Autocross Sponsorship?

Anybody here have any type of sponsorship, or have any idea how to go about getting it? I was thinking just entry fees or something.

One of the drivers at my local auto crosses appears to have some kind of sponsorship from a nearby VW dealer and a few others from independent repair shops or parts websites.

I suppose a nicely written letter goes a long way, but I was hoping someone might have more specific advice (at first I wrote "concrete advice", but then realized with this crowd, there'd be an unavoidable tangential discussion of the various benefits of a variety of aggregate).

On a somewhat related note, yesterday, on cold, rainy day, I picked up my first D stock class trophy, whoohoo!

Having some kind of ROI scheme for them and coming at it like a professional is important. Something I have always stood by is the fact that "If you look like you know what you are doing, you can get away with anything."

Identify a target. Now go in and hang out and observe for a while. Put yourself in their shoes. While you are doing this, identify the gatekeepers, the influencers and the decision maker. Make sure you pitch to the right people, and don't dismiss someone that can hurt your cause. Think about why they would want to do this? What's your angle?

1. What can you offer? Exposure? Additional customers? How can you measure it/"guarantee" it? An in with the money spending car crowd? How many potential customers in that pool?

2. What are you going to do to be an ambassador? Will you be proud to represent that company? Why? Will you bring your car to park out front Saturday? Be there with hero cards to sign? Be an influencer and have the post-event gathering at that location if it's an eatery? How much spending would that be?

Notice how the first two are "what are you going to do for them?" Good. If you didn't notice this, you're not ready to be a sponsored driver. It's a business, it's about bringing in more $$ to the firm than they spend on you.

1. What is your fee for #1 and 2? Because that's really what racing sponsorship is. It's another way to spend advertising dollars. Why should they choose you over a radio spot? Understand the number of people influenced by competing forms of advertising and the likliehood of turning them into customers versus the racing crowd.

2. Remember that goods are cheaper than cash. Let's say a parts house or a restaurant marks up 50% to make things easy. So a $20 part or a $20 meal costs the business $10, versus that $20 in cash. You don't really care if you get free oil and pay for the event or pay for your oil and have them pay for the event. It's the same amount of money out of pocket to you, but it looks different to them. Be creative. Start small and include elevator clauses - if you bring in $xxx worth of new business from people that mention the racecar in some fashion, then your sponsorship value goes from this to that.

3. End with it being a trial through the end of the season, with a season ending wrap up meeting and a discussion about the following year. You'll learn the budget process for the business. You'll also have an opportunity to knock their socks off and get them to want to do more next year. Drive your car at the driver school to get them involved? Get them interested in supporting you at the out of town Pro Solo? Who knows......

Find a shop that can help you with things...like mounting and balancing tires for cheap/free, getting parts at cost, and discounted labor on the bigger jobs that you can't do at home...in exchange for a spot on the car. They are out very little at that point, and you get a break on stuff you need.

I was going to put in a few suggestions, but Glueguy said just about everything I was going to say.

It seems a lot of sponsor $ comes in contingency form: Put a decal on the car + win : get money.

The Philly region has a deal with Sunoco on race gas. I forget the exact specifics, but you put your receipt in a hat and they draw names for $50 prizes.

ST_ZX2 wrote: Find a shop that can help you with things...like mounting and balancing tires for cheap/free, getting parts at cost, and discounted labor on the bigger jobs that you can't do at home...in exchange for a spot on the car. They are out very little at that point, and you get a break on stuff you need.

Agreed that this is a great way to start, but still challenge yourself with why you instead of anyone else? If you don't put the effort in, and just put a decal on the car and get a couple tires mounted per year, then it won't grow. Don't hold yourself back.

Be creative. Buy pizza and bring it to the shop near closing time. Hang out and become an insider. Become the resident racing expert. Bring in-car video for the shop TV or computer. Invite them out to an event. Suddenly what you get in return will begin to grow. But its only because you put the effort in.

I don't want to discourage you, but I'll share my experience.

At one point in my life, I had been autocrossing for a few years and found myself working at a Honda dealership. There were a couple of other dealers in the state who sponsored some very competitive cars at the time.

I set up a meeting with the dealership's owner, who I actually knew fairly well. He owned four dealerships and a tire shop. I had made up a fairly well done presentation. My car was a current model, that he sold. I had demographic and financial information on the people who participate and attend autocrosses. I showed him my history of regional success in the sport. I told him how many events I would attend, their locations and I even made some mockups of my car with his dealership's logos on it. My requests were modest: a set of wheels and tires for the season. Pretty easy stuff for a guy who owned a tire shop and spent a lot on advertising.

It was a very brief meeting. He mentioned that he felt that it was more of an advertisement for the brand, rather than for his dealership. He also mentioned that he had sponsored drag racers in the past, with little noticeable return on investment. I tried to counter with information on the demographic disparity between those who attend drag races and autocrosses, and I had the paper to back it up, but he had quickly made up his mind.

My primary memory from that morning is that he had a remote control at his desk that allowed him to open and close his office door without getting up.

Woody wrote: My primary memory from that morning is that he had a remote control at his desk that allowed him to open and close his office door without getting up.

That does rule. Check out some past Driving Diary columns in our magazine. Will Nonnamaker has addressed sponsorship a few times. (Here's a hint, though: Don't call it sponsorship; you're looking for a marketing partner, not a handout.)

ST_ZX2 wrote: Find a shop that can help you with things...like mounting and balancing tires for cheap/free, getting parts at cost, and discounted labor on the bigger jobs that you can't do at home...in exchange for a spot on the car. They are out very little at that point, and you get a break on stuff you need.

This is a really good idea that I hadn't even begun to think about. I was picturing the dealer I bought my car from maybe paying some entry fees, but this is genius.

I mean, just mounting and balancing tires savings like, $15-20 a wheel? And you're right, that costs them almost nothing. At least, if my experience working in a tire shop is anything to go on. We always had tons of time on our hands.

And that would be easy to advertise directly for:

"What's the deal with these Bill's Tire Shop stickers?"

"Oh, they do some work with me, mounting tires, alignments, y'know. Pretty good guys, work hard, don't scratch my wheels. You should go there too. The phone number is right there on the car."

LainfordExpress wrote:

"What's the deal with these Bill's Tire Shop stickers?"

"Oh, they do some work with me, mounting tires, alignments, y'know. Pretty good guys, work hard, don't scratch my wheels. You should go there too. The phone number is right there on the car." Here's their business card.

A quick addition for you

It would be just like any kind of racing sponsorship. A meeting of some kind about how you would promote their brand to what kind of people how many of those kind of people, how often, etc... Gather and then sell them on numbers and demographics, and hopefully its a brand that would sell well to the typical sunday autocrosser. I have talked to one person who has a sponsorship, it basically was for free alignments and tire mounting at a local service station.

I have a sort of unofficial sponsorship with a couple local shops. They both give me access to their tools/lifts and a discount on parts/labor in exchange for a couple well placed stickers. It's all low budget stuff for them but it really adds up over the course of a season.

It may help that I'm very good friends with the owners of said shops and have just this year won the season points championship driving one of their shop cars. Now that shop will be able to claim they built a dominant race car and they have their name foremost in the minds of everybody we race with.

You're basically applying for a job - and not only that, but a position that doesn't actually exist yet. Approach it like that and you'll probably have some luck. I have to tell you that, as someone who is viewed as a source of sponsorship goodness, a professional approach goes a long way towards getting past the initial filter.

1) don't ask us to "sponser" you. Seriously, it's the most common spelling mistake this side of Camero. And you will lose my interest immediately.

2) I don't care if you're going to drive up and down main street a lot, and that you have lots of friends that will probably buy stuff because they have cars.

3) do tell me how it would benefit me, and tell me what you want. Specifically. Like "running your suspension on my car would prove to (untapped market) how well it works".

Me, I haven't paid for a local track day in about 6 years. But that's because I decided to start running them, so I guess I sponsor myself

I had a local short track racer look for sponsorship a bunch of years ago. He had a nice looking presentation, but his car was a brand I didn't sell, the track was over an hour away, and best of all, all he needed was $18,500 to get his motor back from the builder. When I asked him what would happen if the 18k grenade exploded, I got a disgusted look, and was told, of course, at that point I would have to buy another. When I pointed out that 18k bought 12 months cable TV at a pretty strong repeat rate, he still didn't get it.

Have reasonable expectations, make sure you go someplace that has a chance of using your exposure.

There are a lot of young males at the autocross, with at least some disposable income if they have a car, and who wants to advertise to young males with money? Strip clubs. I'm just sayin...

pinchvalve wrote: There are a lot of young males at the autocross, with at least some disposable income if they have a car, and who wants to advertise to young males with money? Strip clubs. I'm just sayin...

Gives a whole new meaning to "dollar runs"