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My Take on Tatiana Calderon’s Sponsorship Issues
If you follow IndyCar racing, a fan of AJ Foyt Racing or a fan of Tatiana Calderon, you no doubt are aware of the current situation that Tatiana has found herself in. To sum up this story:
Early in 2022 it was announced that Tatiana Calderon would race for AJ Foyt Racing, splitting seat time with JR Hildebrand. Tatiana would race the road courses and street races, and JR would compete on the ovals. This would be Tatiana’s rookie season in IndyCar, as AJ Foyt Racing had an interest in helping Tatiana in American open wheel racing, hoping that she would develop a foundation for her American racing career. ROKiT would be the primary sponsor for the No. 11 car that Calderon and Hildebrand would pilot. ROKiT was already associated with both AJ Foyt Racing and Tatiana Calderon, and agreed to be the primary sponsor, allowing AJ Foyt Racing to expand to a third full time team. This was great news for women in motorsports as Tatiana would be the first full-time IndyCar female driver since 2013. All proceeded rather well, until May, when ROKiT started falling behind in its financial commitments. By July 13th, AJ Foyt Racing parked the No. 11 car for the remainder of the season, six races in. If ROKiT can not make amends and cover what they owe, it is unlikely that Tatiana nor JR Hildebrand will race another IndyCar race this year.
So, what happened? Who’s to blame? Was this relationship flawed from the beginning? Are there lessons to be learned from all of this? These are some of the many questions that I ask myself, as a motorsports marketer. Obviously I am like you – I only have the news reports, my research and my marketing intuition to go off of. Only ROKiT knows the whole story. So, with all of this being said, what I will share with you is only my opinion. It is based on few facts, lots of observation and thought, and a good dose of experience. Beyond that, take what I say with a grain of salt.
So, what happened? I suspect that there were a multitude of reasons that created the situation where sponsorship payments stopped. Maybe first and foremost, ROKiT lost a major lawsuit in March where they were sued by Williams Formula 1 team in 2020 for a failed title sponsorship in which ROKiT stopped making payments. Ultimately ROKiT now owes Williams Formula 1 $35 million USD. Secondly, it appears that ROKiT has their fingers in a large array of sports, sponsoring many teams, drivers, athletes and events. ROKiT is a global venture capital conglomerate. Performing a cursory financial review of the company, one can quickly see that 2020 was not a good year for ROKiT, where it was not operating in the black. So, that might explain its default on the Williams F1 sponsorship commitment. And, if I had to guess, that financial whirlwind has continued into 2022. Pure speculation, but it does seem to paint a picture that ROKiT, while being an obvious name in motorsports, may have spread itself too thin, and ego being what it is, the man at the top may have felt like all is good and the company will weather the storm and right the ship, all the while keeping all its commitments to everyone it had contracts with. Apparently not…
Who’s to blame? Well, many people. ROKiT first and foremost. AJ Foyt Racing for not doing their due diligence in staying on top of the situation, jumping at the opportunity to create a third race team and trusting ROKiT a little too much. Tatiana Calderon for putting all her eggs in one basket without any backup plan (i.e. additional sponsors). In the end, everyone loses.
Was this relationship flawed from the beginning? Simply put – I don’t know. Money is so hard to acquire for racing enterprises. Maybe the exuberance and promised possibilities clouded judgements. Maybe those that worked at setting up the sponsorship program failed to dig deep enough to understand the sponsoring company and their ability to keep their commitments. Maybe all of the above. Maybe none of the above. But yes, in my opinion, I believe mistakes were made early on, warning signs missed, and backup plans never drafted. Either way, now a race team and two drivers are paying the ultimate price – their jobs and livelihood.
Are there lessons to be learned? Absolutely! Many lessons to be learned. The list that I can think of is –
- Do your research. Even when you think you have – go back and look some more. Don’t take things on face value. Look for those things that might be an indication of bigger issues. Maybe you need to bring in people that can help you see things that you missed.
- Have contingency plans. If you started a third team, hired a staff to run that team and then hired a driver / drivers, make sure that you can provide security (well, as much security as you can have in the motorsports industry) to those people. That means have secondary sponsors or money in reserve where you can do what you say you are going to do. If you can’t, then don’t!
- Leave yourself an out. If you are the driver, seat time and exposure is so critical to your career. If you are left sitting on the sidelines not earning a paycheck, you are also not getting that all valuable seat time. You are also not staying in the headlines (for the right reasons). Have a contingency plan. Make sure you have sponsors that, if possible, will follow you to another team that can provide you a job. If you are the race team, make sure you have an out if the sponsor leaves you high and dry. How embarrassing and demoralizing is it to have to lay off people and shutter a race team because you didn’t do your job?
- Look out for number one. Loyalty is something that is long gone from the motorsports industry. Learn to be hard hearted and focus on yourself. After all, racing is a business first and foremost. In this day and age, the driver with the money and connections will survive. If you don’t have the money, learn how to find it – and keep it. If you don’t have many connections, start networking and promoting yourself – now! Long gone are the days when the race team will do whatever to keep you as a driver. They are interested in keeping their team in business – with or without you. As it is, you could pay the ultimate price for the team and the sponsor being less than prepared for what they have committed to. After all, time is not a driver’s best friend, and neither is absence from the spotlight.
I truly hope that the situation with ROKit, Tatiana Calderon and AJ Foyt Racing can be resolved quickly. If not, what ultimately will happen is that AJ Foyt Racing will lay off good employees and shutter a promising race team, ROKiT will continue to wallow in debt and surely other lesser obligations will suffer the same fate, and Tatiana Calderon will be back knocking on doors hoping she can find someone that will take a chance on a soon-to-be thirty something driver with little to show for her 2022 efforts.
And, women in motorsports will suffer, yet again, another defeat and setback all the while the male dominated sport of motorsports marches on. IndyCar will still be known for its all-male field, and time will tell if anything will change. And companies like ROKiT will continue to create chaos and spread disappointment to those it claims it is all about, notably supporting women in motorsports, while raking in the accolades and exposure – until they fail miserably as a company – unless they can get their act together.
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Great Women in Motorsports Advocacy Organizations in the United States
So my last two blog posts focused on the worst of the organizations regarding support for women in motorsports. And I am only talking about organizations based in North America.
So, what organizations are two of the best?
Shift Up Now
For starters, let’s begin with the recently re-launched Shift Up Now (https://shiftupnow.com/) organization spearheaded by Indy 500 standout Pippa Mann and Shea Holbrook. To understand what this organization is all about, read this from their site –
Motorsport has come a long way in the past 50 years, but we still have work to do.
It’s time to change the game again. And we want your help to do it. We want to help ensure more female athletes are funded in top seats in motorsport.
We want to be visible, so we can continue to inspire courage and confidence in our younger fans.
We want to be a resource for racers – male and female – offering advice, coaching, and sharing the lessons we have learned with other racers to help them on the ladder.
I believe so much in what this organization is doing that I am a member. This organization was started by women, run by women and is focused strictly on providing better opportunities for women. They need your support now more than ever.
Women In Motorsports North America
Another organization (womeninmotorsportsna.com) recently launched by Indy 500 stalwarts Lynn St. James and Beth Paretta is the penultimate resource and mentor site for women in motorsports. The organization’s mission statement follows:
Women in Motorsports North America is a community of professionals devoted to supporting opportunities for women across all disciplines of motorsports by creating an inclusive, resourceful environment to foster mentorship, advocacy, education, and growth, thereby ensuring the continued strength and successful future of our sport.
This is exactly the type of organization that I have dreamed about. When you explore their website you will feel overwhelmed by the amount of resources available and impressed by the lists of available mentors and supporters that are motorsports icons – most of which are women.
So, both of these organizations exhibit what will make them successful for many years – run by women, focused on women and supported by women and men.
In contrast, the two organizations that are an embarrassment to women everywhere is Rev Racing and Accelerate Her – both NASCAR creations run and administered by men with less-than clear goals and zero success for women.
We all need to get behind Shift Up Now and Women in Motorsports North America now!
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Accelerate Who? The Program That Vanished As Quickly As It Appeared.
Here’s another one of those supposed women diversity programs that made big headlines in February 2022 – Busch Light’s Accelerate Her. This program claims that it “is a three-year commitment that takes aim at the inequity of resources available to women drivers by investing directly in every 21+ woman driver in NASCAR, providing brand-building opportunities to increase fan visibility of drivers and the sport.”
That’s nice. What has the general public heard since the grand announcement in February? Crickets. What has the public seen since the grand announcement? NADA. There has absolutely been ZERO press releases, interviews with program execs or regular news updates. Pretty astonishing for something of this magnitude (I.e.. $10 million invested over a three year period eligible to all women competing in NASCAR aged 21 and older).
I will say that NASCAR (oh yes, they are a key component of this program) has strategically (?) released a press release here and there highlighting a particular female driver. But that is all.
Five months since the announcement the ONLY news cryptically came in a Q&A with Toni Briedinger in April when asked how this program was making a difference for her. She responded, “I’m not part of Busch’s program anymore. Right now there is a huge narrative large corporations are trying to say they support women in sports. So they make big announcements that they are supporting.”
And it gets better. Toni continues with, “It’s important that people know – if a company isn’t on my car or my suit or my helmet they aren’t my sponsor. I’m focusing on my sponsors that are actually being about it and putting my car on the track and really supporting women in sports.”
You determine for yourself what her statements suggest. As to the program’s claims, they claim this program is for all women competing in NASCAR 21 and older. However, only eight women were chosen to be the initial participants. Hmmmm. There are more than eight women competing in NASCAR – granted not all in the upper levels.
So, how come all the details are not revealed. Is it applicable to only full time racers at the top three levels of NASCAR? Why is it when you go to the Busch Light website to get more details on the program you have to verify that you are 18 or older to enter, only to find zero additional information other than what was released in February? Is this another “Drive for Diversity” sham / con job that NASCAR is perpetuating in order to make them APPEAR as if they really care about diversity and especially women? Why does it seem as if $10 million invested over three years is a lot when it isn’t. You do the math – $10 million divided by three equals $3.33 million per year. Now, divide that by eight drivers. That is a little over $400,000 per driver. Granted, good money for most of us, but what is that really buying for these drivers?
So, let’s review what we do know.
- One major press release announcing the program in February
- No follow up press releases since February
- No news coverage
- No additional information on their website
- Contradictory claims about who is eligible – all women drivers in NASCAR versus eight actual drivers
- A major driver quit the program seemingly because the program is all talk and no substance
Once again, NASCAR shows its true colors and commitment to women through a smoke-and-mirrors media hype.
Sad, pathetic and downright disgusting.
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The Great “Drive For Diversity” Shell Game Sham
So I suppose you might have read today about an American company associated with NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program signing a sponsorship deal with a corporate entity to improve opportunity for future candidates who belong to this program. The focus is on helping young men and women break into the NASCAR world dominated by white men. Of course these candidates / participants are of diverse ethnic backgrounds and women who, by the nature of them not be white males, have less or no opportunity to get into NASCAR.
Well, that’s not entirely true. If you have money and connections, you can buy your way into NASCAR regardless of ethnicity or gender.
So, diversity is bandied about as if it actually includes women. But, from actual facts, it really doesn’t. In eighteen years, only three participants who were part of the driver side have gone on to compete at the highest levels of NASCAR. Guess what? All men. Yes, at least one woman has gone on to be a member of the NASCAR community – as a crew member or official – I don’t recall. Maybe more, but of course the level of promotion in the media has been rather lacking on all fronts.
But what about the women drivers? Actually there have been a lot who have gone through the program. But once they left the program, or were not asked back, they have all but disappeared from sight.
So this program is designed to teach a participant all the different aspects of a well rounded motorsports career – marketing, sponsorship, public speaking, physical training, driving skills and etiquette and anything else a person who aspires to live and work in the NASCAR world needs. And, in return, this program creates exposure to potential teams and sponsors for the participant in hopes that opportunity is created for the next step in the career ladder. Sadly, rarely does this happen.
And then we are back to the issue of women. These so-called diversity programs really need to stop incorporating women into their program descriptions – unless they mean it, can back it up with results and show, beyond a doubt that diversity is truly inclusive.
And for NASCAR – stop promoting a half hearted attempt at trying to convince people (and those with dreams) that you truly embrace diversity when you don’t. Very little has changed in eighteen years. Danica was not a result of your initiative. It was her sponsor, JR Motorsports and Tony Stewart who made it possible – and money.
Embarrassing, pathetic and inexcusable!
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Where Should the Focus on Women in Motorsports Be?
So the issue presented by Pippa Mann the other day created a lot of lively discussion. It was very educational to see the different viewpoints presented. I don’t agree with a lot of the viewpoints as I feel like there are many who “jump on the band wagon” just to be heard and to re-state what Pippa articulated, and those that just want to “be heard” and agree to agree. I really appreciate the opinions that don’t always agree with the post author.
In a grander scale, I feel like part of the problem with affecting change, attitudes and acceptance of women in motorsports is that we tend to focus on what “we want” instead of looking at “how do we all come together” to make change happen.
I agree that “segregation” of competitors – i.e. the “W Series” vs. the traditional ladder system within the European system of racing – is not necessarily the solution nor does it help as you split funding and thereby dilute the power of the dollar that is spent to promote the different racing series and drivers. However, there are a lot of great things that are occurring for women because of the “W Series” model. Now, the question for me is, how do we take the best of these different systems, integrate those things in a way that is beneficial for competitor, series, sponsors and women as a whole?
Lots of questions, very few answers at this point. I will say, though, it takes leaders like Pippa Mann, Lyn St. James, Beth Peratta and Catherine Bond Muir (to name a few) to affect change. We need women like this leading the charge, and each and every one of them has volumes of experience and wisdom to draw from and to utilize. But, more importantly, we need people (men and women) willing to follow their lead and to actually get involved, become advocates in their own way, and stay focused on the main goal of improving the equality, the equity, the funding and the opportunities for women in motorsports. There are not enough voices out there being heard. There are a lot of followers and people who say the agree, but very few who are willing to actually take the time to start making a difference. And, sometimes, all it takes is a person’s willingness to monetarily support a young lady at the grass roots level, or to spend $100 to become a member of the “Shift Up Now” program. But do something. Stop being a parrot. Be a leader.
Advocating for Women in Motorsports 