ASA: Air-on-line.com To Sponsor Ed Brown

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Rookie Driver Inks One-Race Deal With Division Of Champion Air Compressor

PRINCETON, Ill.--Rookie ASA driver Ed Brown and officials at Champion Air Compressor have come to an agreement that will put the company’s name and new product line, Air-On-Line.com, on the number 60 Chevrolet for the American Speed Ass ociation’s season-opening event February 15-17, 2001 at St. Augustine (Fla.) Speedway.

This will mark the first time Champion has been involved with a team sponsorship in racing, but not the company’s first motorsports involvement. “We have used the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 races as promotional opportunities for our customers with great success,” Champion Director of Operations Jay Hedges said. “We see this as an opportunity to become more involved in motorsports and see how race fans respond to our products. We see this as a chance to bring our customers up from Daytona to St. Augustine to see an ASA race and to introduce race fans to our Air-On-Line.com products.”

Champion is a division of Gardner Inc., a worldwide producer of compressors and compressor products.

“Champion air compressors are concentrated in the automotive service industry. Chances are if you went in the back room of your neighborhood automotive dealership or other auto service facility, you would find a Champion compressor providing compressed air to operate lifts and pneumatic hand tools,” Hedges said. “We see an alliance with motorsports as a natural opportunity. Our customers and distributors are big race fans.”

The company’s new website, Air-On-Line.com, offers a variety of contractor portable air compressors and other tools.

“The web site is a way for us to work with our distributors where you can find things such as air compressors, shop vacs., pressure washers and pneumatic hand tools,” Hedges said. “We launched the site on December 1, 2000 and this event will be a good meas ure for us. If we see an increase in the number of hits on race day and the days following, we will be able to tie them to our sponsorship of Ed Brown racing.”

Brown is excited about the opportunity to work with a nationally recognized company such as Champion.

“We are pleased to have a secured a marketing partnership with Champion Air Compressors and Air-On-Line.com,” Brown said. “We believe the ASA ACDelco Series will allow Champion to better showcase their products to the people who buy and use them. We plan t o use the season-opening event at St. Augustine to demonstrate the effectiveness of ASA racing as a marketing tool.”

The ASARacing.com 300 is set for Saturday, February 17 at St. Augustine Speedway. The race will be televised live starting at 9 p.m. (Eastern) on TNN.

Text Provided By Jeremy Troiano

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.