[RLG34750]

NHRA Mustang Sponsorship Goes Lean for John Force
Jan 27, 2009 By: All Ford Mustangs News

In these bad economic times sponsorship is even hard to come by for the great John Force.

Force who has retained Castrol sponsorship for the 24th straight year on his own Funny Car, cannot find sponsors for teammate Mike Neff. Force is taking the responsibility of sponsorship upon himself. Force will sponsor the effort with his own endorsement income. Force estimates that he takes in between $4-5 million annually in endorsements.

Force is a racers racer, one of those guys who would race for nothing. He is committed to his employees. Force said he has had no layoffs at either his Indianapolis or Yorba Linda, Calif., shops.

"I went to my people and said, 'We can cut a team or we can talk about no raises or we can talk about cuts in wages. How bad do you want to save the (Neff) team? They all voted, 70 people. They said, 'We'll take a cut.'

"Well, I'm not going to give them a cut. What I'm going to do is continue my technology and safety (research), but I'm going to quit building.

"My real-estate company makes a lot of money. I'm selling a lot of property. People don't know I'm in that business. It sells and buys continually. This year we stopped."

[jim293]

Did not know that. NHRA for the first time does not have all of the races that they run around the country sponsored. I believe the run like 26 races around the country and they have only secured sponsorship for half of them. Nascar is having the same problems. It will be interesting to see what happens this year.

[cindys_sn95]

it is actually 7 races that have no title sponsor, but still NHRA acts like everything is honkydory, all is well in NHRA land!

[bluebloodedpony]

NASCAR was doing the same thing last season. They would talk about how there was a packed crowd yet half the seats were empty. I think it was Indy that they only panned the front stretch because the other seats were vacant. NASCAR could save itself if it cut the price of admission. Though, with GM and Dodge going under, this season will be interesting to watch for sure.

[cindys_sn95]

true...............

[cindys_sn95]

i do 6-8 national events a year, and you could tell at the end of last season spectator count was off then!

[jim293]

Well this weekend starts the NHRA season off with the WInternationals. Will be interesting. NHRA is offering lowered prices on general admission and kids under the age of 12 are admitted free with an adult. I noticed last year at the Finals in Pomona that there were lots of vacant seats when all the top fuel teams were running.

[RLG34750]

the attendance was way off last year at the worlds fastest street cars in orlando also......

it going to be some interesting times ahead of us.....

[EagleAutosports]

I wish more were like Force, meaning they actually CARE about their workers. Most would've said ok, you're gone. Those who have ever met John Force in person would agree that this sounds just like him, he's too good to put anybody out.

[jim293]

Originally Posted by EagleAutosports

I wish more were like Force, meaning they actually CARE about their workers. Most would've said ok, you're gone. Those who have ever met John Force in person would agree that this sounds just like him, he's too good to put anybody out.

John Force is NHRA drag racing. He is to the sport as Dale Earnhardt was to Nascar.