how do you get sponsors? what are they for?
nick
im sure im not the only one wondering

 

Sponsors can be anyone that can provide you with a benefit. That benefit could be anything from providing a good or service for a discounted price, cash, or something simple like your employer giving you extra time off to race. If by giving their business exposure you can get something valuable to yourself, you have a sponsor. Start with people/businesses you know and go from there. Try to pick places that you think would benefit from any exposure you'd give them. Good luck!

Trevor

 

Around here, it doesn't have to always be some type of automotive sponsor for them to give you a little cash. Heck, my biggest sponsor is the bar in town! haha

Just pick places that you spend lots of money at, and they'll be the most likely to help you in return. Good Luck!

 

how do you get them to sposeor you thow? just write them a letter go ask them? what do i tell them
nick

 

"Hi, my name is Joe Blow. I race at the local drag strip regularly and I'm currently leading my class in season points. When a car pulls up to the starting line, they announce over the PA the sponsors for the car. I do a lot of business at your store, so if you'd be willing to offer me parts at cost, I would put your business decals on my car and list you as a sponsor for them to announce at the track."

What you offer or they counter-offer can vary. Some sponsors pay entry fee and get a portion of any winnings, for instance. There's a family/team out here that got a local Mexican restaurant sponsorship, they paid for new paint jobs with their restaurant name in big lettering for two race cars and enclosed trailers, plus sponsoring two street cars, and offer a free burrito to any racer that takes one of them out on race-day. Is it working for them? Well, this is the 3rd year they've sponsored them, starting the season after one of the racers won the national Super Pro title in Pomona. This year, he's leading the local Super Pro series, in 2nd place behind me in the Street class (different car), the other racer is tied for 2nd place in a Trophy series, and their nephew is virtually tied for first place in a Club series. They're getting plenty of exposure for their money.

 

i think im slowly starting to understand

 

I really only have one sponsor decal on my car. Privately owned small tire shop that mainly deals with commercial tires. Whenever I need some tires changed or balanced on any of my vehicles, I get to use his machines for free. I do all the work, he just provides the equipment. Since I don't have to pay someone to do any of my tire work, that's sponsorship.

Finding a sponsor takes a bit of footwork. Focus on it as a business since a potential sponsor sees you as advertising. The main drawback is that many people don't see or care what sponsor decals you have on your car and track announcers don't always say who all your sponsors are. This means you need to provide a sponsor with something else.

For small time sponsorship such as free pizza on race weekends etc, they're not providing much. If you have a big time sponsor who's willing to provide at least $500 for a season, you should be expected to display your race car at the sponsor's business for a whole day at least once a year.

Not many businesses are willing to give large amounts of money for slower bracket cars unless you personally know the business. Try this angle. If nobody will give you $500, how about doing what I call a contingency sponsorship. The business provides 2 company decals roughly the size of a contingency decal (see decals on my car). You display them on both sides of the car and the catch is, if you lose in the final round, the sponsor pays you $25. If you win the final round, the sponsor pays you $50. If you don't make it into the final round, it costs the sponsor nothing except the price of the decals for the season. That's how contingency decals work. If you don't make it into the final round, they mean nothing but free advertising.

Now, nobody will give you $500 but if you can find 10 sponsors willing to give you $50 if you win, there's $500. Can you win every weekend? It could be a big payoff. Maybe even lower the payout to attract more sponsors. $25 to win, $10 to runner up.

You'd be surprised just who may sponsor a race car. Walk around to the local businesses and pitch your product. Sponsorship isn't always about money. I get tire work done for nothing. I've already mentioned free pizza. You can get just about any product or service as a sponsorship. It doesn't have to be automotive related. Drycleaning, lawn care, Free Slurpies from your local 7-11. Maybe a local service station will provide free oil changes. All it takes is to go around and ask. Just don't mention that you want money for a sponsorship.

Now if you do get money, it should be treated as a business since they are paying for advertising. Keep track of all your expenses. As for how much you can get depends on the sponsor. I like to think of it as how much of a sponsor name do I want on the car. For $500 a season, I'd put a decal on my rear fenders similar to a contingency decal but a big larger. If they were willing to give $1500, that would be a decal to cover the doors. Any more than that and you should be providing more than one day a year to display the car at the business. Rear tires for my car are about $600 for a set. On a good season, they may last a full season. A good finacial sponsor can help reduce that operating cost.

Never think of it as sponsorship. When looking for a sponsor, call it a marketing partnership. That way the business gets something in return other than having people try to see the name on the side of your car going down the track.

Don't expect big bucks in sponsorship for small time bracket racing cars unless you're really good and can make it into the final rounds every race. The more rounds you can go, the more exposure you can give. If you travel to other tracks, that's even more exposure however an out of town track may not know or care who Ed's Pizza is.

You always have to start small. Even if you make it to every race no matter what and go out in the first round every time, you're still making an appearance and that should help get a sponsor. If you can get some products for your efforts, then it's a start. For a bracket racer, the best you can hope for is to get enough sponsorship money to just cover typical expenses (fuel, oil, food, gate fee, etc)

Once you get into a fast enough class where you can provide more exposure, then you can expect to see better sponsorship. The ultimate is to get a corporate sponsorship and race in a curcuit for a season. Follow the NHRA standing and see who runs in Stock/SuperStock or Comp Eliminator at every event. You can't do that on a shoestring budget.

How do you get a million dollars racing? Start with two million and quit when you reach a million.

 

great reading, good job, you know your stuff, youve been around it a long while for sure, i must say thats one hell of a wild camaro

i want ot add a little itny bit real quick, just to help explain,

demolition derby drivers, for example, get many different local sponsors every year,
all the drivers do,
usually/normally

from parts stores, towing businesses, and so on, so forth

the places will give them some merchandise or a service usually, and usually only for jut having the business name on the car to advertise the name in the general public's eye

real basic bottom of the ladder form of sponsorship, but extremely common

 

Br prepared for lots of rejection, nature of the business since most folks dont like throwing away money. I still get guys that want money to m put my name on their car but I know first hand drag racing does not bring enough in for our area to make it worth my while.

Regardless, prior to hitting the streets and talking with businesses have a porfolio of your car and your experiences/standings that you can leave behind and naturally a picture of your car too. I speak with alot of business owners and presidents the topic of sponsoring has come up a few times and the one thing all of us agree on is if the car in question is shoody looking or the car/driver cannot perform....your on your own and will not get any help. Why do I want my name on a hunk of crap since typically that is a direct refelction of the racers overall program and how well you can expect them to perform....not well at all. So if you have a nice looking car, professional looking set-up as far as your program your 2 steps ahead of the game.

While it'd be nice to get $$$ ANYTHING is beter than nothing, a local oil company provides free oil to all the dirt packers they sponsor so that is a huge help, even in the drag racing world since monthly oil changes are the norm. I had a car wash sponsor since I typically washed all my work trucks and race car there, this alone saved me $50/week for the summer months which is huge....so take what you can get.

Also once you get a sponsor, dont forget about them. Mail out monthly newletters with picture, how you did, points stnadings, upcoming events you'll be attending and offer to park your car outside their biz for publicity.....hence why business dont like to promote junk looking cars.

Getting "free money" is never easy, but if can nab a few things that make your life easier or cheaper it's definately worth taking a day off to hit folks up.

 

I forgot about the newsletter part.

Find a sponsor to put a picture of your car on coffee mugs and give them out to other sponsors.

Any kind of oval or infield motorsports (demo derby) cars get better sponsors. The car is seen by spectators during the entire event providing you can make it to the end of the race. A drag car, if you're lucky to go rounds during eliminations, will be seen about once an hour for that brief period in the first rounds to about 10-15 minutes apart during the final rounds. Even if you have a 10 second car, including burnout and staging time, you're only in front of spectators for about 2 minutes.

Nobody remembers that 15 second Camaro that lost in the first round but everyone remembers that "Joe's Pizza" Monte Carlo that crashed into the wall on turn 3, or struggled from the back of the field to only get second place on the oval track.

As IHI says, you will get rejected many times before finding even a simple sponsor. Many businesses don't want to spend anything for advertising. Others would like the idea but have no way of knowing how to sponsor a car. If you don't knock on doors, you'll never know.

As much as I'd like a real sponsor, I can't keep my engines together long enough to complete a season and I just don't feel a sponsor should be providing me with something when I can't race.

Thanks for the comment on the car. It should be back on the track for the Sept 2/3 race.

 

ive been offline working on the car for a wile thanks alot for all the info i have learned alot from this as im sure there are outhers
thanks
nick