NASCAR Meets ATV Racing

Photos courtesey of Eric Putter and Rensi Motorsports

I recently overheard some interesting talk of the beginning stages of an all new Pro ATV racing team led by former ATV Pro, Brian Winters. What’s more, ATV legend Gary Denton just may have a role on the team as well.

You already know Gary Denton, if not, names like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Richard Petty probably escape you as well and you’re probably on the wrong website. Brian Winters isn’t as well-known as the Chino Charger, only diehard old school quad junkies like me know Brian, but don’t let the lack of popularity fool you. Brian was a front runner in the Pro ranks in the late eighties and early nineties and like Gary he knows ATV racing inside and out.

Brian has teamed up with NASCAR team owner Gary Weisbaum, who has had incredible success as the co-owner of the Rensi Motorsports NASCAR Team among other impressive business ventures.

It’s easy to see that if Brian’s program comes together this group and their soon to be announced ATV racing team can accomplish a lot in today’s quad racing scene, and perhaps shove our sport a little deeper in the mainstream flow.

As you can imagine, I had a ton of questions to ask about the soon to be announced team. Fortunately Brian Winters wasn’t too worried about letting the cat out of the bag early and agreed to answer my questions. Here’s what he had to say about their exciting plans….

First off, major thanks are in order for breaking this incredible story with ATV Scene. I think you guys can do a lot of good for the sport of ATV racing and I wish you major success.
Not a problem. Thanks for the opportunity to announce our exciting plans.

Brian, everyone knows Gary won eight GNC championships, but they might not know that you were a pretty talented Pro ATV racer yourself. Talk a little about your own career.
Well, I began racing ATVs back in the early 80’s and I started running the GNCs in ’87 when it was a combined TT and MX series. I ran full-time from ‘87 to ‘93 and hit a race or two in ’94. 1989 was the year I began to put things together and had some success running in the Nationals and in the Mickey Thompson Series.

What did you do after your racing career ended?
When I left the ATV scene I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to go to Indianapolis and become an engine development test driver for Nissan. I worked full-time at a shop in Indy looking for sponsorships and working with engineers on the development of the engine. At that point I was introduced to Ed Rensi and Gary Weisbaum who own Team Rensi Motorsports, a NASCAR team who at that time was competing in the Craftsman Truck Series and in the Busch Series.

How about recently?
I had the pleasure to work with a Can-Am team with Allen White who was a big part of their development into their motocross racing program. Actually it was Allen who got me a job on the team. After being around Allen and the sport again I realized how much I loved it and started brainstorming about putting together a new unique race team of my own.

I understand Gary Denton may have a role on this team. How did this come about?
Gary and I have been long-time friends and competitors. Gary was the first person I called. I knew Gary’s life had changed a lot in the last year so I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he also had aspirations of developing a unique race team program with the same core values. Gary and I agreed besides smart business properties, if we were to go forward and form a race team it needed to have a foundation of passion and pride toward the sport. As far as Gary’s role, at this time we’re talking and negotiating with Gary and hope that he can become a part of our program as either an owner or perhaps consultant.

So Gary’s not quite in?
Not at this point. Gary has a few things in the works so the time and the right situation had to come about for him, and I think we are getting to that point.

Is Gary’s involvement critical to the birth of the team?
I feel we need to “keep” and treasure the pioneers of our sport. Gary Denton is the G.O.A.T in our sport. I would love to see him more involved than he has been, and I can’t think of a better way than this. If you look at any major sport today; the St. Louis Cardinals have the great Bob Gibson working with their young pitchers down in spring training camp, Reggie Jackson is in Yankee camp working with their young hitters. In auto racing you have Richard Petty who is still very influential to his sport and Mario Andretti works closely with the Indy Racing League. The list goes on and on. Sure there are some great pioneers still involved in ATV racing but why not have the one pioneer who has won so many championships with and without manufacturer support? To answer the question, if he cannot come aboard we can still launch this team, but having him onboard is the icing on the cake.

 I take it Gary Weisbaum is on board as a co-owner?
Yes, originally I approached Weisbaum to get his take on sponsorship and other logistic type issues. He has been a multi-business owner and NASCAR team owner for many years and knows how to run a successful racing program, however he was not familiar with ATV racing and I’ll tell you what, I think that’s a big part of why I think he’s perfect for this. Having someone thinking untraditional to past ATV racing programs is what I feel makes him ideal.

So basically you want to launch a program similar to what is seen in NASCAR with outside the industry funding?
Yes, that’s pretty much what we’re trying to accomplish.

It sounds like having Gary Weisbaum and his marketing experience in your corner can really help you guys succeed at this.
Absolutely, Gary and I have had several conversations about ATV racing, which in turn opened his mind to multiple possibilities this type of program can offer. Long story short, he became very excited to learn about our sport and to realize the “grass-roots” opportunities that are waiting within it. In today’s economy and marketing world, grass-roots opportunities are very hard to find that have the potential that our sport offers. Needless to say he’s very excited about putting the program together and I couldn’t think of a better owner.

You do know that by now you have everyone reading this sitting up in their seats.
We certainly hope so! Our focus is on working with the ATV manufacturers, parts providers and sponsor partners to grow sales. What Gary Weisbaum learned from his NASCAR experience with The United States Marine Corps, McDonalds, Smithfield Foods and others is that you race a few short hours a week and that the purpose of investments in this and any sports product is to translate that energy to what goes on at the point of the transaction. Most companies do not sell their goods and services at the racetrack so our team’s focus is to bring the successful programs that have worked to our series manufacturers, and sponsors to help them “grow sales”.

I don’t mean to be negative, but we’re in the middle of a recession. Isn’t it a horrible time to try to start a new business?
That depends on how you look at it. Every company is struggling to justify every dollar they spend on advertising. We think that our experience and program development laser beamed on companies’ distribution channel outlets and customers to enhance the chance of using motorsports expenditures to help “close the sale” will be where potential sponsors want to spend their limited budgets right now. Plus, those companies that plant the right seeds now, will reap the rewards when times get better.

What series will the team race?
We’ll focus on the AMA ATV Pro MX Nationals. We may entertain a possible TT program and others such as WORCS and QuadCross, but at this time our focus is on the MX Nationals.

It’s safe to say you guys are all about going big, but I would assume your big sponsors are expecting to reach mainstream viewers. How do you plan to provide the amount of exposure they need for their investments with little to no television coverage?
Actually that’s where our program is strong. We do not need the “reach and frequency” of a major network broadcast “only” to achieve our objective because everything we do will be to take the racing experience and move it out into the channel. We are not saying we wouldn’t love the series to be on a major network broadcast each week but our marketing and sales support efforts can be achieved without it. Additionally Weisbaum owns a company pioneering social networking solutions which will be a significant part of our effort along with traditional marketing strategies and tactics.

Okay, on to the question that our readers are dying to know. What riders do you have in mind?
(Laughing) We are dying to know too! We obviously have our eye on many riders but so much of this will be driven by their existing contracts and if they are available when it’s time to make a decision. We hope to land two Pro riders, a top-five and a top ten-rider. We also feel that age and experience will be a big part of our success. We hope to bring in a young rider that has potential but just needs some grooming from the GOAT to get to the level of competing for a championship. That is if everything works out as expected and we can bring Denton into this program and allow him to work closely with the team’s young riders.

How many riders are you looking to hire?
At this point so much depends upon the relationship we can develop with a manufacturer. We would love to sign a young Pro-Am rider to go along with the two Pro guys. We have even discussed running an amateur support program as well. Also, we would love to offer trackside technical support, and offer parts, advice and confidence to many young riders along with support from whichever manufacturer we work with.

Are you accepting rider resumes, and where does one send theirs?
At this point we are not accepting any resumes. We must build our program step by step and the main focus at this time is to define the support from a manufacturer. Then at that time we would begin entertaining riders.

When does the project take the “green flag”?
We are putting the rest of the pieces in place now and hope to be able to announce a comprehensive program in the fall. Gary Weisbaum has had some preliminary discussions with a host of sponsor and “away from the track” event operators and there are many more meetings to come. We want to make sure we can hit the ground running with our “point of sale” program in place. All in all it’s coming along great though.

Thank you again for the interview. I sincerely wish you the best of luck in making the team a reality. If you’re able to put together a program like you’ve described it will undoubtedly excel the entire sport of ATV racing. Any parting words?
I agree. If we can launch this it just may introduce the idea to other programs that this type of business model works well for. And it may just may allow others to venture into ATV racing as well. I think ATV racing’s future looks great.

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