SPONSORS HARD TO COME BY FOR DRAG RACING
By Jeff Burk
The fact that drag racing is having trouble getting and keeping sponsorship
is neither news nor a surprise. For the last couple of years Corporate
America has been bailing out of major series' sponsorships at an alarming
rate. Major auto racing series such as CART and the IRL, and minor series
such as the United Dirt Track Racers Association and the World of Outlaws
have lost or are losing corporate sponsorship without any replacements.
Now both of organized drag racing's biggest and best sanctioning bodies
are coming to grips with the problems that other racing sanctioning
bodies have had for some time. NHRA has not only lost their series'
sponsorship by Winston (with no replacement at hand), but they are increasingly
having problems even getting title rights sponsors for their National
Events. NHRA started the 2001 season with several races unsponsored,
picking up a few as the season has worn on. They have six races on the
2002 schedule with no title rights sponsors, ncluding those held in
Los Angeles (Pomona), Chicago, and Atlanta.
To make matters worse, the major sponsor for NHRA's sportsman division,
Federal Mogul, is the subject of much discussion in the business community.
Many industry newsletters and commentators have speculated Federal Mogul
may declare bankruptcy. The value of that stock has plummeted from somewhere
in the high $40 range to $.77 cents per share as of today (Sept. 26,
2001).
The IHRA has its own set of problems relating to sponsorship. Industry
sources have told me that Summit Racing Equipment will not be back as
the IHRA series sponsor for the 2002 season, opting to move more of
their resources over to NHRA where they are the major sponsor for one
race at Las Vegas and the presenting sponsor at Columbus. When asked
about the possibility of losing Summit, IHRA Bill Bader has categorically
denied it saying, "We will have Summit for a hundred years."
To make matters worse, IHRA went from having DaimlerChrysler as the
title rights sponsor for three races in the 2001 season to just one
(a Canadian race) in 2002. And it is no secret that Holley, which sponsors
a large part of the IHRA Sportsman program, is struggling.
It is obvious that as a major league motor sport, drag racing is not
delivering fans or television viewers in sufficient numbers -- or the
fans and viewers they do deliver don't have the right demographics --
for any companies that don't make tools, beer, or oil. Professional
drag racing seems not be able to attract as sponsors Fortune 500 companies
except those in the automotive related industries. Both NHRA's Tom Compton
and IHRA's Bill Bader have the unenviable task of trying to find or
replace sponsors to fund their respective businesses/sanctioning organizations.
When RJ Reynolds (Winston) announced they were leaving, NHRA took the
position that they had plenty of suitors to replace them. Tom Compton
even went so far as to say they would probably announce the winner toward
the end of the summer. As this is being written nothing has been heard.
What I had earlier been told, and what National Speed Sport News Editor
Chris Economaki printed in his column, is that some time this week NHRA
will have a meeting with their track owners -- who, according to at
least one track owner, are no longer viewed as "partners" as they were
once referred to by NHRA -- in Chicago and give them the news that they
will be expected to put up $75-$80,000 dollars per National Event for
the privilege of putting on the race.
If that report is true, you can only imagine how the likes of Bruton
Smith, who has sunk an estimated $40 million into his three tracks without
a lot of return on his investment, or the Dover Downs Entertainment
organization, which owns and operates tracks in St. Louis and Memphis,
will react to this demand to take $80,000 of the profit margin before
the first revenue dollar comes in.
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