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A word for our sponsors: 30th December 2010

A Eurodragster.com reader asked me a very good question and I thought it might make an interesting Blog entry to answer. The question was: it might seem to an outside observer that racers build cars which they can't afford to run and then expect sponsors to pick up the tab. Why should they do so? Aren't racers in fact just asking for someone else to finance their hobby?

Very good question, but there is a lot more to sponsoring Bennett Racing than them paying for our hobby. Yes to an outsider it's a hobby, but to us it's a full time job, well a full time job times three as we have the three cars. We easily spend more time on the cars than anything else. So a hobby yes, but a very serious, highly obsessed full time one. Sponsoring Bennett Racing is a massively powerful marketing tool that many companies could use to raise either their brand or company awareness to thousands of motorsport fans around the world. And I say around the world as even with the Relentless altered we had exposure in the USA, Australia, all over Europe and obviously the UK. So going into an FIA class this will give even more exposure worldwide.

In terms of our actual sponsorship, our budget each year is probably made up by under 10% from sponsors. The rest we ran on mainly through prize money thanks to the NFAA wins. This was a huge help. Other budget comes from parts sales. We had one guy come up to us at a show and really believed we were rich! I quickly explained we wasn't, our car is and always has been spotless, we pride ourselves on it. He was shocked, he really thought we had money coming out of our ears, we don't sadly, we put all of our effort into the cars, not our lorry or pits or shirts, we make the car the best we are able to and I don't think we did too bad with it so far, a 6.42 early shut off at only 191 mph. There was so much more in this car, which we will get to show next year. Also remember this is still a Big Block Chevy engine too, which in realistic terms and power terms is inferior to a hemi, simple as, but I kind of like that, I like that fact that we have what should have been slower but run pretty well in my eyes.

We do well with sponsorship and don't get me wrong I completely appreciate all of our current and previous sponsors, and they know this, we do however get varying levels, what I mean by this is that some may read a new sponsor news on Eurodragster.com and think we're getting more money, sometimes this is not the case, sometimes its product sponsorship, which is a big help, it might not sound it, but as an example say we had to buy some new lorry tyres, OK, cost of say £300 for argument's sake, if we can get product sponsorship then they cost us £0. So it is a big help and always welcomed and earnt.

Also with our current seventeen sponsors comes a massive amount of work on our part, people sometimes forget that yes we do have lots of sponsors and always ask how (not going to tell you!) but I work very hard to keep them. Pretty much involves keeping them updated with the team, what are we doing, why we are doing it, when were winning, why were not winning, giving them PR for news they may have and mentioning them as and where we can. It also comes with some harsh E-Mails and sometimes difficult phone conversations, one that springs to mind was when the NFAA had seven rounds, this was great, more exposure for our sponsors, this was then cut to five, OK but one sponsor went mad, how and why they asked? Surely this means less exposure for my company, less time out for the car. So yes I had to explain the best I could and in the end we made the time up by going to a couple of extra events, the Flame and Thunder Show one of them. So yes we love our sponsors, they are a bigger support to us than they themselves realise but they do come with lots of hard work.

I love it though, I really enjoy building up relationships with sponsors, it takes time but there are some that have supported us for years and we have visited them, they have come to the workshop, one even drove to the track and made us a fry up! It went down well believe me. Bottom line is, it's hard work, I never stop looking for other sponsors though and I now can't help driving or walking anywhere, if I see a logo then I make contact, I ask, some say no way, some say not this year, some say yes. Times are tough I don't really need to write this but a lot of racers are struggling, but not just racers, companies too, one of our sponsors (I won't name them) is really feeling it at the moment but I hope even if in a small way that Bennett Racing can give them some customers and help them. After all that is all its about, they give us money or product in return for logo and brand exposure and new customers. Simple as. Well, not quite.