NHRA legend John Force putting on full-court press to secure sponsorship and save race team
"John Force is putting is putting it all on the line in an effort
to save his race team, and that includes bringing his racing family back
to reality television. The patriarch of the first family of the NHRA
announced the TV show comeback this week as part of the team's
aggressive plans for securing sponsorship for the 2015 racing season and
beyond.
There is some good news in the JFR camp, as Auto Club extended its contract with JFR and Hight this week for five years, and team's deal with Traxxas has another four years remaining, according to Force.
The team still needs to make up the loss of Ford to keep the team at a championship level and to keep the 64-year-old Force in the car.
"I'm not here to announce that I'm retiring. I'm not here to announce that I'm going out of business," Force said. "[But] you cannot race in IndyCar, NASCAR or drag racing without money, without corporate America."
Force said that he's at a career crossroads, and he announced that he's hired marketing firms JMI, Octagon and Rogers & Cowan to help put the pieces together for 2015 and beyond. The team also said that it will not make any major sponsorship announcements before the end of the 2014 season as it does not want to take away attention from any of the team's current sponsors and the job is needed to be done on the track.
"Financial was never my problem in the last 15 years," Force said. "We will fight to the end with Castrol and the engineers at Ford, but in 2015 my life starts over again. The hardest thing for me will be to not wear that [Castro] hat, but the point is that we have to move, and we have to move fast.
"We've got to chase corporate America. We have to build the brand. We have a fight, and I have to deliver."
Part of the new marketing strategy will be to bring the Force family back to the small screen. The family was the focus of a reality TV show, "Driving Force," in 2006 and 2007 on the A&E channel. The family is currently in discussions with several networks about bringing back the show in 2014 with a focus on not only the racing end of the operation but also that chase for sponsorship that could make or break the future of JFR.
"The economy has beaten us up," Force said. "Am I financially stable? Yes. My money comes from sponsors, appearances and winning NHRA drag races. I've got a fight on my hands because we have a big investment. I have to protect them, I have to protect my children and we have to deliver to the fans."
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