Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

All  good points made here , however just my opinion WRG has not done enough for its sponsors , more then likely the new sponsor will come from within ,such as  car sponsor American Racing who sponsor Kerry Madsen's car. Ben Geisler has really never gone to outside of  the car sponsor's to land a marquee  name. It would be great if Mr. Lucas got involved but highly unlikely with  WRG unless some key plans are made to benefit Lucas Oil Products. While our small dirt tracks may  only hold 3,000 on the average , our fans  are more loyal  then most bigger venues or other sanctioning groups which is a point  to be made to any new prospect .

Bad Boy Buggies

While I agree our fans ns are more loyal, the problem is you have to have data to show to a big company.  Studies like that cost $$$ and have you ever seen them talking to people having questions answered to get feedback?  I havent' at any event I've ever attended.

No company is going to just "take their word for it" that our fans are more loyal.  (and when it comes down to it, STP probaly realized that the same people go to a lot of the races, so the # of fans isn't as great as it seems on the surface either.

Sadly, I believe you are correct that ehy will go after a current car sponsor (why change now, same thing happened with Pennzoil and STP).

I know this is stupid and trivial, but I hope they jazz the car up a little.  Steve's paint scheme was boring as hell.

^^^ agreed for what was supposed to be the kings retirement run that car didn't stand out, look special, and looked boring as heck

as for stp leaving, eh the contract was up and let's be honest if they hadn't had left a lot of the people on here would've complained that the woo and the wrg were being too complacent.  I'm sure they will find a new sponsor for the year and if not then heck it will truly be an "outlaw" series

ive seen the design for it and its nothing crazy its clean and simple.

I'm a big supporter of the WoO, but I can't see this as a good thing. STP was a great sponsor to have, it was associated w/ motorsports, and I think in a way elevated the series by associating with it.

Oh well, the show will go on.

Alas.

Allow me to clarify.  I don't need a seizure inducing, wild looking car.  A lot of times a simple, clean scheme looks awesome, but Steve's car did nothing for me.  I think it was the mixture of the black and maroon.  It didn't seem to go together.  

Just to be clear, Clorox sold the STP and Armor All brands in 2010 and the Armoured Automotive Group is a stand alone company in the ownership of STP and Armor All Products.  http://investors.thecloroxcompany.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=509408

So Clorox is not a part of this conversation.

Its similar to Kinsers winter heat car just with red in there.

Agreed, Steve Kinsers car never did much for me either.. Bummer.

When in doubt, throttle it out. 

I think when everybody sees it the majority of people will like it. Almost reminds me of his Snap-on car when he drove family car.

Monster Energy World of Outlaws live on FoxSports 1. Get Shaheen and Doty back together, bring those monster girls in and go live every Saturday night. Put Dianna Dahlgren on the flagstand to start the races and cha-ching, you got something. Heck they could even bring in the Flying Freckle, I get a kick out of his comments.

WoO needs a solid sponsor who is in it for the long haul not 2-3 years.

Can WoO survive financially without a sponsor?

Personally I could care less about how the cars look. I remember the days when some top cars would show up still dirty from the last race. They weren't pretty but they were fast.  A quote I heard at Knoxville back in the 70's was "the California cars are shiny and nice looking, but they aren't the fastest".

Good point.  It's impossible to prove an intangible and reminds me of other associations besides racing I've had during my more than six decades.  Everyone thinks whatever they're associated with (fishermen, hunters, street rodders, name your interest) are the best people on the planet.  Sprint Car fans think of themselves in that way and think of themselves as the most loyal and family oriented or whatever point they're trying to prove.  Meanwhile on the other side of the pit area the Late Model and Modified folks are thinking the same thing about their deal.  When all is said and done we're still a small niche group that would appeal more to a racing industry sponsor than a fortune 500 advertising executive.

I'm not knocking Sprint Car racing but on the other hand I've been watching it since 1960 and in some ways it was more popular among the masses then than it is now.  I saw full 20,000 seat capacity grandstands at our State Fair for ten days straight every August.  Front page headlines from the races in our local paper and features on local news channels weren't uncommon in the early 60's.  If anything from my perspective in a lot of ways the average non-race-fan is less familiar with Sprint Cars than they were back then. Last summer might have changed that for a brief time in a negative way but the masses have moved on to their next train wreck.

I'm comfortable with our niche though, if it ever takes off with the masses the popularity will raise the prices to the point where I couldn't afford to go.  It seems that the older I get the more young folks with big ideas of how to market  the sport and bring it to the next level have been left behind by reality.  An interesting observation is that when the economy tanked car counts dropped while at the same time social media and internet video really took off.  In some local classes I see half the cars we saw ten years ago and 10x the "reporters covering dirt track racing".  Then I glance up into the stands and there are a third fewer fans than there were ten years ago at a lot of weekly shows.  That isn't due to a lack of effort or ability, fact is no matter how talented a marketeer is they still can't squeeze cash out of an empty wallet. 

Looking around at all motorsports there are many varieties of competition that are all striving for the same limited opportunities for corporate support.  Some forms of the sport have more television and more appeal to young people than Sprint Car racing and are playing out to thousands more people in arenas and stadiums.  Monster trucks and motocross pack stadiums with crowds bigger than any Sprint Car race for one off stops on their stadium tours.  They have television packages and pack their venues everywhere they go.  What can Sprint Car racing offer an advertising executive to ensure that more people will be exposed to their product or service than those groups that can come in with a portfolio of proven stats?  

I'm not the smartest guy around but one thing I've got going for me is being around for a lot of years.  Those are my observations in my lifetime but I'd love it if someone would prove me wrong and that Sprint Car racing is a better advertising option in comparison to some of the other forms of motorsports I mentioned.  There is some potential with Sprint Car racing and obviously a lot of companies are involved in the sport but I don't see that big breakthrough ever coming where it becomes a national passion.

Stan Meissner

What ever happened to Skoal Bandits or Budweiser.  Did the outlaws burn their bridges  with them?

I look at it this way, like StanM said, sprint car racing is a niche sport and its flat out awesome entertainment, its very affordable (for the fans compared to most other forms of live entertainment) and best of all, its grassroots. If you want Danny Dietrich to sign your shirt or take a picture with your kid, you don't have to wait for him to have an organized signing or buy a special access pass etc. You can just walk right up to him (when the time is right of course, NOT in the middle of the event) and have a chat, get an autograph, picture or whatever. Hell you may even find him at Sandoe's fruit market during a weekday. My point is, our heroes are all very accessable and 99.9% of them are great with the fans because they're just regular people like us. Outside of our small circle, they aren't celebrities. It may be hard for us to fathom, but the vast majority of the human race could pass Steve Kinser in the grocery store and not even recognize him. My point is, before we all get our asses out of joint trying to promote sprint car racing to the next level, let's just take a look at what the next level is. Do we want sprint car racing to become similar to NASCAR? I sure as hell don't. I like the idea that sprint car racing although far more expensive and technologically advanced that it was 30 or so years ago, has still retained its honesty in the sense that what you see is what you get. We don't have drivers doing goofy commercials or putting on an image to please some corporate sponsor. A driver can still use the word “shit" in victory lane and aside from maybe offending a few of the more sensitive types among us, no one is gonna care. In fact, depending on the context in which its used, he may even get a lot of cheers. My point is, be careful what you wish for because if sprint car racing were to achieve what some people are trying to promote as the next level, in all likelihood, it will be ruined. Just like NASCAR.