Racing Sponsorships - need help

What type of racing? Are we talking amateur (SCCA, NASA, etc), Professional (Grand Am, ALMS, FIA, etc) or is this just track days.

In regards to track days, that's not racing and sponsorship is non-existent. In terms of amateur racing, most sponsorship is indirectly related to the race car driver and his business contacts/relationships that have something to do with his/her non-race business. At this level major sponsorship is rare. I have partial sponsorship for SCCA and NASA but it's through a business contact.

If you are looking for major sponsorship for ALMS or Grand Am you will need to first and foremost have a contact with the company you are hoping to negotiate with. Business get's several hundred requests a week from people whom they don't know. This never works.

Second, you have to show that their sponsorship is going to be beneficial to their bottom line in some way. Start by giving them some raw numbers of how they will get exposure and who will see it.

Here is a demographic info sheet on Grand Am from Ferrari of Washington's website:

Grand-Am racing has a carefully crafted television package broadcast by Fox Sports Net and Speedvision. Six of the races were broadcast live in 2001, including continuous coverage of the 24 Hours of Daytona. Thanks to audience targeting made possible by cable/digital broadcasting, these races reached more than 3.73 million households specifically interested in auto racing in 2000.
Along with this, Fox Sports Net airs one-hour highlight shows of each race. Enhancing this is Speedvision, which airs significant ancillary Grand Am programming that includes multiple lifestyle shows about the cars, teams and tracks

On the Internet, Grand-Am.com features daily news and editorial features, full race coverage and additional fan-involvement activities. During races, this site provides live timing and scoring, improved editorial coverage and features, and interactive features. In 2000, Grand-Am.com had an average of 10,000 unique visitors per month, who stayed an average of 10:07 minutes per visit.
This exposure attracts a demographic base made up of well-educated and high income middle aged consumers of both sexes.

At the races, fans are exposed to vintage racing exhibitions, vintage car auctions, Grand Concours, behind-the-scenes paddock access, driver meet-and-greets and historical retrospectives. All this comes together as an educational and family-oriented activity unmatched by any other
racing series.



This is the type of info your sponsor's will want to know.

In addition if you can sign on a professional driver, many have relationships with sponsors they can bring to the table (you of course have to pay the driver as well).

As far as getting Pirelli or someone else to sponsor your effort they may give you a discount on tires but it's rare they give them away for free unless you are expected to be a front running team. Even the top Grand Am and ALMS teams have to buy their tires.

Lastly, don't expect this to be easy. Times are tough and race sponsorship is last on the corporate marekting list. Even NASCAR teams are having trouble finding money. The more money you have tied up in the deal the more confident a sponsor will be that you are not simply asking someone to flip the bill for your joy ride.

It's out there but you have to work hard to find it and be creative.

I am in the process of putting together partial sponsorship for Grand Am Cup.

Good luck !!

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
www.flatoutracing.net