What Uncomfortable Trend?

After Iowa, I talked about "The Uncomfortable Trend in IndyCar's Second Half" due to the lack of race title sponsorships. That has since changed and fans, teams and IndyCar themselves should be happy about that. While Edmonton did not have a title sponsor, it will be the only race in IndyCar's second half not to. Since late June, Sonoma, Baltimore and Fontana have all joined Toronto and Mid-Ohio and each has their own special title sponsor.

Sonoma signed the handheld camera company GoPro to sponsor the IndyCar race next weekend in Wine Country. Not only will GoPro sponsor this year's race but they signed a deal to be the IndyCar race title sponsor for the next three years, reassuring that IndyCar will be at Sonoma for the next few years.

Baltimore signed a deal with SRT, the performing-tuning arm of Chrysler to be presenting sponsor of the Baltimore Grand Prix. SRT is the badge for the new Viper, which races in the American Le Mans Series with drivers Dominik Farnbacher, Marc Goossens, Kuno Wittmer, Tommy Kendall and current IndyCar driver Ryan Hunter-Reay. While not a "title" sponsor, it is still money coming in for the race and series.

As for Fontana, their title sponsor, MAVTV is probably the most unknown of the three. MAVTV is a digital cable network that was bought by Lucas Oil late last year. The race will be called the "MAVTV 500 presented by Lucas Oil." Lucas Oil is a good company to be in business with their roots stretching to other forms of motorsports as well as sponsorship of Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts, Super Bowl XLVI and to-date one Final Four. Just like GoPro, MAVTV has signed a three year deal with Fontana, making one think IndyCar will be racing on the Southern California oval for the next few years as well.

These deals show sponsors are still interested in IndyCar and the length of these deals will be able to keep these races on the schedule for the next few years and build the fan base in these areas as well. We should all be pleased and be glad the tracks, promoters and maybe even the series stepped up to get deals done.