Motorsport club sponsorship: what to sell and how to keep your sponsors

A motocross club, karting club or rally organiser runs on a small group of volunteers and a handful of race days a year. On those few days everything has to come together: the track, the marshals, the spectators and the sponsors. Because the work piles up like that, finding sponsors often falls by the wayside. Yet a motorsport club has more to offer sponsors than most field sports. In this article you'll read what you can sell, who to approach and how to keep sponsors once the season is over.

Why motorsport sponsorship works differently

At a football club, a pitchside board stays up all year and there's a crowd every week. Motorsport is different. There are fewer race days, but on those days the crowd lines the track and competitors, teams and families come in from across the region. In the Netherlands alone, 207 karting and car events were held in 2023 under the national federation, mostly organised by volunteer-run clubs.

That has three consequences for your sponsorship:

• Visibility happens on race day. You're selling moments, not a full year of boards.
• You have more places to put a sponsor. Beyond the track there are the cars or bikes, the start and finish, the podium and the commentator.
• A lot of support comes in kind. Groundwork for track maintenance, fuel, tyres or catering are often worth more than a cash sponsor.

What can a motorsport club sell?

Start with a list of everything you can offer. Many clubs only think of banners, but there's much more.

• Trackside advertising. Banners round the circuit, at the start or finish and where the spectators gather. This is the basis of almost every package.
• Naming rights for a round or class. A business that puts its name to the club's home round or a class gets a mention in the announcement, the programme, the results and from the commentator.
• Advertising on the competing cars. At rallies it's common for the organiser to require a fixed set of advertising on every car. More on that below.
• The programme and the commentator. An advert in the programme and a mention between heats or races.
• Youth classes. Many clubs run junior classes. A business that backs the juniors gets visibility and a good story.
• Hospitality. A few places for the sponsor and their customers at a good spot by the track or in the paddock, with a tour.
• In-kind support. A plant hire firm that does the groundwork may be worth more than your biggest cash sponsor.

The sticker plan: a product many clubs overlook

Rally organisers often work with a fixed advertising plan for the competing cars. Dutch rally regulations show the same pattern every time: one partner takes the compulsory advertising, usually on the rally plates front and rear, and a few partners take the optional advertising, for example on the front doors.

What makes this interesting: competitors who decline the organiser's advertising pay a higher entry fee. At the Hellendoorn Rally 2025 in the Netherlands, entry was €980 with the organiser's advertising and €1,880 without. So virtually every competitor carries your sponsors, and that makes those spots valuable.

A few tips if you sell a sticker plan:

• Record who is on each area, with sizes and position. A sponsor who has pulled out but is still on the rally plates is painful for the new partner.
• Turn each area into its own package. The compulsory advertising is the top product, the optional areas are entry-level packages.
• Sort out printing and handing out in good time, for example at signing on, so the stickers are on the cars before scrutineering.

Motocross is different. There the number boards and bike graphics usually belong to the rider and their own sponsors. A motocross club mainly sells the track, the naming rights, the podium and the commentator.

Take in-kind support seriously

In motorsport, in-kind sponsorship is completely normal. Think of groundwork and track maintenance, fuel and oil, tyres, fencing and barriers, catering for volunteers and marshals, and printing such as the programme and the stickers.

The problem is that there's no price tag. So that sponsor easily gets forgotten when it comes to mentions, thank-yous or renewals. Record in-kind support as a normal deal, with an estimated value and the benefits that go with it. Then you can see what every sponsor really contributes, and you treat in-kind sponsors as seriously as cash sponsors.

Who should you approach?

The best sponsors for a motorsport club are businesses with a link to the sport or the area. Start close to home:

• Businesses in the sport itself: garages, motorcycle dealers, tyre specialists, parts suppliers, bodyshops and wrap or signage companies.
• Businesses that already supply you: the plant hire firm, the fuel supplier, the caterer.
• Businesses near the track: they benefit from visibility with the local crowd and a good relationship with the club.
• Your members' and competitors' network: many members, parents and volunteers work at or run a business. Ask them who they know.

Use concrete numbers in your first contact: how many events you run, roughly how many competitors and spectators you attract and what media coverage you get. More tips for that first conversation are in approaching companies for sponsorship.

Putting your packages on paper

A good package answers three questions for the sponsor: what do I get, when do I get it and what does it cost?

• Work with a few fixed tiers, for example a headline sponsor (naming rights plus the compulsory advertising), a mid-tier package (banner plus programme) and an entry package (a mention by the commentator and on the website).
• Offer single-round packages alongside season packages. For a business that's on the fence, one round is an easy way to get to know the club.
• Write the benefits down concretely, with numbers and moments. Not "visibility", but "two banners at the start, a mention in the programme and three mentions by the commentator".

More on building packages in how to create sponsorship packages. Then put the agreement in writing; this guide to sponsorship proposals helps.

Delivering on race day

A sponsor renews when they see you do what you promised. In motorsport that comes down to a few busy days. So make a list for every event of what needs to happen for each sponsor, with a name next to it:

• put the banners up in the right place
• print and hand out the stickers
• check the logos in the programme
• prepare the commentator's script with sponsor mentions
• welcome hospitality guests

Take photos of the banners, the cars with stickers and the podium during the event, and send them to your sponsors afterwards with a thank-you. It takes little time, and it's exactly what makes sponsors renew.

Renew before the winter

The time to renew isn't March, but straight after the season. The races are still fresh and you can show what you delivered. If you wait until just before the new season, your sponsor may already have spent the budget elsewhere. More on this in retaining sponsors.

Also make sure the knowledge doesn't sit with one person. When the volunteer who knows every sponsor stands down, their successor needs to find everything: who has which package, what was agreed and when it ends. A proper sponsorship committee helps.

How Sponsorvista helps

Sponsorvista is built for clubs that want to run sponsorship professionally, even when everything is done by volunteers. You build your own packages, including a sticker plan or a single round, and record in-kind support as a deal with a value. You send proposals that sponsors accept online, invoices go out automatically, and every benefit becomes a task with a deadline, so you can see what still needs doing before each race day.

Find out more on the page motorsport sponsorship management for clubs or try Sponsorvista free for 30 days.