Sunday, October 31, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Money issues plague Pawuk, others in million-dollar sport

Sponsorships are costly, and only those who win regularly keep them

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Pro Stock drag racer Mark Pawuk acknowledges the applause of the local crowd -- perhaps for the last time -- after failing to qualify for today's racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's strip. Photo by ISAAC BREKKEN/REVIEW-JOURNAL

When Mark Pawuk waved to thousands of fans in the grandstands Saturday after failing to qualify for today's championship eliminations, his thoughts were that it could be his last chance to acknowledge a Las Vegas drag racing crowd.

Pawuk won the 2001 Pro Stock title in the inaugural NHRA professional drag racing event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but the veteran will lose his primary sponsor after the season and is uncertain if he'll return to the series.

"I really want to race again next year," he said. "I know I haven't done the best of jobs the last couple years."

Pawuk is one of the most respected drivers in the sport, but he learned in June that his 12-year sponsorship with Summit Racing Equipment would end after the season.

"My sponsorship program changed a couple years ago," he said, refusing to comment on rumors that it was solely based on performance. "When my program changed, it became very difficult to compete."

Pawuk, 46, of Akron, Ohio, has been sponsored by Summit, which financially supports the speedway's NHRA event in the spring and is the primary sponsor for three nonprofessional NHRA teams.

Summit opted midway through this season to financially back a team owned by Las Vegan Ken Black, whose driver, Greg Anderson, has won the Pro Stock championship the past two years.

"It hurt me that they didn't consider packaging me into that program to help me run better," said Pawuk, who owns a construction business in Akron, which is near Summit headquarters.

Pawuk, a 20-year professional drag racer, has six NHRA titles, has appeared in 21 championship rounds but hasn't won since the April 2001 race in Las Vegas.

The racing adage of "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" is at the core of why his racing future is in limbo.

He's not the only racer faced with the dilemma.

Pawuk said the cost of operating a championship-contending Pro Stock team involves an initial investment of about $2 million and an additional annual budget of between $1 million and $2 million.

Pawuk, like the majority of professional drag racers, fights to break even financially each year.

But other entities in the sport fare much better.

This is the ninth NHRA national event at the speedway's dragstrip since it opened in 2001, and total attendance for those events will surpass a total of 500,000 today when about 23,000 are expected.

Those events have contributed $145 million in nongaming revenue to the Southern Nevada economy, according to economic impact statistics provided by Las Vegas Events, a sponsor to this weekend's show, and estimates by the Review-Journal.

An industry source estimated the average net income from NHRA's 23 national events, like this weekend's, is about $1 million. That profit is shared between NHRA and the host track.

A primary team sponsorship in the featured Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car classes can cost up to more than $3 million, and one top team said its annual budget is $2.5 million per team.

Teams in all categories today also receive stipends from sponsors who provide bonuses if winning teams use their products.

And there is the purse provided by NHRA and the track.

The winning teams in Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car each will receive $40,000, and Pro Stock's best will get $20,000.

The size of the purses has been a touchy subject with members of the Professional Racers Owners Organization, a union of sorts for most members of the NHRA's top three pro categories.

The last time the purse was increased was in 2000, and drivers were close to staging a protest by boycotting a qualifying session, but that option was withdrawn a month ago when NHRA agreed to consider an increase for the 2006 season.

"It's sad it got that close," said Pawuk, an organization board member.

"Things are moving in a positive direction for us and NHRA. Nobody wins in a work stoppage. We have a very vested part in this relationship."

The last purse increase for NHRA national events occurred in the first year Tom Compton replaced Dallas Gardner as NHRA president. Compton, who had been the NHRA controller, said his not-for-profit association had to invest more in other areas to improve different aspects of the sport.

"We elected to invest our money in a way to grow the sport," he said.

"Our whole strategy was to create more awareness for the sport and bring it more into the mainstream."

Compton said the purse increase in 2006 "is something we're discussing" but added that last season suffered from a likely record number events that were impacted by rain.