180sxmaniac

Earlier this year at FD Long Beach I can recall discussing with Justin Tuerck the topic of sponsorship in the sport of drifting. I knew prior to our convo that him and his brother Evan competed in XDC a few years back so I posed the question to him "How come your not competing in FD? His quick response was "Money". He went on to explain how he had basically went broke and used up most of his money saved from the military on drifting. As we were talking someone from Forseberg's Camp overheard our convo and chimed in. He broke down 2 drivers for me Rhys Millen who isn't competing in FD this year and according to the guy the reason is because Rhys makes tons of money from the Hyundai commercials(40k+) as well as competing in GRC. He then broke down Corey Hosford who is sponsored by Ksport, according to this guy Corey's family has loads of money not to mention him working at the Bondurant Performance School of Driving, so for Corey competing in FD is more than affordable. Rhys decided not to compete this year bcuz financially it wouldn't have been worth it compared to his other motorsport obligations(partly explains why Tanner Foust left FD for GRC).I won't go into depths about the entire convo seeing how it lasted close to an hour,I got to thinking on my way home from FD Long Beach if Justin can't find sponsorship and his brother is a professional drifter not to mention most of the people in the DA are professional drifters, it must be tough sledding out here to get sponsorship. Let's be clear I'm not looking for sponsorship but I wrote the thread to get the POV from anyone out there who is a sponsored racer or knows about the process of becoming sponsored.

simmode1

I've heard about Ryan & Evan Tuerck but not Justin. That most suck to lose sponsorship and start falling into the depths of obscurity. Well... probably not. The guy is probably off living an awesome lift away from all the dorifto bros...

xoxide

Sponsorships are not hard to get at all. That is racers support, ie product support. Discounts. Companies love to give discounts (ranging from 15-65% of retail prices) to get their names on peoples cars they feel would be a good representation for the company.

Now "real" financial sponsorships are much more scarce. Free parts, and money is usually only available to top tier drivers (in any form of racing).

If you have two different drivers- 1 who is a top 8 level driver, but is loved by the crowd, and another 1-3rd place consistently driver who is an asshole, the company will 9 times out of 10 pick the top 8 driver because companies are looking for good role models for their companies. People who carry themselves well at the track, are looked up to, and are nice/answer peoples questions. people who go out of their way to help others.


Keeping track of your events, results, and pictures and putting them into a portfolio makes it easy to get product support deals. You really don't even need to be a "pro am" driver to obtain them, companies do like to support grassroots guys as well.

The most likely chance of someone who isn't top tier to get a sponsorship for money would be to find mom and pop local stores. Tire shops, mechanics shops, anything. A lot of times the privately owned stores do like to sponsor people. Probably wont be a large sum of cash, but even $100 bucks helps.

180sxmaniac

They all live together in New Hamp, they have their own Lawn Mower cleaning company so Justin isn't broke like homeless or anything I was more figuratively speaking.

ManoNegra

This is how things work pretty much.
The majority of drivers come from families that can afford to support their kid's dreams.
Those that don't usually have short stressful careers.

redline racer510

+1
start local and if your really good the larger sponsors will come looking for you but it isn't an ideal occupation as sponsors come and go and it can be risky financially.

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Grocery Cart

There's some solid advice here. Track time track time track time man. The better you are, the more the sponsors will come. Don't be discouraged either, not everyone is "naturally" gifted and get the same opportunities. But if you want them, go for it. No one's going to stop you. The best way to get sponsors is just to get your name out there. The more people that know you the more chance sponsors will get word.

180sxmaniac

I'm not looking for sponsorship, I was just more curious why some people get it and others don't even when the margin of skill is slim

Corbic

As the old saying goes - want to make a million bucks racing? Start with 2 million.

Generally speaking, if you want to make it in professional motor-sports (including moto-seires) you need to start around 6-8 years old and have rich parents that will bank roll your ass into your mid-20's.

Most guys on here think its about getting a baddass car and some track time, unfortunately that's the least of your concern. You need to be traveling across country every week competing at every event possible. You don't have time for work or school, so the only way to do that is be sitting on cash. One guy I know that spent some time in the semi-pro junior MX world said his parents spent around 70k a year for 3 years - and they where cheap asses. He gave up at 19 because it just wasn't going to happen and they didn't have the money to send him to Europe or anything.

A Co-worker has spent well over a quarter mil trying to help is daughter compete in pro-golfing. She actually does well in the WPGA but she never places in the top-10, which means the $2,500 purse she wins doesn't even cover the $5,000 hotel bill. He had a "heart to heart" with her this year. Time to get a fucking job.

Corbic

Because Sponsorship is advertisement.

You want someone that is going to sell your product. "Being Good" is only part of that equation. Being charismatic, being handsome and popular, being cool, working the social media, slinging brochures - these are all huge factors.

Look at Danica Patrick. Traditionally a mid-pack driver but she brings uber tons of attention. But she's obviously worth the 11 million since we all know who she is and don't have a fucking clue who placed number 3 in the last race.

Corbic

Honestly, is anyone even making mega bucks in drifting state side?

If you want to make a living racing -

180sxmaniac

that's real talk, I did karting as a hobby growing up but I never envisioned going pro with it, I did have a buddy who did karting as well growing up, he was very serious and did all the traveling every weekend as a kid and he now does pro am racing in Germany but it's a long shot for the majority but then again his family was loaded

Felipe

This Plus...



Golf chick... "but daddy...."

Dad...

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Late Night Crew #1

Gnnr

Yep, every time I watch these biographies on F1 drivers they've been racing since they were a fetus.

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!Zar!

There are VERY few backed drifters out there making money and being paid to drive.

Why? Because drifting is essentially a 'sport' (I use that term very loosely) which targets kids and poor people.

These companies are not going to flock to drifting and pour money in to a drift series. Especially when the likelihood of profitable returns is low.

Do you really think kids see JTP 'kill it' on a run, and then go out to buy a mustang and some falken azenis?

The big companies know this answer.

I mean look at Red Bull. They LOVE to support extreme sports and even they aren't touching drifting. And no, Mad Mike doesn't count. He can't afford to drift a FD tour. He can't even afford to run wide sticky tires because he can't afford the wear it causes on his transmission.

The only people begging for sponsors and factory rides are poor kids.

People with the funds to drift do drift and fund it themselves. After they have been successful, they seek out deals and sponsorships.

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GSXRJJordan

There's a few people on the site that have *real* experience with drifting sponsorships and I hope they'll chime in.

I've worked my ass off to help drivers with electrical systems (#1 cause of DNF's is electrical) since 2009, and for the last few years we're at about 25%. That means roughly one out of four Formula D cars is running my stuff.

And they all paid for it, partially at least. I can't afford to give away that much time (or the thousands in materials) for the small increase in advertising it'll give me.

There are people that can - big companies that use Formula D as a small part of their overall marketing mix (they planned on spending the money anyway). They're tire companies, consumer electronics companies, and energy drink companies - generally areas with huge profit margins, where companies are trying to drum up demand in that key "young guy" demographic where Formula D murders other sports in attendance and interaction. Grab a couple of these big companies and impress them with what you provide, and you're suddenly not losing huge sums of money to run your season.

As far as who gets sponsored - that's an interesting question. There are publicists and team managers whose whole job is to bring money in, and they get it from a variety of sources... very few of those sources follow drifting. They may have heard of it, but they're making their decision based on at least a good Powerpoint deck, and at most a good in-person meeting at SEMA/PRI/etc. Generally, how you represent yourself to sponsors has more to do with who gets sponsored than how well you finished last year (although having a few years in the series is a MUCH bigger deal than being the #1 rookie. Rookies generally have shitty seasons, if they finish the season at all).

In drifting more than any other racing series we're involved with, you have a whole populace of wanna-be's that are out there trying to be pros instead of having fun, and the "gimme, gimme, gimme" mentality is pervasive. Figure out how you can be of use to a company, represent that in an email/phone call/powerpoint, be professional, and follow through. THAT's how you get sponsored.

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SteveOO

I was redirected from a link from reddit to this thread and after reading it, this is the only truthful post, thanks for chiming in.

Keep all of the variables in mind when it comes to sponsorship, essentially whenever you are entering a sponsorship you are entering into a business partnership (i.e. I'm going to give you my hard-earned money so you can help me make more). Too many dudes out there think that getting a sponsorship is purely just driving skills, which of course a sponsor wants to see it's driver win, but you could be the best drifter in all of the world and if you don't know how to market yourself, you won't see a dime from anyone. Fortunately I was able to attend a class last year at PRI specializing in racer marketing and have been in the racing business industry for the last 4 years, but yet never once have I asked a business for a sponsorship, so I don't have a ton of first hand experience with the racer to sponsor relationship, I have rather been taught on how to market yourself as a racer to receive commercial sponsorship.

I've been looking to start a portfolio for racer marketing and am willing to take a couple of highly talented drivers who want to progress their career in the world of drifting. I'm located in FL and would rather have someone who is too, but I can work from a satellite location. To anyone who reads this and would be interested in taking their drifting career to the next level and could use a hand in receiving sponsorship money, DO NOT contact me on here, but rather send me an email at [email protected].

purpledrifter

[QUOTE=Corbic;5410210]As the old saying goes - want to make a million bucks racing? Start with 2 million.

Generally speaking, if you want to make it in professional motor-sports (including moto-seires) you need to start around 6-8 years old and have rich parents that will bank roll your ass into your mid-20's.

NOT TRUE. MY UNCLE WAS A PROFESSIONAL NASCAR RACER. HE DID NOT COME FROM MONEY--HE USED TO TELL STORIES HOW HIS FAMILY COULD NOT AFFORD HEATING SO THEY HAD TO HUDDLE AROUND THE STOVE. He too found it hard to get sponsors. But he made it. And he won a lot of races and actually made money at it. The way he did it was by using the resources he had available to him. He went to tire and rubber manufacturers and Chrysler. He asked them for thier help. They saw the potential in developing products to be used and promoted on a racecar. The way he saw it was that he had something of value to offer them, and in return they gave him what was valuable to him--resources.

Sponsors need to see how to get a return on their investment. One thing my uncle told me is that a racer's number one asset is FUN. Always show a potential sponsor how much fun it is to be a part of drifting. People will pay a lot of money for fun.

Drifting is a full time job. All racing is. Most drifters work 40 hours per week at a regular job, and another 40 hours a week at drifting. If you are not willing to work that hard, you dont love drifting enough to ever be professional.

!Zar!

Tell your uncle to sell his story to Disney.

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EnnEssEnnKAT

I would watch that movie.

DenkiMan!

As a few people on here said, knowing how to market yourself and work social media is the most important way to get recognized and be validated by companies willing to dole out major discounts or free parts. You also have to think about who attends the small event. If you think about it, grassroots drift events are where the bulk of most drivers are, not any pro-am series and clearly not FD. From what I've seen, the majority of people at grassroots events are people in the 18-28 year old range (mainly drivers but spectators aren't far off from that) - not many people in that group own shops or parts companies that can give out sponserships. Thats why you need to put yoruself out there with the events you run and build progressions.

Maybe once the "sport" or whatever you want to call it, matures into a state where that age distribution shifts more to the right, you could see more companies who are willing to give out sponserhips pour into the scene.

Also teams seem to help a lot, plenty of companies are doing team sponserships with purses for each podium finish for each team member.

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!Zar!

Visa is my sponsor.

Jesus is my copilot.

We make a great team.

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