In-Season Communication: What Sponsors Need to Hear Between Races

Your sponsor isn't at most of your races. The marketing manager who signed you is juggling dozens of other programs, a trade-show calendar and a budget review, and what they know about your season is mostly what you tell them. Racers who go quiet between the announcement and the renewal request leave the brand to guess. Racers who communicate on a steady rhythm give the brand a running record of what it's getting. Here is how the brands themselves describe the difference.

Communication is part of your grade

Tony Yorkman, senior partnership manager at K&N Engineering, has managed hundreds of racer relationships, from lawn mower racers to NASCAR. He told me he asks for a regular cadence of updates, scaled to how long a racer's season runs. "I holistically look for it like a quarterly update based on what's going on," Yorkman said. "Everybody's programs are a little bit different." Metrics, if a racer has them, he'd like monthly, "because it goes into some of our reporting."

Then he described something every sponsored racer should know exists. "We keep a grade sheet. I go through and I keep everybody on a grading." The grade isn't mainly about where you finished. It's "not necessarily on the performance. Most of it's keeping up with the communication and showing what their efforts are."

He made the point even more plainly: "It's not so much about the performance in those ways, but it's about the effort and the support that goes through there." ▶ Watch Tony Yorkman explain this

Read that again if you just had a rough season on track. At one of the biggest brands in racing, keeping your contact informed is a large part of how you're scored.

Great work nobody sees doesn't count

Yorkman told a story that shows what happens when communication breaks down, even on the sponsor's side. Ryan Martino of Martino Motorsports, an NHRA Sportsman racer, had been a K&N partner for a few years and was producing exactly the kind of content K&N wants: consistent videos that showed K&N products in everyday use, "down to like doing oil changes on his golf cart." Yorkman inherited the program when responsibilities were reshuffled internally.

"He was one that I inherited... shame on us, because I've never really seen what he's had to offer. I've never really seen a lot of those things. Our communication internally wasn't that great." Then Martino reached out to introduce himself to his new contact. Once Yorkman looked at the work, the reaction was immediate: "Next you know I start reviewing some of this stuff and I'm going, this is amazing." ▶ See the full story

The lesson for racers: never assume the person who renews you has seen what you did. Contacts change jobs, files get lost, and departments don't always talk to each other. When you hear you have a new contact, reach out that week and send them your best work.

Send the schedule and keep a folder of fresh content

Mark Krumme, marketing manager at Eibach Springs, pointed to off-road racer Casey Currie as a model for staying in touch without being asked. "We don't really even have to ask for it. It's just a part of the partnership," Krumme said. "Casey and his team are constantly sending... three-month schedules, and say, you know, these are the races he's gonna be at, or these are the events he's working or going to be at. And then they always have a Dropbox link to whatever is fresh. And that has been a very valuable tool for us and, you know, worth its weight in gold."

What does Currie get for it? "It makes it an easy partnership. If you need something, we're happy to do it." ▶ Watch Mark Krumme on this

Two simple tools do most of the work here. A rolling schedule tells the brand where you'll be in time to plan around it. A shared folder they can open any time means their social team never has to email you for a photo.

Report the off-track work, not just the results

Morgan Lucas, who raced in NHRA before moving to the sales side of Lucas Oil, told a PRI Show seminar audience that the update itself is part of the value you deliver. "I think one thing you have to always remember is updating your representative with that company on a regular basis, constantly letting them know your progress, what you've been doing, who you've been reaching, if you've been at the track winning a race or going to a high school and talking to kids about your car and the programs and telling them, handing out stickers, flyers, whatever it is. Everything matters."

He explained why those updates matter even when the brand isn't asking: "Showing your sponsors what you're doing is a big deal, because it's refreshing in their mind all the effort that you're putting out there and all the things that you're doing for their company, for their brand." ▶ Watch Morgan Lucas on this

The school visit, the shop open house, the parts-counter appearance: if you don't report it, as far as the sponsor knows it never happened.

Don't save it all for the renewal ask

Enjuku Racing's general manager, speaking at the Drift Sponsorship Summit, described the habit that frustrates retailers and manufacturers alike: the racer who only shows up when the next season's support is on the line. His advice was to keep content and updates flowing all year. "Creating that content, delivering it, you know, not just once a year and when you're asking for the next round of sponsorships, is huge," he said. The racer who sends "a handful of pictures or videos from the event" after each race is "just keeping up, instead of just that once a year ask of, hey, I need some money or I need some parts." ▶ Watch the clip

Be a hand raiser

Cam Douglass, director of marketing at OPTIMA Batteries, said the best partnerships OPTIMA has are simply the ones that lasted. He named drifter Tanner Foust, UTV racer Wayne Matlock and one of OPTIMA's trophy truck drivers, and said what they share is availability. "All three of those that I mentioned are always hand raisers. As long as their schedule allows, they'll make the time, they'll be creative, they'll spend the time on the phone, on a Teams call, in person, driving up to see us at our shop, to do whatever it takes to create value." ▶ Watch Cam Douglass explain this

Communication isn't only reports. It's answering the call when the brand needs a driver for a shop visit next Tuesday.

The takeaway

• After every event, send a short recap with photos or video, even after a bad weekend.
• Keep a rolling three-month schedule and a shared folder of fresh content, and send both to every sponsor.
• Give each sponsor a quarterly update, and monthly metrics if you have them.
• Report what you do off the track: school visits, shop appearances, introductions, retail days.
• When your contact changes, introduce yourself to the new person within a week and send your best work.