Preston McGhee will branch out in 2014 but the importance of maximizing exposure for his sponsors will also keep him at Motor Mile Speedway in the Limited Sportsman division where he won the championship in 2012.
McGhee, 32, from Ronaoke, Virginia has a brand new car which he will run at Motor Mile Speedway in the Limited Sportsman division as well as other tracks such as Southern National Motorsports Park, Caraway Speedway and a handful of other tracks in the Late Model Stock Car division. He also has strong expectations after coming off a winless 2015 season.
“I’m expecting big things out of it,” McGhee said. “I think we’ll be a contender every week everywhere we go. Last year was the worst year I’ve had in racing. It was terrible. I was almost embarrassed. We had several part failures. We were off last year.”
McGhee had plans to run in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Late Model Stock Tour but sponsorship commitments will keep him at Motor Mile as well as other tracks. McGhee stressed that it was important for him to keep his sponsors happy and get them exposure.
“We were going to move up to Late Model this year,” McGhee remarked. We really wanted to run the CARS Tour. Sponsors don’t just give you a bunch of money to race. You have to be a marketing partner. They have to see an investment or it’s not a good investment. If we run top-three every week at Motor Mile, we can promote our sponsors much more… To maximize our exposure for our sponsors, we’re going to run Limited Sportsman at Motor Mile and Late Model on the other tracks.”
The economic recession that rocked the United States late last decade saw a large decline in the number of companies investing in motorsports, especially at the grassroots level. Every sponsor dollar is important and, with companies not having the disposable income they used to have, they’re looking for more of a return on their investments.
“Businesses are running tighter margins,” McGhee explained. “The economy is not great yet. It’s still down. There’s just not that much disposable income. Back when they were making 30 percent profit, it wasn’t a big deal to give a $20,000 sponsorship. Now they’re accounting for every dollar.”
McGhee feels that return does not just mean drivers going out and winning races and thanking their sponsors. It means being a spokesperson for the company, being at events and promoting sponsors throughout social media.
“We can’t be as racers, ‘hey sponsor my car’ and ‘you get your name on my car’ when they ask what they get out of it,” McGhee commented. “You have to do more, sponsorship events, event marketing, social media. All the stuff to promote your sponsor, you have to show them their investment is worthwhile.”
For his part, McGhee says he already has several things planned suchas giveaways, raffles and more with new primary sponsor SafeSide Tactical as well as with Kessler Contracting and New River Nissan.
Saturday night will be McGhee’s first race of the 2015 season when he heads back to Motor Mile Speedway, located just outside of Radford, Virginia. Following that race, he has plans to head to Southern National Motorsports Park to compete in the recently postponed Jerry Moody Memorial, now scheduled for May 17th.
As he travels, he hopes he can make a statement about the competition at Motor Mile Speedway. Because Motor Mile only runs six or seven races and most of their Limited Sportsman drivers only run at Motor Mile, the small sample size makes it hard to see where the competition ranks up against others.
“I don’t feel like I have to travel to get respect,” McGhee indicated. “I don’t see anyone coming to Motor Mile to race with us. I don’t know how we stack up but we’ll find out. I think Motor Mile has the toughest Limited field in the country. I realize we don’t run that many races but I think, if we can run top-five in Late Models, it will say what it needs to say.”
Saturday night’s races at Motor Mile Speedway will be the season opening race for the tracks seven race regular season schedule.
