Can anyone tell me why out of 16 Indy Lights cars entered in Edmonton, there are only 2 American drivers?
Road to Indy?
Can anyone tell me why out of 16 Indy Lights cars entered in Edmonton, there are only 2 American drivers?
Because american drivers are lazy! they don't want to work for there ride and fight for the sponsorship. Also the euro is stronger than the dollar and it takes less to race here than it does over there.
Flame away!
quote:
Because american drivers are lazy! they don't want to work for there ride and fight for the sponsorship. Also the euro is stronger than the dollar and it takes less to race here than it does over there.
Wrong. I hardly believe that American drivers are lazy. I know many who work tirelessly on sponsorship, working out to be the most physically fit they can be, etc. I see alot of Canadian drivers and you can't tell me that its because the Canadian dollar is strong.
But, I will agree....it's MONEY!
The fact is that companies in other countries support their athletes. They are very nationalistic. Ever try to get a Canadian company to sponsor you if your not Canadian? Never happen.
We need more American companies to get on the band wagon.
Only 4 of the 9 full time drivers in the Championship class of USF2000 are American.
Only 5 of the 10 full time drivers in Formula Mazda are American.
Hey, nothing against drivers from other countries. I think its great, but let's see some more Americans as well.
11 out of 35 drivers in the so called "Road to Indy" is pretty poor. That's less than 1/3.
Last edited by ASRF1000; 07.21.11 at 4:14 PM.
Were not talking about the physical side I also no I lot of driver that put the time in the gym but not on the sponsor side. Infact alot of them don't know how to approch a sponsor. Mostly because us as parent when they were coming up throught the karting or quarter midgets didn't teach it to them. Some did but the majority didn't.
You also failed to mention that the Formula Mazda Champion (Conor Daly) was awarded a Indy lites deal but opted to take his money to Europe.
I think the qeustion should be sldo hoe do the series ie indy car make it more appealing for driver to stay.
What?Originally Posted by allof6
As far as Connor goes, I certainly can't speak for him, but I would imagine that road racing is more to his liking than ovals and if you're talented enough, Europe is where its at. Gee, maybe you're argument about it costing less to run over here didn't concern Connor.
Last edited by ASRF1000; 07.21.11 at 5:18 PM.
$
BINGO!
It's all about the mighty dollar. No scholarship ladder program is going to get you there.
american drivers
Jon,
You hit the nail on the head.....american companies have no national pride.....and no interest in promoting american drivers. Lots of that exist in other countries.....and their drivers benefit greatly from it.
Unfortunately, the same is true of most of our top level race teams.
Looking forward to your new F-1k series with great expectations.
Jerry Hodges
JDR Enterprises
There are probably a lot of reasons. I don't think it because American companies have no national pride. Really? They run a business. It also has to make financial sense.
The top rung of the ladder is a shadow of its former self and is probably a relatively tough sell for the marketing guys to sell to the business side of the companies. There is a trickle down to everyone else. If the end product is seen as weak, it is tough for a company to sponsor the support series when they won't get the return on their investment.
Back in the day, CART was big and the sponsorship worked. The Atlantic series was big too with TV coverage and large fields. The ProMazda series had TV coverage and huge fields and was fun to watch to see who was coming up. Where are those series now? A few of those guys have made it, but it was tough unless your Dad had an Indy team already. Look at how tough it was for Matos, Hichcliffe, and Hildebrand.
The support series now is a weaker product for the motorsports enthusiast, imagine what it is for somebody investing their marketing dollar. Am I going to get TV coverage? No. ESPN TV time? No. Even SPeedTV gives marginal coverage. I personally am not a big fan of the Indy Lights car itself. Preferred the Swift O16, but thats just me. In Europe, there is just more interest in our style of motorsports and sponsorship makes more sense. Here, not so much. Nascar products are taking much of the available sponsorship and basically all the coverage away, but even they are feeling some of the pinch. Hopefully it gets better, but only time will tell.
Ken
Ken,
You are correct in that many of the support series get relatively very low coverage. But there are other avenues in motorsport that are over looked by teams that don't have the experience of what sponsorship really entails.
Long gone are the days where a logo on the side of a racecar quantified a sponsorship investment. Sure there is a reason for this (brand awareness) but to what extent if there are few watching it. But there are other ways in which to capture market share.
Especially at the lower support series level, the value of sponsorship is much less and therefore the amount to can expect is less as well. But, this is where you have to be creative. At-track hospitality can be a huge benefit to some companies, either as an entertainment forum to invite clients, which provides an electrified venue that many have never experienced. It can make clients feel like they are part of the corporate team. Promotional retail displays to bring attention to products and services. Marketing and advertising campaigns utilizing the race theme to promote products and services, etc.
Business to business development has become the most effective way to obtain motorsport sponsorship, as it creates a quantifiable return on an investment. These take time and a bit of work, but really create a solid connection to a team.
The fact is many companies do not understand the many ways in which sponsorship of a race team/driver can be utlizied to their benefit, and even more there are many teams/drivers who don't know how to build these programs, or how to present them to companies.
Racing series at the lower levels need to make this learning area a part of their series. Small seminars about how to market and sell sponsorships will be part of our series in 2012. I think it should be in every junior league in motorsports.
dollars and sense
I have allways thought kids growing up here have more options when it comes to sports. You can showcase your talent in school at sports and rise to the top without a rich daddy or sponser. NFL MLB NHL NBA are full of players that came from nothing. Racing is $$$ Overseas racing is 2nd. to futbol. Our sport is littered with guys with talent but just flat ran out of $$$. What we need is more Penskes and Gannasis and Hendricks that have the means to field cars for the up and comers.Just my 2 cents
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