Sport Marketing Grad immersed in Motorsports Career

Posted on Wednesday, July 31, 2024

UNOH Graduate Andrew Reigel

This story first appeared in The Weekender on July 12, 2024 written by CJ Doubler https://shorturl.at/dx3Xl

For as long as Andrew Reigel can remember, he’s loved racing. His relationship with racing, though, is a little different than others involved in the sport. Reigel doesn’t like to be in the pits, and he never had any ambition to drive the cars he loves to watch spin around the track. Reigel likes racing for the logistics. He enjoys making race schedules, putting on races and being in the tower with race control.

After graduating from the Mifflinburg Area High School in 2018, Reigel attended the University of Northwestern Ohio, a leader in automotive and diesel education. “Everyone goes to UNOH to work on cars,” Reigel said. “I didn’t want anything to do with that, I wanted to be on the business side.”

Reigel graduated from UNOH in 2021 with a degree in Sports Marketing and Management, and landed an operations internship with the United States Auto Club (USAC). For his first few races, Reigel drifted through different jobs before finding what he liked, scoring and directing.

Riegel had plans to become a full-time employee with USAC, but the job was in Indianapolis. Neither Reigel nor his fiancee were fans of city living, so Reigel looked for jobs elsewhere. After some persistence, Reigel landed a job with Brett Deyo, a longtime dirt track race promoter. “From there, I sent a bunch of emails and calls, just like I did to get an internship,” he said. “I got lucky, and my current boss (Deyo) gave me a chance to go to Florida the following year.”

Deyo offered Reigel a job as a scorer for the Short Track Super Series, a dirt track racing series for big-block and small-block modified race cars. As the scorer, Reigel monitored his computer to make sure the cars’ transponders, which record lap times and location of the vehicles, were functional. Reigel excelled in his position as a scorer and handicapper at various tracks with Deyo. By April 2022, he was the race director for both Utica-Rome and Fonda speedways, in New York.

Currently, Reigel lives in Hershey and does remote paperwork from his home during the week, and commutes to New York for the weekend’s slate of races. While at the track, Reigel handles everything related to the logistics of the race schedule, while also making decisions on track preparation and when victory lane celebrations occur. “I’ll get to the track and print out everything for the weekend because I do the order of events and the schedules,” Reigel said. “Then I’ll go hang up all the admission signs at the gates and make sure everyone knows their job and what they’ll be doing that night.”

After his morning prep work, Reigel signs in and registers all of the racers for the night’s card once the gates open. Once everyone is registered, Reigel heads to the race control tower and settles in for the night’s events. During the race, Reigel makes the decisions on yellow flags and makes announcements to teams through a one-way radio. “I try to run everything as efficiently as possible,” he said. “I have the timing and other things down to a science now.”

Being a race director, however, isn’t where Reigel’s participation in the sport ends. On top of his duties at Utica-Rome and Fonda speedways, he recently started his own promotional company, Reigel Promotions. The company runs one of the top sprint car leagues on iRacing, an online E-Sports platform for sim racers. It has also started to put on live races. “Since I was 10 I knew I wanted to be a promoter,” Reigel said. “I’ve just always wanted to put races on. I love racing, and I always want to make it better.”

Reigel’s dream came true last year when Reigel Promotions held its first live race, The Tidal Wave at Georgetown Speedway. The Tidal Wave was a race for modified race cars with a Crate 602 Sportsman motor and boasted a $12,000 purse, with $3,000 going to the winner. As the promoter, Reigel was responsible for the purse money, among other things. “Putting on a race, as a promoter, the risk is extremely high,” Reigel said. “I put up $30,000 for one night. Some of it goes towards the payout, but then you also have to think about your staff and insurance. You also don’t know what’s gonna happen when you open the gates, so it’s definitely nerve-wracking.”

Fortunately for Reigel, almost 1,000 fans came to the Tidal Wave. Last year’s success made Reigel more comfortable with being a promoter, and he expanded Reigel Promotions’ lineup to include a second race this year, The Empire State Showdown at Utica-Rome Speedway. The Empire State Showdown’s feature race has a purse of $20,000 and will be run over 50 laps. Reigel plans to expand Reigel Promotions with more races and bigger purses in the coming years.

Through all of Reigel’s experiences in the world of racing, he’s never lost sight of the one thing he’s wanted to do since he was a child, directing races on his toy racetrack — put on his own. Watching the cars take the checkered flag at last year’s Tidal Wave was a moment that will stick with Reigel forever, wherever the rest of his career takes him. “It didn’t sink in because everything’s so nonstop, but when I went to victory lane to say thank you to the drivers, I realized that I actually did this thing,” Reigel said. “I’ve been waiting to do that my whole life.”

Category: Business, Health, and Occupational Professions

Keywords: Motorsports Marketing, Sport Marketing