New Dirt Late Model Sponsor Makes Right Choice

New Dirt Late Model Sponsor

Makes Right Choice

Photo By Dennis Murphy

August 16, 2004

By Doc Lehman

Bringing national corporate companies into dirt Late Model racing has been a goal for many, many teams, tracks and series and when it happens the industry as a whole collectively hopes the relationships will grow and prosper. One such national company that recently took the plunge into dirt Late Model marketing has been Lester Buildings who signed on with Chub Frank a couple weeks ago. Signing on to a team and putting the company logo on the car is all well and fine but that is barely the beginning. The most important factors of a sponsorship relationship comes after signing on the dotted line and placing the company logo on a strategic location on the car.

For Lester Buildings their foray into dirt Late Model racing and Chub Frank appears to have been a successful decision as executives from Lester Buildings flew into Lernerville Speedway last Friday night to see their new driver in action for the first time. And it is readily apparent that the executives have made the right decision in becoming involved in dirt Late Model racing according to one executive who was present Friday night.

“Our first immediate reaction before we got into the track was the number of cars in the parking lot,” stated Larry Lembrich, Vice President of Sales for Lester Buildings. “We were pretty impressed when we got in there and saw the stands and how full they were. That was impressive. Also it’s a total different demographic than what we are getting in ASA. It seems pretty close knit and we kind of like the idea of the souvenir and merchandise trailers from a sponsor’s stand point, those things are important to sponsors like ourselves. We immediately got our Lester bags there and started putting Chub’s merchandise in Lester bags and we’ll do a few more things there too as we go forward.”

Lester Buildings, one of the largest manufacturers of engineered, wood frame building systems in the United States, now have a major and comprehensive marketing agreement with Chub Frank Racing, a national dirt Late Model star driver who is one of the famed ‘Dirty Dozen’ of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Lester Buildings cover a broad range of customer needs, from standard simple pole barns to custom, one-of-a-kind structures and everything in between. Nearly 130,000 Lester® buildings dot the American landscape today. Chub Frank, known affectionately as ‘Chubzilla’, is a former four-time Renegade Dirt Car Racing Series champion who has an enormous national fan-base.

“We’re really excited about it,” stated Larry Lembrich, Vice President of Sales for Lester Buildings. “We are fairly new into the racing game. We started this year in 2004 with an ASA car and when we heard of Chub’s unfortunate fire through Hi Liter Graphics, Perry Hintz gave us a call, we were eager to explore the opportunity to come up with something to help Chub out and help us out in terms of getting into the racing game.”

Lembrich and his fellow executives were very impresses with not only Chub Frank but also Lernerville Speedway, the fans and the sport as a whole.

“We were pretty impressed with everything before the green flag dropped and then when it did the feature was outstanding,” commented Lembrich. “Chub did an outstanding driving job. There is no question we are hooked with the right person. We had a great time.”

Lembrich was especially thrilled with the on-track racing.

“He tore up his radiator in his heat race and I’ll tell you what, he maybe had one minute before the green flag dropped on the feature,” said Lembrich. “They threw that thing pretty darn quick and he did a marvelous job driving.”

Having an already established marketing relationship with ASA star Tim Sauter, Lembrich and the executives marveled at the packed grandstands, the fan loyalty and the actual and all-important demographics that dirt Late Model racing presents to a corporate entity. By extending into dirt Late Model racing Lester Buildings has found a way to diversify their marketing to a broader range of potential customers.

“Tom and I, our marketing manager, when we left there we saw absolutely no overlap with this,” stated Lembrich. “We almost feel based on the people we talked with that the demographics and the type of folks that are in the stands and even racing there, there is a whole different level of folks we’re interested in working with. I walked around the pits for a while by myself and saw a lot of contracting type folks sponsoring racecars now so they all need buildings, and judging by the parking lot and all the motor homes too.”

“It was frankly a bigger venue than I anticipated. I had been dirt racing before with maybe 3 or 4,000 people and we had a good time. I think it’s a good thing for us.”

So does Lester Buildings feel vindicate din their decision to enter the world of dirt Late Model racing as a means to market their products?

“No question,” responded Lembrich. “We didn’t even get into the facility and the lines lined up to buy Chub’s merchandise was incredible. Lots of people there buying souvenirs and if that is any indication of his popularity than we’re extremely happy with him.”

“We made the right choice!”

For more information on Lester Buildings and Chub Frank and Chub Frank Racing’s Lester Buildings Monte Carlo #1* visit: www.lesterbuildings.com and www.chubfrank.com

Courtesy of

www.DirtAmericaOnline.com

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Chub Frank Racing

Rt.1 Box 146

Lottsville Niobe Rd.

Bear Lake, PA 16402