Funding the Team

As you might guess, one of the biggest challenges for the team is sourcing funding. While Duncan initially invested his own funds to build the facility and establish the team, he stated that the organization now needs to stand on its own two feet. In order to attract sponsors who will actually pay, they need to be a front running, top notch team. But, even at this level there are many teams that are, shall we say, not as they appear. Company names appear as sponsors on the cars because the owner of Continue reading →

By Dave Gran & Jake Gulick

If you are not familiar with Highcroft Racing, they are a top notch racing organization lead by owner Duncan Dayton. In both 2009 and 2010, Highcroft Racing was crowned American Le Mans Series (ALMS) champions. Additional information can be found at HighcroftRacing.com .

As one arrives at their 48,000 sq ft facility in Danbury, CT, it’s impossible not to be impressed, which is exactly the response Duncan intended. Duncan is a rarity in today’s world, a true Renaissance man. With training in architecture, (he designed the head Continue reading →

Eric signing an autograph and making a boy's day

Previous article in the Realities of Pro Racing Series

In addition to racing professionally for the Whelen Motorsports/Marsh Racing team in the Grand Am Rolex series teamed with Boris Said, Eric also drives for CKS Autosport in the Grand Am Continental series.

Throughout most of Eric’s racing career Eric also owned and operated a Car dealership in Hadley, MA, of which he has recently sold to focus solely on racing.Eric began racing in SCCA’s Improved Touring B (ITB) class in 1994 with a 1971 Volvo 142 racecar. Between 1994 and 1999, he won 21 races and 4 championships. In 1999, he switched to a racing a Camaro in SCCA’s American Sedan class and won 4 races along with the National Championship that year. Eric made his professional racing debut at the 2000 Rolex 24 At Daytona finishing third in class, and not long after he scored his first professional win. Continue reading →

If you don’t have personal or family money, another route is to find outside sources of revenue in the form of sponsors. As you might expect, this is quite the challenge and an extreme uphill battle. In order to make a successful pitch to a company, you need to be able to demonstrate what the racing team can do for them. We talked about sponsorships from the Club Racer perspective here but for a pro racing effort looking for larger sums of money, it’s a different ball game. There’s a lot involved in this process and we’ll just touch the surface of it.

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In our previous article we discussed the costs to rent the ride, but expenses do not end there. To start with, the gentleman driver has to pay to get to the event, hotel accommodations, and the entry fees which start at $2,000 for the racing series we are discussing. On top of that, there’s the potentially large expense of damage incurred to the car while driving it. Actually, lets talk about crash damages and those costs. If a professional driver crashes the car, they are not held liable but it won’t take long before they lose their ride with that team and have no shot with any others. If a gentleman driver is involved in an incident, they are responsible to pay for damages. What’s worse is that someone else could make a really dumb move, slam into you and you will need to write the check for repairs even though you did absolutely nothing wrong. It’s tough to swallow but “that’s racing” as the saying goes and the team needs to repair the car regardless of whose fault it was. Continue reading →