And now, a word from our sponsors...

Everyone who watches NASCAR, Indycars, IMSA, drag racing, or any professional motorsports is familiar with sponsors. The company names are emblazoned on the fenders, hood, rear of race cars. Pro teams can't survive without them.

The Fart-hinder Racing Saab 9-3 parked where
people can get up close and ask questions.

Amateur teams, on the other hand, are funded almost completely by the drivers themselves. If you're lucky, you can talk a small business into spending a bit of their advertising budget in your direction, in exchange for their name on your car. Often, that sponsorship consists of a trade for parts, tires, or labor.

Here is the one thing that many of those amateurs seeking sponsorship forget. Sponsorship is advertising. What the business wants is to have their name displayed to potential customers. If the race car is hidden away in a garage all week long, only to appear at a race where there are no spectators, the sponsor isn't getting their money's worth.

Instead of promising to show up at a certain number of races, the team should promise a certain number of events. Events include car shows where people walking by can see the sponsor/advertiser names up close, the team can answer questions, maybe even hand out flyers about their race events, their car, their drivers... and their sponsors.

Fart-hinder Racing does attempt to attend such events to promote the team and its sponsors. Our most recent was the Intermarque Spring Kick Off in Osseo, Minnesota. It is a celebration of getting vintage import cars out of winter hibernation for a day of display and driving. It's also a chance to visit with old friends who share an interest in the automotive hobby.

The FHR Saab race car parked among other Saabs, and a few Rolls-Royces, on the main street in downtown Osseo.

Just one week after the Road America race, the 9-3 was hauled down to Osseo, with the rubber marks from a brief encounter with a tire wall still marring the paint.

One of our sponsors, Hanover European Auto Parts, is located not far from Osseo, so we felt it would be a good place to promote that business, as well as our other sponsors, eEuroparts.com and Lake Superior Brewing Company.

The race car didn't win any prizes, but Ben Wedge and Tim Winker took Ben's recently purchased 1989 Saab SPG on the short time-speed-distance rally. The rally gives owners of the cars on display a chance to get out and drive them in competition on the back roads near Osseo. Ben and Tim finished first overall on the rally.