Would a driver's "side hustle" affect their ability to get or keep a ride? (1 Viewer)

[HEMI6point1]

Just out of curiosity, not looking to start a "moral debate" or anything like that, but I just want to ask....

Many young women are turning to platforms like Onlyfans to make money during the pandemic. For those that don't know OF is a platform that lets users - primarily female - post images and videos that are too "spicy" for instagram and charge people to gain access to them. What if a team owner decided to hire a new driver for his professional race team from the amatuer ranks and discovers she has an OF page? If you were a team owner, would you tell her to put an end to her OF page or be "I don't care as long as she can properly wheel the race car?"

 

[twostep]

Racy photos of Courtney Force didn't seem to rattle JFR or John himself much....but OnlyFans is pretty much an X rated "anything goes" outfit. So if you're wanting to hire a high profile driver on a level of someone like Leah Pruitt or Brittney, I'd say absolutely NO to OnlyFans. If you're simply looking for a little cutie to drive your unsponsored SuperComp dragster, who cares.

 

[ironpony]

Truth is it is becoming more normal and accepted by the general public as is most things sexually orientated. I would venture to say NHRA being "family" orientated sport would have more to say than the team owner. There was pretty famous sprint car ? driver in Australia that had an OF page.
wasn't there Penthouse and a few other "racy" sponsors in the past ?

As stated above about Courtney,, thats where it starts. That wasn't so bad, then the next one slightly more and so on. Look around it happens daily and the internet has sped it up.

 

[Cliff]

Jim Dunn had the Penthouse sponsorship. he took a lot of flack for it then.

 

[HEMI6point1]

There was pretty famous sprint car ? driver in Australia that had an OF page.

I just looked it up. Her name is Renee Gracie and she raced in the V8 supercar series. From the articles I read, her race team was paying her like crap so she started doing OF and made 500 grand in one month. Of course the racing series started treated her like dirt but by then she didn't care.

​

 

[BOO BOO]

The way things are now days I think most sponsors would have a problem with that example you used

 

[Al]

From 1999 it's the Penthouse Magazine Nitro Burning Flopper of Jim Dunn with Frank Pedregon in the seat.
View attachment 7754

Yes, but although I only saw that car run once, I don't remember anything "risqué" in their pit, similar to Leah's DejaVu sponsorship of her nostalgia funny car, where it was also apparently "proper".HOWEVER, I do remember Bob Gilbertson showing up with a "risqué sponsorship at a national event. Maybe one of you guys could help me here because I couldn't find the article but it might have been a massage business or something. Anyway NHRA wouldn't allow the sponsorship and when Gilbertson reminded NHRA of the Penthouse deal, they said "that was then, this is now ". Switching from Winston to Coke changed what was allowed.
I think Darrell is right. I'm not familiar with this site they are talking about, but I would imagine that sponsors are looking at a person's image so much that this probably won't ever come up.
But if it did, is it really anybody's business ?

 

[TSK]

Do I care what people do on their own time? Nope.
Do I care how people represent professional drag racing? You're darned right I do.
Now you get down to, "who is going to decide what can and cannot be tolerated"?
That's where things get sticky.
You'll have people on both sides of the discussion.
I would hate to see drag racing, in particular NHRA, get distracted by such an argument.
That's an argument with no winners.

 

[mgty3whlr]

I'll bet PornHub would sponsor a Top Fuel entry. LOL

 

[HEMI6point1]

I'll bet PornHub would sponsor a Top Fuel entry. LOL

Hey, their money is just as green as the next person....

 

[vegasnitro]

Yes, but although I only saw that car run once, I don't remember anything "risqué" in their pit, similar to Leah's DejaVu sponsorship of her nostalgia funny car, where it was also apparently "proper".HOWEVER, I do remember Bob Gilbertson showing up with a "risqué sponsorship at a national event. Maybe one of you guys could help me here because I couldn't find the article but it might have been a massage business or something. Anyway NHRA wouldn't allow the sponsorship and when Gilbertson reminded NHRA of the Penthouse deal, they said "that was then, this is now ". Switching from Winston to Coke changed what was allowed.
I think Darrell is right. I'm not familiar with this site they are talking about, but I would imagine that sponsors are looking at a person's image so much that this probably won't ever come up.
But if it did, is it really anybody's business ?

Pretty sure one of the legal brothels in Nevada wanted to sponsor a fuel car at Vegas 2 a while back and NHRA said NO ... don't remember if it was Gilbertson or not.

 

[stitcherbob]

From the 2021 Rule Book

 

[Notch1320]

Gilby had Bella's Hacienda Ranch, a brothel, on his car for a few races. Bella paid him $10,000 a race until Graham Light put the kibosh on the sponsorship.

 

[Cliff]

I wonder how many racers over the years have been sponsored by "dirty money". Have heard stories about drug money being used to run a Pro Mod, as an example.

 

[Nunz]

It's pretty widely known that drug money has fueled many race operations over the years, especially in the '80s I believe. And, not just drag racing.

 

[TSK]

It's pretty widely known that drug money has fueled many race operations over the years, especially in the '80s I believe. And, not just drag racing.

Drag strips also make good landing strips for drug smuggling airplanes.
That’s the big reason the original Tucson Dragway got shut down.

 

[mick]

what will the ruling be when a cannabis company wants to do a sponsor deal for events held in legalized states?
does that fall under gov't. umbrella of no tobacco, or is it different and will be allowed?

 

[Under_Pressure]

It's pretty widely known that drug money has fueled many race operations over the years, especially in the '80s I believe. And, not just drag racing.

IMSA sports car racing in the 80s was well known for being fueled by drug money (it has been joked that it was more correctly called the International Marijuana Smugglers Association). Several of the gentleman racers and their teams spilled over into the Indy 500 during that time as well- John Paul Jr., Randy Lanier, and the Whittington brothers are all Indy 500 starters of the period who eventually spent time in jail for drug related offenses. Several others who raced IMSA, but not Indy, also found themselves behind bars.

 

[Tony]

IMSA sports car racing in the 80s was well known for being fueled by drug money (it has been joked that it was more correctly called the International Marijuana Smugglers Association). Several of the gentleman racers and their teams spilled over into the Indy 500 during that time as well- John Paul Jr., Randy Lanier, and the Whittington brothers are all Indy 500 starters of the period who eventually spent time in jail for drug related offenses. Several others who raced IMSA, but not Indy, also found themselves behind bars.

Death of Bill Whittington:
https://racer.com/2021/04/25/bill-whittington-1949-2021/

 

[Under_Pressure]

Death of Bill Whittington:
https://racer.com/2021/04/25/bill-whittington-1949-2021/

Yeah I had seen that. Like so much about his life, the circumstances surrounding his death are a bit eyebrow raising as well- I've heard the phrase "planned exit" thrown about.