[dirtnonwingfan]

Last year I needed some supplies in Kokomo and asked Jerry Spencer where to go. He sent me to one of his sponsors so we went there, purchased several items, and made sure they knew why we came. This year I went to his sponsor for food several times and again made sure each time that the manager knew why. I sent an email to the PR person for Mean Green twice now to tell them that I have started using their product because they sponsor the Hoffmans. Both times I received a response. If I need flowers in Indiana, I know I will call Jockish Flowers, because they have sponsored Steve and Carla for years.

The problem is knowing who sponsors racing. There have to be hundreds of small sponsors of sprint cars in Indiana, but the only way to know who they are is to go to all the cars in the pits and write down the sponsors. Most of the time this doesn't work either, because an out-of-state fan like me has no idea where they are located. It would be so helpful if teams could provide a written list of their sponsors and where they are located, with web site if possible. Better still would be for someone (not mentioning any names, Bill) to provide a place for teams to list their sponsors so fans would be able to look up sponsors when they are traveling. I believe this would work for fans who live in Indiana also. After all, wouldn't you be willing to shop somewhere if you found out that they helped sponsor a car? Another idea is for tracks to collect sponsorship data for all of their regular teams at the first of the year and make that information available to the fans. In theory, the more happy sponsors, the more teams, the more fans. Seems to me that would ultimately be in a track's best interest. However it is done, there needs to be a way to let more people know who sponsors racing so those sponsors are rewarded. Just my opinion. I would be very interested in hearing how the IOW community thinks we can give sponsors more business and let them know that it does indeed pay to help racing.