take a cash advance on it - some of them offer instant approval over the phone and you would have the card in 3-5 days

2) Go to the bank and apply for a "personal loan". This requires no collateral, and is usually up to $5,000

3) I drive by a place on my way to work that has a sign advertising they will loan you money based on the value of your car. Essentially it's a loan with your car as collateral. I'm guessing you have a car and maybe you could do something similar?

4) List stuff up on eBay - maybe your digital camera, or your old laptop, or whatever you have that you don't absoutely need.

Credit cards are the easiest and quickest! Get on the web and phone and hunt down those CC companies!