How would you SAVE CLASS RACING ???

[FED 387]

Lucas has been MORE than generous when it comes to sponsoring drag racing as well as other forms of motorsports and Sports (stick & ball) in general I personally do not think that we should continually be asking them for more money everytime we need something funded!!! one of these days "You're gonna kill the golden goose" if you keep approaching them !! I cannot think of an individual company right off hand that might be interested in doing something like this but a lot of it is gonna hinge on HOW MUCH MONEY is it gonna cost them ??
Hell ya could have the "Liquid Plumber" series or the "Kleenex" or what ever- there are lots of companies out there that have money to spend for advertising ya just hafta find one that thinks the ROI is worth it.
--Part of the problem is that both HRA'S are continually looking for sponsors to fund the National series and they usually then try to steer that money away from the sportsman to the pro's
---We had a national sandwich chain several years ago that we approached and eventually got money from based on the following numbers---25 cents per day x the number of stores they had for 365 days--that was less than $100 per year--when we explained to them it was less than the cost of ONE tomato that they were probably throwing away or one bun EVERYDAY they then thought OK---I guarantee ya if we had gone in and asked them for $30-50,000 they would of thrown us out the door but when ya put it in perspective to them it was nothing!!! it was a totally insignificant amount of money but when ya added it up over the course of a year it ended up being quite a large chunk of money as far as we were concerned--they got the exposure they needed and everybody was happy--its out there ya just gotta search for it----How much money are we talking about here $1000, 10,000, 100,000???---- FED387

[FED 387]

Correction ---that 25 cents per day x 365 days is less than $100 PER STORE per year--

[FED 387]

Mark---pennies make dimes ,dimes make dollars----you are right many "small" companies wanna get involved but its probably that big Upfront charge($$$$) that has them gagging-- Nobody likes to pay for future services at the present time sorta like the cable companies make ya do--you wanna pay for it After you use it not before---but probably what happened in the past is the HRA's let a company pledge money and when it came time to pay they did not --got the advertising but no expense involved---This whole contingency/sponsor thing as been going on for many years---at least 25-35 years that I know of--perhaps without divulging exact number you might enlighten us all as to what a contingency plan such as yours might cost a company---just round numbers or a range please ---like more than $10,000 or between say 25,000-100,000 or whatever those numbers really are so folks here can get some idea of the numbers we are talking about--I dont think the average guy "really understands" how much money we are talking about---think about it "xyz headers" on just 20 Stockers per event at $50 each=$1000 and then 22 National events is $22,000 now add in Super Stocks maybe Comp and Super Gas and you are talking lotsa money not just per event but for a whole season---maybe an probably most racers have NO IDEA of how much money we are talking about all they see is the $25 or 50 or whatever posted

[Bobby Fazio]

TV EXPOSURE:

Who decides what ESPN2 shows when they air the Lucas Oil sportsman racing (a few weeks after its completion)? Is that up to ESPN or NHRA? 55 minutes are dedicated to Top Alcohol ranks and the remaining 5 minutes sometimes show the sportsman final rounds. Is there a way we can get some more coverage than that? Air the class eliminations! Viewers would be enticed with big wheelstands, wouldn't be confused with handicap starts (Although I would LOVE to see regular elimination rounds on TV) and this would certainly bring potential contingency sponsors in knowing their product and customers are being shown on national television.

I've also noticed that when they come back from commercial you might see a slow motion stock/super stock wheel stand. I think that viewers flipping through channels, even if they do not like drag racing, might stop to watch that. Hell, my cousins don't even know what drag racing is, but after I showed them the Calvert vs McCormack video, my cousin Jamie started coming to the races with me and liked what he saw. He is now my new pit crew member!

[Alan Roehrich]

Dick, feel free to do as you wish with Top Stock and Top Super Stock. Good luck to you.

This discussion is about the actual classes of Stock Eliminator and Super Stock, as we contest them at various NHRA events.