You racers with sponors, how much are they paying you?

[TerryBPP]

How much does the average sponsor give the racer to advertise on his car? I.e. joes bar and grill on the side of an SCCA car?

I'm thinking about doing some marketing for an up coming business.

[nostatic]

they're supposed to pay me? Damn, no wonder I had to quit racing for lack of funds...

[TerryBPP]

Originally Posted by nostatic

they're supposed to pay me? Damn, no wonder I had to quit racing for lack of funds...

They only pay guys in the front of the pack. You would know.

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by TerryBPP

They only pay guys in the front of the pack. You would know.

hey, I won my class in 3 cup races (out of 6 entered) last season, and won the STS class championship. Take that back

[TerryBPP]

Don't be mad baby. You knows daddy loves ya.

[VINMAN]

My main sponsor for my boat gives me $1,500 a race. Another sponsors gives me $500 . Basically covers my fuel and registration fees.

[Dueller]

Hate to burst your bubble, but if you think you can get sponsorship for SCCA club racing, you're in for a rude awakening. The problem is that SCCA racing (as most forms of amateur racing) is that it is participant driven, not spectator driver. That, and there is very little return on investment for marketing dollarss.

Think about it...very few SCCA events are technically public events. Most are private events largely for insurance purposes. Unless you find an enthusiast who wants to be part of a "team" there is very little exposure you get for the advertising dollar. He'd be better served to sponsor the after race BBQ than an individual car/driver.

Now, if you're racing in a national event such as the runoffs and you're a front runner, you might get a "deal" to run someone's engine or suspension components or whatever to lure other participants to use your product, but most deals are to provide parts or as modest amount of the entry fees/expenses.

OTOH I've put together deals for a local round track effort but then again it was to cover some of the expenses in exchange for a sponsor to have his little involvement as a teammember morte than anything else.

I "sponsored" my own race effort with my law firm and wrote off some expenses and was challenged by the IRS...hgowever I was able to show I retained some clients thru the effort that I would not normally get (i.e., I had one client I met thru my racing involvement that landed me a 7 figure case).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Don't kill the messenger

[Palum6o]

Originally Posted by Dueller

...I "sponsored" my own race effort with my law firm and wrote off some expenses and was challenged by the IRS...hgowever I was able to show I retained some clients thru the effort that I would not normally get (i.e., I had one client I met thru my racing involvement that landed me a 7 figure case)....

Curious about this, are you incorporated or have an LLC? I would think you could simply write this off as an advertising expense without any worries?

[the]

Lawyers are common audit targets, esp. when they are writing off expenses relating to something that looks like a hobby.

[charleskieffner]

back in 1986-87 when we raced off road i managed to scam a number of sponsors. even before that we scammed sponsors from whomever we could for whatever we could scam. for a number of years we were sponsored by keg beer unlimited here while racing dezert bikes. what did we get? a few kegs of course!

but as far as the score 1/2-1600 effort the sponsors we got either paid us per race or a flat yearly fee to run their logo on the car. one industrial distributor gave us a $1000 bucks for the year to have the biggest logo on car.

considering the staggering costs, married with one kid in diapers, i would have glued turds to the car if i thought it would eeekk out one more dollar to pay expenses if you ran a porta potty bizness and wanted to sponsor us!

since it was professional hang on to yer ass racing we documented everything for tax purposes.

and along came the fateful day after winning 2nd overall in the state despite race car burning up in mexico, that i GOT THE INVITATION! "THE INVITATATION " was from the IRS!

the IRS was so happy that we won 2nd overall in state that they invited lil ol me to have a nice sit down chat about all of my expenses.

walk into IRS building and see a life size portarit of george bush senior in lobby. tell secratary my name and out comes lil navajo girl with 3 sharpened pencils, a sharpener, and a big calculator and off we go down some hallway to my DOOM!

well as it turned out everything was legit, and we had actually not claimed everything we should have. i ended up with a check from uncle sam for about $1100 bucks and leaped off the stairs of the building in joy. what a relief that was.

so in ending ..........document everything. getting auditted is about like getting a frontal lobotomy w/out anesthetics. not fun ask me how i know. i will never forget the "INVITATION" from ogden utah corp. IRS office!

we actually did think out the contingency angle fairly well and were paid for product we did use. hell i still have a bunch of KC DAYlighters on vehicles that we were given for placing 1st and 2nd place. only using products that pay contingencies worked out good for us.

[Jims5543]

If you have the capability to win or be in the top 3 it helps a lot.

I know I have mentioned this before, Mazdaspeed not only gives you 50% of more off on parts for your car they also pay out money to you if you win on a national level. This is HUGE and makes Mazda's great platforms to race with just from a financial standpoint.

Hoosier Tires gives you tires if you win.

You start to get the picture, Charles looks like he was very good at what he did and got some nice sponsorship.

If you think you can quit your day job to race I do not think it works like that, it does help to own your own business then promote your business via your race car. A few members here do that. Guaranteed sponsorship even if your not winning and a great write off for your business, just make sure you document everything and take lots of pictures of the car in action with the company name on it.

*edit* did not see Duellers post but saw Charles's he touches on the self sponsorship as well.

[charleskieffner]

another thing that many fail to think about...........NO MANS AN ISLAND! ie. you need support to race anything. pit crews adhere to maslovs law of hierarchy........need to sleep, need shelter, need food, and most of all need LOVE!

feeding .25 cent fish tacos only lasts so long. feeding pit crew mcdonalds only lasts so long. buying old milwaukee beer on special only lasts so long until you have a FREEKING MUTINY on yer hands!

yelling at pit crew members only exacerbates the above mutiny quicker!

if you want to win..........."cheap" aint ever in the equation! hang on to yer ass and throw the benjamins and pray you dont crash or burn.

i honetsly looking back cant think of one angle that you can afford to be cheap on. sponsors help a little. contingencies make the ride alot easier. if hoosier is giving FREE TIRES for the win i would have hoosier stickers every 6 inches plastered on the car. anything to help your wallet. it will be drained in no time, turned inside out and YOU WILL BE IN DEBT before you even know it.

i have watched countless times very wealthy people CRINGE at unexpected expenses that always occur racing. racing is exactly like warfare..........expect the unexpected........have a plan and when the flag or bullets fly.........the plan is out the window and only the strong survive. its a DARWIN THANG!

[onewhippedpuppy]

When I glanced past this thread title, I saw: "You racers with spoons, how much are they paying you?" Damn it Tabs, this is all your fault.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Every year at the Long Beach Grand Prix I enjoy it immensely and walk away from watching those racing teams and all the vendors at the "lifestyle expo" with only one thought on my mind:

"Winning in racing is all about who can spend the most, the quickest".

That said, I imagine it's a hobby best done on someone else's dime - kind of like flying airplanes. This is why even with 3,000+ hours in my logbook I haven't touched the controls of an airplane in 3+ years. Not for want of doing so, but because I realize how bloody expensive it is when you have to pay your own way. Far easier when someone else is footing the costs (and yes, I thought about starting a charter/air taxi outfit to make it a "write off", but it's still damn near impossible to make the #'s pencil out).

Me and a few other 944 guys looked at doing a spec car racing team a couple of years ago. There were six of us. We were all enthusiastic about the idea, knowledgeable about 944s, pretty well-equipped with spare parts, tools, etc. Even given that we had several DOZEN 944 chassis and sets of spare parts between us, it still would have been (by my conservative estimates) over $5,000 PER PERSON to do this and have a good, solid, competitive entry for the year. Realistically, probably closer to $10k per person per year - that's between $30k to $60k for a year of racing, which is not unrealistic at all. AND it assumes that all the members of our team realistically were going to pony up for it, on time, without a million excuses or without bailing out halfway through the season. Tire budget, fuel budget, transportation, suspension mods, licensing, entry fees, etc. etc. etc. It all adds up quickly. Put a car into the wall? Holy hell can it get expensive in a hurry. Not to mention it's virtually impossible to put the requisite hours to get the car ready if you have a day job. This is just for a lowly 944 spec car - nothing fancy or especially exotic or high-end.

Long story short - I'm sticking to going to the track on my own for fun, once or twice a year (whenever I have the time), auto-x, etc.

If I want to get into competitive racing, I'll do what my coworker did and get a shifter kart for about $4,000. MUCH cheaper to operate, faster, more fun and thrilling. I honestly don't know why more people DON'T get into kart racing. It's an absolute blast. I've just scratched the surface of it myself and don't have my own kart or anything, but it's something that if I had more time, I'd definitely be more into.

[charleskieffner]

heres another interesting FACTOID.................no matter how good you are, how much dough you got in the bank, how many sponsors, your physical mental status, your gene pool..........................I WILL GO FASTER THAN YOU ANY DAY OF THE WEEK ON ROAD OR OFF ROAD, NAME THE VEHICLE!

do you have a clue why?????????


because if i dont own the vehicle or pay for it.... I DONT CARE WHAT HAPPENS and WILL DRIVE THE LIVING SNOT OUT OF THAT CAR LIKE YOU NEVER WILL.........


BECAUSE I DONT CARE ABOUT WRECKING IT!


all i care about is pulling A BUNNY WITH A CHECKERED FLAG OUT OF MY ASS!

this is a PROVEN FACT!

my partner wrenched on the car. i owned the car. i paid for everything. he drove the snot out of it and handed it over to me beat to death. he gained such leads on our competition that both of us knowing i would drive more careful and less reckless that i would baby it home. this insane method worked time and time again.

watching him about gave me heart failure umpteen times. it got to the point that i couldnt watch and just suited up in silence waiting for the radio call that he was approaching the change driver pit.

i probably should call it the "BAND-AID PIT" after the holy hell havoc he made of my car each and every race. i would then cinch up the harnesses with a full tank/clean filters and drive like a grandma to the finish ALWAYS AWARE OF WHAT EVERYTHING COST and THE FEAR OF BREAKING DOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF BFE!


if you dont own it ..............you will drive it like you stole it and the cops are chasing you!

theres a lil RACING PSYCH 101 for ya!

[David]

There was a kart racer in our series a few years ago who thought you had to have a sponsor.

He worked his ass off looking for one and actually found one. The sponser was Lonestar Light beer. Everyone figured you couldn't find sponsorship in amateur racing, but he proved us wrong.

And yes, he'd give us free beer after the races .

[URY914]

Or you could import drugs and grow pot like the IMSA boys did in the '80's. I remember the Whitting Bros. at Indy with two brand new March-Cosworths. Not one sponsor decal on the cars.

[charleskieffner]

ury914 aint fooling............. that kind of sponsorship is everywhere!

baja 1000 2007 2 members of felix- arelleano(sp) drug cartel killed in helo crash chasing a "1" car on mikes sky ranch road. we were there and got pics.

fast forward to march 2008 san felipe 250.............while on grid for start of race, bikes and quads leaving...........mexican militars/polizia/federales swarm starting grid, locked loaded full autos and yank another felix-arelleano cartel member out of a vehicle and arrest him on the spot!

a real black eye for sal fish and score international.

[notfarnow]

Did I misread the initial post? I thought he was asking about PAYING to have advertizing placed on a racecar.

Terry, if that's the case, I have started "placing" well in a local race here.

On sundays, the liquor store opens at 12noon sharp. It is very competitive, with people from all around vying to be first in. This past week, I was #1. (My win has been protested, because I went over the curb and lawn, and parked in a handicap spot.)

I still have some space left for decals


Let me know, I plan to race again this coming sunday

[GDSOB]

I was a pretty serious SCCA racer in my younger days. Ran DSR when it was still a homebuilders class. Did all the work myself with help from a couple of friends. I had some sponsors:

Machine Shop - did all my custom machining
Oil distributor - Race fuel, oil, shop supplies
Wheel & tire distributor - some tires, plus Hoosier contingencies
Fastener company - nuts, bolts & rod ends

I also had a few people throwing a few bucks my way for their name on the car. I made sure they had photos for their lobby etc, sort of like a little league sponsorship. The only sponsor committment was a car show once or twice a year.

Also built some custom parts for other cars that I was able to sell and contribute to the cause. I don't know how anyone does it now days, everything is so unfreakinbeliveably expensive.