Sponsors need some reason to be on your car Jack, most often it's TV coverage. Take the Targa West for example, the top 4-5 runners in each main category got good exposure. The other 50 odd competitors got diddlysquat. Everybody in the main categories pays the same amount to be there, but unless your a top runner, or score a mention for having spent $50,000 to have shown up to ten in a row, there is little to no TV exposure for your sponsors. If I was going to chuck money at a car to have my name on it, it would only be at the top 5 or a naming rights partner.
Enginr is right, and the old saying of how fast can you afford to go rings true. I run 050's, and I manage them like they are cute little ducklings strapped to my rims, to make sure they last for the budgeted period. I cant afford to chew them up looking for every tenth on every corner, and if your doing that, then not competing on a level field. It's very difficult to stay enthusiastic when you know you don't have the money to be competitive, regardless of how hard you try to convince yourself otherwise. There's no TV time for the guy that put's his hand up a say's 'I made my tires last the whole event', or 'I've managed my car so well I haven't had a mechanical failure for two years'. Sadly, no one gives a shit.
I don't know where George is at, but I know I don't come home from a suit job and toil away in the garage on engines and cars because I like standing back and looking at how pretty they are, I do it so I can race the fucking things. I will not enjoy the day when the hard decision must be made between the hungry mouths of kin and the burning desire to track cars.
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