It Isn’t Too Early To Think About 2009
Several years ago I met Steve Hansen while I was doing an article for Circle Track Magazine. Steve was the PR man for Junction Motor Speedway, and I found out right away that Steve is one of the good guys in racing. He provided a lot of assistance and information, and showed me that he understood that PR does play an important role in auto racing, even in dirt track racing.
Steve returned to racing this year, and about once a month I receive an email from him, updating how his season is going. He emails about 40 of his sponsors and fans. I think this is a great way of communicating with supporters, and would encourage every driver to do like Steve does. Steve’s email is shown below.
While Steve understands the importance of PR in racing, he also understands that he is not a PR professional. One of his emails mentioned that he was going to us Racequest to draft a 2009 sponsorship proposal for him.
The idea of a PR professional helping local drivers intrigues me. I think many drivers under-utilize sponsorships. With the economy like it is, obtaining sponsorship is not an easy task, especially if you have no training in this art.
Steve provided me with some information on Racequest, including telling me that Bill Catania, the force behind Racequest helped start the Valvoline Cup. Not only does Racequest provide custom racing proposals, they offer a variety of products, including web design, and ebooks. Go to www.racequest.com to learn more of their services.
No, I do NOT get a penny for telling you about Racequest. I am writing about the company because I believe they can help support class drivers obtain more sponsorship, and that is a good thing. Also, even though the 2008 season has a month or so remaining, it is NOT too early to start working on obtaining sponsorship for 2009.
Good luck on obtaining sponsorship for next season, and thank you for stopping by.
Steve Hansen’s update email:
Hello Everybody,
We went to Wagner Speedway in Wagner South Dakota Friday night and had a pretty decent night. We made some changes to the car from our last race and worked real well. The car had a slight push in the heat race. We placed third but being a new car we had to start in the back of the feature. We only had 10 cars but felt pretty confident we should get a good finish. We made a minor adjustment to make the car turn a little better. Three laps in to the race I lost my rear brakes which made it a challenge but we pulled off a 6th place finish. There were several times I wanted to push the issue in traffic but figured it better to save the car and not cause a wreck.
This week we are going back to Wagner and hope to improve from last week. Racing is about over for us for 2008 even though we just got started. We hope to hit about three more races and put the car in the shed and be ready for 2009.
I would like to thank these people & sponsors for their support:
My family for all of their support and help over the years
Sweet Pea & Raymond – THANKS!!!!!
Ron & Jared Hoerle for their support for 2008
Ron Lee for giving me the chance to get back in the seat in 2005
Tom Bloomstrand and Ray Maul for the great engine work
George Murdock for all of the help over the years
Mike & Scott Wiarda for all of their help over the years
Ross Evans for all of the great advice over the years
Sponsors for 2008 are
Mark & Marie Saar – MLS Express of Bassett, NE
Gary Saar – SAAR Trucking of Bassett, NE
Justin & Erica Teel – JT Construction of Bassett, NE
AMSOIL
PROSKIN Disposable Mechanics Gloves – Corona, CA
Ron Horele – Ron’s Mobil of Ewing, NE
Jamie Turpin – Turp’s NAPA Auto Parts of Bassett, NE
Scott Wiarda – Eye Candi Graphics of Aurora, NE
Terry McCarthy – Terry’z Collision Center of Springview, NE
Fred Langford – Fred’s Race Engine & Design of High Point, NC
Hansen Oil Service – AMSOIL – FASTWAX
If I have left anyone off I apologize. There have been a lot of people who have helped in our racing effort over the years and I want to thank everyone who has helped.
We will get an update after next weeks race at Wagner.
Take care
Steve
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