The Auto Racing Sponsor Database:
What it is and isn't
The database is a searchable record of "title" sponsorships in motoracing's premier categories, foreign and domestic over the past 40 years. It includes sponsorships of teams (drivers/cars), racing series and venues (race facilities).
Team (driver/car) sponsorships, a feature of motoracing that distinguishes it from the possibilities available to sponsors in most other sports, comprise the bulk of the data. A record exists for every sponsorship by a company/brand of every team driver in every year it was evident.
Automobile manufacturers, while extremely active in the sport, are considered participants, not sponsors. Thus, they appear in the database as sponsors only when engaged in the promotion of a related product or service, e.g., Mopar and Motorcraft automotive aftermarket product brands offered by DaimlerChrysler and Ford, respectively.
Every effort was made to include all important sponsors associated with a team in each year those sponsorships were officially recorded or photographically evident. Thus, there are numerous cases in which teams are associated with more than one title sponsor at a time.
The earliest database entry is the sponsorship of the SCCA Can-Am series by S. C. Johnson Wax, the ground-breaking first corporate sponsorship of a series of events in any sport anywhere in the world in 1966. In the category of driver/car sponsorships, data records begin as follows:
1968 - Indy / Champ (USAC, CART, ChampCar, Indy Racing League)
1968 - F1 Grand Prix (FIA World Driver Championship)
1969 - SCCA Trans-Am Road Racing
1970 - SCCA Can-Am Road Racing (until 1983)
1970 - SCCA F5000 Road Racing (until 1976)
1970 - Intl Road Racing Other (LeMans, ALMS, GrandAm)
1970 - NHRA Drag Racing (Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock classes)
1972 - NASCAR Cup
1975 - IMSA GT Road Racing (until 1993)
1994 - World of Outlaws Sprint Car Racing
Every effort was made to correctly identify the organization behind the brand name, or identity, under which the title sponsorship was conducted, and the business or product/service category in which it competes. More than 180 product/service categories are identified and special attention was given to non-automotive categories.
Special note: It seems clear that Indianapolis 500 competitors introduced the world to the concept of corporate or brand car/driver sponsorship, a phenomenon that evolved from the patronage of racers by wealthy enthusiasts. And, just as clearly, credit for first demonstrating the commercial potential of a car/driver sponsorship must go to the inimitable Andy Granatelli of STP Corporation, whose sponsorship/ownership exploits predate the starting point for this database.
The Auto Racing Sponsor Database: How it was assembled
In most cases, data was gathered from an entry list or the official results of a representative event in a racing series each year, e.g., the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula One or the 24 Hours of LeMans in International Road Racing-Other. In many cases, competing sanctioning body series and/or the sloppy record-keeping of sanctioning bodies, required the collection of data from a variety of race events and other sources to insure that all sponsors were adequately represented.
The Auto Racing Sponsor Database: How to use it
The database was designed to provide useful information for both the buyers and sellers of motorsport sponsorships. We suspect that sellers, operating with considerable fewer resources than their corporate brethren, will be able to make more productive use of it, however. Here are a few of the ways:
1. Prospecting. For the racing team owner -- especially one unfamiliar with where to start. He might know what a prospect list is but he doesn't know how to create one for sponsorship of his team. For him (or her), a good start would be the Business Category List in the database. Skim that list, take notes, then turn to the local Yellow Pages with a fresh point of view.
2. Appointment Setting. A prospect needs a reason for giving up time in a busy day to see a salesman. If that salesman has information about what the prospect's competition is doing, he will gladly give him some time. The information is here at hand. Search by Business Category, then select among the company's in the prospect's category for nuggets of information that will open a prospect's eyes.
3. Purchase Rationale. At some point or another, a salesman and prospect will have to try to justify the considerable sums involved in sponsorship. When his knowledge of a prospect company's needs are slim, he can bolster his case immeasurably by appealing to the "herd instinct," a tried and true technique in media sales. It begins with a line like, "Look at how many companies in your field have used racing sponsorship to...".
4. Be a Copy Cat. Roger Penske has won Indy 13 times. He always seems to have a sponsor. Do what he does; look over his shoulder, emulate his technique, maybe even steal one of his sponsors. After all, he's been doing that to other guys for years!
Thanks for the help!
We are grateful to the following individuals and organizations for their help in the assembly of this database:
Jerry Archambeault and staff, NHRA - http://www.nhra.com
Cheryl Barnes - Road America - http://www.roadamerica.com
Donald Davidson, Hall of Fame Museum - http://brickyard.com/
Eric Gilbert, et al - Motorsport.Com - http://www.motorsport.com
Wayne O'Donnell - Formula One World - http://www.formulaone.free-online.co.uk/formulaone/index.html
Stefan Ornerdal - LeMans Register - http://user.tninet.se/~aiq291w/
David Poole - Charlotte Observer - http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/sports/
Terms of Use:
1. Almost everything in the database is searchable. Just slide your mouse pointer over an item and click on it.
2. Everything in the database is available for free and unrestricted use. We've tried to format the columns so they print attractively and can become part of sales proposals. Please remember to give credit where credit is due. Our goal: To sell books.
3. The database is replete with copyrighted and trademarked names, words and phrases. In all cases, they remain the property of their respective owners.
4. This website is not an officially licensed publication of NASCAR and it does not aspire to be.
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