Some thoughts about sponsorship: I don't
particularly care how other people approach their relationships with their sponsors, or
what they think it means to the rest of the world. Since this isn't the NHRA or NASCAR, I
figure what I do with the products I represent as a slot car drag racer has far less
importance to the people I race with than what they can do with the same
products. It's my responsibility to demonstrate that with the proper approach, anybody
can can duplicate the performance of the things I build. Luckily, this really isn't rocket
science, and anybody can do the same things.
Take armatures, for example. You've probably heard the same stories I have
about Team Racers getting hundreds of hand-selected rocket winds at a time. I wish. I
order 2 to 4 arms at a time, depending on how many motors I have to build, and their
little tubes get picked out of a box just like any other order. I presume Ms. Herrick does
a perfunctory examination ("Yep, these have wire wrapped around the stacks."),
and into the box destined for Unc's House of Fine C-Cans they go. Every so often I do a
quality check, lay a little cash on Clean Gene's counter, and buy some off the wall, so to
speak. Within normal variations, I've never noticed a difference, which is exactly what I
would expect. What, after all, is the point of me beating you with stuff you can't buy?
There is no point. I end up looking like a jerk (easy enough without help) and the people
I may beat go away believing they've lost to stuff they couldn't get if they used a gun
and a ski mask.
So, what is the point? Information, knowledge, help, however you
wish to put it, that allows more people to do as well as they can. If the object here is
to promote the sale and use of a sponsor's product (and simultaneously keep more people
involved and successful in our hobby), then it follows that other's success with
those products is inherently more important than my results. Don't misunderstand
me here - I like winning as much, or more, than the next guy, and obviously have an ego as
big as any you're likely to encounter. But the slot car drag racing part of that ego
consists of a belief in what I know and how I apply that knowledge, not that I know
someone you don't and get stuff you can't. What I trust in, rightly or wrongly, is, as a
football coach would say, is the ability to execute, not the ability to acquire.
In this hobby, you can frequently tell someone every single detail of a
combination that's obviously successful, and still not be believed. You can tell people
that things that are supposed to be round should be round, and that things that
are supposed to be square should be square until you're blue in the face, but you
can't make them actually do it. Not until you show them how and why. I suspect
many team racers in this hobby believe that the most important part of racing for a
sponsor is to squish the opposition like insects so the racers know they were beaten by
those great Snarling Wombat, Inc. parts. Which will, obviously, cause said racers to flock
to the parts counter, stocking up on all those Snarling Wombat bits. Great concept, only
it's a lot like that old saw about the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching
him how to catch them.
Great parts used improperly can usually be beaten by mediocre stuff done
right, at which point the value and cost-effectiveness of those new bits make their owner
feel like he's been had. He probably hasn't, but it will be difficult, if not impossible,
to ever convince him of that. Which makes, I figure, the education process of the how
and the why as or perhaps more important than the what in this hobby. A
little of what business refers to as "value added" goes a long way these days,
and I believe it's my responsibility as a team racer to add some of that value for my
Sponsors. The way I believe I can best do that is by helping other people run as fast or
faster than I do as often as possible. It certainly doesn't insure winning (I leave those
worries to my ego), but it does insure competition, which, as I recall, was what part of
this drill was supposed to be about. The continued existence of good competition insures
that my sponsors have the opportunity to gain a share of that market by wide-spread,
rather than singular, success. More people win and they feel happy. My Sponsors sell more
stuff and they feel happy. I stay sponsored and I ... you get the point. A shame more
people don't, huh?
