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Trausch on short track to success
By Andy Milentis Purdue Communication graduate Lindsey Trausch is not your average race fan. As the Racetrack and Series Relations Manager for "National Speed Sport News" and one of the few female drivers in the United States Auto Club's Ford Focus Midget Series, it's fair to say she's involved in all aspects of the sport. Trausch, B.A., 2000, performs different marketing and advertising duties that pertain to the racing business for NSSN, the nation's oldest weekly motor sports publication, in Charlotte, N.C. One of her latest projects is to promote the Grassroots Racing Tour. She has been contacting tracks in an attempt to bring personnel from NSSN to attend some of the nation's largest short track events this season and promote their publication. "The short track racing scene supports the people that go out there and do it for fun," said Trausch. The fan base plays a major role in keeping the cars on the track at this level. The tour is a way to reach out to those fans and get them involved in the racing world, she said. Trausch's own racing career has had somewhat of a grassroots start. At a young age she began working as a crew member and racing for her family's Seward racing team in her hometown of Middletown, Ind. She also learned the mechanics of the sport working on the team's cars.
She continued racing until graduation from Purdue. Trausch made her return to the track during the 2004 season, and competed in a successful official rookie season last year, placing 10th in points after 13 races. "Had there not been a couple of mechanical mishaps, we could have finished sixth or seventh," Trausch said. Trausch has been able to use not only her racing knowledge, but her background in marketing to help her succeed. "It helps me bridge relationships on the business side," said Trausch. "I'm looking at it from both perspectives." Working in PR and advertising gives Trausch the ability to market herself. Her advantage is exemplified by the Web site she and her husband, fellow Purdue graduate Chris Trausch, created for their racing team, Haus Motorsports. With its state-of-the art design and European look, www.hausmotorsports.com, complete with multimedia and a downloadable media kit, gives the husband and wife duo a unique ability to market themselves to sponsors. In the racing world, a driver's success can rest on their ability to attract these sponsors, she said. "We might just be a small racing entity," said Trausch, "but if you look at our marketing, it rivals that of some of the larger teams out there." Next season, Trausch plans to race in the Little 500 in Anderson, Ind., and the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Okla., which is one of the biggest indoor races in the country. Eventually, she hopes to make it into the open wheel ranks of the sport. "My ultimate goal is to make race car driving my career," she said. "I will take my marketing and PR skills with me all the way." |
