H-TOWN RACING - THE CUTBACKS THEY ARE FACING AND HOW THEY ARE COPING

Source: H-Town Racing
Date: 07/08/2008

Not all teams are operating with business as usual, times are tougher in racing than they have been for a long time. Read of one team's story and the creative ways they are keeping their racing program going...for now.

H-Town Racing's Report

Here at H-Town Racing Inc., based in Henderson, NV racing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedways' Bullring, ARE feeling the economic crunch. Our primary sponsor for the last several years, a Nevada wide bank, had to cut back advertising due to the housing foreclosure market. When a business is hit hard in the profit margin one of the first things to go is discretionary expenses, which includes race car sponsorship. The decision of non renewal of the contract was made in late April. We run five cars out of the H-Town Racing Inc. garage, a Super Late Model driven by Jim Petrie, a Modified driven by Pat Petrie, a Late Model driven by Jeff Bargerhuff, a Charger division car driven by John Wright, and a Micro Kart driven by Jimmy Petrie.

We have worked day and night to try and secure a new primary sponsor without much luck, everybody we have met or spoke with agrees that our campaign is the best, however when the economy is like it is, it is hard to justify racing as a primary means of advertisement for any business. We have been plugging along by picking up nightly and associate sponsors. We have been lucky enough to make all the races in the Super Late Model, Modified, and Late Model; however we have only been able to make about half of the Charger division scheduled races. We planned on only running a limited schedule in the Kart before the season began.

We sit down after each week and figure out what we can afford to run the next race. With low paying purses, which LVMS has always had, the cost of gasoline for three or four tow vehicles, the cost of racing fuel, which I believe is the highest at LVMS, $9.50 for track mandated 110 and $6.50 for methanol, the rise in pit passes for 2008, the rise in food (you have to feed and provide beverages for the all volunteer crew), and the lack of interest from new sponsorships equals a difficult time in racing.

Some ways we have found money are, selling off spare and extra parts at a dirt cheap rate, recycling steel and aluminum, and cutting back or finding sponsors for promotional apparel. We began a community good will program last year and are in jeopardy of having to cancel it for the upcoming school year because of budget constraints.

If new sponsorship is not obtained soon we will cut back the number of cars we will be fielding for the 2009 season. The first one to go is the Super Late Model, either selling and moving back down to Modifieds, or just plain parking the car. If that isn't enough the Modified will be next, then the Charger. 2009 could be a year where we only run the Late Model and Kart.

Jim Petrie
Owner/Driver
H-Town Racing Inc
www.htownspeed.com

RacingWest would love to read what you have to say on the economy. Maybe you are having hard times, maybe times are not that bad. We would love to have your comments to racingcomments@gmail.com. We are about to begin a journey down racing’s Economic Road.

See Also .:

• IS THE RECESSIONARY ECONOMY IMPACTING RACING?
• TEAM HARDIN RACING FUNDS TOO LOW TO GO
• HARDIN AND H-TOWN RACING FEEL HARD ECONOMIC SQUEEZE

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