Quote:
Originally Posted by bambbrose
Thanks for the great info Dave!
Do you know if ITRCA is a legal non-profit entity? How do you garner that professional image enough to present yourself to manufactures, etc for sponsorship.
What are the going rates for a weekend at the track dedicated to your group specifically?
We can call it "NABFOC"  Seriously though, this damn dual manufacturer thing is annoying. |
It's setup as an LLC (for profit). There's a lot less paperwork involved with a for profit vs a non-profit, especially when you are a for profit without profit
We just talk to companies for sponsorship. We obviously focus on companies that benefit from our students/instructors (ie carbotech, hondata, HPD, Honda/Acura, etc) which makes it easier. We have the previous events numbers (attendance) etc ready and we include advertising on the website, forum and their logo and such on all media/t-shirts for the event. They can also post in the sponsor forum if they want to and offer discounts, specials, etc.
Rates depend on the track, whether it's a weekday or weekend (at many of the high end tracks you can only get weekdays with a small group like ours since they sell out the same weekends every year to the big guys), how many workers/security/ambulance/tow trucks are needed, etc. We bring our own track control crew with us which costs us some extra. This guy:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/shields-...rom/19/832/227 is our classroom instructor, which costs us some money as well but it's worth it for the knowledge the students get, and the track control guys are worth it as well so our events are always consistant in terms of how they are run, rule enforcement, etc. Add in Insurance (or if the track will allow it, get added to theirs for the event) which can cost quite a bit of money after the Ferrari Owners Club incident a few years back.
On top of track costs we have the costs associated with the banquet including rental of somewhere large enough for 150-250 people, food for all those people, etc.
We also get HPDE insurance offered for students as well, which takes a little extra time/effort but can be worth it, especially with newer cars involved.
Some years event t-shirts are provided depending on financials (and in some years, sponsors have paid for the shirts).
Subaru already has the Subaru Challenge (
http://www.subaruchallenge.com/) which isn't anything like what we are talking about here, however, they may be open to assistance in setting up a larger HPDE type event under that name, however I'm not sure about that....
I would be surprised if they supported a grassroots effort considering that they do have the Subaru Challenge event already though.