2004 Texas short track racing

[racerjim2]

Ntex,

Its nice that you think racing is a "hobby" the guys I compete with in the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series that race on the east coast race for a living When ask what do you guys do besides raceing the answer was "hunt and fish" and when ask what do you do for a real living the guy looked at me like I was crazy and replied "race" he also had two full time employees and two guys that showed up on the weekends.I don't classify this as a "hobby" fishing and hunting are hobbys. When was the last time someone paid you to do one of those hobbys?Getting paid is what changes it from a hobby to a business no matter how small and seasonal it may be.Short track racing in Texas need creditablity and if you refer to it as a hobby it will never get its due.Heck if the IRS recognises it as a business shouldnt we?

[StaceysMom]

Mary Ann,

 

Do you feel that the tracks should absorb the cost and money loss to let in a list of 50 employess and sponsers provided by a touring series?

[tqj3]

Racerjim2-

You are doing a number of things right, but why did your sponsor decide not to stay with you? If he hasn't said, ask him. And, did you (could you?) use him as a reference in talking to another sponsor?

Racing to win, and winning, is important to you. But to a sponsor, selling his product or service is what's important. He really doesn't care if you win or lose (though some will prefer to be associated with a winning team) as long as you help him sell his stuff.

How did you publicize all those personal appearances? How many people showed up to see you or your car? What incentive (discounted tickets, chance to get your kid's picture taken in a race car, sign up to win a prize) did you offer to get people who aren't (yet) race fans to come look at a race car?

Did you send press releases to the appropriate media far enough in advance of the appearances for them to cover, or, at least, mention the event? Do you have an ongoing relationship with any of the media people (TV, radio, newspaper)? Do you send three press releases for each race: an announcement of when and where you'll be racing next, a race story focusing on you (hey, it's your release) with results, and the points standings?

How many of your fellow racers are even doing appearances? How many are sending out press releases? How many are household names in the area?

Every football team from high school (and some middle and junior high schools) on up is sending boatloads of information to the local media. Some send information to media that aren't in their area, as the Minnesota Vikings, for instance, sending media guides to Texas media; or the Dallas Cowboys sending them to the New York media. (I'm guessing about the Cowboys, but I have a Vikings guide I got from one of the Austin stations.)

The guys on the East Coast are pros? Yes, they are. They also have a race track every hundred miles, they can race in front of pretty good crowds that get their shows over at reasonable times, and they've had 20 years of promotion by tracks, teams and drivers (following the NASCAR model) while Texas track promoters were bragging that they could make all their money off the back gate.

Guys like Freddie Query have been around a long time, and they can make a living racing because there are a lot of opportunities and they and the sport have a high enough profile that sponsors are willing to work with them. (Even NASCAR teams don't make money just off the purses.)

It can be that way here, and some of the track owners are trying to get there. But how many drivers are willing to put one dime of money into anything other than getting to the track and going fast? How many series are promoting themselves?

And how can you be a pro without fans in the stands to pay to watch you race, to encourage sponsors to get involved because of all the people in the stands? If you don't have those fans, where does the money come from?

From your pocket, right?

If you want media, do what every other successful sport does: make it easy for them to cover you. Bombard them with information about you and your team, insist that your track do the same, and encourage even your competitors to do it. That's what it will take to get the attention of sportswriters and sportscasters who have newsrooms filled with information about every stick and ball sport in the country, sent to them by stadiums, teams, schools and even some individual players.

I don't know what your racing background is, but $2500.00 sounds like a pretty good amount for a local racer, and a lot more reasonable than asking 50 grand from a sponsor to sponsor a ROMCO car that appears in front of relatively few spectators in a series without adequate promotion.

I'd have put the whole $2500.00 into promotion, at least the first year, and it sounds as if that was about what you did.

If it didn't work, it might have been that the sponsor wasn't suitable for racing in the first place, that he got caught by the downturn in the economy, that he suddenly decided he just didn't like something about the way you parted your hair, or even that he just didn't see $10,000.00 in return business. As I said, if you don't know, ask. But next time, do more promotion.

I know you can't make a difference alone. I can't, either, and neither can Chuck Licata. We're limited by how many clients we can handle while still doing a good job for them, and if we both had all we can handle, it wouldn't be enough to make the kind of impact the stick and ball guys get every day, it would just be a lot better than where we are.

But NASCAR was in that same position a little over 50 years ago, and they ultimately made it work.

Just remember, we're in the entertainment business. People watch people play sports, they don't watch teams or cars. If they don't have some kind of emotional stake in who wins, they don't care. That's why the successful sports are successful: they've made heroes out of their participants, promoted them, told the world about them, made people care.

A lot of people care about Super G and Smoke. NASCAR grows by promoting itself and getting the sponsors to promote their drivers, by making more people care about Super G and Smoke and Little E and all the rest.

Who cares if the racing is good? It's good, if my guy wins. He can win by a foot, or win by a mile, but if he wins, it was a good race. Richard Petty says he was so successful with the fans not because he was everybodys' favorite driver, because nobody is everybodys' favorite. He was successful because he was a lot of folks second-favorite driver, as in, "If David Pearson doesn't win, I'm pulling for Petty."

And from that, he became a legend. It's all in making people care whether or not you win or lose. If you don't care who wins the Super Bowl, you probably won't watch it. You've got to have some stake in it, even if it's just having a bet down.

You have to be involved. All fans have to be involved. If they're not, they stay away. It's that simple, and that difficult.

[supertx]

stacysmom

i would like to answer what you ask mary ann. First off i never saw 50 people with TSRS.The second thing is if the track is doing there job there not losing anything by letting officals and sponsors in unless your track is trying to make there money off the back gate again off the racers instead of getting out and promoting and putting people in the grandstand. The third thing is all these people buy cokes and hot dods t-shirts etc. so they are spending money at the track. this is my thougths not mary anns

[gasman]

The tracks have always gone out of their way to take care of sponsors. However, every sponsors, neighbor, friend, brother in law, cousin, sister, mother, aunt, uncle, step bother and more wants a free ticket because they know a sponsor. Everytime I invite someone to the track, the first thing they ask is "do you have any free tickets?'. I usually tell them hell, I pay my own way in and reach in my pocket and offer them $20. They will always turn it down and be there because you were willing to pay. The track needs paying customers to stay open, not free loaders.

[Josh42]

Here's an idea. What if the track gives some tickets to a local radio station to give out on air. To me that would be like a 2 for 1 deal cause the radio station is giving the tickets away to a possible new person whos never been to the track and there getting talked about all the time when the dj's give the tickets away. Maybe do something like my father has said before where the racers get a package deal of tickets for the stands at like 20 bucks for like 10 tickets. The driver can give those 10 tickets to fans, sponsors, friends somebody. Yeah you figure you got 10 people comin in the gate free, but look at the money they spend at the concession stand, beer stand, soveniers (spelling). I try to promote the tracks I race at all the time but the biggest question I get is either can you get me some tickets or how much does it cost to get in. An frankly when you tell someone to come watch you run and then you tell them it will cost about 50 to 60 bucks for their family to get in the door it scares them off. What I dont understand is how can tracks in the midwest and northeast and southeast charge like 5 to 8 bucks to get in the door and those tracks are runnin fine and there chargin twice that here and are hurting. It doesnt make sense to me that they are chargin more to get in but aint makin any money. I remember back when longhorn was open every friday and saturday there would be an add in the sports section for the races that weekend. I didnt even see that for thr when the bigshot was goin on. Mix 94.7 talks about THR everyonce in a while because their morning show producer is a big fan of nascar and he likes racing, but he didnt knwo about THR until I called in one morning and told him about it. I was gonna even let them use my ARTS truck for a deal on their radio station but the ended up using a guys asa car. I was gonna let them use it not only to get my stuff out on the air but also get a chance to talk about local racing.

[gasman]

Josh,

Use the old trick, reach in the pocket, pull out $20. It works 90% of the time. If $50 or $60 scares them off, they are not a good potential customer in the first place because that is what it will cost them to be a customer.

[Kathy]

Hey Josh 42,

 

I like that idea about giving some tickets to the radio stations. I am going to pass it on to Brian. Hopefully he will like it to.

 

Gasman,

 

I like what you said too. I know what you mean about everyone wanting free tickets to get in. Seeing that I work there (THR) my friends all ask me for free tickets all the time too.

[nascar_36_latemodel]

We as businessmen or hobbyist must take care of our team and our sponsors. On a weekly basis we should go see our sponsors and give them 4 tickets to the next race, weather they come or not they can give the tickets away to one of there clients or a customer. You never know you might get a fan from this action. This give you a chance to see your sponsor and to show him you care about him. The money will have to come out of your pocket, but you can get more money into your car by taking care of him. You must first take care of your sponsor and inturn the sponsor will take care of your team.

[racerjim2]

Hey ,what does it coast to go to the movies $8.00 per adult to get in $5.00 for a soda $3.00 to $4.00 for popcorn and a$1.50 for a .50 cent candy bar. The rodeo is advertising a $66.00 deal for 4 tickets ,4 hotdogs, and 4 sodas thats $16.50 per person not a bad deal and they even are flooding the TV with adds.

TQJ3 I'll get back to you on the sponsor thing when i have more time to type.

[Josh42]

Kathy I was thinking the idea of the tickets to the radio station you have to do it on a weekend when like the tams or arts or romco is there. An throw in like they winners get qualified to get vip tickets into the suites and one member of the group gets to be like an honorary starter of the main attraction that night. Get the people into the action that way they will want to come back for more. Thats another thing along with giving out tshirts and stuff out of the program have one deal be that the person gets to start a race of their choice because if you can get the spectators involved like that it will bring them back for more. Do more autograph sessions where the cars come on the front stretch where it be the street stocks or late models or even the hobby stocks. Whatever happened to the car tug-o-wars, and rollover contests, what about finding a couple of monster trucks bring them down and after the races have them crush cars in the infield, kids love monster trucks. Yeah the tracks need to do some advertising but you also have to get the spectators excited about whats goin, if you were to bring in a special attraction everyonce in a while to give a change from the seeing the same cars goin in circles. I here that a lot too is that "why would I want to come and watch a bunch of cars go in circles?", I tell them the close racing, good atmosphere, family fun. But I would like to tell them one time that hey there gonna have these monster trucks crushing cars or there gonna have freestyle motocross exhibition at intermission, something like that to grab there attention. But I know one thing if you can get the fans involved in whats goin on they will come back.

[debwill]

Kathy, etc.

 

I talked to one of my DJ buddies the other day who works for one of the popular C&W stations here in SA. She wasn't sure, but she thought the tickets would have to go hand-in-hand with a purchased ad. Anyway, when she returns from her cruise this week, we'll talk more and include the promotional person at the station. The good news is that she is a real good friend to both Chuck and me. So, I know she's willing to help in whatever way she can (won't help you much in the Austin area though). And she actually came to the races several times years ago, so she knows what it's all about.

 

I'll keep you (and everyone else) in the loop on how that goes. Maybe one of the more experienced media folks (Chuck, tqj3, Nick, Jay, etc.) knows more about the radio station stuff?? I'd appreciate any input from y'all.

[jracer98]

Regarding radio stations...

 

I'm looking at a picture on my office wall. It is a victory lane picture. There is a big sign on the ground leaning on the car. It has a radio station's logo on it. It also says track champion on the sign. There are 2 pretty girls holding a banner sign on 10 ft poles behind the car. The banner has the station's name and logo on it and is maybe 12 ft long. Behind that is the station's suv with the same logos. There are some station "suits" including the owner in the picture.

 

Can you guess which station got most of the tracks paid advertising? It was my opinion that the track got "added" value for their dollar because the station was also "invested' in the results as an active participant.

 

Just fyi. If anyone wants more detail, e or pm me.

Jay

[ChuckLicata]

More regarding radio stations, media, et all...

 

I have actual experience working on both sides of the sidewalk--race track working to get radio station promotion, and vice versa...This can actually be viewed as a "capsule" of the point that myself and a few others were trying to make at the last FASCAR meeting..no one is to be offended, I'm just trying to give some real-life experience here...I'm sure TQ can/will add some of his experiences in this field, too...

 

Giving free tickets to radio stations to give away on the air can be a good thing...however, these days most stations WANT some PAID advertising to give stuff away any more--I know this because that's the edict given to me for The Motorsports Zone, we can't GIVE AWAY anything (unless approved by radio station management, and that basically takes an Act of Congress) unless the company has bought some advertising...Now, realize that there may be SOME stations that will give away stuff for free, but now that most stations are part of a large corporation (KVET-AM is owned by Clear Channel, which also owns 5 other stations in this market and WOAI, among others, in San Antonio for example)..in fact, I was made aware of a sales associate who was close to getting fired for giving away something on the air because (1) the product wasn't for a paid advertiser and (2) he/she didn't have previous approval from management (which he/she wouldn't have received anyways, as it turns out)...you may be able to get smaller (and lower-rated) stations to do some "freebie" stuff for you...

 

Second...even if you do get a station to give away freebies, you really should have a "battle plan" to market the track, not just give away tickets and that's it...you may get a few fans out for a night, but you're barely scratching the surface of a marketing/promotional plan...and, that translates into the inevitable--a GOOD marketing/promotional plan is going to cost some money...

 

Just my 2 dollars worth (sorry, but inflation has "2 cents worth" now being "2 dollars worth)..LOL

[racerjim2]

Chuck the info you continue to provide is invaluable to the racers and other intrested partys that frequent TSZ, please if thare is anything else that you can provide to help educate those of us that have not had the real life experences dont hesitate. That goes fore you TQJ3,Bruce M,DebWill, Reb and anyone else that I may have omited.What we can understand won't hurt any feelings.

[racerjim2]

TQJ3,

On the spronsorship thing.At the time I had the sponsor the San Antonio newspaper had started a "Motorsports Beat" section . I had sent a press release that were published about the sponsorship I recieved. I did not have a media person to help share the load and a couple of the marketing companys in SA were unwilling to take me on as a client.Unfortunatly with doing the huge number of car shows working on the car, racing, working at my regular job, and taking care of my elderly mother that cannot see that was the only press release untill the season ending release that was not published.Of course I am not experanced at prepairing press releases and this is part of the problem, without having contacts working in the local media getting the realeses to the correct people was a problem.Another problem was the SAS track manager( not the current mgr.)had written several inflamatory letters to the sports editor and finaly managed to get the "Motorsports Beat" page pulled from the paper. I feel they were infulental in having a longtime freelance motorsports writer let go by the newspaper.The final blow to me having the sponsor renew its support was the promotions girl working for my sponsor was forced to quit due to her husband beeing relocated to Arizona.I was renewed for the year after she left and the new promotions girl did not like my program and was hard to work with. She withheld information on upcoming events sometimes untill the day before they were to be held. I requsted information about events on a monthly basis and knew that they had a major event in November that the new girl was not relaying.One day the company manager angerly called me at work asking why I was not at an event that she had needed me to go to.At that point I did not offer any excuse except that I did not know I was suposed to be there(I had checked on the event the week before) and was told that she would get back to me with a date and details.In hindsight I supposed I should have jumped the chain of command at the begining of the November and ask to speek to company manager .this I am surethis event cost me my sponsor. The new promotions girl has since been fired from her position at my former sponsors business and I have not gone back to them in an attempt to rescue the relationship.I have now cut my racing back to a limited program because of lack of sponsorshipand now realizing the lack of help in the promotion department. I feel I did a good job in helping to promote My sponsors business and am not complaining , timing coupled with bad luck and inexperence just got in the way.I could have benifieted from you or Chucks services at that time and I hope the racers that have sponsors and those that dont will relize that the promotion end of racing is what make the racing posiable.I on the other hand do not advocate spending your entire budget on promotion but I have been told that for every dollar spent on racing a matching dollar shoud be spent on promotioni f the program is to be sucessiful. Sorry for the long sob story but I promised that I would get back to you.Looking back I see mistakes That were made but at the time I was to involved to step back and see what was going on.

[tqj3]

Jim-

I apologize as well for not getting back to this sooner, though I read it when you sent it.

 

As I said, it looks as though you did a lot of things right, and my comment about putting all of the sponsorship into promotion referred to teams just starting out.

 

You did the appearances, but without publicity generated either by yourself or by the sponsor, which reduces the effect of the promotional effort. It's true that you should probably spend an amount equal to the sponsorship to promote the association, but that can also be worked out with the sponsor: "If you'll look at it as a $5,000.00 sponsorship, but keep $2,500.00 to devote to publicizing our teaming up, we'll get a better bang for the buck."

 

That's a particularly good argument for an unknown team, because it gives the sponsor more control over how valuable the sponsorship is. (If you look at what major sponsors such as UPS and Budweiser spend on ads featuring their drivers, you can figure out pretty quickly that they believe it's worth it to spend several times what they pay the race team on support promotion. As Eddie Gossage said, "NASCAR doesn't promote the drivers, it only promotes NASCAR. The sponsors promote the drivers."

 

I can sympathize with both the obstinate promotions person and the problems with the local newspaper. We've run into both problems, as well as the problem of other racers (who have done absolutely nothing to inform anyone in the press of their existence) calling the newspaper after a story is run on another racer to scream at the sports editor about "Why did you do a story on so-and-so, and not do a story on me?"

 

The short answer is, because the other racer did some PR work, and the driver who is complaining has never tried to contact anyone in the media, other than to complain after someone else (who DID put forth the effort and was rewarded) gets some ink.

 

Many people, even those in advertising and marketing, are very unaware of just how valuable the stock car fan market is. Some are convinced we are a bunch of knuckle-draggers with minimum-wage incomes living in trailer houses. You fight that battle by showing them the truth, and the demographics of the stock car audience.

 

The thing to remember is, there is very little value in any racing series other than NASCAR in putting someone's name on the side of a car. So if you have any kind of sponsorship, it won't be very good for the sponsor unless you do something other than paint his name on the car.

 

It's like the old business adage: If business is good, advertise; if business is bad, advertise.

 

If you want a sponsor, publicize; if you have a sponsor, publicize. Any one who has a sponsor and isn't doing anything to make the sponsor's money well spent won't have one very long.

 

As far as the newspaper is concerned, remember that they have many more stories than they have space (whether newsprint or broadcast). They are primarily going to put everything in that will get them in trouble if they leave it out, and leave out anything they can leave out without getting into trouble.

 

Because racers and race fans tend to complain to each other, and not (in a polite and gentle way, of course) to the media about the lack of coverage, most news outlets believe we are few in number.

 

Oh, they know NASCAR is big, but that's in Ft. Worth, not San Antonio or Austin. This is a "stick and ball sport" area. The only solution to that misconception is for us to write, call and email (politely, politely) to commend them on what they do print about local racing, and to suggest that they might do just a little more.

 

Good luck.