I recently received an e-mail from Scott Cooper of Cutters RT. The team has British driver Jay Howard entered in this year’s Indy 500 in the #97 Green Machine Dallara/Honda. The team is part of the Bryan Herta Racing Team. The Cutters Team was put together by local businessmen Travis Tetrault and Jason Godby. The Cutters name comes from the film “Breaking Away” where the local Bloomington boys competing in the Little 500 named themselves after the stone quarry cutter fathers. The Cutters team started up last year and partnered with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing to sponsor Josef Newgarden in the 500. Part of their plan was to solicit sponsorships at the grassroots level. Back before big corporate sponsorship became the norm, community and individual sponsorships funded racing teams and their cars. Driver Mel Kenyon finished third in 1968 in the “City of Lebanon” Special. The Cutters team decided to revive this old custom and started offering individual and family sponsorship packages for as little as $100 or $75 for a kid’s pack. In talking to Travis Tetrault I found that they have developed a strong core of volunteers led by folks like Scott Cooper to help grassroots sponsors get the most out of their involvement. Sponsors will get a team t-Shirt, a sponsorship certificate, a photo of their sponsorship name on the race car, and a chance to get their picture taken with the car and driver. There will also be some team events for the sponsors to attend. Each sponsorship level has its own specific rewards. The kid’s pack is a good deal because it includes membership in the IMS Kids Club. I have always had an Indy car sponsorship on my bucket list, so I decided to go to the Cutters team Web site, cuttersrt.com and register. It isn’t hard to do and there are a number of packages to choose from. So now I, along with The Weekly View, am one of the individual sponsors and the View’s name will appear on the car. Kinda cool!
The team itself will be part of the Bryan Herta team after being with Fisher Hartman last year. The primary sponsor is Green1, an environmental group involved with toxic waste removal. Jay Howard will be the pilot. Howard is 34 years old and is from Basildon, England. He has lived in Indianapolis the last seven years. He has 13 Indy Car starts with a best finish of 13 in the 2008 Kansas Road Runner Turbo Indy 300. He started 20th in the 2011 Indy 500 driving for Sam Schmidt Racing and finished 30th. He was the 2006 Indy Lights Champion and Rookie of the Year for Sam Schmidt in 2006, winning two races in that series. He has a background in open wheel racing. I will keep you posted on the progress of Jay Howard and the Cutters racing team’s #97 Green1 Dallara Honda during the month of May.