The Business of Being a Race Driver for August 09, 2022

The Business of Being a Race Driver  for August 09, 2022

This week, The Business of Being a Race Driver looks at a wide array of things you need to be on top of as you pursue your racing dream. Daryl Curtis explains the importance of being self-sufficient, Power Sponsorship explains what not to do and Charlotte Woods looks at social media and brand integrity. All this plus the cost of racing in French F4, some available drives and more.

The Business of Racing

  • Motorsport Marketing Consultant Daryl Curtis has a great article on LinkedIn called Lesson For The Day – Become Self Sufficient! that is well worth the read. “If you are committed to living your dream of being a race car driver, or even better, a professional race car driver, then you MUST be educated on all aspects of the motorsports industry. You MUST know the ins and outs of motorsports marketing. You MUST be current on the latest motorsports industry news, the events occurring in the motorsports world, the racing series related to your type of racing. Knowledge is power. This translates to you becoming conversant and aware of the latest information and how it affects your racing, your career, your future and your strategic planning.”
  • Power Sponsorship has an informative article on How Not to Sell a Major Sports Sponsorship. While it is aimed at sports team owners, it is always important to understand what it is a team is looking at and more importantly, why a business would want to get involved in that team. As Daryl Curtis mentioned in his newsletter column I linked to above, you need to understand all aspects of the sport.
The Business of Being a Race Driver  for August 09, 2022
  • Charlotte Woods at the Athlete Brand Buzz looks at Social Media and Brand Integrity (see quote above). “And that’s the thing—when they post something they shouldn’t, often they weren’t thinking.”
  • In Save Resources With Better Options to Choose From, sports marketing agency Sport Dimensions looks at the abundance of marketing channels available to businesses and how important it is to use them wisely. “In the sports marketing and activation world, there are so many unseen hours planning, developing, vetting, testing, negotiating, checking, and re-checking of elements that go into a project it would be easy for any brand to get overwhelmed with the right direction to go. We like to think of this approach as a budget allocation, no matter what that marketing budget is. You get a new look by breaking it down visually.”
  • Megan Meyer looks at Why a Social Media Takeover is Essential to Your Sponsorship Strategy. “A social media takeover is when you use someone else’s social media platform for a specified amount of time. Actors taking over the Instagram account of their movie, teen activists taking over the Twitter of an aligned politician—there are lots of ways to do a unique crossover with a social media takeover. These usually last for just a day or a week.”
  • I have mentioned The Racing Mentor quite often here in The Business of Being a Race Driver and one of the reasons is that their website is a great source of advice and tools that you can use in your sponsorship acquisition efforts. Check out their Sponsorship Resources page for all the great tools and resources they have made available for free.

The Costs of Racing

The Business of Being a Race Driver for August 09, 2022
Hugh Barter (Credit: FFSA Academy)
  • Mygale Cars has been one of the biggest feeder series single-seater manufacturers for more than 30 years and current chassis supplier of the French F4 championship. F1 Feeder Series spoke to founder and CEO of Mygale, Bertrand Decoster, about the exciting upcoming projects for his company, the loss of British F4, and competition with Tatuus. “(It’s) absurd that a 16-year-old must pay more than 500k for a season of racing.”

Available Drives

  • P1 Groupe has the following drives available. For more information, please contact them directly here.
    • Drives available in new Porsche 992 GT3 Cup in the 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup on IMSA weekends.
    • Lamborghini Super Trofeo – both single and shared driver opportunities available with win-capable programs.
    • We have a Bronze rated driver opening in IMSA Prototype Challenge in LMP3 for VIR and Atlanta (Petit Le Mans weekend) with Silver co-driver. 2-day test coming up at VIR also available.
    • GT4 and TCA options also available.  Inquire for details.
Mark Boudreau
Author: Mark Boudreau

Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.