26 replies to this topic

[Jamz14]

Jim, let me give you a call in a couple of days to discuss. I really tried hard for my comments not to turn into a solicitation of business and to respect what the forum is for.

It isn't what people typically think of as sponsorship. But that is the point. If people don't think like this and try something different , how are they successful in climbing the ladder unless the have large disposable incomes? I am open to anyway to do it ( outside of going to jail in the process ). I would love for people to throw out suggestions!! I would probably try everyone's if it had a modest chance for success. I also don't mean to diminish in anyway smaller deals that help the average Joe save on the cost of trailers, parts, and even dry cleaning. Any savings that can be achieved on day to day products and services that an individual spends means that they have more money to blow on racing!!!! Those deals for lawn care for the average Joe help fund your business and I am all for you being successful and able to provide the community good parts at a reasonable price.

[Johnny D]

Good write up. Page 39 and 41. Is this you Jamz ??
http://www.snmagcurr...ation/?i=135777
J~

[Jamz14]

Johnny,

LOL, sounds familiar huh? Yes, it is. Nova Brown is my son and I am a very very proud father. He works his tail off trying to become a pro racer.

[Danny Steyn]

J Jordan. Alex' s article doesn't talk about racing for free, it talks about making money from racing. Very few drivers do. You mention Randy and Charles. While I know them, I certainly cannot speak for the health of their savings accounts.

The "Making money" Alex is talking about is very different from making a living and having to do other jobs to stay alive. We all know many drivers who have used their driving skills, good looks, marketable personalities to get, in some cases a free ride, and in other case make a small stipend, but how many of the stars in our sport are making sports stars type money? VERY VERY VERY FEW!

The case of Jimmie Johnson for example, who has made money while spending very little on the climb to the marquee level, is a very isolated case. Most had to spend their way to get to the top level, very few were paid to get there. AFAIK, and I could be wrong. ;-)

[Czarny]

I think the saying, "It takes a large fortune to make a small fortune in racing" applies here The top drivers that I know, mostly Grand Am and ARCA/NASTRUCK, can certainly vouch for this.

[Jamz14]

Everyone has to work to race. Whether that work comes in the form of hard sponsor dollars, or dad (or jr.,or anyone else) goes to work and uses the money he makes at their job to spend on a race program is a matter of semantics. The only question is one of scale. How successful you are with either of the two approaches above, dictates to what level you have the ability to rise up in classes or prestige. Here is where the article was correct. With few exceptions, your ability to rise up has more to do with how well you raise funds than on how well you drive. Raising funds means you can practice. If you practice, you can train yourself to be fast. Money =Practice, practice = results , results = more economic opportunities, more economic opportunites = more money , more money = more practice, and the cycle continues.

The next step and question is how do you want to work for your racing? What is your strategy? Your strategy could be to go ask dad for a new race car. This is effective. Your strategy could be to walk in to a business and ask them to give you money and in return you will put their name on the car. This has been successful for some too. We choose a 3rd path of trying to put together B2B deals. There are other paths too. Rob pointed out one. Sometimes wealthy people just like to do things for fun and they are willing to give you lots of money in order to go out and split a seat with them. Or even a solo seat. Your strategy could be to just go to work and spend extra money on a car. This is the most common strategy.

These are all proven paths to success. Just like winning the lotto is a proven path to success. It's just the size and smoothness of the path that is at issue. I choose to work a path that I feel has the greatest potential for repeatable and long term success. Some teams work on speed first and then once they are fast they start working on building skill in fund raising. We took a different path. We spent the same small fortune others did for practicing , and spent it on learning how to earn more money. We are all on the same cycle, we just start the cycle at different points on the cycle. But make no mistake, if you really want to drive ever more expensive machines, the most important consideration is how to raise funds. If you solve that problem, speed will come. But money doesn't automatically come with speed.

[granracing]

I wrote a series of articles on this general topic last year - Dark $ecrets - The Realities of Professional Road Racing. As a part of it, we were able to speak with several pro racers. Some who are now paid (Eric Curran being one), and others who are paying. Then got to talk with teams that run in pro racing from the "entry" Grand Am ranks to teams such as Highcroft Racing's (an interview with the owner, Duncan Dayton). Crazy that even after they won back-to-back AMLS championships, they struggled with sponsors. Now granted they were after big bucks but still...