Who we are: The V8 Muscle Car Iron Giant Challenge series was started by Chris Sine and will be going into its second year of operation after an extremely successful first year. We decided on the reference to muscle cars as a way to draw in fans who don’t know what street stocks and dirt track racing are and what racing live looks like. It was created to help increase the number of street stocks throughout the northwest and continue a long tradition of racing here in the NW. We have done this buy providing a liberal set of rules that allows cars from almost every track in the NW to compete, increasing the purses and providing races in every part of the state of Oregon (with plans to extend to SW Washington)- thereby building excitement and spreading the word to racers far and wide. The series and the races are entirely funded by sponsors and staffed by volunteers. The idea being that if you make the purses bigger you’ll get more cars who are willing to travel farther for a chance to win. More cars will lead to more competitive racing and this will lead to more fans in the stands. This year the series hopes to span across 2 States, 10 different racing facilities and last year had a total of 72 different cars participate in events conducted by the Iron Giant series.
The Road to the Iron Giant Muscle car series started life from the 3 biggest street stock races held in Oregon every year. The Jim’s Market 100 held at Sunset Speedway in Banks Oregon, the Wallbanger Cup held at The Grove in Cottage Grove Oregon and the Iron Giant held at Willamette speedway in Lebanon Oregon. These 3 events were the only time when rules were relaxed enough to allow drivers from any of the 3 tracks to race events at the other tracks. While street stock weekly entry numbers were steadily declining these 3 events were still able to bring in significant car counts. Chris seized on this idea and in 2015 he approached sponsors about adding to the purse for the Wallbanger cup and Iron Giant race with great success. The Wallbanger had 34 cars the Iron Giant brought in 48 cars. Not only that, but at the Iron Giant race, Chris was able to raise an additional $2,200.00 from fans in the stands bringing the final purse for the Iron Giant to $5,200.00. This type of purse has been unheard of up until this point. There was so much buzz about it in the local racing community that Chris approached all the local tracks and started the series. Each race paid a minimum of $1000.00 to win and was able to distribute winnings through the entire field. The effect has been immediate, car counts are going up at every track we visit. Even the weekly races at each facility have seen an increase in participation.
Last year we ran 6 races at 6 different tracks, had a grand total of 72 different cars and drivers participate. Our average venue seats 2500-4000 fans and most of cars get to and from the track on open trailers, giving the added benefit of having a rolling billboard going to and from every track. Our racers don’t tend to have sponsors, most race out of their pockets. We as a series actively try to help with the burden of racing any way we can. This year, not only are we looking for sponsors for the race purses and the points fund, we are also looking to partner with manufacturers and suppliers for contingency sponsorships. The cars we see include Camaros, Novas, Chevelles, Cougars, Monte Carlos, Buick Regals, Oldsmobile Cutlasses. In fact, we see just about every type of Muscle car at our events. We have had drivers from 4 states travel to compete in our events. We also do things a little differently than other series. We have a Dirt vs Pavement race at the Douglas county speedway where we pit drivers and cars who primarily drive on pavement against drivers and cars who primarily run on dirt. We also held 2 street stock vs sportman car races at Madrass Speedway and River City speedway in St. Helens Oregon. While there was a lot of doubt about these three races, they were smashing hits and the drivers and fans loved them!
If your company is interested in promoting your products and services with our series we would love to talk to you. We want you to know that we as an organization take your sponsorship seriously and we want to make sure that you get the maximum amount of exposer available at every event. Each event will have 2 advertising banners prominently displayed where the fans and races will be drawn to your company logo. One banner will bear the race sponsors and any race only contingency sponsors. The other will bear the series sponsors and the contingency sponsors who provide sponsorship to every race. We will also provide and coach the announcer at each track to give thanks to every sponsor at every available opportunity. We are also selling T-shirts at every event that will predominantly display all series sponsors. All sponsors will be regularly featured on our Facebook page as well as conspicuously featured in a regional racing media show on Spreaker as well as in print. Any media stories and interviews will also reference our sponsors. Please feel free to contact Chris or James about our sponsorship packages. We have packages available for the series as well as each individual race.
If you would like to join our contingency program, we ask that you give your contingency program’s requirements for decals, reporting and awarding the prizes to our director of promotions. Please let us know what prizes you are willing to sponsor and what finishing spots you would like them awarded for. We do like to award prizes throughout the field. Last year we had prizes that ranged from 5 gallons of race fuel for a second in the heats to tool gift packs. We will also take a picture of the award and the recipient at the time of the award and post it on our Facebook page.
Just a word about who our racers are and who our fans are. Both are very hardworking and typically small business owners, tradesmen and women and mill workers. They come from all backgrounds, cultures, races and religions. They tend to be the people who camp, off road, hunt, fish, build hotrods and muscle cars. They are very patriotic, love their families and they all have a love for car culture. Our racers and fans are the people that folks fixing up their own cars turn to when they need help. What better voice could you ask for when promoting your products? Another thing about racers and race fans is they are extremely loyal to sponsors of the sport.
If interested please contact:
Chris Sine
Director of competition for the Iron Giant
541-554-1071
sinerace96@gmail.com
James Whitehouse
Director of Promotions for the Iron Giant
971-930-5495
Raceme49@gmail.com
Here is the list of the outstanding racing venues we will be visiting this year:
Southern Oregon Speedway in White City Oregon
Madras Speedway in Madras Oregon
Sunset Speedway in Banks Oregon
River City Speedway in St. Helens Oregon
Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg Oregon
Coos bay Speedway in Coos Bay Oregon
Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove Oregon
Willamette Speedway in Lebanon Oregon
