06/01/2026
Hey everyone! It's your favorite old Mitsu dude, David!
I've got kind of a rant I want to post.
I've been doing this now for 37 years. This is not my first or last business I've started, all of which have been successful.
Over the years we've had hundreds of people randomly contact us for sponsorships. Real quick so this isn't a novel, they don't work out. You know who actually does? The person who spent their hard earned money with us FIRST, loved what they got and told all their friends. Those guys are golden and we've tried to help those type of people out when they ask.
Why am I saying this? Well, this isn't 2001 when Fast and Furious came out. The import racing world isn't what it used to be. We have stuck with Mitsubishi as our main focus since 1989. These cars are 37 to 11 years old at this point. They aren't making more. We design and make parts that out last the actual vehicle, which in the end costs us sales. We don't get to sell you a new exhaust every 5 years, ours last "forever".
As many of you know I've started a new company, The Freedom Shack, making shooting/gun components. That lead me to the newest venture of building a pretty large shooting range for competitions and training. So what? I'm getting to that. I did this because we shoot matches all over the place, drive hours, pay the fees and leave with NOTHING. I wanted a place that resembled a park, pavilion to hang out, food truck, free raffles with your entry and the chance for people to win something at every match, giving back to the shooters.
Here is comes, finally! When I started trying to figure out what to give away I thought about the logistics of companies "giving stuff away" and thought from a business stand point, unless you are just making so much money you have to toss it away for taxes, it is not beneficial to most businesses. For example, in the case of The Shootout. When I was running the event, the vendors sponsored a class and 100% of their fee was given to the class they sponsored. Typically that was $1500. They got the booth for the weekend, mentioned on the loud speaker and that money went directly to the racers, I got nothing. You could say I lost money, technically. The racers now-a-days, feel $1500 is pocket change and want more and more, which I truly don't get.
So, back to my range. I wanted to bring in sponsors for the raffles to give back to the shooters. Rather than someone giving me money to give away, I decided that does not benefit the business. For example, Buschur's sponsors the Stock Appearing Class and gives away $1500 in cash. The guy who won has zero Buschur parts on his car and spends it at his local Mitsu shop. What did Buschur's get from this to help them stay in business? Nothing. Forget the 2 seconds of advertising, the racer forgets and walks off with the cash. In these times, quite honestly, we can't afford to toss money to someone who hasn't supported us. The range is the same. I can ask for money from sponsors but who does it help? It doesn't help the poor company who gave it. I took a different approach. I asked for gift cards and discounts towards products. What does this accomplish? The company who is coughing up their hard earned money is supporting the events and now the winner will need to also support that company in return. Let's say it's a $100 gift card, the winner calls up and gets to support that company, get a discount, hopefully their experience was good and then they go back. Is this one sided? I don't feel it is. Let's say you win that $100 and just don't need anything from the company, well sell it to someone who does for $50, you and him make out and the company still gives the discount.
I have suggested the Shootout take this approach too. Others have done this in the past for the Shootout. One shop in particular gave $5,000 to the pot, it wasn't cash, it was towards tuning/work that would be done at their shop, so it's not a new concept and good for them for doing it that way.
What everyone needs to understand is all of us are fighting for business, fighting to pay bills just like all of you. Bringing in more companies to support events is very hard. Bringing in companies who can give away product or discounts get them to earn a new customer and helps everyone, this is also much easier and companies we've spoken to are much more willing to do this.
You can hate my opinion on this and that's fine, I'll just chalk it up to you not owning a business or being in one so successful you can toss money away, either way, what I'm saying is legitimate.
-David
