Your Business: Racing package pitch to sponsors

Kingsley Thompson launched Team Dilusi Motorsport, with the help of 1950s styled brand ambassadors, at Western Springs Speedway. Photo / Dean Purcell

Some entrepreneurs have their eye on a dream business that may not flower for decades.

This has been the case for Kingsley Thompson, who had his business idea close to 20 years ago.

But first he needed to finance it, so he started up a helicopter business based in Kerikeri, which did agricultural spraying, tourism flights and heli-fishing.

He sold Heliops and began at last working on Team Dilusi Motorsport, a concept which he hopes will revolutionise the way sponsorship works in the motorsport industry.

Team Dilusi Motorsport is a marketing management company which will offer corporate sponsors a marketing package across the team's cars in four motor racing disciplines, rally driving - Thompson's area of expertise - drifting, karting and speedway.

The successful rally driver who launched the Team Dilusi rally team two years ago, says he has spent $800,000 over the past four years on his pet project.

Last week, Team Dilusi (Dilusi stands for Drive It Like You Stole It) Motorsport was launched at Western Springs Speedway, introducing the multi-disciplinary racing team.

The event was attended by the chairman of Rally New Zealand Peter Johnston, director of Drifting New Zealand Brendon White and Bill Buckley, head of Western Springs Speedway.

"They think it's great for the sport," Thompson says.

Johnston says the initiative will get more top quality drivers involved across the racing disciplines and will whet the appetite of sponsors who need to see a good return on their investment in motorsport.

Team Dilusi Motorsport will offer sponsors branding not only on the team's race cars, but on support vehicles as well.

It will organise event tickets and hospitality for sponsors, managing all forms of media exposure for their corporate clients and will provide them with a monthly report on the return on investment, Thompson says.

"It's good auditing."

Thompson has only just started to approach the larger corporate sponsors in Auckland.

The businessman has already attracted Northland companies such as Radio Network Northland, Repco and Tarmac Northland.

Team Dilusi Motorsport is unusual in that it is offering the branding across four disciplines with the likelihood of spreading it to others such as powerboat racing.

Most motorsport brands dedicate their sponsorship to just one motorsport, Thompson says.

"It's unique, no one else has done this before," he says.

This cross discipline approach, means that sponsors will get year round exposure, with events overlapping rather than just a few months," Thompson says.

"There are 25 races over the course of the year for the four motorsports," he says.

"We did budgets on all the disciplines of motor sport, where to get the best bang for the buck for marketing exposure, the best mobile billboard. This was the logical mix."

Although he has not approached many Auckland corporates yet, Thompson says he expects to have all the main sponsors signed up by the end of this month.

"It's a very tough corporate business environment."

To make it more affordable, there is a monthly fee, like a lease, rather than an annual commitment. Corporates don't want the risk, he says.

"I want to do it that way because it makes me perform."

Team Dilusi will be marketing its sponsors at a number of events during the year including Big Boys Toys and Concert in the Park.

Ten 1950s styled brand ambassadors have been recruited to market Team Dilusi and its sponsors.

One of the ambassadors is speedway midget driver Rose Halfpenny, another is Miss World New Zealand 2010 Cody Yerkovich.

The first motorsport event for the new venture is next month's FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship, an international rally event in Whangarei.