Marketing experts see challenges, opportunities for sprint car racing

October 30, 11:46 AMSprint & Midget Car Racing ExaminerRichard Manfredi

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As the 2009 sprint car season comes to a close, national series and local tracks face some harsh realities: the current economic crisis continues to make it harder for fans, drivers and sponsors, driving down car counts in some instances and having a crippling effect in others. Meanwhile, promoters struggle to attract new customers while trying to differentiate themselves from the other entertainment options available.

We recently spoke with several sports marketing experts with backgrounds in motorsports, who unanimously agreed that sprint car racing – and “grass roots” racing in general – has several challenges in front of it as the sport looks to establish its identity and attract new fans. However, the same experts also pointed out various advantages that sprint car racing has and opportunities that promoters can use to their benefit.

Among the many challenges the sport faces is attracting advertisers in the current economic situation. Mike Mooney is a vice president and account director for Millsport Motorsports and has previously worked as director of marketing communications for Sprint Nextel as they took over sponsorship of the lead NASCAR series from RJ Reynolds/Winston. He said that many motorsports marketing decisions are made “from the heart” because the sponsors love racing. But the current economic situation is forcing sponsors to take a second look at their spending.

“What you’re seeing at the top levels in terms of the sponsorship dollars being scrutinized or reevaluated, even for successful programs,” he said. “It’s Sponsorship 101, but a lot of times that doesn’t happen. But this current economy is forcing everyone to really sharpen their pencils and look at where the dollars are spent. And let’s face it, there’s something about motor sports where it’s an interesting intersection of passion and business.”

This sponsorship crunch is impacting motorsports across the board, but is creating a particular burden on grass roots forms of racing such as sprint car racing. Larry DeGaris is an Associate Professor of Sports Marketing at the University of Indianapolis who has done extensive work with motorsports. He says that while there is a trickledown effect that could impact sprint car racing, the current sponsorship climate could create opportunities with companies looking for smaller sponsorship deals.

“There’s definitely a ripple effect, because the big players are going to gobble up all of the sponsor money,” he said. “So if it’s a shrinking pool, there’s just less for everyone else. On the flipside you do have some bargain hunters, so the smaller sanctioning bodies benefit just because NASCAR becomes too cost-prohibitive.”

DeGaris also pointed out that organizations such as the World of Outlaws and USAC can provide much more “hands on” service for corporate sponsors than a major organization such as NASCAR.

“You focus on the business to business aspect of it, because you can do things in sprint and USAC in terms of corporate hospitality that you just can’t in NASCAR,” he said.

Jon Ackley teaches the business of motorsports at Virginia Commonwealth University, including an honors module course at VCU called "From Dirt Tracks to Madison Avenue: The Business of NASCAR.” He says that sprint car racing can benefit from regional and smaller national sponsors looking to get “more bang for their buck” with their sponsorship money.

“I always laugh when NASCAR goes to Bristol in the spring and they’re sponsored by Food Town, he said. “No one knows who the heck Food Town is outside of Bristol, TN. But they’re able to sponsor that local race, and that’s the type of sponsorship that sprint car owners teams are going to have to try and obtain.”

Sprint car racing also offers a hardcore group of fans, Ackley said, and sponsors like to be involved with fans with strong loyalty. DeGaris compared the possibility of marketing to the drivers and fans at a local level to sponsorship opportunities with NHRA drag racing.

“Along with the main NHRA race every weekend or two, you also have the weekend warriors at local tracks, where you’ve got 900 teams and 900 cars coming in,” he said. “That itself is an audience. It’s not anything compared to the 60,000 people in the stands, but certainly the level of involvement is much higher.”

The experts were divided on if the type of racing seen with sprint cars could attract the growing number of fans who are disgruntled with the length and perceived monotony of NASCAR races. Ackley said that “there is a segment of the population of the NASCAR world that is looking for better racing, more exciting racing, and I think that sprint car might be that type of product for them,” but DeGaris cautioned that because it’s a form of racing that’s unusual to most casual fans, pushing that element might have its drawbacks.

I don’t know that the racing product is the defining variable,” he said. “I think it’s more access, meaning ‘You can get a good seat.’ It’s still racing – and very good racing – which is appealing since you can’t get a good seat at a NASCAR race for a decent price.”

In this respect, DeGaris said, sprint car racing is similar to minor league baseball, which is frequently promoted through avenues other than just for hardcore baseball fans.

“It’s the stars of tomorrow, isn’t it?,” he said. “It’s affordable family entertainment, because that’s where the ticket prices are. It’s for the people who can’t afford to spend the $300 for a weekend of racing per ticket, or can only do that once a year. But if you’re talking about more creative and aggressive race night promotions, I think minor league baseball has taken a page out of racing. Here in Indianapolis you have Indianapolis Indians, who have a picnic area where you can bring your own food and eat there. That’s the type of family promotions that need to happen.”

Ackley sees the possibilities for sprint car racing to succeed in a sports TV world defined by sound bites and short attention spans. But he also cautions that the format of racing – with qualifying, heat races, dashes and features – could be off-putting for the casual fan watching a live race.

“The one problem that I probably would envision is that these races are not very long, so in one evening you might have several different heats or races and there’s a gap in activity there sort of like quarter horse racing,” he said. “We thought that quarter horse racing was going to be a real boon in my hometown area. But people found out very quickly that the races were so short and there was such as long delay between races that it was really hard to keep their interest. And that would be a real big problem for a televised audience would be to hold their interest. NASCAR’s been having problems holding the interest of even their most avid fans for three or four hours.”

While the experts had differing opinions about specifics, the general consensus is that sprint car racing promoters need to be creative and push their sport as a grass roots, affordable alternative for motorsports fans that can’t or won’t pay hundreds of dollars for one night of racing. A key goal of sprint car promoters, Mooney said, should be to tap into the passion that hardcore fans have for the sport and find ways to translate that to the casual fan.

Those fans who are out there in the small bullrings in all kinds of weather, those are the fans who are most passionate about their sport,” he said. “It isn’t about the big three days of prime time exposure. You see a lot of drivers who have families and who have jobs, who are doing this because they love it. Sprint car fans feed on this passion.”