Originally Posted by
roadracer43
When sponsorships are thrown around like they are now it makes the honor, well, not much of an honor anymore. A person should earn it with a great personality, knowledge of the sport, exceptional skill, and must be able to get the word out to others about the product or products they support. They must also be able to travel to different parts of the country to achieve this goal. A person that never leaves their home track is pretty useless when it comes to marketing.
That's an idealistic view of sponsorship. I guarantee you companies aren't thinking that way. They want to get their name out as fast and as cheap as possible. If they sponsor one homer from each track in the country, then will get their name out much more effectively then if they were to sponsor the best racer in the country who happened to visit each track once each year.
This is especially true if they only have to give each homer 10% off their stuff versus having to pay the whole ride for the best racer in the country.
It is a happy medium - no need to get disillusioned about it.