Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Henderson racer looking for support

Friday, Jan. 2, 1998 | 10:11 a.m.

BRIAN HILDERBRAND is a Las Vegas SUN sportswriter. His motor sports column appears Fridays. He can be reached on the Internet at bh@lasvegassun.com. For the latest in the world of auto racing, check out the SUN Racing web site at http://www. lasvegassun.com/sports/racing/

Sam Schmidt's Indy Racing League career could be facing a black flag this spring if the Henderson resident can't secure a primary sponsor for his race car by the time the checkered flag drops on the 82nd Indianapolis 500.

"We have made a commitment to be at least at the first three races, which will be Orlando, Phoenix and Indy," Schmidt said this week. "Beyond that, we're not sure because if we don't get a principal sponsorship, it would be pretty hard to continue."

Schmidt, who has been supporting his own team since the Las Vegas 500K last October, heads into the 1998 IRL season opener (Jan. 24 at Walt Disney World Speedway) with some financial backing in the form of several associate sponsorships. But Schmidt acknowledged he needs a major corporate sponsor to step up and foot the bill if he is to continue past this year's Indy 500.

"We're still aggressively seeking a primary sponsor," he said. "We have our associates back and we picked up another associate called Truck Air, which is a freight company that is going to be picking up all our transportation expense and providing a driver.

"We're nipping away at a lot of the costs, but we still would like to be racing for a cause."

As an owner/driver, Schmidt said he has spent more time this off-season trying to woo sponsors than he has shaking down his Dallara/Aurora racer.

"I'm learning a lot about that stuff, unfortunately," the 33-year-old Schmidt said of the business side of racing. "I would love to just be able to concentrate on practicing and driving but unfortunately if I don't go out there and beat the pavement and try and find the money to run, we won't be there.

"We're going to keep hitting it hard on the marketing front and hopefully be there the whole year."

Schmidt, who finished 27th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October, said he has found potential sponsors more approachable this winter after a successful second IRL season, reports of a major series sponsor and the announcement that all 11 races this year will be televised live.

"We have sent out a number of presentations for sponsorship and it's a nice situation -- I think the IRL definitely wound up in Vegas on a good note with 31 cars showing up and a full, good-looking field," he said. "I believe if they haven't already, (the IRL is) real close to announcing a series sponsor which is going to bring some more money to the table and add a little bit of validity to the whole thing.

"We're looking positively and people are talking to you, there's not this plague over your head that is the IRL. We have seven of our 11 races live on network television (either ABC or CBS) ... and I think it's an excellent package for the IRL."

Schmidt again has contracted with LP Racing of Indianapolis to manage his team and is looking forward to running -- hopefully -- a full season in 1998.

"We just didn't have a great year but we were really learning a lot of things," Schmidt said. "We sat down after the Vegas race and kind of summarized a lot of things and recognized where we made some mistakes. It was a new team -- we started from scratch -- and things like that take a little bit of time but I think we'll be better (this) year and we're looking forward to finishing some races."