When Humpy Wheeler Speaks….People Listen
Humpy Wheeler is well-known as a premier promoter, in his former role as GM at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And, he has a new idea that will bring short track racing to the forefront for fans of racing, while bringing many benefits to your local short track.
Speedway Benefits is Wheeler’s new idea in creating an organization that is gaining traction in its first month of operation. The response has been so strong that initial membership is now limited.
“We’ve put together a very capable team and we’re investing significantly to make this happen,” Wheeler said when introducing his new organization. “And some of the premier grassroots race tracks have come on board to realize the benefits this team will be able to provide. In fact, the response has been so overwhelming, we’ve had to limit initial membership. For corporate America, there’s no other opportunity that allows access to the 50 million middle-class Americans with this kind of spending power. The reach is almost unfathomable and the opportunities are endless.”
NASCAR fans are known for their brand loyalty and Speedway Benefits will bring the grassroots brand of short track racing to the spot light through collective efforts with tracks, vendors and marketers.
This is the right idea at exactly the right time. Fans love side-by-side, door-to-door short track racing, but tracks throughout the country are struggling in a recession economy that demands a higher cost of doing business. Wheeler believes that leveraging the collective power of America’s 1,200 grassroots tracks will bring more to each track, and that means more to every fan too.
What Wheeler sees is that short tracks collectively attract more fans than the NFL, the NHL, the NBA and NASCAR tracks combined. Each year they attract 50 million fans with more than $1 trillion in racing-related disposable income.
Yes, we’re talking about a racing demographic that includes working-class fans in suburban and rural areas. And in an economy where work is hard to find, grassroots race tracks employ nearly 2,000 full-time and up to 30,000 part-time employees.
So the concept of Speedway Benefits is to work with tracks, vendors and corporate marketers to collectively to bring more to each track at a lower cost. By unifying tracks, the organization is allowing an opportunity for vendors, to offer high-volume discounts on a national level for products and services that tracks commonly buy. The cost savings go directly to the tracks, keeping their doors open to fans and providing work to all those employees.
Speedway Benefits at full force across the country holds the potential as the second largest sports property in the United States based on attendance.
“As the motorsports scene changes, grassroots racing is seeing significant success because of its tremendous appeal to the working people of this nation,” said Wheeler. “However, they’re doing it alone. Our new alliance will bring them more fans, higher revenues and less expense. We’re going to stick strictly to these grassroots tracks and not the big tracks of NASCAR, IndyCar or the NHRA. This collectivism of all the short tracks will change the face of racing. Short track racing, including ovals, drag strips and road courses, are the backbone of our sport and yet they’ve been shorted on television, advertising and media coverage.
“It’s our intention to help fire the rockets to change this. There’s more excitement in racing at such tracks as Carolina (NC) Speedway, Lebanon Valley (PA), Skagit (WA), Bowman-Gray (NC), Eldora (OH) and Thunder Road (VT) than most superspeedways. We just need to help these operators let the world know this. These tracks never got the investment that fueled NASCAR’s growth in the last 25 years. Imagine what can be accomplished by bringing the newly united sport with 50 million avid race fans into the next decade.”
Tracks can still keep and secure local and regional sponsorships and vendor partnerships. They can opt in or out of any aspect of the program, including consultation services, allowing them to customize according to their specific need. Amazingly, membership comes at no cost to founding member tracks and the organization plans to grow to 50 employees and create 1,000 new jobs across the country.
For race fans, imagine having more accessibility to the grassroots racing of short tracks, with more media and television coverage. Humpy Wheeler’s idea brings support to the backbone of racing – your local home track.
Clint Elkins from Speedway Benefits is our next guest on Fan4Racing Fan2Fan NASCAR-NHRA Talk on Monday, November 4, 2013 at 8:35pm and we’re talking about Humpy Wheeler’s new organization. Call 347-996-5176 during the LIVE broadcast to interact with Clint Elkins and our Fan4Racing panel. Thanks!
