Young Racers and Their Parents: What Sponsors Want You to Know

Most racers start young, often in a kart before they're ten, and at that age the race program is really a family program. Mom or Dad drives the hauler, writes the emails and signs the checks. Sponsors know this. They also know that the habits a young racer builds in those years, on and off the track, are the ones they'll carry into every sponsor relationship that follows. At my Motorsports Sponsorship Summit I put a youth panel together to talk about exactly that, and the advice applies whether your kid races quarter midgets, karts or motocross.

The family is the first marketing department

Kevin Miller is CEO of USAC, which runs youth series where kids start racing at age five, and before that he ran Mopar. He has watched thousands of families come through, including kids who later made it to NASCAR's top levels. He sees one thing they share. "It's not just what's on the track and the performance on the track, but it's ... equally as important what they're doing off the track," he said.

He remembers exactly when he noticed it in Jesse Love, a quarter midget champion who went on to a full-time NASCAR ride. "What I noticed with Jesse at age 12 ... there was formal press releases, marketing campaigns, social media campaigns," Miller said. "I thought, wow, there's a machine behind this kid, because I'm a marketing guy and I noticed that." In most cases the family builds that machine. Over time the work shifts to the racer, and eventually to a team of people.

A press release from a 12-year-old's program sounds like overkill. To a marketing person it signals that this family understands what sponsors pay for. ▶ Watch Kevin Miller on youth racers

Small asks get real yeses

Frankie Mossman started racing karts at seven and was racing in USF Pro 2000, on the road to IndyCar, when he joined the panel at 17. He described his sponsorship work as a daily habit. "I sent an email out. I've done that every single day. I send five emails out." He targets companies near the tracks on his schedule, and he doesn't copy and paste. "I don't like just sending a plain copy and paste to everyone, because at that point then you're not going to get any responses."

The answer is usually no, and he has made peace with that. "It mostly is no's, but the small yeses, it definitely does make it worth it." Before the bigger brands, he went door to door in his hometown with flyers, trying to raise money for tires from small businesses. He learned that the scale matters to them: "Dry cleaners sometimes can't give you $300, even though that seems minute to a racing standpoint, but some businesses just can't." When people did give, he had big posters made from his race photos "and I would give those to the people that gave me money," so they felt they got something back.

Not every yes is cash, either. One of his main backers, an action sports brand about 15 minutes from home, gives him product and access to its training facility. "Even though it doesn't look like it's money that they're offering me, it definitely does help." ▶ Watch Frankie Mossman's story

Miller liked another grassroots tactic he sees every week on social media: families selling $10 squares to raise a couple hundred dollars for tires. The money is small, but it puts the racer's name in front of small businesses that may give $1,000 later. "Those little things go a long way," he said. A marketing specialist from K1 Speed, the indoor karting chain, suggested the same scale for a first business pitch: affordable karting leagues give a family a reason to approach a company and say, "listen, I need 600 bucks to participate in the whole series this year. Can you do that? And let's maybe start the conversation that way."

Look for the connection, not the cold call

Mossman's best deal didn't come from his five emails a day. "Eventually my dad found a connection with them," he said, and that led to a tour where he met the brand's marketing director. Miller wasn't surprised. At Mopar he received about a dozen requests a week, and he can still name one that broke through: "I received an iPad in the mail, and it had a presentation on it." But most cold approaches, he said, "end up in the trash because ... you need that personal relationship, whether you know the person, a family member knows the person." His conclusion: "Finding a small connection with somebody is critical in achieving a sponsorship today." ▶ See the full answer

For a young racer, the best connections are usually close to home. Scott Lukaitis of Engine Ice told a PRI Show audience, "Every one of you is a hero in your hometown." The local businesses that already know your family may sponsor you "for a couple hundred bucks here and there," he said, and a hometown racer can bring them real value in return. ▶ Watch Scott Lukaitis

Parents: help, then get out of the way

This is the part parents don't want to hear, and two very different people said it plainly. Miller called it the hardest message of the session: "You have to control your parents. Parents have to control themselves. That's probably the biggest barrier from somebody achieving greatness, is the parents get in the way, because they're too overprotective, they're too overzealous, and that interferes with that child's ability to really grow up." ▶ Watch Kevin Miller's warning

Randy Valade, moto brand manager at Troy Lee Designs, was even more direct about what that costs. "I've not sponsored riders because of their family," he told my Motocross Sponsorship Summit, "just knowing that their parents are loose cannons, and that I want nothing to do with that." A sponsor signs the whole traveling operation, not just the rider. "The family's going with this, right, at all these events, and if they're not going to promote your brand in a good way," that can end it before it starts. ▶ Watch Randy Valade explain

The job for parents is to build the machine Miller described: the emails, the press releases, the introductions, the thank-you posters. Then they need to hand the microphone to the kid. Brands want to hear from the racer.

Brands are scouting earlier than you think

The upside is that the big brands really are watching young racers. Heath Cofran, who handles media and company communications for Alpinestars, said the company supports karting and youth programs because "a lot of the athletes we have have been with us since they were very, very young." He pointed to MotoGP star Marc Márquez wearing Alpinestars leathers as a kid, and to riders who say they grew up dreaming of being Alpinestars athletes.

He also sees what families give up to get there. "If this is your life, you're dedicating your life, and sometimes your family is too. You hear people moving homes and moving into an RV to support their family," he said. Scouts notice that commitment in the pits, and everything the panel described is part of how a young racer gets picked. "These are the stepping stones to get recognized by a team, whether it be Alpinestars or anybody else." ▶ Watch Heath Cofran

The takeaway

• Racers: send a few personal emails every week, start with local businesses and small, specific asks, and thank every backer with something tangible.
• Racers: treat off-track work as half the job. Be outgoing in the pits and talk to everyone.
• Parents: run the program like a business early. Press releases, social posts and introductions through people you know beat cold pitches.
• Parents: behave at every event as if a sponsor is watching. Brands sign families, and they walk away from difficult ones.
• Everyone: let the young racer do the talking. That's the skill sponsors will pay for later.

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