Like it or not, auto racing is a business and at the end of the day, it all boils down to making money. Sure, new parts are developed on racecars and the benefits can be seen in the continual improvement of the new cars at your local dealership-but without money to bankroll it, there would be no auto racing.
While we like to pretend everyone involved in building and racing cars does it purely for the love of the sport, we know better. In racing-like everything in life-idealism usually takes a backseat to reality.
The reality about racing is it's expensive; and money doesn't grow on trees. In order to have a successful professional racing outfit, you've got to be able to afford the best equipment, team members and drivers. And when you are competing in the Rolex Grand American Racing Series, it's uber expensive.
Take this 2006 Infinity G35 GT racecar, for example. The annual budget for HLM Motorsports to campaign this monster is around 5 million dollars. Hardly chump change.
Traditionally, the team would seek sponsorships from automobile manufacturers to help foot these astronomical bills, but this team has an entirely different way of bringing home the bacon. And they take their money as seriously as their racing if not more.
HLM Motorsports' founders, Frank Howard and Peter Law, have combined their respective corporate and racing experience to take on the racing world. They believe they have the winning combination for a successful AND profitable racing outfit. According to them, they've dropped the traditional funding through "sponsors," and instead, HLM bankrolls their show using a "business-to-business" model.
"Very few forms of racing can be funded by having a 'sponsor' put their name on a car," explains Howard, adding that a front-running car will generate about $300,000 dollars a year in revenue; which is far short of the actual cost. Howard further faults the standard sponsorship funding method because once the OEM manufacturers finish developing their parts on the race cars, they stop funding the teams and eventually the racing series' "dry up" and disappear.
While were not sure exactly how their new "business-to-business" deal works, or how it's just not a new name for the old sponsorship game, it must work for them. They've had no shortage of money to dump into their racing program.