Interview with CC President Dick Eidswick

[pchall]

Eidswick Inteview (http://www.champcarworldseries.com/News/Article.asp?ID=8038)

A very interesting and informative interview with Eidswick-- the guy who pulled champcars out of the fire in December and January and a businessman with no previous experience in motorsports.

Of note, Eidswick says:

“The most impressive thing that I saw was that during the hearing in January we had something like 4,500 e-mails encouraging us to do what we did. They provided very positive feedback for what we were doing. It’s very clear that they enjoy the style of racing that we have."

Hey, that sounds like the print out of the online petition suggested and drafted by our own Devilmaster and polished and gotten rolling by the lunch bunch in the OC chatroom.

Take another bow, Steve!

[Railbird]

very good interview.

[Madmaxfan2]

Who says that internet posters are insignificant? I believe some of the former CART team members (Owners, crew chiefs, drivers) think so. Does that send a message on how they really feel about the fans? It certianly explains thier defections.

[rabbit]

Eidswick is proud of the job Champ Car has done over the past three months as the organization defied the dire predications of many pundits. “The people in the company can put on the show as we’ve proven six times now,” Eidswick said in Toronto. “It’s performed nearly flawlessly in spite of the fact that many people thought we had some serious problems. So I felt pretty good about that. I was talking to some of the volunteer department managers at Cleveland and to a man (and woman) they all agreed that this year's race weekend was much more organized and ran much smoother than in years past. A lot of that was due to the fact that IMG was out of the picture. But the streamlined structure of Champ Car plays a big part too, IMO.

[Spicoli]

Not a bad read at all.

I still think there sare some issues yet to be addressed. Mainly, I'd like to know what the long term plan is involving sponsorship and promotions. The sales and marketing at CCWS has suffered long enough. At present there is ONE guy heading the sales/sponsorship efforts, and to me, that's a big problem.

I'd like to ask Eidswick that very question. Each team (that needs it) is getting an "X" dollar amount as help from CCWS (I know what it is, and its significantly less than last year's Pookfare. But I have to believe that KK will put an end to that soon.

Teams need to know that the series is stable. I think they know that now. But the next step is putting together a saleable product. And this is where I see it falling off. Sales and sponsorship should be driving this company, not following it.

I have SO much schwag that isn't part of CCWS anymore - We need to get back some of these important partners. The B2B platform ahs to be laid out and made a NUMBER 1 priority.

The product rocks - now go sell it.

[devilmaster]

Hey, that sounds like the print out of the online petition suggested and drafted by our own Devilmaster and polished and gotten rolling by the lunch bunch in the OC chatroom.

Take another bow, Steve!

Hey, you were number 2 on that petition, plus you and Grrl helped make my Canajan English sound alot better. The petition could have easily fallen flat on its face. You guys need to take a bow too.

And a big thanks goes to a senior member of the PKVR racing team. He was the one who contacted me, sending me an email to phone him in Indy, basically trying to find out how the petition would be worked out from this end, and to see, I think, if I was basically a nut job. (no comments from the peanut gallery, please ;) ) When my contact info for the judge didn't pan out, he offered to get the petition to the three amigos at the courtroom. I was in contact with this person almost daily, and he helped to arrange a free time at the shop office so I could fax an hour's worth of signatures. (even calling me at home to tell me which pages were missing from the first fax call) He was invaluable at making this work. I won't mention his name here unless he says its ok.

But most importantly, there are the people who signed it truthfully. In the span of a week to a week and a half, we garnered that many signatures from across the globe. Fans, CART employees, racing team employees, all saying the same thing, we want ChampCar.

To everyone who signed it, you take a bow.

Steve

[Sean O'Gorman]

Not a bad read at all.

I still think there sare some issues yet to be addressed. Mainly, I'd like to know what the long term plan is involving sponsorship and promotions. The sales and marketing at CCWS has suffered long enough. At present there is ONE guy heading the sales/sponsorship efforts, and to me, that's a big problem.

I'd like to ask Eidswick that very question. Each team (that needs it) is getting an "X" dollar amount as help from CCWS (I know what it is, and its significantly less than last year's Pookfare. But I have to believe that KK will put an end to that soon.

Teams need to know that the series is stable. I think they know that now. But the next step is putting together a saleable product. And this is where I see it falling off. Sales and sponsorship should be driving this company, not following it.

I have SO much schwag that isn't part of CCWS anymore - We need to get back some of these important partners. The B2B platform ahs to be laid out and made a NUMBER 1 priority.

The product rocks - now go sell it.

Well said. Helping race teams be self-sufficient and finding away to make signature events like Cleveland profitable and remaining on the schedule should be the two highest priorities for Champ Car.

[KLang]

Well said. Helping race teams be self-sufficient and finding away to make signature events like Cleveland profitable and remaining on the schedule should be the two highest priorities for Champ Car.

The third priority should be getting me a ride in the two-seater at RA. :gomer:

[Sean O'Gorman]

The third priority should be getting me a ride in the two-seater at RA. :gomer:

Hey, I haven't even gotten my ride in the one-seater yet!

[Spicoli]

Well said. Helping race teams be self-sufficient and finding away to make signature events like Cleveland profitable and remaining on the schedule should be the two highest priorities for Champ Car.

Its probably my biggest criticism of the series. And one that is sooooo obvious that it amazes me.

CCWS should put some real thought into developing programs and promotions for their 2.4 million fans. There is so much you can come up with - just be crreative. Why Ford doesn;t do more is beyond me. CCWS fans are loysl to the bone. I know guys who WON'T buy a Homoco or Yoda product, just because of their history with Champ.

When you have these 3-4 day events, and you have such a loyal following, I just don;t understand why people aren;t bombarded with free samples, product demonstrations, special offers and discounts, and new product promotions!

Somebody is asleep at the wheel. We have a much better demographic, better attendance, and very loyal fans - yet there's very little int he way of B2B or consumer product involvement.

[sorry to sound like Dependser ranting about the "broadcast partner"] ;)

[JoeBob]

Spicoli, the only problem with your idea is that I accumulated so many samples of Simple Green, I never had to actually buy the product! (Okay, I eventually did - but I still have some of those sample size bottles laying around.)

Of course, I got a zillion free Kellogg's Mixed Berry Nutrigrain bars at Toronto around 1998 - and ended up liking them enough that I've had one for breakfast almost every day since. I never would have tried them if not for the samples at the track - and I've bought way too many since then.

[Spicoli]

Exactly JB - this stuff isn't rocket science. :shakehead

[FCYTravis]

There's gotta be connections between the sponsors and the consumers... Herdez gets it bigtime... they were handing out T-shirts and goodies at Long Beach and ACTIVATING their sponsorship.

Why some of the other companies don't do that is beyond me. There should be a huge Ford pavilion at every race, showing how their racing technology translates to their street cars... etc.

Heck, maybe I could make a lot of money by selling that idea to Ford :laugh:

[racer2c]

Yes, sales and marketing was a huge issue even during CART's sponsorship peak in the '90's. I would like to see the CCWS build an in house solution, who truly knows and understands the product. Not like how CART did it by paying gobs of cash to a fly by night consulting company who does lord knows what to little effect and then blames the product for not being popular.

[Madmaxfan2]

Why Ford doesn;t do more is beyond me.


As someone who works for the Blue Oval, I can speculate that Ford marketing is more likely to answer your question with the question " Why does Champ Carnot sell more of our products? Do not look to Ford as a savior or even more of a marketing partner. Ford stays in becuase the current engine supply situation is rather economical for them at the moment.
Maybe we ought to be more thankful that Ford is not building an IRL engine for Ford branding. However, Cosworth thanks GM for the current business. ;)

[Spicoli]

As someone who works for the Blue Oval, I can speculate that Ford marketing is more likely to answer your question with the question " Why does Champ Carnot sell more of our products? Do not look to Ford as a savior or even more of a marketing partner. Ford stays in becuase the current engine supply situation is rather economical for them at the moment.
Maybe we ought to be more thankful that Ford is not building an IRL engine for Ford branding. However, Cosworth thanks GM for the current business. ;)

I don't buy that at all. Not trying to be arguementative here, but Ford has a golden opportunity and they seem to be doing nothing with it.

To me its more of a laziness or "scarce resources" issue. How freakin hard is it to scare up some demos from the local dealer, and ship in a few concept cars? ****, have a drawing for a pace car ride, show people how a champcar engine is built, there are TONS of inexpensive promotional ideas out there.

The "circus" of manufacturer's that used to follow CCWS is basically non-existant. If CCWS pushed Ford a little bit more, then those suppliers who want to do biz with the Blue Oval would fall in line as well....the thing snowballs, and you have a big badd ass B2B money machine rolling and supporting your series.

Overall? I think peeps is just being LAZY. :saywhat:

[Railbird]

I agree to a certain extent, but imo promotion has to start at the top.

This year is obviously a regrouping period for the series but sometime in the next twelve months they have to create a buzz and get back on the mainstrem radar screen. Generating some interest and positive press would give Ford/Bridgestone some incentive to be more involved.

I wouldn't look for a large corp to lead ChampCar out of the woods but I'd just about bet on them jumping on the bandwagon if it ever got rolling.

[Formula 409]

To me, the TV situation is terribly disappointing. That we find ChampCar on a decreasingly popular channel, and basically unpromoted outside of the Dangerous Curves show, is very distressing to me.

And from what I've been hearing from Champ Car execs & owners, it is not a priority to improve what they have.

From the Toronto star:

Both Gentilozzi and Kalkhoven insist that because of the type of companies that sponsor Champ Cars it makes television coverage less important to them than to the businesses that sponsor NASCAR or F1 teams.
That kind of thinking is not going to help grow the public profile of the series. Yes, it's now a B2B platform, but this could also be a way of saying "we run races for private interests." As a fan, that's a frightening thought. I'm already priced out of seeing most races on live TV and any qualifying. Buying a Windows PC and/or HD set is not something I can afford. My link with the series is through TV. I cannot see a race if my only option is to fly my private jet there.

While TV is a crowded marketplace with diminishing returns, simply choosing the best value for your time-buy is an unimaginative way of getting the product out there. Somebody needs to spend a little time on coming up with ideas. Being a small cog in Spike's programming block isn't getting Champ Car into people's living rooms.

Idea Spitballing:

OWRS now has control of three series: Trans-Am, Champ Car, Toyota Atlantic - and they have a close relationship with Formula BMW USA. This is enough programming to warrant a pay cable channel like an "NFL Sunday Ticket" or such. Add in ALMS and other series (even F1), and you could have a proper "Motorsports" subscription package. Speed and Spike could still show tape-delay with live qualifying and races on the subscription channel. There's a healthy profit from that strategy. You're already paying for TV production, so it wouldn't take too many subscribers to compensate for the costs involved. Maybe not a profit center, but a profit none the less. That allows you to get the free TV a wider audience and not worry about the hardcore fan base.

Host race cities should have all races on local broadcast TV. Promoting the series to a local crowd and educating them on motorsports is the key to building a loyal fan base. So offer the races to a local broadcast station for free as long as it's shown live or in a good time slot. The stations get sports programming for free, and they promote it for their own reasons. Champ Car gets series and sponsor promotion for small change.

Above all, making your TV product as widely available and as visible as is possible is so freakin' vital, I can't over state it. Right now, there is no way to watch Champ Car without paying somebody for the privilege. The NFL didn't get started by charging TV viewers. Nascar didn't get where it is by charging for internet content. I'm not railing over having to pay money for what I get, but I am saying that charging people for watching what is effectively your most effective promotional tool (televised races) is counter to success.

You can't grow the fan base this way. And without fans, what do you have? The IRL.

[mueber]

Great interview.

I think these discussions miss the mark. It is amazing that there is a ChampCar series this year at all. Complaining about the product, the marketing, and paying for “Race Director” is awfully premature at this point. We are in a walk before you can run state at the moment.

No one is going to pay OWRS to be on TV, and I doubt OWRS has enough money, or had enough mone, for time buys on networks back in February. Ford knows the current formula is a stop-gap measure, and the future is very unsure. How much effort and money would you put into it if you were a marketing executive at Ford? Ford isn't exactly in a position to throw money at anything right now.

The most cost-effective thing they can do right now is to ensure that every participant recognizes that goodwill is good PR. Everyone should be as accessible as possible to the fans, public, potential sponsors, potential suppliers and the press. I also think it would be a good idea to start saying nice things about the France family and Don Panoz. What killed CART was arrogance. Humility is will save it, and building coalitions with others makes survival, for the short-term and success in the long term much easier. I think the Las Vegas-truck thing is very positive. CART would have said, “Trucks are for hauling the car to the track.”

Eidswick recognizes that, right now, we, the fans, are his greatest asset. They also have great locations but not much more. If they can stabilize the product, the rest of it will come in time, but it will take a long time.

Meanwhile, go to the races.

[Madmaxfan2]

I don't buy that at all. Not trying to be arguementative here, but Ford has a golden opportunity and they seem to be doing nothing with it.

To me its more of a laziness or "scarce resources" issue. How freakin hard is it to scare up some demos from the local dealer, and ship in a few concept cars? ****, have a drawing for a pace car ride, show people how a champcar engine is built, there are TONS of inexpensive promotional ideas out there.

The "circus" of manufacturer's that used to follow CCWS is basically non-existant. If CCWS pushed Ford a little bit more, then those suppliers who want to do biz with the Blue Oval would fall in line as well....the thing snowballs, and you have a big badd ass B2B money machine rolling and supporting your series.

Overall? I think peeps is just being LAZY. :saywhat:


Simply put, FORD does not make money off Champ Car and it does not have as a business objective to keep Champ Car in business. Things are pretty hardnosed around here at the moment.

[Chaos]

my only counterpoint to that is that Honda and Toyota probably don't make money in the IRL, but that does not stop them from putting the cars in full page advertisements. You may argue that Ford has no competition in ChampCar. This is true, but Goodyear promotes the fact that they are the tires on the Nextel Cup Champion, and they have a monopoly there.

[RichK]

I just read that US automakers have a glut of 3.X million cars unsold, with possiblilities of factories shutting down.

It seems to me that a new way of advertising their product is a great idea. I like Spicoli's ideas (in this thread, anyway! :p )

[nrc]

When the series gets back to being a good vehicle for promoting the sponsors the sponsors will get back to promoting the series.

[Spicoli]

When the series gets back to being a good vehicle for promoting the sponsors the sponsors will get back to promoting the series.

cart meet horse.







(no pun intended ;) )

[Madmaxfan2]

I just read that US automakers have a glut of 3.X million cars unsold, with possiblilities of factories shutting down.

It seems to me that a new way of advertising their product is a great idea. I like Spicoli's ideas (in this thread, anyway! :p )

You are ight about unsold vehicles. However, at the already low margins, throwing extra money into champ car will not make a dent in the inventory.
Hell, NASCAR is not making a dent into Taurus sales.

[Madmaxfan2]

I just read that US automakers have a glut of 3.X million cars unsold, with possiblilities of factories shutting down.

It seems to me that a new way of advertising their product is a great idea. I like Spicoli's ideas (in this thread, anyway! :p )

You are right about unsold vehicles. However, at the already low margins, throwing extra money into champ car will not make a dent in the inventory.
Hell, NASCAR is not making a dent into Taurus sales. I know that is not what us hardcore fans want to hear, but that is how it shakes down.

[Spicoli]

You are right about unsold vehicles. However, at the already low margins, throwing extra money into champ car will not make a dent in the inventory.
Hell, NASCAR is not making a dent into Taurus sales. I know that is not what us hardcore fans want to hear, but that is how it shakes down.

So - with this analogy - business sucks, so let's not promote our products or anything. :rolleyes:

[JT265]

I'll take Fords money. No probs there.




:D

[Madmaxfan2]

So - with this analogy - business sucks, so let's not promote our products or anything. :rolleyes:

Yes, you can reach that conclusion. You will find that only in the good times
the big three shower $$$$ on motorsports. Passion does not make business cases in America's Wall Street driven mindset. Champ Car will have to prove itself as being a good marketing vehicle. At least there are fans in the stands at Champ Car, IRL advertisers are reaching that conclusion, or why is RP being excited about trying for unification? Ford has not left the series, so lets
layoff telling what Ford should do with its $$$$. I can tell you they won't listen to you anyway. They don't always listen to the employees.

[mueber]

When the series gets back to being a good vehicle for promoting the sponsors the sponsors will get back to promoting the series.


Bingo. There is no cart/horse analogy here. Sponsors do not lead to success; success leads to sponsors.

The problem with almost all open wheel right now is that, outside of a few diehards, no one cares. You can promote rat crap brilliantly, but if it doesn't meet a need, no one is gonna buy it.

Turn Champ Car into a series people want to watch, and they will come.

[Chief]

There is no cart/horse analogy here. Sponsors do not lead to success; success leads to sponsors......Turn Champ Car into a series people want to watch, and they will come.

I think there's a horse analogy here, the one where a foal is just born and it struggles to get it's legs under it and finally it stands and gallops. These growing pains (TV, sponsors) will go away as we get our footing. Patience, it took Secretariat three years of life before the Triple Crown. OWRS and Champ Car, with its legacy intact will rise to levels of success again. They can't miss....

[Sean O'Gorman]

Bingo. There is no cart/horse analogy here. Sponsors do not lead to success; success leads to sponsors.

The problem with almost all open wheel right now is that, outside of a few diehards, no one cares. You can promote rat crap brilliantly, but if it doesn't meet a need, no one is gonna buy it.

Turn Champ Car into a series people want to watch, and they will come.

And therein lies the biggest problem.

The fans wont come without promotion from sponsors, manufacturers, television, other media, etc. but said partners wont get involved without the presence of fans in the first place. I honestly worry that the hole is too deep for Champ Car to dig out of, but I hope I'm proven wrong.

If only the cokehead worked for the interests of the sport instead of against it for the past 15 years, we probably wouldn't have this problem. :mad:

[Car-B-Q]

Well, there could be some compromises here. For example, Ford isn't doing much for CCWS as far as promotion is concerned. But Ford does buy a lot of ads on TV and in magazines. It seems to me that OWRS could have Betelguese make a 30-second commercial and let Ford use it as one of its ads they were going to buy anyways. CCWS gets some promotion out of Ford's existing advertising. It doesn't cost much to make the commercial since all the video is already "in-the-can". all that is needed is the editing stuff.

[Spicoli]

Yes, you can reach that conclusion. You will find that only in the good times
the big three shower $$$$ on motorsports. Passion does not make business cases in America's Wall Street driven mindset. Champ Car will have to prove itself as being a good marketing vehicle. At least there are fans in the stands at Champ Car, IRL advertisers are reaching that conclusion, or why is RP being excited about trying for unification? Ford has not left the series, so lets
layoff telling what Ford should do with its $$$$. I can tell you they won't listen to you anyway. They don't always listen to the employees.

You don't work in marketing do you?

[Madmaxfan2]

You don't work in marketing do you?

No I don't. Race fans do not work in marketing, which that in itself says something. I release catalytic converters, the swampland of product engineering. What I am saying Spicoli you are wasting your breath and bandwidth. Tha real fact about engine manufacturers in either the IRL or Champ Car is the manufacturers are mere financiers of the engines built for racing. The engineers who work on the engines you and I drive do not have racing engine experience, that least that is true for Ford, GM, and Honda.
The real engineering organizations are listed below
Ford- Cosworth UK
Honda- Illmor USA
GM-Cosworth UK
Toyota-TRD USA.
Therefore the whole thing is really a sham. IMHO, Champ Car needs to bring in privateers to build the engines based on stock designs, esp. all overhead cam, four valve, V-8 engines. Robert Yates has worked on Ford 4.6L DOHC modular engine and says it has great potential. GM has the Northstar, BWM, AUDI, Volkswagon, Porshe, Mercedes, Toyota and Nissan all have designs that
would work. Time to get creative.