The Business of Being a Race Driver for August 16, 2022

This week in The Business of Being a Race Driver, I bring you more curated tips and advice on how you can get the funding you need to race the way you want to race. There is advice on selling sponsored products on social media, a guide to motorsport sponsorship, dealing with sponsor bullies and the current state of motorsport sponsorship. There is also a roundup of how 11 drivers fund their racing and some available drives.

The Business of Racing

• Megan Meyer has excellent advice on How to Sell Any Sponsored Product on Social Media. “Since Facebook launched, social media has radically shifted from a digital directory to an entire metaverse, prime for social selling. As a motorsports driver, your job is more than just winning races and posing for pit photos. Your racing career also is heavily focused on being a paid influencer or a brand ambassador. Social selling, or using social media to help sell your sponsor’s products, is an important tool in any well-rounded racer’s career-building toolbox.”

• I have mentioned this before but it bears worth mentioning again. The Racing Mentor has put together an excellent (and free) Big Guide to Motorsport Sponsorship. “In this article you’ll learn how to establish yourself in a way that makes you stand out over other racing drivers, the basics of sponsorship in motorsport, what works and what doesn’t, the kind of research you need to do before you pitch for racing sponsorship, how to build relationships with potential sponsors, how to send a pitch email, and how to get your sponsors to renew.”

• Racing Mentor and Racing Pride are also offering Sponsorship Academy scholarships. “With September just around the corner and the start of Racing Mentor’s next Sponsorship Success Academy cohort, I’m pleased to share details of our 2022 scholarship for the LGBTQ+ community. We are once again teaming up with our friends at Racing Pride to offer two fully-funded scholarship places on the course, worth £649 each.”

• Have you ever had to deal with a Sponzillas? Power Sponsorship looks at How to Deal with a Sponsor that Bullies. “What is the deal here? How is it that so many sponsors are becoming better partners, while others have morphed into Sponzillas? Is the industry just attracting power mongers? Most importantly, how do rightsholders manage a relationship with someone who would rather bully than partner? It’s a minefield!“

• Sponsorship activation agency Sport Dimensions looks at the massive amount of choices that sponsors have when choosing their marketing options. “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.”

• Sport Dimensions also recently conducted an informative roundtable with SportsPro Media on the current status of motorsport sponsorship as well as what to expect in the future. “The cost of entry to modern sponsorships has dropped considerably as more flexibility is built into the system. Brands are no longer required to sign multi-year arrangements right from the start. The most successful programs still end up there but the new flexibility has allowed more brands to explore the opportunities sponsorship provides with less commitment.”

The Costs of Racing

• How you fund your racing is almost as varied as the drivers and cars racing on any track. Racing Mentor spoke to 11 drivers about how they get on track. “It’s a fact that in racing, money talks. Yet we don’t talk about money. We don’t share what our sponsorship deal pays for. We don’t say how much we pay out of our own pockets, or the hours we put into our second job. We all want to know how other drivers get on track and often wonder if everyone else gets it handed to them on a platter while we sacrifice to get to the same start line. We wanted to change that. Here, we start a conversation and talk about how drivers fund their racing. 11 drivers told us what they do. Read on and you’ll learn who works seven days a week, who delivers food on the side, who has a cool clothing brand, and more.”

Available Drives

• P1 Groupe has the following drives available. For more information, please contact them directly here.
  • 2 drives available in the two remaining rounds of the 2022 Porsche Sprint Challenge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sept. 2nd weekend and Circuit of the Americas on Sept. 16th weekend for Bronze or Silver rated drivers.  Both the new Porsche 992 GT3 Cup and Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup are available at great rates!
  • Drives available in new Porsche 992 GT3 Cup in the 2022 Porsche Carrera Cup on Petit Le Mans weekend!
  • 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.