Calling all racers, here is an excellent opportunity to pick up a huge sponsor. BD Diesel Performance, recently, announced they are looking for new vehicles to sponsor for the 2014 year. They are not discriminating between drag racing or sled pulling. So, if you are looking for help to reach the next level of success, listen up.

BD Diesel Performance has set up a specific website for submissions (click here). This is an excellent opportunity (we cannot say that enough), so take your time, make sure your spelling is correct, double check that you have answered all of their questions to the best of your ability and make sure you have some good photos. When we spoke to Brian Roth at the SEMA Show, he mentioned they had made a dedicated effort to support 16 racing teams this year (2013). That is a pretty big commitment from a company and it shows they are serious about making a difference. “We really wanted to focus on diesel engines producing 800 horsepower,” said Brian Roth, President of BD Diesel Performance about the 2013 sponsorship program.

In return for sponsorship, they are looking for the following:

• Truck to be used for competition in a minimum of 5-10 major events per year – this includes racetrack, dyno and pulling events.
• Have a minimum of 3 highly visible 12” BD stickers or have wrap design with BD.
• Use and actively promote BD products and technology.
• Supply BD results/data from events attended.
• Supply BD with high quality photos and/or video from all attended events and build ups.
• Racer must tune to turbocharger’s air supply with intent to reduce unnecessary emissions and high EGTs.
• Trucks should be devoted racing machines.
• California trucks must comply with CARB: BD will be honoring California Air Resource Board request to not send “Race” parts into California unless the race truck is trailered to events and not driven on the street.

Some of their benefits are:

• Consulting,research and Special Race Team pricing on all BD products for your race or pulling truck for one year.
• You will be treated as an employee and have access to their fuel injection, turbocharger, transmission and if local, their chassis dyno testing facilities.
• Depending on the activity level on and off the racetrack, BD will decide if there is mutual benefit to continue the program into the following year.
• Your racing profile will be listed publicly on the BD Race Team web page.

If you want to see their current BD Race Team web page, click here

This opportunity ends January 24th 2014. 

Having been around racing for years, we at Diesel Army can say this:

Be realistic when you layout your calendar. Don’t say you are going to attend 10+ events but only show up to 5. If you know for sure you are planning on attending 5 events and you may attend a couple more, but you aren’t sure; simply put the 5 down, then mark the others as tentatively.

Don’t look at this as a one year sponsorship deal. Always be as honest as possible when submitting a proposal. This could blossom into a multi-year deal if everyone is happy. One of the easiest ways to achieve that, is to be honest about what is going on and constantly keeping them up to date about all things related to the truck. If you went to the race and broke, so be it. If you went to the race and noticed something odd, let them know. Treat this as a partnership, not a “here is free stuff for running a decal” kind of deal. A good sponsorship/partnership is about what is in it for you and what is in it for them. Both parties should be getting something out of it.

Think about the promotion side of things. As Shawn Williams from Street Concepts likes to say, “Nothing is free” and he would know. Williams has built project vehicles for years and has been given hundreds of parts over the years. Trust him when he says it isn’t free. BD Diesel will need to be getting something in return. That could be you promoting and talking about their products on forums, creating a custom Facebook page, creating videos, handing out product info as the races, or who knows what. Bottom line, think about what you can or are willing to offer them before you fill out the form. The better idea you have before filling it out, the better the proposal will look to them.

Lastly, follow through!