The Business of Being a Race Driver for June 28, 2022-Motorsport Is A Business

This week on The Business of Being a Race Driver I look at how to become a successful race driver, highlight two sponsorship courses you may want to consider, look at alternate career paths, the costs of racing late model dirt racing and more.

The Business of Racing

• In Episode 6, Enzo Mucci looks at How To Become A Successful Race Driver. You can watch the video above. “Treat your racing career like a company, and you are the CEO.”

• The Motorsport Coaching Podcast talks to Matt Payne about PR and what you need to know. In this show you’ll learn:
  • Importance of PR for you and your brand
  • How to effectively promote yourself at race meetings
  • The value in sponsorship

• Megan Meyer looks at The Difference Between Marketing Decks and Sponsorship Proposals. “If you clicked on this article because you went, “Um, I didn’t think there was a difference?!” then you are in great company! When you’re new to sponsorships, it can be easy to confuse a marketing deck and a sponsorship proposal or to just think they’re the same thing.”

• This applies not just to sponsors but the drivers seeking them out. In the article Lost Art of Listening, Sport Dimensions explain how “forgetting to listen has lead to a lack of understanding, which has generated even more noise. The cycle continues with more emphasis on faster, more fleeting digital activations.”

• MotiV8 Training is launching a new course in August called Motorsport Is A Business. You can sign up here for notice as to when the course is open for registration. It is a 6 module online program covering:
  • Setting up as business
  • Legal
  • Accounting
  • Sponsorship
  • Social Media
  • Networking
  • With lots of templates & bonuses!

• Racing Mentor is launching Cohort 002 of their Sponsorship Success Academy in September. “You will learn the step-by-step methods and frameworks needed to create a recognisable brand that makes sponsors come to you. In doing this, you’ll understand that the content you create and your consistency will lead to unexpected opportunities. You’ll leave this programme with tools, knowledge, and confidence that you will carry with you for the rest of your career.” You can sign up to receive notice of the launch here.

• If you are race driver in the UK, Motorsport UK have advised that removal of Competition Licences when disqualified from holding or obtaining a Road Traffic Act driving licence.

• Autoweek has a great article on how, after Matt McMurry set a Le Mans record at 16, he is now engineering a new career path while he determines what is next for his racing career. “While he was racing, he graduated high school in his hometown of Phoenix, and then continued juggling books and racing schedules until in 2020, he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in aerospace engineering from the University of California-Irvine. These days, he’s got what would appear to be a dream job for a racer who just happens to have an engineering degree—again, a rather small club, to be sure. McMurry works as a vehicle dynamics engineer for Honda Performance Development in California. There he’s part of the engineering team working on the new Acura LMDh challenger for the 2023 IMSA season. He also plays a key role, logging hours on the race simulator for the project.”

The Costs of Racing

• Performance Racing looks at the competition costs of dirt late model racing. “Some racing series were already drifting higher before the shortages hit. Dirt late model racing, for instance, has been an increasingly expensive enterprise. It’s a great show, of course, and getting a 900-horsepower engine to hook up on a dirt surface requires much more technical sophistication than many fans appreciate. Numerous racers strive to reach the World of Outlaws Late Model Series or the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, but it takes increasingly big bucks to tour in the big leagues.”

• If you were inspired by last weekend’s Pikes Peak, Grassroots Motorsports looks at Climbing Pikes Peak in under 10 minutes on a Grassroots budget. You can watch their video about it above.