Champ Car's Target Sponsors

[TedN]

Good Read

Ted

[paul-collins]

Perhaps true today; not necessarily always so. Remember Rahal's "Miller Lite", or NH's K-Mart?

CCWS can be about consumer goods, once the support is there. Clearly the numbers aren't there right now. It's good to see them recognize their limitations, and work to them.

[Phoenix1]

I think it might be, depending how relations ended, to try to get a sponsor such as Fedex back. The reasons being:

1) Fedex are a transport group which operate worldwide and there for they can transport the vehicles to each destination as part of the deal it saves CART teams paying for it and in real terms costs Fedex less than the cost of paying another company for the transport.

2) I remember back in 1997 (?) there was a program about Benetton called back in the fast lane (again dont quote me!) and part of that I was reminded of was that to get a sponsor onboard is the hard part and so long as you treat the sponsor well once they are on board they are unlikely to leave. Thus if Fedex only pulled out due to Champ Car being uncertain in its direction I would hope they would be given a seat on the board (any views on this part?)

3) Renaming Champ Car to something snappier, CART was and is a better name OWRS is not so nice.

[JohnSSC]

Anyone remember the PPG IndyCar World Series? What a great tie-in that was for both PPG's automotive finishes division and CART.

A successful series will require a co-mingling of consumer products and manufacturing. Reliance on one to the exclusion of the other is not prudent.

[Emfa]

Phoenix1, you will probably not be pleased to hear that Fedex is being courted by Joe Gibbs Racing for a 3rd Nextel Cup entry. Don't be surprised if it happens - they will have a chance to go head-to-head with UPS.

[Tailwind]

Along the lines of what EMFA stated with regard to UPS and FedEx in NASCAR, I remember reading that similar sponsors tend to advertise against each other. With McDonalds on Bourdias' car Taco Bell or Burger King would be good candidates for other cars.

If FedEx won't come back to ChampCar and UPS is in NASCAR, how about DHL. Are they putting any sponsor money in racing?

[f1manoz]

More sponsors - gooooood!

I have to ask - where are all the Canadian sponsors for Forsythe?????

[Liz]

Everything in Canada is owned by foreigners.

[Amar7605]

Well IMO the sponsors are a refelction of the fan base. NASCAR's sponsorship is for the blue-collar people, while Champ Car has sponsorship that focuses on white-collar people.

Think about it - we can all go the store and buy Cheerios, Coca Cola, and go to Home Depot and Lowes on a regular basis. But not everyone can go out and buy a Gulfstream jet or go to a Johnson Controls store (like one exists!).

However, that isn't to say that Champ Car can't have regular product sponsorship. There is Corona, McDonalds, PacifiCare, and Herdez groceries. And there used to be Target, K-Mart, Miller Lite, Budweiser, etc. It's just a matter of what fans gravitates toward and how many.

[Ac.]

Originally posted by Liz
Everything in Canada is owned by foreigners.

That's baloney Liz! We need RIM(Research In Motion) to sponsor a car or team. RIM makes the Blackberry and just raised one billion dollars through a stock offering. Still Canadian owned and operated.

[paul-collins]

FWIW, there are Blackberry signs all over Exhibition Place.

[Ac.]

Originally posted by paul-collins
FWIW, there are Blackberry signs all over Exhibition Place.

Bell Mobility has been a long time supporter of the Toronto event, and it is likely it's their relationship in selling Blackberries that brought the signs out.
The technology definitely fits in the Champ Car paddock, I'm sure many of the drivers and team owners use Blackberry.

[sr230772]

im sorry ive never read so much tosh in my life the majority of nascar sponsers are worldwide companys

[coolbear]

Originally posted by Emfa
Phoenix1, you will probably not be pleased to hear that Fedex is being courted by Joe Gibbs Racing for a 3rd Nextel Cup entry. Don't be surprised if it happens - they will have a chance to go head-to-head with UPS.

The fedex deal with Gibbs racing is a done deal. Sponsoring the #11 next year with J.J.Yeley driving.

[coolbear]

Originally posted by Amar7605
Well IMO the sponsors are a refelction of the fan base. NASCAR's sponsorship is for the blue-collar people, while Champ Car has sponsorship that focuses on white-collar people.

Think about it - we can all go the store and buy Cheerios, Coca Cola, and go to Home Depot and Lowes on a regular basis. But not everyone can go out and buy a Gulfstream jet or go to a Johnson Controls store (like one exists!).

However, that isn't to say that Champ Car can't have regular product sponsorship. There is Corona, McDonalds, PacifiCare, and Herdez groceries. And there used to be Target, K-Mart, Miller Lite, Budweiser, etc. It's just a matter of what fans gravitates toward and how many.

It's that elitest attitude right there that contributed to the downfall of CART. NASCAR figured out that there are a lot more red necks out there than there are ultra yuppie(aportinga) types.

[coolbear]

Originally posted by Tailwind
Along the lines of what EMFA stated with regard to UPS and FedEx in NASCAR, I remember reading that similar sponsors tend to advertise against each other. With McDonalds on Bourdias' car Taco Bell or Burger King would be good candidates for other cars.

If FedEx won't come back to ChampCar and UPS is in NASCAR, how about DHL. Are they putting any sponsor money in racing?

DHL just sponsored the NASCAR event at Michigan last month. (DHL 400)

[coolbear]

"The idea of having just an American championship to me is terribly closed-minded," said Paul Gentilozzi, who along with Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerry Forsythe purchased the assets of bankrupt CART in February. "We cross borders now without thinking about it. And we don't have the same sense of nationalism in our sports as we used to have."

That quote right there is 180 opposite of what would be a success. NASCAR has American drivers driving American cars in America and they seem to be doing pretty well.
OWRS and IRL both need to recognize that fact.

[racinthestreets]

Coolebear Wrote: That quote right there is 180 opposite of what would be a success. NASCAR has American drivers driving American cars in America and they seem to be doing pretty well.

I am sure that OWRS and CCWS are not trying to emulate NASCAR. For the record NASCAR will not be only American Cars with American Drivers for long - TOYOTA! Of course, attracting the sponsor $$$ that NASCAR has is a goal - where those $$$ come from, whatever country they originate in is of no concern.

[carsten66]

Originally posted by coolbear
DHL just sponsored the NASCAR event at Michigan last month. (DHL 400)

DHL is part of the german Deutsche Post / Danzas Group and is now on of the big global players in logistics, parcel services and transportation. Some years back they sponsored (Deutsche Post) the F1 Jordan Team.

[Liz]

And Ferrari.

[Kicking-back]

No, that was FedEx, Liz.