A good article on the struggles of getting into racing.

[Team Canada]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opini...935/story.html


I have been working with this kid since he was in karts and we are making some progress.
It is amazing to see what sort of boardroom skill are now needed, compared to the older days.
Stefan is showing his prowess in these boardrooms in the meeting he has had with some pretty big CEO's and Government officials.
Like PT said, it is no longer a matter of talent like golf, but how good your financial saavy is.

You will see RZAD now nicknamed Razzle Dazzle thanks to a couple of track announcers that couldn't pronounce his name, at St.Pete's racing.

[Miguel]

I'm glad enough he at least gets to race some this season. Gonna be interesting to see how he develops, I hope he will do well.

[Team Canada]

I'm glad enough he at least gets to race some this season. Gonna be interesting to see how he develops, I hope he will do well.

We have enough in the bank and probably enough committed for the whole season, so it should be good to see how he does.

[stnkypete]

[QUOTE=Team Canada;2949775Like PT said, it is no longer a matter of talent like golf, but how good your financial saavy is.[/QUOTE]PT needs to stick to commenting on racing. You need boatloads of cash to play on the PGA TOur and unless you have a rich friend or relative, you better be good in the boardroom to get sponsors - to go along with your tallent. Sound familiar?

[Todd Gack]

PT needs to stick to commenting on racing. You need boatloads of cash to play on the PGA TOur and unless you have a rich friend or relative, you better be good in the boardroom to get sponsors - to go along with your tallent. Sound familiar?

If you finish in the top 125 on the PGA Tour, you can play anytime you want the next year. And if you finish in certain places on the Nationwide Tour, you win PGA Tour status for the next year as well. Its a interesting concept...you do well and you keep your job or earn a promotion.

If David Toms finishes 40th on the money list, he is not going to lose his card to some hack who has never broken 80 because the hack has 4 million dollars worth of golf sponsorship.

Yes, folks like John Daly, who hasn't done anything except embarrass himself for the past 5 years, can buy their way into some tournaments. Not many get into tourneys like this though.

[Fro]

lol, yeah stnkypete has no idea what he's talking about with golf.

There are several ways for talented golfers to get a PGA tour card and be a full-time member of the PGA tour (Q-School, doing well on the Nationwide Tour, etc) and the talented ones are always going to make it up to the big leagues if they perform well.

[stnkypete]

lol, yeah stnkypete has no idea what he's talking about with golf.

There are several ways for talented golfers to get a PGA tour card and be a full-time member of the PGA tour (Q-School, doing well on the Nationwide Tour, etc) and the talented ones are always going to make it up to the big leagues if they perform well.

Are you trying to tell me that a Tour rookie has no expenses? How exactly do they fund their expenses? Sponsors. How do they get them? Same way race drivers do - going to meetings, schmoozing and making pitches. Golfers have to bring to goods on the course or they don't keep their Tour cards. But they have to raise the cash to stay on the road. They do that by being good in the board room.

[Todd Gack]

Are you trying to tell me that a Tour rookie has no expenses? How exactly do they fund their expenses? Sponsors. How do they get them? Same way race drivers do - going to meetings, schmoozing and making pitches. Golfers have to bring to goods on the course or they don't keep their Tour cards. But they have to raise the cash to stay on the road. They do that by being good in the board room.

If a Tour Rookie wins his PGA Tour card, then what "expenses" are you talking about?

Golfers play on tour for prize money. The better they do, the more cash they win. And the better they do, the better chance they have of keeping their card to play in the succeeding year.

Being good in the board room means literally NOTHING. I am not even sure what you are talking about with that one. I don't think Kevin Stadler is spending too many days of the week kissing some executive's cheeks, so he'll give him a few extra bucks to spend at the casino. Tour rookies might have to pay their way to get to the golf tournaments. And then if they make the cut that weekend, they'll make that money back times 10. The worst tour rookie is going to make $75,000 a year, if he just makes a handful of cuts. Not bad for your first job. And most of these golfers aren't from po' families anyway. So they always have family money to fall back on if things get tough.

Golfers don't have to beg and steal and buy their way onto tour, like Indy Car drivers do. The BEST get to the top on merit and talent. And stay there for as long as they can succeed in the game on the course. The PGA Tour's equivalent of Paul Tracy (lets say, its Ernie Els for craps and giggles) isn't going to have to sit out the entire season, even if he is still good enough to compete and good enough to finish in the top 125 on tour, if Big Daddy's BBQ Sauce pulls his sponsorship of Ernie and some other slap golfer, with 1/10th the talent and resume buys his spot and takes his card.

Being a PGA golfer is about the most kush job in the world. Most of the guys you see on leaderboards, probably aren't paying a dime to do anything in a given week. They are pampered and spoiled like nobody else.

[Glass Half Full]

Thanks for the link, TC. I remember his entry in last year's events @ Edmonton and he didn't do a bad job at all given the fact he'd only tested once (if I recall correctly). I'll look for him this weekend @ St. Pete.

[Team Canada]

Follow up to the first post. We did it so far..................

http://eformulacarnews.com/news_info.php?n=10560

[AFColt]

Follow up to the first post. We did it so far..................

http://eformulacarnews.com/news_info.php?n=10560

Really awesome to see, Mike. Rzad's got himself a pretty good teammate in Chaves as well, I'd imagine.

[Team Canada]

A followup to this interview, we couldn't see the reason or expense for RZAD to fly all the way back to Edmonton for 2 days, only to run back to Barber for this weekend. So, he hitched a ride with the team driver in the transport and will spend the next couple of days helping out with the crew, setting up the paddock and unloading the cars. Stefan actually likes to be able to help out and get to see exactly how the teams operate and how the day to day tasks are done.

here is an interview with him with a local Edmonton radio staion this morning, while he was sitting in the truck driving from St.Pete to Barber.

Scroll ahead to just before the 50 minute mark.

http://www.corusradio.com/Shared/Aud...ysubmit=Listen

[Team Canada]

http://www.indycaradvocate.com/2012/...d-to-indy.html

People don't realize how even a mention like this from IndyCar Advocate, means when you are talking to sponsors and they ask what media do you have for us to see?

[Miguel]

You think something in the Dutch language might help?

[AFColt]

http://www.indycaradvocate.com/2012/...d-to-indy.html

People don't realize how even a mention like this from IndyCar Advocate, means when you are talking to sponsors and they ask what media do you have for us to see?

That's great to hear--if it helps at all, that's more than I could have hoped for. I'm hoping Stefan has a great week at Barber.

[Team Canada]

Finally got Stefan's website up and running. He is doing some good promotion along with Global TV Edmonton, who are supporting him.
He is running in the One Lap Of America starting tomorrow and then back to Indy for the end of the month.

www.rzadracing.com
poweredbyalberta.com

A couple of videos and the TV spot he did.

[AFColt]

Good to see he's got some support going on. It's really nice to watch him develop and implement his plan for climbing the MRTI ladder.

[OrdinaryRaceFan]

Edmonton Indy appears to be in serious jeopardy, I wonder how much this will affect Rzad's quest for sponsorship?

[Team Canada]

Edmonton Indy appears to be in serious jeopardy, I wonder how much this will affect Rzad's quest for sponsorship?

From a local standpoint, it does hurt, but he has learnt that to get funding for a whole year, you need to reach further and get some national companies involved, which he is doing.
Hopefully, this will be achieved for 2013 and he can race every event.

[OrdinaryRaceFan]

From a local standpoint, it does hurt, but he has learnt that to get funding for a whole year, you need to reach further and get some national companies involved, which he is doing.
Hopefully, this will be achieved for 2013 and he can race every event.

Thanks for the answer Team Canada... Best of luck to him, hope to see him full time next year!