Brian Fleck – Dunlop Tires
Tell us a little about Dunlop and about your sponsorship program.
We are the largest motorcycle tire company in the United States. We support more amateur racers than all the other companies combined, actually. We’ve been doing this a long time. We are affiliated with all the OE teams, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Honda, and we get a lot of young riders that way. But through SponsorHouse we are able to pick up some riders who don’t have the amateur factory ride, and that’s why we use SponsorHouse, to utilize that.
When do you accept applications and how do your programs work for both amateurs and pros?
Our season opens on September 1st and runs till the end of December. At the end of ’07 we may expand it into ’08, but we usually run September through December, just because we need a cutoff point for our budgets and for our programs for the next year.
How does it work with the amateurs and the pros?
We separate the pros from the amateurs, but we have 3 different basic levels in SponsorHouse and we try to find a slot for most of the riders. We look at results, what part of the country you’re from, we try to have riders from every key area, so even if you’re not riding all the amateur nationals, if you’re riding some strong regional series or local series in an area that we need riders in, we definitely look at that as well as guys who go to nationals.
How has the internet changed the way that you manage your program?
It just lets us contact the riders better. Before we did it either face to face or via the mail and it wasn’t very personal. This way we’re able to respond to each individual application and actually verify it a little bit more and look at the results. If I have questions I can shoot them a quick email and get the verification I need and find the right programs for them.
What types of information do you look for in the rider resume and the profiles and their applications?
I like to look at their recent race results at the major races or the local series that they’re doing, who their current sponsors are, and what their plans will be for ’08. I want to know what series’ they’re planning on attending and what parts of the country they planning on racing so that we know where we’ll get product exposure from them.
What types of qualities do you look for?
Good students. I like to see what their grades are, if they’re home schooled or public schooled it doesn’t matter, but just how they’re doing in school, that’s very important to Dunlop. Their image, make sure they have a good clean image. That they’re attending races every couple weeks; that they are out there racing.
Who are some of your top riders, both amateur and pro?
At the pro level we have Davey Milsap, Andrew Shore, Michael Lessey, a lot of the top guys. Then at the amateur level we have Justin Barsha, Brandon Mayes, Zack Hayes, there are so many its hard to keep track of. We’re at Lorettas we just watched Jason Anderson get 3 moto wins to win the H5 mod so we’ve got a lot of top riders here. We’ll probably walk away with about 25 championships this weekend.
What types of expectations do you have of the riders you actually sponsor?
We expect them to be professional at all times and present a strong positive image for our product, we want them to display at least 2 decals on their bike, we like to see them race at least once or twice a month. If they’re injured that’s definitely no problem. We want to know that they’re out there racing and getting exposure for our product. If you use our product, give us feedback if you have issues with our product. Run a couple decals and list us as a sponsor on their entries and stuff. That’s pretty basic.
What types of advice do you have for riders who are either new to sponsorship or racing and trying to get sponsored?
Just to keep their hopes up and to be positive. You don’t need to flood us with information, but just let us know your top results from the season and what your goals are for next year and where you plan on riding. When you’re first starting out, I think people expect it’s always going to be right for them, but you kind of have to earn it. I mean, I know that OEs are the same way, that you earn your way onto those teams. Don’t be discouraged that you don’t get a full-ride this year, it’s always a possibility down the road. We try starting with the smaller support programs and as their results and their experience grow, we try to provide a little bit more support for them. We definitely try to grow with them as they go through their racing experience.
Go back to the Sponsor Resources