Seminars

Tom Pabst
Tom is the racing industry's leading pioneer in the use of simulators to coach and train professional race car drivers. After racing over ten years as a driver/owner in SCCA, SCCA Pro Racing and IMSA, he retired from driving duties and began instructing at Portland International Raceway. Instructing both new and experienced drivers in SCCA Club Racing, SCCA Vintage Racing and at the area's sports car club track events, he developed a keen sense of the skills and demands on the driver that are required behind the wheel of a race car in competition. 

He learned that just like a fighter pilot in combat, the performance of the race car driver was mostly in the domain of the driver's subconscious mind. Tom's second hobby was always computers (having had a computer on his work desk since 1980). In 1997, he played his first computer racing game that was a gag gift from a racing buddy, and immediately recognized several things that effected his mind in the computer game were the same thing that happened in the cockpit of his race cars! 

In 1999 he quit his regular job, cashed in as many of his assets as he could and moved to the Sears Point Raceway area to develop his own racing simulator company on a full-time basis. With no templates to follow and no support from the racing community (who thought computer games where for kids) he began pioneering research on all fronts of computerized racing simulation. This included research and design on all hardware and software components, as well as study in the physio-psychology of simulation training and learning. 

Research and learning from the original grandfathers of simulation (NASA, the military and the commercial airline industry - who had been using simulators for more than 20 years to train pilots), he adapted that knowledge to his racing simulator's hardware, controls and software/graphics. With help from some of professional racing's most prominent drivers (who believed as Tom did that racing simulators would eventually play an important role in driver development), he now has a 4,500 sq. ft. shop located at Infineon Raceway (Sonoma, CA) where he builds racing simulators, personally coaches drivers and helps improve the race craft skills of professional drivers. Prominent pro drivers who have driven in Tom's simulators include Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Bobby Labonte, Steve Park, David Stremme, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andy Lally and Scott Pruett. Scott can be seen regularly training and preparing for races at Tom's shop at Infineon Raceway!
www.pabst-racing.com

Ross Bentley
Race Driving Coaching, author of Racing Bibles “Speed Secrets”
www.speed-secrets.com

Marketing Your Team: Be your own brand
A driver is a brand, and should be marketed that way. A well-marketed team will become a well-sponsored team. Sponsors are not necessarily after a winning season. They are after an idea that they can use as a marketing tool – one that has not only intangible value but real marketing value. Effective sponsorship is about finding a unique idea for your team that really fits a certain type of sponsor. 

Ginger Gallagher, President Michelle Soyars, Chief Creative Officer

In this workshop, we’ll discuss how to effectively market your team, including:

• Your team’s market positioning versus other teams
• The importance of PR, and how to get it
• The importance of relationships
• Targeting the right sponsors
• The effective sponsorship “pitch” – tools, techniques, and materials
• Creating value for your sponsor

It’s Cheaper to Keep her: How to hold on to your sponsor
Sponsorship is not just about signing, it’s about RE-signing. It must be planned and then executed to deliver tangible value regardless of the team’s performance. It’s not just hospitality and pit passes anymore. In this sponsorship we’ll discuss:

• Creating valuable activation programs
• Using media sponsors and cause marketing platformsMaintaining and improving the relationship as the season progresses
• Knowing when and how to renew
• The importance of under-promising and over-delivering
• Developing companion sponsors, where one sponsor leads to the next

About MediaFit
The partners of MediaFit have over 40 years of brand management experience with some of the largest consumer package goods brands in the world. It is this traditional marketing and strategic background that has propelled the company onto the scene in the racing world, from a single late model driver to now a portfolio of drivers across six different series.

Located just outside Winston-Salem, NC, MediaFit has two divisions, a traditional branding/advertising division and a sports marketing division.  They are currently working with teams in Local Late Model, Pro Cup, Grand National, Modified, ARCA and Nationwide Series efforts. 
www.MediaFit.net.

David Ray - “Hooked on Driving” Founder and Group Leader
In a previous life, David was a partner in a Northern California staffing firm called Advantage Personnel, servicing companies like Wells Fargo, Pacific Bell, Airtouch Communications and Chevron. After selling the business in 1998, he served in a management development and executive coaching role during which, his clients discovered his passion for automobiles and driving, and pressed him to organize track days – and one thing led to another….His motorsports experience includes competing in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Regional racing program from 1985 to present.

“The Performance Driving Phenomenon”

• Is it for Real?
• Why is it Growing?
• What are they Actually Doing?
• Does Performance Driving have a Future?
• Impact on the Racing Community
• Where do Racing and Performance Driving Connect?
• Opportunities and Threats
• Making the Pie Bigger – Exposing the Best Kept Secret!