Triad leadership focusing on being a supplier, not a racing organization
Marty Gaunt and Mike Held have found that since they bought Triad Racing Development and Bill Davis Racing from Bill Davis, that there is a thriving market for chassis and engines.
They also have found that with the current sponsorship market, it probably isn’t the right time to go racing. And in addition, if they’re supplying race teams with chassis and engines, they avoid a conflict of interest if they don’t compete.
So for the time being, the new Triad Racing Technologies group will be happy being a supplier and not a racer, even though BDR’s NASCAR Sprint Cup car finished last season 31st in owners points and is locked into the first five Cup races of 2009.
“We don’t need to be there [as a race team],” Held said Saturday in a phone interview. “What we feel like is we need to have the best package on the race track, and that is the package of chassis and engines that can win races for our customers.”
Of course, if a $15 million sponsor comes along, Held would reconsider.
“The one thing we were very sure of is you don’t want to get into a situation, especially in this economic climate, where you put yourself or your employees at risk where you try to do something because your heart says so but the finances dictate otherwise,” Held said. “So where it stands today is we don’t have a sponsor for the Cup program so it doesn’t look like we’re going to put a race car on the track for the Cup series.”
Gaunt wouldn’t totally rule out the No. 22 team running in the season opener at Daytona, but admitted it wasn’t promising.
“We’ve heard and sat down and listened to a lot of opportunities,” Gaunt said when asked about teams outside the top 35 possibly being interested in forming a partnership to get the locked-in position. “At this time, we haven’t said concrete, absolutely not. What we’re saying it’s highly unlikely that we’re going to make Daytona or have a car participate in the series next year.
“But things change. If an opportunity came available where it was the right business decision and the funding was there, then we’ll look at it.”
The group obviously will be involved in all three NASCAR national series as a supplier. Gaunt said the company has more than 80 employees.
“We saw early on the opportunity – the race teams were going to have to look at their budgets and say, ‘How are we going to be able to afford this if the income stream from our sponsorship falls? Where do we turn?’ ” Held said.
“The first items that jump out at you are your costs to build cars and your costs to build engines and payroll costs associated with both of those things. We said this is an opportunity as chassis builders and engine builders that the business would pick up.”
With that pick up in business, it likely means that the new group will not compete at all in Trucks, a series where BDR was a prominent player since Toyota’s entry into the series in 2004. BDR won the 2008 Truck title with Johnny Benson.
“The way the Truck model is, it doesn’t really fit into our business model,” Gaunt said. “We want to stay focused on [being a supplier]. Surprising enough, when we talked to a lot of our customers, the owners of race teams, [one of thing of importance] is the separation of the race team to an engine shop and a chassis shop where there’s always a question in the back of their mind if they’re getting the same engines … and bodies of your teams [if you also were racing].”
While they have not landed sponsorship, Held, who also owns a motorsports marketing company, said he believes NASCAR is still a strong investment for sponsors at this time.
“We run for 38 almost consecutive weekends through the base part of the entire year, and so for sponsors who are out there who may be holding out, NASCAR still represents a great opportunity for them to spend their money,” Held said.
