London based racer John Eastwood rides in the prestigious Virgin Yamaha R6 Cup race series at BSB events. For John to be able to achieve his goals, continue to get track time in and hopefully go on to win the championship, it will personally cost him in the region of 60,000 pounds. He's currently looking for much needed sponsorship, can
you or your company help?
Last week, LB’s Jay and Foxy met John at Brands Hatch on the LB track day to have a chat and find out about the sponsorship that John so desperately needs. For 2006, John will be competing again in the Virgin Mobile Cup Championship. It is a very prestigious championship designed to find the future stars of racing and develop their skills so they can compete at the highest level in the sport. This particular Championship has already paved the career for many riders.
At 17, John was a late starter to the sport of Roadracing. Never having ridden a motorcycle of any description before he decided to purchase a damaged bike and kick start his career.
John’s racing career began with a National Supersport 400 race. After just one single test session on the bike, he managed to finish in the top 10, which seeing as that was the second time he had ever been on a road bike, pleased him greatly! John then continued to be a regular top 10 finisher in the Supersport 400 Championship for the rest of that season.
In 2003 he bought a Yamaha R1 and competed in the National Powerbike series. Unfortunately he was only able to afford to compete in 6 rounds of the championship. Despite that, he was able to achieve consistently fast lap times and solid finishes and therefore brought an overall satisfactory season of racing.
In 2004 John moved up and decided to compete in the National Superstock Championship on a Suzuki GSXR 1000. Again, he was able to be very competitive as well as finishing in the top 10 on a number of occasions, unfortunately due to an accident, he was forced to finish the season after only competing in the first 5 rounds. Although John’s season came to a premature end he was still happy with the way it had gone especially after seeing that he was able to compete against very experienced riders, some of which had been racing for over 15 years. This proved to be a great learning curve for him and this vastly improved his technical ability.
For 2005 John made the decision to compete in the Virgin Yamaha R6cup. A single make series especially for young riders on stock bikes. The idea of it is to develop the young riders, eventually producing a winner. The winner receives a Factory Superbike ride for the official Yamaha Team the following season. This particular Championship has already paved the career for many riders. For John this season was by far my most difficult and arduous. Due to his knee injury from the previous season he had not had any time to practice during the off season, which meant by the time he turned up at the first round he had not ridden a bike for 8 months. Throughout the season John gained confidence and speed, but due to such a slow start due to the recovery process of his knee, John didn’t realize the results he expected to achieve.
The series has only been running for three years yet it has become a major part of the British Superbike Championship racing weekend. It consist of 30 riders over 12 rounds all racing on Yamaha R6's which are maintained by the Virgin Mobile Race Team. All the machines are identical, ensuring totally fair and even racing. Race results depend entirely on the rider’s skill.
As the series is so popular, every round has television coverage 'as live' on sky sport at prime time on Sunday. This consists of at least 20 minutes of racing and interview's on the podium. In addition to this, the races are repeated on other sport channels boosting the total time to over 11 hours of screen play per round.
Each race receives viewing figures in excess of 2 million and rising, with a crowd attendance of +30,000, mainly made-up of men between the ages of 18 - 30. This is a huge potential market for advertising.
There is also a television series based purely on the virgin mobile Cup called ' Natural Born Racers', which is in its third year on terrestrial television. The series is a documentary on the riders and follows our progress throughout the season. This programme attracts over 350,000 viewers.
John’s goal for the 2006 is to be a regular top 5 finisher throughout the season and achieve some podium finishes. He feels that this is a very achievable goal and he will give it all that he has got to complete. John is under no illusion of the effort and commitment that is required to reach my target at this level.
An average week consists of around 8-10 hours of physical training including gym work with a personal trainer, cycling and running. As well as this, he will do any promotional work that is required of him including corporate days, radio and newspaper interviews. On top of this John will be trying to do at least one testing session a week, as this is really the most productive way of gaining the level of experience and familiarity that is required to be competitive in a championship such as this.
For John to be able to achieve his goals and hopefully go on to win the championship, it will personally cost him in the region of 60,000 pounds. The costing can be broken down as follows:
*The entry fees in the Virgin Mobile Cup £20,000
*Bike and spares £10,000
*Testing (includes all costs) £12,000
*Van / Motor-home £ 10,000 / £ 30,000
*Team Clothing £ 500
*Crash Helmet and Protective clothing £ 4,500
Apart from the vast television coverage that the Virgin mobile Yamaha series receives, it also has coverage from newspapers and magazines. The main newspaper is MCN which is a weekly publication selling to around 1 million customers. There is also Bikesport and Superbike magazine which follows the championship closely and have in depth reports and results.
Londonbikers.com also bring you the latest news from the Virgin mobile Yamaha R6 Cup. The ultimate prize for winning the R6 Cup is a fully fledged factory ride with Virgin mobile Yamaha for the following season. For those who come close, it has been proven that they can also attract offers from other established race teams and provide the necessary support to mould their careers.
The levels of support are worked out as follows:LEVEL 1- Product only Support
LEVEL 2 Financial Support
Level 1 Sponsor you would receive advertising space on the leathers for your company's logo and space on my web page for your company logo, a description of your products, company contact detail and a link to your company web page.
Level – 2As a level 2 Sponsor we would be able to offer you track side hospitality for you and your guests in the official 'Team Virgin Mobile' hospitality unit. This would include complementary food and drink throughout the day, an opportunity to meet the rider's and receive excellent viewing facilities.
In addition as a level 2 sponsor you would receive prominent advertising space by way of your logo on the Bike, Leathers and team clothing. Further more, as a level 2 sponsor you would receive mentions in any media coverage from newspaper articles through to television interviews.
Finally, there is an additional hospitality package which can be offered, to both levels of sponsorship. A first class hospitality suite can be organized by the team at selected tracks. This attracting knew clients or gaining a better relationship with existing clients or staff. From this hospitality package you and your guests would be able to enjoy a day at a British Superbike race meeting.
They would receive:* Admission to circuit and VIP hospitality suite.
* Ticket wallet with timetable & location maps supplied for each guest
* Paddock access and Pitlane walkabout. (As and when official walkabouts are arranged)
* Excellent viewing from balcony or terrace. (Depending on location of hospitality suite)
* Vehicle parking passes - 1 per pair of guests.
* Waitress service throughout the day.
* Tea & coffee served throughout the day.
* Continental breakfast.
* Complimentary bar with wines, beers and soft drinks.
* Luxury fork buffet lunch with wines.
* Afternoon tea; cakes.
* Souvenir programme for each guest.
* Circuit television coverage within the suite.
* Daily press and fresh flowers in the suite.
NB. This is an additional cost for this and would depend solely on the level of sponsor expenditure.
If you, your company or a company you work for are interested in sponsoring John Eastwood, you can contact John on
07793 196 921 or you can have a look at his website and contact him through that. The link for John’s site is below. There is also a link to a discussion about this in the forums.
Related Linkswww.john-eastwood.comlondonbikers.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=32&MessageID=64728
