Beauty and Business in Racing
Turns out I'm a big softie now
Happy Race Day! especially to Stadium Super Trucks for making remote-controlled cars available for kids at the Grand Prix last weekend. My daughter had a blast going off “super jumps” and learning to drift around corners. Thanks guys!
Now I’m up late googling prices for starter kits. Oof, let me finish this newsletter before I go and make an expensive decision.
BUT FIRST — we have so many things cooking here at Carrara Books. I’m deep into my upcoming project about the Nissan Skyline GT-R, while acclaimed journalists Hazel Southwell and Michael Banovsky have titles in the works, too! Of course you can still order your copy of Postcards From the End of the World by Victoria Scott. Regardless, do us a favor and subscribe to Race Day, right here, right now. Thx!
A Furiously Good Time
As you know (because I made a big deal of it last week) the Grand Prix of Long Beach stormed into town over the weekend. It was, as always, brilliant.
These days I’m more about enjoying the action rather than my usual routine of running around the course, chasing leads and reporting my ass off. Lately it’s about taking in the spectacle, running into friends and promoting my work with the Grand Prix Foundation and our ongoing charitable efforts.
And from this more relaxed perspective, what stands out to me is the effort to really give fans what they want. There are a few things that make Long Beach unique (amazing weather; up-close proximity to fans; Hooters within the premises) but I’m noticing more lately that every event, minor and major, is catered toward the fans.
Of course, there’s IndyCar, which is the main draw and top level open-wheel series in the US. It’s what most people come to see for the sheer speed and thrill. This year saw youngster Kyle Kirkwood fend off a flock of hungry veterans to, frankly, dominate the race and earn the win in an impressive showing.
There’s also IMSA. If IndyCar is the glamour event, then IMSA is for the nerds. So it goes without saying that it’s my favorite. Sports cars from the world’s most iconic marques that are built to last 24 hours doing battle in an all-out sprint for 100 minutes — I mean, you had me at sports cars. There’s also a much more cavalier attitude from the teams in this series. They seem to embrace and welcome the fans. I once watched a team give a kid a broken body panel from the race. The driver signed it.
But it’s the support series where the weekend surprisingly shines. The smaller, pure entertainment events that keep the track busy between bigtime races. I’m talking stuff like Stadium Super Trucks. If you’ve never watched a pickup truck on balloon tires launch itself into the air at 100 mph, bumping their closest rival all the way to the ground, you need to do so pronto. I cannot possibly imagine a more fun way for casual spectators to spend time at the track.
Similarly there’s also drifting, for the night time crowd, which is an enormous explosion of smoke and sound that can’t be explained in the way it can be experienced with your whole body. I have more detailed thoughts on drifting in the section below.
And this year, there was also vintage F1 racing. These are real Formula One cars from back in the day, many of them recognizable ‘70s stars, driven by owners or hired guns who want nothing more than to give the fans a show. And trust me, a 50-year old V12 engine that revs to 10,000 rpm whipping past your face, that’s a show.
All weekend long, these events rolled out one after the other, delighting different groups of people from the last one. For true motorsports fans there were, as the kids say, “No skips.” But for people just there looking for a good time, one of these was bound to do it.
And the older I get, the more I appreciate that part. As much as it’s about hardcore, high-octane adrenaline and intense competition with millions on the line, it’s also about families trying to have fun. Or grandparents teaching loved ones about their old favorites. Or youngsters learning to love cars for the first time. And we all get to experience the whole crazy lot of it together. That means something.
I’ll remember the 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach as the year of no skips. I wanted to stay in my seat for every second, to see what was going to happen next. And to say that I was there when racing had one perfect weekend. I saw it with my own eyes. Heard it and smelled it, too. I get to have that in common with about 250,000 of my closest friends. We’ll all share that together.
Click here to see the IndyCar highlights for a small taste of Long Beach magic.
Burning Rubber, Not Cash
Believe it or not, there’s big money in drifting.
Businesses face a unique opportunity in partnering with Formula D. Do it right, and you can reach young, engaged drifting audiences on the relative cheap. This week we’ve got a special guest to tell us first-hand about that experience.
Ed Koczan is Sales Manager, Automotive Division for Kenda Tire, a new sponsor and competitor in Formula D this year. I asked Ed for insight into the business of drifting and why it makes sense for a brand to jump into this arena.
Spoiler alert: it’s the fans. “Formula D has an incredible demographic of 18-34 and the second largest motorsports audience in the USA next to NASCAR,” Koczan said. “For our product, that is largely used in grassroots drift already, it’s a perfect audience to align with.”
It’s a great chance to grow. Kenda is a small name in the world of tires, garnering 1.5 percent of US sales for small cars and 2 percent for light trucks. But it aspires to grow toward 3 percent in the coming years, Koczan said. It’s a familiar blueprint — drifting helped Falken Tire and others become household names.
After drivers, tires are the stars in drifting. Drivers compete for their tire sponsor more than their car brand. This year, Kenda launches two new models — the Vezda UHP and Vezda UHP MAX that FD drivers use in competition. “The opportunity to showcase how the new tire can perform at the FD Pro level was a great opportunity to highlight this message and product to the large FD fan base… many of whom are grassroots drifters themselves,” Koczan said.
Kenda faces an uphill battle — its four drivers scored only enough points in Long Beach to place the brand fourth out of five in the standings.
But there are plenty of events left in 2023. Plus, while three of its drivers are still up and coming, securing fan-favorite Forrest Wang could be described as something of a coup. Wang has a distinctive style and 142,000 Instagram followers — a not-insignificant audience all his own.
Besides, Kenda is in drifting for the long haul. Koczan said grassroots drifters like the brand for its performance bang-for-the-buck, and that Kenda offers a “Racer Support Program” to pro drivers that want to try their tires at a discount. It’s even possible that some may choose to jump ship in the middle of the season.
“As competitions play out this year and tires are proven we will expect to see a handful of other drivers make a switch,” he said. “Will be very interesting!”
And Finally…
One last shot from our man Matt to send you out. We truly appreciate his hard work to bring all these photos to life from the weekend. Follow him on Instagram for more outstanding motorsports photography! Thanks Matt.
Drive hard and be safe. Black Lives Matter.
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