Sponsoring Tanner (Part 1): What is a TAR Sponsor?

If you follow any sort of motor racing, you have probably seen motorsports sponsorship in action in some capacity. Sponsorship is somewhat of a diluted term these days, but sponsors are still very necessary for most racers to be able to do what they love. So what exactly is a sponsor and, more importantly, what does it mean to sponsor our program Tanner Allen Racing (TAR)? 

What is Considered a Racing Sponsor?

Sponsorships can come in many different forms, but at TAR we have three main categories that pretty much all sponsorships can fit into. The three categories are: 

• Monetary sponsorship

• Product sponsorship 

• Anonymous sponsorship

Every sponsor, no matter what category they fall into, is extremely valuable to our racing. With small, grassroots teams like we have every inch counts and that is true for sponsorships as well. Once you get to the highest level of racing, places like the NASCAR Cup Series, the really small sponsorships might not have as large of an impact. For us, that isn’t the case. From top to bottom sponsorships make a huge difference in what we are able to accomplish! 

Monetary Sponsorship

Monetary sponsorship is what the vast majority of racers are after. At the end of the day, it is hard to beat cold hard cash! Unfortunately, a lot of people today associate monetary sponsorships with free money. That may be how some racers run their programs, but not here at TAR. 

A monetary sponsorship is when a person, business or organization agrees to monetarily support our racing in exchange for marketing services. As racers, we have a platform that can be utilized to market anything from products and services to movements and messages. 

The next most logical question is, ‘How much does it cost?’ and there isn’t one simple answer. A monetary sponsor could be worth anywhere from $500 to $500,000 and up! It all depends on what the sponsor is looking to accomplish. Exposure on a local level at tracks we already race at is much simpler to accomplish than exposure on a national level with TV and broadcasting in a major city, for example.

The marketing service itself is also highly customizable as is the value. The reason for this is that one business may not benefit from the same style of marketing as another. Sponsor #1 might be focused on increasing their social media engagement while Sponsor #2 may not find any value in social media. That is why before any sponsorships are made with our racing program, we have thorough conversations with the sponsor about how they would best benefit from the platform we are able to provide. 

You may also be wondering what the money goes toward with a monetary sponsorship, but more on that in a moment. 

Product Sponsorship 

Product sponsorships are in many ways, the unsung heroes of racing. They are different from monetary sponsorships in that they offer free products from the sponsor in exchange for marketing services as discussed above. 

For example, a business like Joe’s Hand Cleaner (a current TAR Sponsor–with an awesome lineup of cleaning products!!) might send a few cases of their Waterless Hand Cleaner in exchange for exposure to racing audiences. Racing fans are very often car enthusiasts, gearheads and racers themselves so marketing a product like Joe’s Hand Cleaner makes perfect sense in that market. 

After receiving the product shipment, we are able to test it out, make social media content on it, and tell our audience about the product so next time they are stuck with greasy hands they will think of Joe’s. 

This is just one example of a possible product sponsorship as well! Again, like monetary sponsorships, they are highly customizable in terms of what the sponsor would like to accomplish. 

Anonymous Sponsorship

Of the three sponsorship categories listed earlier, anonymous sponsorships are probably the most different. The reason being that anonymous sponsors do not ask for a marketing service in exchange for supporting our team. 

Usually anonymous sponsors are passionate about racing, just like us, and want to be involved and support what we are building with TAR. 

What is the Purpose of Sponsors? 

Most of us know how difficult and expensive racing can be. For many racing teams, TAR included, we would not be able to accomplish our goals without the support of sponsors. That being said, we also place an extremely high importance on using our racing to help others. 

As I said earlier, a big reason we have sponsors at Tanner Allen Racing is because with our program we have a platform that can be used to support others. 

With sponsorship there is a mutual benefit both for our racing team and for the sponsors that join the team. Working together we are able to accomplish larger goals and get more done while lifting others up. 

What does TAR Sponsorship Go Toward?

Sponsorships are helpful for many reasons, but are always used to support the racing team in some capacity. 

Sponsor support could be used for: 

• Running & Operating Cost

• Staying Competitive 

• Upgrading Equipment 

• Moving Up in Racing Class 

Running and operating costs for a racing team can be absolutely massive. If you break it down even at a local level every night you are spending money on: 

• Fuel to get to the track

• Fuel for the race car 

• Pit passes for the driver, crew and guests (if necessary) 

• Food for the driver, crew and guests

• Tires for the race car 

• Damages on the race car 

And the list only gets bigger as you move up the racing ladder! 

Staying competitive is, of course, a really important part of racing. The discrepancy between buying a new set of tires or running on last week’s tires can be the difference between a win or finishing dead last. Sponsorships help keep equipment like this up to date and race-ready. 

Upgrading equipment is very similar to staying competitive, but could mean more quality-of-life changes. For example, a sponsorship might go toward getting a higher-caliber set of brake rotors so the car has better stopping power or even a nicer race hauler so the team has more facilities in the pits. 

Finally moving up in class is what it is all about for us here at TAR. We have really big goals and will only be able to accomplish those goals with the continued support of racing sponsorships. The dream is to get to the NASCAR Cup Series and we can only do that one step at a time. That means moving up in racing class one step at a time. With the right sponsorship agreement, the next step is to go pavement late model racing in the midwest or southeast and up from there to the ARCA Menard’s Series or NASCAR Truck Series and beyond. 

To close, I’d like to thank everyone that has supported me and my racing so far. We have so many amazing people and businesses that have helped us get to the point we are at right now and we can’t wait to keep building this program! 

If you are interested in sponsoring TAR, please reach out our sponsorship activation manager Tucker@WulffMediaGroup.com or visit our Contact page right here on the website! 

- Sincerely, the TAR Family