Pro Sportsman Association becomes official‏

Pro Sportsman Association becomes official

We are pleased to announce that the Pro Sportsman Association is now an official entity. The Pro Sportsman Association has filed as a nonprofit corporation. Much like a group of dairy farmers who form an association to run ads like the ‘got milk?’ commercials, we are seeking to increase our fan base and subsequently race track demand for our classes by improved and increased promotion.

The PSA will operate within the scope of their mission statement: “The Pro Sportsman Association is a non-profit organization formed to build the value and ‘brand’ of Top Alcohol racing. We are an organization primarily funded by the membership dues of racers, racing businesses and fans who have a vested interest in seeing Top Alcohol racing reach the proverbial ‘next level.’ We plan to reach our objectives through the hiring of a dedicated PR and Marketing team. Our objective is to increase the support, participation and profitability of NHRA Lucas Oil Top Alcohol racing. We intend to specifically target increased media exposure in both local and national markets. By building our value to both the tracks and NHRA, we hope to not only maintain but increase the number of events that feature our classes as front gate draws. By building the awareness of our classes through media and other promotions, we hope to build our fan following in the long term. We also hope our efforts lead to more new teams entering the Top Alcohol classes. The PSA will not get involved in performance based rules issues. We do not intend to become our own racing series aside from NHRA. The scope of the organization is to be a promotional tool for the Top Alcohol classes, not a mediation board between NHRA and the racers.”

The initial board of directors has been established as follows:
President: Will Hanna
Vice President of Business Membership: Noel Manton
Vice President of Racer/Fan Membership: Marty Thacker
Treasurer: Ray Drew
Secretary: Mark Billington

All board members are serving free of charge and the PSA will hold an election of board members by their membership June 1.

“I’d like to thank my fellow board members for the time and effort they have put into this becoming official so quickly,” said Hanna. “The race season is quickly approaching. We have a lot of good things already in the works for the alcohol racers, but we need to get membership dues in as quick as possible. There are a number of admin costs we need to tackle as a new company along with generating operating capital to achieve our objectives. What we are trying to do is relatively unprecedented in the drag racing world, but we believe we can achieve unprecedented results for the alcohol classes. The more membership support we have, the greater rewards we will be able to achieve.

“I feel very confident we will reach our goal of 100 members,” Hanna continued. “Judging from the feedback we all have gotten from fellow racers and businesses, I firmly believe we will exceed that goal. There are roughly 100 teams in each class, and probably more than 100 businesses out there that are actively engaged in alcohol racing. If we can get 35 teams from each class and 30 businesses, we will meet our goal.”

The PSA is close to finalizing terms with a well known figure in the sport to handle the promotional duties of the association.

The PSA is offering racers and businesses an introductory offer to save $100 on membership dues for 2012. If a member joins before March 1, dues will be $595. After March 1, dues will be $695. The PSA will also offer a two-payment option with the first payment due Feb. 15 of $400, and final payment of $295 plus a $5 late filing fee by June 1.

The PSA asks members to send checks made out to the Pro Sportsman Association to:
PSA New Membership
8619 W Lynx Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53225

Please include Name, Address, Phone, Email, Class and number or business name and type.

The PSA plans to be able to accept credit cards and paypal in the very near future. Email Treasurer Ray Drew at rdrew@wi.rr.com and he will contact you as soon as we are able to process those payments.

The PSA hopes to have their website, www.prosportsmanassociation.com up and running within the next few weeks. We are also in the process of finalizing a fan/crew membership level.

Any questions can be sent to Will Hanna at will.hanna@insidetopalcohol.com