Racing offers numerous opportunities for commercial sponsorship.  A  potential sponsor must therefore decide which area is the most appropriate to meet their objectives.

TEAM SPONSORSHIP

This is the most common form of sponsorship where a company supports an individual team or car participating in a racing series. Teams look for both financial sponsors and technical support partners who can provide specialist products or services.  Most teams have a variety of sponsors providing differing levels of support.  Teams usually have one major financial sponsor on each car that provides the majority of the financial support of the team. There may also be two or three additional financial partners in secondary positions on the car and there will also be a number of trade support sponsors who provide specialist products. One of the great benefits of sponsoring a team is that you are associated with the whole team including its drivers and its other partners.

DRIVER SPONSORSHIP

Sponsoring an individual driver can be very effective as the driver becomes immediately associated with the sponsor and is often regarded as its ambassador. This can also be achieved through team sponsorship, but specific programs with drivers can take such a relationship further. This can be in terms of additional exposure on the driver's uniform or helmet or in the form of extra promotional work undertaken on behalf of the sponsor.  Drivers are often very successful in securing major sponsorship to enable them to drive for a team.

EVENT SPONSORSHIP

Sponsoring an individual event works well for companies looking to make a local impact in the market where the race is taking place. If the event is televised track advertising is an almost guaranteed form of brand exposure for the sponsor to the television audience. Although there is no emotional tie to either a team or driver and even though a race is just a one off event, many companies choose to make use of the advertising and hospitality opportunities at individual races.

SERIES SPONSORSHIP

Most racing series have "official" sponsors or partners. Normally there is one overall series sponsor and then several category sponsors, for example, the "official beer of," or "the official car of," etc. Organizing bodies sometimes have standard packages available for sponsorship and in many racing series there is great competition between companies to become an official sponsor.  Very often a sponsor's involvement in a series is in addition to their involvement with a team or driver.