GAINSCO Revs Up New Marketing Program
Dallas-based GAINSCO announced it has signed on as primary sponsor of Blackhawk Motorsports, who will be making its entry into professional racing by fielding a Daytona Prototype racecar that will compete in the Grand American Rolex Racing Series in 2005.
GAINSCO, a provider of nonstandard personal automobile insurance products, plans to use the racing program as a central feature of its new “Are You Driven?” marketing theme.
“We are excited about the opportunities our sponsorship of the Blackhawk racing team will create for us,” said Glenn W. Anderson, president and chief executive officer. “We believe this sponsorship will provide a unique platform for our company to build brand awareness and advance our distribution strategies. We have a renewed focus at GAINSCO after our recent restructuring, and we believe this integrated marketing program will be an exciting component of our business development plan.”
The Grand American Rolex Racing Series schedule includes races in key states where GAINSCO is targeting growth opportunities.
GAINSCO’s sponsorship of Blackhawk Motorsports runs through January 2006 and provides that the company will receive various benefits customary for sponsors of Daytona Prototype Series racing teams, including rights relating to signage on team equipment and access for clientele to certain race facilities. The company’s sponsorship agreement also contains provisions protecting the company’s interests, including a termination provision that permits the company unilaterally to terminate the agreement at any time.
Drivers for the Blackhawk race team for 2005 will be Alex Gurney, son of racing legend Dan Gurney, and Robert W. Stallings, owner of Blackhawk and executive chairman of the Board of Directors of GAINSCO.
Gurney has been racing professionally since 1997 both here in the United States and internationally and has won numerous races. Stallings entered racing in 2001 as an amateur racer in the Formula Atlantic class. In 2004 he won the national championship in that class by winning the Sports Car Club of America National Championship Runoffs Presented by Kohler at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
The GAINSCO-sponsored Blackhawk #99 car is expected to be ready for competition by the Laguna Seca race in California at the end of April.