Welcome to the Ontario Touring GT Championship

Transcription

1 casc.on.ca

2 SERIES BACKGROUND Welcome to the Ontario Touring GT Championship sanctioned by Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs OR and presented by RaceOntario. This production based racecar championship was designed in 2002 to be PRO-Style racing at an affordable level. The events are full of the cut and thrust, no holds barred racing spectators and competitors want while being accessible to the average competitor. Many new and experienced competitors came on board and the Championship rapidly gained national and North American exposure. It offers fantastic racing between the most popular high performance cars available today as well as the extremely popular sport compact sedans. The Touring GT Championship is a series of races that run at 11 race weekends from April through the end of September, including holding races at the internationally recognized Trans- Am and CASCAR events at Mosport. The race weekends consist of Practice, Qualifying and either 2 Sprint races or 1 endurance race with a mandatory pitstop. Drivers may share a car to share costs, which is designed to make the championship more accessible to competitors. Events held in 2003 have had over 50 entries and started over 45 cars in 3 classes Super GT, GT and the most popular class Touring. All of the classes compete for their respective Championships at the same time, in the same race. This creates the opportunity to observe and experience a tremendous amount of passing and battles throughout the field. The Touring class is filled with the hugely popular sport compact cars including Acura, BMW, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan, Porsche, Toyota and VW. These cars are highly modified versions of their street counterparts and are rumoured to be putting out over 250 HP featured an epic battle between Acura, Honda and VW with VW coming out on top. The other makes steadily improved throughout the year and threatened to steal a podium. The GT class was filled with big power V8 s, V6 s and cars with forced induction, basically Big Iron versus High Tech. The racing was extremely close with new lap and qualifying records being set almost every race weekend. This class is populated with entries consisting of BMWs, Camaros, Mustangs, Nissans, Porsches, Toyotas and various tube frame GT cars. Toyo Tire Canada Inc. committed to the series in 2003 and provided a spec tire, the Toyo PROXES RA-1, The Toyo Proxes RA-1 proved to be fast, consistent and extremely long wearing in this extremely challenging environment. The Touring and GT classes ran exclusively on these tires and were very well received by competitors. Toyo Tire Canada also supported the championship contenders through their R Group program providing hats, jackets, decals and special discounts on tires, as well as contingency vouchers for product. The Touring GT Championship is grateful to our partners at CSC Racing Products, Inside Track Magazine, Ace Painting, Mad Macs Communications + Graphics, Birchmount Collision, S.H. Krikorian & Co. Ltd. (Versace, Dolce & Gabana), Infovision, Control Micro Systems (ScadaPack), Bacardi Canada and TRM Technologies Inc.. These Championship supporters made the events special and contributed to the growth of Touring Gt racing in Ontario. CASC-OR is the governing body of motorsports in Ontario and sanctions over 30 road race, ice race, rally and solo events every year through it s 29 clubs and over 2550 members. For complete schedules and links to individual clubs or specific racing categories, look for more information at

3 THE EXCITEMENT STARTS HERE The Touring GT Championship cars can be found at all CASC-OR events running nose to tail at the world famous Mosport International Raceway (MIR) just outside Toronto, and the legendary Shannonville Motorsport Park (SMP), which is equidistant from Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. Mosport gives the drivers the opportunity to show off their talents and flex their cars muscle around the ten-turn, high-speed road course while Shannonville s Pro Track is more of a technical style of track where passing in some of the tighter areas of the track make for some real exciting action. Details regarding the schedule are listed below and can be found on-line at TENTATIVE SCHEDULE May 1-2 BARC-OC Grand Prix of Ontario Mosport May BEMC Spring Trophy Mosport May PMS Trans Am Mosport Jun 5-6 CRDA Shootout at Shannonville Shannonville Jun PMS CASCAR Mosport Jul 3-4 MCO Ted Powell Memorial Trophy Shannonville Jul DAC Trillium Trophy Shannonville Aug BARC-OC Canadian Touring Trophy Mosport Sep 4-5 CRDA Labour Day Sprints Mosport Sep BEMC Indian Summer Trophy Mosport Oct 2-3 CASC-OR/PMS Mosport Celebration Mosport

4 WHAT SPONSORS CAN EXPECT Racing is a highly competitive sport both on the track and off. In today's highly competitive market, a unique and functional advertising campaign is essential. There are many ideas and options available, we feel that we can generate the greatest return for your company through motorsports. By creating a program that increases exposure, your company will come out of a motorsports campaign the winner. The advantage offered in motorsports is quite simply more exposure and increased sales and that is the goal we have for your company. The fundamental key to motorsports is sponsoring a race series. By doing this, your company gains valuable advertising space on the race cars that varies depending on the amount of money invested. We feel that for your best return, a major sponsorship program, is your best option. This would give you the biggest and most visible space on the cars, which exposes your company's name to loyal race fans. Racing has proven to be a reliable method for placing your name in front of potential customers and the media. Racing also offers an exciting and unique opportunity to involve employees and other business vendors by allowing individual participation at the track. Staff members or guests can be made honorary pit crew members at each race. They may perform such tasks as checking and adjusting tire pressures, cleaning the windshield, assisting in unloading & loading of the race cars. This can be a great method to generate excitement all throughout your company. Motorsports in whatever form, is the #1 spectator sport in North America. It is stylish and very fashionable. It is glamorous and success oriented. It provides opportunity for media coverage (TV and Press) in sponsor's key markets. It is a platform that each market can literally plug into and exploit. It provides a vehicle for related films, video s, TV documentaries, newspapers, and magazines. It provides a vehicle which places your message right at the heart of the action. It can add a boost to advertising thanks to its sheer pace and color. It enables you to promote different brand names in different markets, if you desire. It can be used as a tool for sales incentive or consumer product campaigns. Series sponsors are given logo decal s on all series racecars and other support vehicles. Press releases are submitted to all leading newspapers and target audience publications such as Inside track Motorsport News, before and after each event including sponsor contact information and logos. The CASC- OR website ( provides links to all sponsor sites and special promotions. Racecars can be made available for special sponsor promotional events. Currently some of the series racecars are scheduled to be exhibited at three of the major car shows in the greater Toronto area. The CASC-OR Touring GT Championship advertises in the event programs and sponsors worker breakfasts at certain events. Other event support includes worker and sponsor track tours in the racecars, customer appreciation activities and great photo ops! For more information contact John Bondar, president@casc.on.ca or Perry Iannuzzi, vicepres@casc.on.ca or call

5 SPONSORSHIP BENEFITS Why sponsor the TGT Championship? Signage with Excitement Motorsports sponsorship is a branding opportunity that builds recognition, excitement, credibility and respect. Associated with motorsports, your brand will come back from the track infused with the awe and excitement that is racing. Interactive Sampling Race fans spend only part of the day actually watching the races. They walk around, check out the cars in the pits and collect autographs. Give them a sample, they'll try it. Give them a coupon, they'll hold onto it. Give them a brochure with the race car on it, and they will find the driver to get it autographed and keep it forever. With the roar of racing engines in the background, a promotion at the track carries a momentum you can't get anywhere else. Company Pride Motorsports sponsorship can also be a unifying element to improve your company from the inside out. By getting employees involved, you can strengthen relations and build a sense of pride that is invaluable in today s workplace. Brand Loyalty Spectators indicate brand loyalty to sponsors products. Race fans are infamous for supporting the brands that support their favorite sport. How can sponsors use their sponsorship package? Public Relations: By promoting the series, teams, drivers, and your products at the races you will get to know your media better, via the internet in racing and the personal contact with the drivers. Hospitality: Opportunity to entertain customers, both current and potential in a unique and exciting atmosphere. They can become directly involved with "their" team. This has always proved to be one of the most exciting times they have had. Consumer Involvement: Consumers tend to follow the progress of "their" team, particularly if there are racing-linked promotions. Exhibitions and Showroom Activity: There are plenty of opportunities at trade shows, etc., to display a race car and to have the driver appear in person. A race car always creates interest whether it is in a shopping mall, or outside of a retail store and, of course, the sponsor's name is always projected. Advertising: Make your print and television advertisements more eyecatching with a racing-orientated theme.

6 DEMOGRAPHICS & FAN SUPPORT Auto racing is a very dynamic sport with particular appeal to an active male audience (over 60% between 19 and 44), well educated (over 80% college or better), and affluent (over 50% >$55,000). The CASC-OR Touring GT Championship is an action packed competition geared towards the demographic that are sure to patronize your business or service. The Trans-Am Series is America s performance car road racing series in its 39th year of competition in 2003, The Trans- Am Series is the longest-running road racing series in North America. The Trans-Am averages more than 1.1 million fans each year in attendance. The series will run in support of this series in May of at Mosport International Raceway on the Victoria Day weekend. Every year millions of spectators, broadcast viewers and listeners from around the globe focus on the Sarthe region of France to witness a 24-hour motor racing event that dates back to The 24 Hours of Le Mans tests both man and machine in what is arguably the world's most prestigious automobile race. In, there are 10 races in North America and Mexico. The ALMS domestic and international television and Internet distribution is unprecedented in American sports car racing history. The American Le Mans Series has been created to stabilize and implement a growth strategy for professional sports car racing in America. The series will run in support of this series in August of at Mosport International Raceway SERIES PARTNERS A extremely dedicated group of volunteers and competitors make the series happen with the much appreciated support of the sponsors such as: CSC Racing Products (cscracing.com) Mad Macs Communications + Graphics ( Colourtech Motorsports Photography S H Krikorian & Co Ltd Exclusive Distributors of Versace Profumi, Dolce & Gabbana Parfum Birchmount Collision (1995) Inc. Info-Vision ( TRM Technologies, Inc. ( Inside Track Magazine ( ACE Painting MARTINI ( Toyo Tires of Canada ( Control MicroSystems - SCADAPAK ( Colourtech Motorsports Photography

7 2003 STATISTICS 11 Race weekends 20 Races 11 Corporate Sponsors 110 Competitors 95 Race Cars 105,000 Total Attendance Touring Class Winners 1st Place - Ian Madden 2nd Place - Michael Thornley 3rd Place - Cliff Daley GT Class Winners 1st Place - Bob Armstrong 2nd Place - Joe Pacione 3rd Place John Cosgrove Rookie of the Year Top Race Team Most Professional Team Karl Thomson Armstrong Motosports Team Mad Macs Racing