Racer Sabré Cook: How Social Media Revved Up My Racing Career

In the realm of motorsports, the pursuit of a professional career on the racetrack has always been synonymous with a relentless demand for financial backing. While in most sports, dedication, consistency, and perseverance can often propel individuals toward success, the world of racing requires additional financial resources that won’t allow for success without it.

For example:

Imagine you want to play basketball for your local team. You need to practice and train as much as possible to ensure you will be at your best, make the team, and help the team win games. BUT the cost of acquiring a basketball, proper shoes, and the court rental all amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars just to practice…

You can’t afford the substantial sum to practice, but other players trying out for the team have enough financial resources to do so. So, you decide to work incredibly hard at what you can do: study game footage, workout hard in the gym, complete mental and reaction training. Anything and everything you can afford to do- you do it. Yet, you never get to practice the actual game of basketball.

You go to the basketball tryouts, and shocker… you don’t make the team.

No matter how much passion you have, how hard you work off the court, if you don’t practice the game, you simply won’t become a great basketball player.

Playing professional basketball is your dream though, you want it more than you want to breathe.

So, what’s the solution? You find a way to raise the money to practice.

Sponsorship Beginnings

Thankfully I was very blessed to have a family that could help me get started in karting and found creative business solutions to keep me karting as I progressed.

Then at the age of 12, I started on the journey of learning about sponsorship and how to acquire it. My father being a former professional motocross and supercross rider himself, he knew what it was like to canvas for sponsorships and partnerships. However, the differences in cost between motorcycle racing and car racing were substantial, and the sponsorship and technological resources were ever-changing. Together, my father and I tried, failed, learned and tried again on how to navigate the process of getting and keeping sponsorship.

Slowly I began to acquire product sponsorships, then smaller cash sponsorships, and hard-earned prize money from winning pro kart races. However, nothing substantial enough for me to do a car race.

Through family and network connections, I was introduced to an amazing individual that had his own car and race team. He came to watch me in a karting race, which I won, and that was it, he offered to put me into one of his race cars! So in April 2017, I finally did my first car race at Summit Point Raceway in the Sports Car Club of America series.

Now that I had a taste of what had been my dream for so long, I knew I was going to have to find a way to stay in the driver’s seat and achieve my goals. So, that’s what I did. Through lots of trial and error, challenges, mentorship from amazing people, failing, and trying again I began to acquire larger and larger sponsorships and understand how to bring substantial value to my partners.

There’s one key component though that I look back and realize I wish I would’ve invested, utilized, and understood much sooner—social media.

Social Media – A Irreplaceable Tool in Today’s Sponsorship Landscape

Now when I was younger Myspace, then Facebook, were just becoming more popular and the tool of social media wasn’t the grand machine it is today.

Aside from being a racecar driver, I’m a mechanical engineer—I’m a very Type A, analytical, introverted person by nature. So, the idea of posting my life on social media day after day had my skin crawling. With complete transparency, I can say it’s still not an activity I particularly enjoy doing. But that’s life! Doing things that drag us out of our comfort zone, things we don’t like to do, are actions we must endure to achieve our goals.

I made every excuse in the book trying to get out of it…”It’s a waste of time…I have more important steps to take to be successful… It’s so vain… It takes too much time…. It feels so frivolous… It’s not serious work and I want people to take me seriously… I should use the time to focus on more important things…”

In this day and age though—social media is important, it’s vital to your brand, and it’s one of the most powerful and free tools you have. For those of you trying to raise money and making the excuse you don’t have the time or money to invest in it- you literally can’t afford not to.

Just start. You don’t need a fancy camera, people to help post, edit, etc. You just have to start and be consistent, like any activity you want to get better at.

Think of your social media platforms as a magazine or portfolio that’s completely free for you to create. This magazine/ portfolio can be seen globally by potential sponsors, partners, fans, etc. and shows them firsthand the value you can bring and your personality.