Racing split leaves Indy 500 drivers hurting for sponsors

By Mark Jewell
Associated Press

Indy Racing League driver Sarah Fisher, signing autographs alongside Vitor Meira, still has a loyal fan base. Adequate sponsorship is what she's struggling to attract. The slow economy is partly to blame. Associated Press

A tough sponsorship market in a slow economy, rising costs in racing and the IRL's split with the rival CART series are leaving some drivers feeling more like beggars than racers.

Sarah Fisher and George Mack made inroads into a sport traditionally dominated by white males — Fisher as the third woman ever to compete at the Indianapolis 500, Mack as the second black competitor. But this year, Fisher has spent as much time knocking on prospective sponsors' doors as she has racing; Mack hasn't raced at all.

It wasn't until Wednesday that Fisher, 22, had enough sponsorship commitments to continue through the 16-race IRL season, despite her potential marketing appeal as a young female athlete. That factor figured in a deal with Girl Scouts of the USA, which will use its Fisher sponsorship to support a program encouraging girls interested in science and math.

Fisher has made the top 20 in the IRL's season-ending points rankings three years in a row. She barely qualified for this year's 500 after racing through the early season under single-race sponsorships that turned the sidepods of her car into an ever-changing canvas of corporate logos.

"It's just been very stressful because each week we have had to make new conversations and get enough money to get by," she said.

Mack started 15 races last year and finished 17th in the Indy 500. He thought he was "on my way" — but with no sponsor willing to cover expenses for his sophomore IRL season, he is considering requests to compete in NASCAR truck racing events.

"My phone rings, and I get calls, but nothing has really come together," Mack said recently from his Los Angeles-area home.

Racing industry analysts trace the problems to the 1996 IRL-CART split, which left the rival open-wheel series competing for the same pot of money. It drove away fans and hurt TV ratings, damaging open-wheel racing's attractiveness to sponsors while NASCAR's popularity surged.

The slow-to-rebound economy has made matters worse.

"When you have a driver like Sarah Fisher whose story is as good as hers is, and still they can't get a full-season sponsor for her, I think that speaks loudly about the trouble the IRL is having and open-wheel racing is having," said Bill King, motorsports writer for Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal.

IEG Inc., a Chicago-based marketing research firm, predicts that sponsorships for North American-based motorsports tracks and sanctioning bodies, including NASCAR, will increase this year by just 1 percent — to $1.5 billion — after an even smaller rise last year. That compares to a spending increase of 9 percent in 2001 as well as the year before.

Meanwhile, racing sponsors face bigger bills, said Eric DeBord, a former racing team owner and head of PROtential, a Chicago-based firm that helps companies develop marketing strategies in racing and other industries.

When the IRL was formed, one of the key missions was to keep costs reasonable. DeBord estimates the cost of fielding an IRL car at $5.5 million to $7.5 million per season — about double the level three years ago.

The costs are scaring away small businesses that have traditionally sponsored IRL teams and racers, said Jonathan Byrd II, general manager of Jonathan Byrd Cafeteria. Last year, the banquet and food business based in the Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood ended an Indy team sponsorship that dated to 1985.

DeBord says the economy must improve before the sponsorship environment improves. "Not as many dollars are being spent and the companies' decision-makers are more overworked than ever. They're taking safer routes and using current spending practices and current programs rather than investing in new ones," he said.

While the IRL does not disclose sponsorship figures, open-wheel racing's difficulties are easy to see at CART, which is run by a publicly traded company. Indianapolis-based CART this month reported a $9 million first-quarter loss after losing $14.5 million in 2002 on $57 million in revenue.

Federal Express ended a five-year run as CART's series sponsor last year but continues other sports sponsorships in the NFL, NBA and professional golf.

This year, CART found two new sponsors for a series from Ford and Bridgestone.

NASCAR, meanwhile, is second only to the NFL in network television ratings for sports events, and stock car racing commands a far bigger TV audience than the IRL and CART, fueling greater sponsorship demand.

In open-wheel racing, the sponsorship struggle has left many teams feeling helpless, including the IRL's low-budget PDM Racing and driver Jimmy Kite.

Team owner Paul Diatlovich said: "When the economy was good, money was hard to come by. Now, it's next to impossible."