May 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Tim Parry

• CAMPAIGN: Speed in the City
• AGENCY: Grand Central Marketing
• CLIENT: NASCAR

Without a NASCAR venue in the New York market, fans get few opportunities to experience the thrill of live auto racing.

But New York-based Grand Central Marketing and NASCAR changed that by turning the racing circuit's annual private Champions Week into a public spectacle. The result was the placement of demo cars throughout Manhattan, tied into a sweepstakes and game, and a parade of racecars that shut down city streets.

“Our goal was to let people know that NASCAR was in town,” says Grand Central CEO Matthew Glass, “and that NASCAR was here to stay.”

Grand Central tuned up a program it tested in 2003, the NASCAR NYC Pit Stop Tour, which ran from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3 and placed demo racecars in eight Manhattan locations. Consumers had cards stamped to qualify for premiums and a sweepstakes entry at the Nextel Racing Experience at the Intrepid Sea-Air Museum. Sweeps prizes included a trip for two to the 2005 Daytona 500, a trip to the Richard Petty Driving Experience, and a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series phone.

The promotion was supported by print ads in the New York Daily News as well as radio spots on classic rock radio station Q104.3. More than 50,000 game cards were redeemed.

Grand Central made a louder splash Dec. 2 by turning Manhattan into the world's busiest racetrack. NASCAR New York City Victory Lap, a police-escorted procession of the Nextel Cup series racers and cars that drove through the streets of New York, stopping traffic with a roar down Broadway.

The event began with an opening ceremony at NASDAQ's headquarters, which included grand marshal Donald Trump waving the green flag for the racecars. As the engines' roar cascaded off the skyscrapers of Times Square, thousands of fans and passersby lined the streets. The event exceeded NASCAR's goals: 5,000 fans gathered in Times Square; 3,000 fans lined the procession route; and 7,500 premiums, including posters, checkered flags and sweepstakes cards were distributed.

“The Wall Street types were getting startled and spilling their Starbucks on their cashmere coats when a driver would rev his engine,” says Roger VanDerSnick, managing director of brand and consumer marketing for NASCAR.

Glass says there were a lot of logistical hurdles to clear, from getting permission to park demo cars on city streets to parking the trailers that transport the racecars. Once the New York City Sports Commission got involved, everything flowed.

“The idea of bringing the Top 10 drivers in and seeing them driving in Manhattan caught everyone's imagination,” says Glass.

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