In the world of motorsport it might be said that Britain has the expertise and North America the market. To think so would be to risk arrogance. As Good Fabrications' Warren Briggs points out, you will not get very far if you waltz into the world of NASCAR crowing that you are a supplier, or vendor, as they call them in the USA, to Formula One.

“Their market is huge and it belongs to them,” Briggs observes. The UK's Motorsport Valley may be something to be proud of, but a visit to just the Charlotte region proves what a massive business cluster is being developed there. Briggs reckons that you have to respect the way in which the US industry has built itself up and “just how big it is”, before you can think of doing business across the Atlantic.

However, there is a healthy respect for British expertise in the USA that, if tactfully tapped, can be used to the benefit of Motorsports Valley.

There is one factor, though, that many consider crucial to success in selling to the US motorsport market. “You've got to have an American address,” says SPA Design's sales manager Ian Maple.

SPA is an ideal example of how a British company goes to market in the USA but as Maple states “it does not happen overnight.” The company initially attended all the PRI (Performance Racing Industry) Shows in America where it generated much interest but little in the way of sales. It was only when, five years ago, it opened its office and storage unit in Indianapolis, about four miles from the famed Speedway, that “people started buying not just looking.” Three people are employed there, two of them on sales.

Now SPA is able to work as an agent in the USA for three other companies in addition to selling its own product. It has also found that success in motorsport has led to business in the fast road market, meaning that it is kept busy 12 months of the year and is not dependent on the vagaries of the motorsport season.  Around 40 per cent of its business is now for road going customers buying fire extinguishers as well as instruments.

The example of SPA also shows that it is possible to succeed in the USA if your products are original equipment on racecars already being sold there. It has business in IRL because its fire extinguisher systems are OE on Dallaras. This way to market was particularly strong in the heyday of CART, as its dominant chassis have long been supplied by British manufacturers such as Lola, Reynard and March. However, with limited fields and an uncertain future, CART is no longer the conduit to success in North America that it once was. It is still, though, a way in. SST Tube Technology supplies OE exhaust systems to Lola for its Champ Car. As a result it also manufactures replacement exhausts for one of the leading teams in the series, as well as three of the top runners in IRL.

The MIA (Motorsports Industry Association) works actively to assist with companies wishing to assess the North American market.  Following an MIA mission to the USA three years ago, Beru F1 started selling its wiring harnesses and bespoke load cells to NASCAR teams towards the end of the 2004 season. “The response,” says operations director John Bailey, “has been very positive.” Previously the company had concentrated on IRL and CART in North America. However, such has been the change in attitude to engineering in NASCAR since the mission that Beru FI has been able to target the stock car series. Now seven of the top teams are using Beru F1 products on a test and buy basis, with two of them already buying. Around 30 per cent of Beru F1's motor sport business now comes from the USA.

Bailey points out that European suppliers can easily be deterred from trying to sell to NASCAR if they do not have immediate success and that perseverance is required. He takes a different approach from those who say that you must have a USA address. “I prefer the direct approach and making myself known.” He talks about “pounding the pit lane.” However, he points out that he and his team “sell as engineers, not salesmen.”

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