The place to start is the divisional office where you live, talk to the director and see if he's willing to give you the contact info in glendora ca. (a phone number not a email address and a contact name)...if you go through the NHRA's web site in the media section you'll never get a response IMHO.

I don't want to shoot you down but all NHRA national events the vendors sell NHRA licensed merchandise, just like NASCAR, you'll need to become a licensed vendor $$$ and get all artwork approved, and of course pay the NHRA a commission on each sale, along with all the other fees and costs. At least this is the way it was explained to me a few years ago.

A better solution is to work at a local level, either at regional tracks or one local track depending on it's size, we do this (just had our last race Saturday) and it's a pretty good deal for us we do a ton of custom artwork for racers.

I know your shooting for the big national events, but really after it's all considered some form of regional deal with several tracks working non-national events would make it more worth doing IMHO.

Hope this helps.

 

I'm not trying to get into the midway but set up a table in the camp/parking fields. The problem is that I want to do it by the books legally and can't find any information or even anyone to contact to get the proper permission.

I just noticed you said campgrounds/parking lots, while I've seen people doing this at some national events (years ago) unless it's private property not owned by the track, I doubt it's going to happen, on private property it's a different issue, but they can still harass, threaten, send the cops by to talk to you, they are gonna' figure that for every shirt you sell it's one they won't regardless of it's not the same artwork......and hopefully you not talking about selling John Force or any other driver without their permission which would be a huge IP infringement which would be a big big problem.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks IYFG. I've been going to the Nat. Event in Ohio for 15 years as a fan. First in Columbus then Norwalk since they moved it. There is always a few guys walking around selling ugly t's for cash in the fields and people actually buy them despite their lack of design. They use the NHRA logo as well and get away w/ it. I want to actually sell a nice tshirt w/ my own custom artwork.

Last year I saw a guy w/ a tent out the back of his van selling 8x10's of drivers and tshirts for two days and never got shut down. I don't get it. I also can't believe some of the crap people will spend their money on.

I think I'll just hand out stickers w/ my website and hope to get some sales. They can't stop me from giving things away... or maybe they can.


Thanks again

 

Kris,

Yeah I know what you mean, been a avid drag racer for over 20 years and been going to the US Nationals just about as long, I know at Indy NHRA owns the track and the parking camping area next to the track. But like you I've seen lots of people selling out of their trunk on NHRA property without any hassle, but I'd think it's a big risk, like I said private property is a totally different issue, as long as your not infringing on any IP concerns you should be fine.

But to really sell a lot of shirts the scenario I posted above has worked for us of course we have a home track that we sell a ton of custom art work, but the larger the track the more generic the design, most track operators are very open to vendors and of course the smaller the track the more so.

We have built a very good relationship with our home track over the last 4 years not only with the racers but the track owners so much so that other tracks have tried to steal us away by offering incentives to travel to their track....this is really an untapped market for tee shirt sales at this level it takes some time to get established but there is money to be made at this level.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks a ton Jon,

That's a great idea. We have a great IHRA track about 30mins from home and they seem very open to vendors as you said. I see a lot of unprofessional design and graphics in the auto racing world, hopefully as a trained professional graphic designer with a love of Nitro, I can remedy that. I shouldn't pigeon hole myself into only tshirts either.

You are lucky that you get to go to Indy. I'll get out there one day. Norwalk is an amazing track if you ever have a chance.

Thanks again

 

Never been to Norwalk but heard it was a great facility, we also do vinyl, everything from names & numbers to car wraps, we already have 4 Jr dragsters and two cars to wrap this winter....like I said it's a very good market that's really untapped at the local level.

Take care and good luck.

 

One more ?

When you do car wraps, do you own a printer/cutter or do you out source it? I've done a few die cut vehicle graphics but always have to go through a vendor. I don't think I could support the cost of a Roland

 

The very first piece of equipment we bought was a Roland VP540 Versacamm best investment we ever made, your right they are expensive but we knew we wanted to do wraps which is why we even got in the graphics business. Actually I sold my race car (Spitzer 27T roadster) to pay for the versacamm.

Hope this helps.