Sponsors? How to get them, who sponsors this, etc. (Page 1 of 2)

out of the 5 races i been to (4 of which i was an actual driver) several teams had sponsor ranging from a chicken joint all the up to something a lil more pro, like say, tires wheels brakes.

i've been wanting to ask a similar version of your questions but have been holding back.

i seen in other posts people say it is easy to get a sponsor.... i call b.s. on that.
i seen some say, "you would be suprised at how willing a place is to toss you money for an a lil sticker for advertising on your ride...... i call b.s. on that also.

i would think if you had a family member that ran a business or something it would be easy in that since but then again not exactly, i say this because i have an uncle who owns/run a quizno's. no sponsor from him.....

so really what is the key ingredient that make getting a sponsor"easy"?
what did it take for those who got a sponsor to sell/seal the deal?

i wouldnt think bob's bait an tackle is gonna sponsor a car thats gonna be raceing 1200miles away but when i was at Nelson ledges the team pitted next to us was sponsored by some home town chicken joint, which, (far as i know) could been from des moine iowa for all i know.

it baffles me a bit but someone had to break the ice(thanks for doing so) on the sponsor thing before i caved in and asked the question myself.

I think we could see more sponsorship opportunities if Lemons was more publicly popular or had more media coverage.

I have a great report with the parts store by my house.  I have considered asking the manager how to go about requesting sponsorship from corporate.

Looking at the 2010 schedule, there are 5 Lemons races in our area, 2 Chump races plus I really want to do Palm Beach on New Years Eve.  Our entry fees for those races, if we do them all, will be near $10k.  A local race with a recycled car is an easy $2000 weekend just for the car expenses. 

I would like to try and find some kind of sponsorship or something to offset the expenses so the races are not a financial burden.  Many of my family members run their own businesses but I am not sure how sponsoring my car would benefit their businesses.

The big thing is to bring value to your sponsors and be able to prove it.
Vinyl on the car alone is a hard sell sometimes as the races dont garner alot of publicity.
But if you can show them a team website, hopefully with a good layout and some interesting details (build logs, etc) which will draw in viewers and offer them a sponsor logo on that site, now you are offering more value.  If you have access to your hit counters and other statistical data from a website it goes a long way toward proving the exposure you can provide.
Be sure to point out other events you may be taking the car to for test and tune, etc.  Every autocross, HPDE, or other public event where your car gets out of the garage is more visibility for the sponsor.

We haven't really started our sponsorship run yet but with 3 events, one which is run by a magazine, one which is 1500 miles on public roads, a good website with alot of traffic, and a schedule of taking the finished product to local shows, cruise nights, etc we hope to provide a real value to the sponsors that is easily demonstratable.

We have a grand total of one sponsor for our car...  A wrecking yard who pulled a light bar out for us and donated it for a couple stickers.  Done!

On the other hand, we made over $500 by holding a fundraiser.  It helps that we're raising money for a non-profit.  Our pitch was "We're raising money for us, so we can make more money for them!"

BBQ, 50-50 draw, auction (donated items, car washes by members of the team, etc), and we pulled in over $500 worth of pledged donations to our non-profit as well.

It was a ton more work than simply going into a biz and asking for cash.  We have quite a few acquaintances between our guys, which made it easy to get a good draw for our event.

If you're running into walls trying to get biz's to sponsor you, this could be an alternative.  (That's what we did)

Good luck.

When I asked my vendors for sponsorship(Auto repair shop) they all said yes but don't tell anyone. I am very customer loyal and only deal with them on there own particular items. I could probably find other vendors cheaper but in my business service comes first. Be honest and up front tell/ask them what you are seeking and be reasonable.  My auto parts store gave me all brake parts (rotors drums pads shoes hardware w/cyls and calipers) Tire store  245/50-16 $ 27.00 each. Stock/inventory store oil, filters wipers, brake fluid, paint nuts & bolts ect. Auto Wreckers,wheels,misc used parts The place I get my radiators & fuel tanks from gave me a new radiator. Don't promise any thing you can't deliver on and you will probably be able to ask in the future as well. (remember they can only say no) No body gave me any cash.

sponsors are a great concept, but difficult to realize given the "budget" nature of this race.......  sure a race shop might give you a break on the cage, hoping to get more cages for other crapboxes but thats about it....

The way I figure it......I'm the sponsor, driver, mechanic, slave, whipping boy, grease monkey, internet guru.....just about everything the "team" needs...

and the #1 thing all "race" teams need is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Be sure to tell potential sponsors that Lemons gets lots of coverage on Autoblog and Jalopnik, which have octeen quadrillion readers between them, and that they should give you a lot of money to brand your whole car as Team (insert sponsor's name here). Just don't mention the part about your car being one of 100+ entries, or that most of the sites' readers tune out that weirdo Lemons stuff in favor of articles about GT-Rs and Transformers movies.

Very well said.

Not sure if I should reference the Gawker term or the readers general bad taste for the best thing to happen to motorsports since gasoline.

heh, over 35,000 people have spent 7 minutes staring at my ass(I mean the car you sickos!) and I'm not getting anyone knocking down any doors for it, lol

lookup "DaveVsBuick" on youtube.
the video is copied over on streetfire too (search Buick 24 Hours of Lemons)
Judge Jonny put it up on autoblog and one of the guys on my Crown Vic team saw/heard about it there before i was even able to point it out to them.

Thanks to the Schumacher Taxi Service guys, especially Dave in the MR2 for the best track experience I've had to date.

Sponsors: your logo could have been on the back bumper! Ask me how!

Good driving but nothing FLASHY to grab ones attention... Besides it could be argued that everyone was just SLOW.

Sounds kind of Blackmail-ish and potentially very effective!