I’ve already worked with Martin a fair bit, i visited him at his home in Ottawa last year in fact and i have been more than happy to work with all of the NEO crew as there has been reciprocal benefit.
When your name is in the mix it will lend itself to the scenerio i mentioned already, how do you differentiate yourself from others?
as more and more people get into racing it will mean less and less to potential sponsors. also, you are obligated to wear certain stickers when you enter many series, for example Toyo with their 4 for 3 tire deal which isnt much.
If there were 9 guys from this community in Ontario Touring GT class then sasha’s exploits wouldnt be as impressive. When that happens it will be the guys that are winning that get the attention but there are limits there as well.
for example, we all follow sasha cause he’s our buddy. But i know that most of us are not familiar with what Adam or Martin are up to on the track… i only find this out from forum posts. What i mean by that is how much exposure are they generating and how much will you generate? im not suggesting that they are not generating alot of exposure in some circles but certainly for myself anyways Sasha is hitting the market i am in much better than the others so i would be most interested in working with him as i am sure Adam has excellent contacts and gets a great deal of exposure in more mature racing communities.
I’m not sure that Jeff or Ian are really at a huge advantage for obtaining sponsors because racers like adam, sasha, or martin and yourself are likely to conduct the majority of the maintenance and modifications yourself and will oinly require minor assistance like welding or powder coating in this case. Tires are a huge concern obviously, i agree.
All that aside, the next issue becomes maintaining sponsor ship.
A = how much $$$ the sponsor puts into you
B = how much $$$ the sponsor gains from the exposure you give him that he could not otherwise have had.
if B > A then hurray to a second go-round with the ‘sponorship’ but if A > B then its likely a no go.
A big part of making B > A is politics. In my opinion you should not be seeking out sponsorship from companies that you dont feel comfortable jocking hard.
IE: If you are not ready to tell everyone and their mother that Jeff (powder coating) is the Hollar McBaller of powder coating and that his shop is top drawer every day of the week then dont approach him. If your sponsor finds out you are hesitating at jocking the shop then that is not likely to bode well for the relationship.
That is a tricky issue right there considering the politics we have in this community right now since people are asking for assistance from other people in the community that most people know personally. personal politics can get in the way far easier than if you are sponsored by someone like Greddy or Toyo in this case. If you dont like RA-1’s or if you prefer another tire you can tell people you do and Toyo wont find out. But if you dont like the way Dan tune’s your car or question the accuracy of Dan’s dyno then you better keep that queit if he is helping you out.