Sunday, October 22, 2006

Racers - Start Your Engines

Over the past year, I have decided to focus on learning more about NASCAR and building relationships within the "industry". There is a convergence of the "old or traditional" and the "new" happening with the media being the new and the "drivers and their families" being the old/traditional.

At the Bank of America 500 week at Lowes Motor Speedway (Concord, NC). I worked as a "concierge" supporting the corporate sales group for the week of pole night, the Busch race and the Bank of America 500 over a 3 day period. Working on the corporate suite level, I had a chance to mix and mingle with companies such as Bank of America, 3M, Anheuser-Busch. I also got to see Dale, Jr. and was able to meet and get to know the "Wallace Family" of Rusty and Kenny.

On two of my nights, I was teamed up with someone who worked in the ticket area of Las Vegas Speedway. I also discovered that some of the managers of the food service company (Levy) actually travel to NASCAR circuit to serve the tracks owned by Bruton Smith, who owns Lowes Motor Speedway.

On the technology side, I was able to meet a person at track-scan (www.track-scan.com) which supplies the radio devices to let fans listen to conversations between the drivers and their race crews.

This is an interesting adventure for me, as I am also working with Leilani Munter (wss.leilanimunter.com) who is an up and coming female driver on the NASCAR circuit to help find her a sponsor. Learning about race teams and independent racers such as Leilani is also an interesting adventure. The role of women in NASCAR is also something I will be learning about first hand.

I look forward to writing more about this experience.