Red Rooster Racing Pulls Out from Motorsports


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350Z

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Here is a not so very pleasant news. The rally champions - Red Rooster Racing have decided to pull out from Motorsports this season. Read on what they have to say:

Motorsports is not an inexpensive sport. At its most competitive, it needs sponsorship. As the fastest growing sport in India, given the fascination and unambiguous appeal it has for people of all ages and backgrounds, it is unfortunate that we have not been able to garner sponsors at levels significant enough to make the operation of building and running a team. In the last 10 months, we have spoken to many corporates - FMCG, Automotive, Telecom, Technology and more. From those who have a direct connect to motoring and motorsports to those who are already trying to leverage it in woefully inadequate ways. And even to the biggies who could be the first to differentiate in this market where distinctiveness is being sacrificed at the altar of the loud adspends in a highly cluttered single sport environment. How much louder can one afford to get without making a real difference to the life and business of a brand? The proof is all there. TV ratings are heading skywards. The Internet traffic from India to the top motorsports websites of the world is amongst the global top 3. F1 is here for economic reasons. Everyone wants to own a car, and then, to only own a more powerful car. All the famous sports cars have set up shop. The sport captures the imagination like no other, and imagery to that effect is being used flagrantly by all and sundry in brand communication. It is much more than a sport. We could go on. The big question, therefore, that begs an answer, is: why are corporates (those big brands with all their spiel about being different and wanting to stand out) so afraid of being the first clutter-breaking winner?

We asked ourselves that too and could not come up with an answer that sounded sensible. Till a few days ago, we had every hope that at least one smart corporate house will call us to leverage this powerful, unoccupied platform to their benefit in a way they never can again. Not one did. Hence this very painful but logical decision by Dinesh Reddy, our founder, N Leelakrishnan, our Chief Technical Director and 7-time INRC champion and our board of directors. We've spent almost 18 crores in the last 3 years, in building and running what are the best motorsports teams in India today. We have given wings to some of the best talent there is. Companies such as MRF can afford to continually invest in their teams, after all, the brand's entire marketing campaign and positioning has been built on motorsports for over a decade. With the high standards we have set ourselves in the engineering of the cars, team management, talent and development of the sport in itself, we have little choice but to pull out of motorsports - especially rallying. We will, however, continue to support some disciplines and talent in various ways. Our goal of pushing finely honed talent to the world stage remains an objective we hope to achieve someday.

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Drive Safe,
350Z
 
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Oooh..This is a saddening as well as a surprising piece of news. With so many victories, i presumed Red Roosters had enough sponsors. All i can say is that Red Rooster will be missed!
 

AMG

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Companies such as MRF can afford to continually invest in their teams, after all, the brand's entire marketing campaign and positioning has been built on motorsports for over a decade.
Exactly my point.

At the end of the day, they are nothing more than a popular accessory shop.
They cannot(and should not) be competing against teams like MRF.
HRT cannot ever aspire to beat Ferrari.

I have no regrets for RRR quiting.
I didnt like them much, anyway.
 
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It is bad for Indian motor sports, but a simple fact: "Even we Indian don't watch Indian rallies & instead cheer for F1". I am in no way implying that it is viewer's fault but just saying that the bosses of Indian Motorsports should take some cue from Ecclestone to increase their viewership.
I read that they are coming in full time tuning business now.
 
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Well, I'm not surprised.

There are many reasons why the Indian Rallying scene is not getting where it should be.

1.Most events are not covered by the media like they should. They just put an odd picture on the sports page with little or no information. Visual media never air it on sane hours.

2.The authorities- F.M.S.C.I or M.A.I for that matter has not and is not doing great to make the sport more popular with the masses. (I myself am a victim of the M.A.I-F.M.S.C.I Power War which ended my career before it even took off.)

3.Cricket is over rated and hence all other forms of sport suffer and they do not get sponsors.

4.Most people have no idea about what a rally is and who is going to spend time watching something they dont understand as in the very basic rules of the game.

I myself had a very hard time trying to get a sponsor when I was involved in Rallying. When approached, a probable sponsor once told me that he could get more mileage out of a 2000 ruppee wall painted advertisement, then put some stickers on a stupid bike. I dont blame him. Whats the point for him after all? Who's gonna see me and my bike and for how long? They never did show rallies on Doordarshan back in the 90's on schedule. Doordarshan was the only channel back then. If they said they're going to air it on some date at a specified time. They probably would be showing kabbadi or some tribal folk dance at that time when you were all excited, sitting in front of the tele eagerly. And in that case it was only me and my family. What about some one who wanted to see it maybe after hearing about it for the first time? It would be a turn off for him and he would never look out for it ever again.

I too had a very hard time finding means to finance my rallying and I had to sit back on some events cause I was out of money. The Popular Rally of 99 held at Cochin itself cost me in excess of 30,000 rupees which included practice, preparation, works on the bike plus expenses of my crew and support. And in this Rally I did crash my bike even once and fuel and a spark plug were the only things that went into the bike in the entire event. And my bike was a Group D stock bike with little modifications. Imagine what it costs to run a car like a full blown Cedia!

Its still not too late, The authorities have to water down their egos and stupid politics and do something for the sport.

It was only a few months back that the Misty Meadows Rally of Kerala was held up from taking a start, because the idiots who were in charge failed to get permission from the local government authorities to conduct the event.

I still remember seeing drunk officials at check points of some rallys I had participated in the late nineties. You have to keep in mind that a rally result is decided on 1/1000ths of a second and the fool with the stop watch has to be as sharp and vigilant.

P.S: All the views expressed in this post are entirely mine and I take full responsibilty for my words. TheAutomotiveIndia or anyone else is not responsible or liable for what I have stated.
 
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