Finally we get some good news on Elena Myers’ search for funding for the 2011 season. The 17 y/o phenom spent the 2010 kicking the boys’ butts in AMA Supersport, even winning Race 1 at Infineon, and becoming the first woman to win a professional American motorcycle race (depending on how you look at it), only to be left searching high and low for racing support for the 2011 season.
She’s cute and she’s fast, and we were fairly dumb-founded to hear she was having trouble finding sponsors to go ride for this season, but luckily that all seems to be past the California native now. Announced this past weekend that she’d been signed to American Suzuki, Myers has also secured Dainese as an apparel sponsor for 2011. To go along with wearing the Devil on her back, Myers has a very interesting sponsorship deal that American Suzuki has put together, which sees the Californian using social media to engage fans with the Suzuki brand.
We were live at Dainese in Costa Mesa for the announcement that the Italian apparel company had singed Myers to its roster of supported riders, and when we got home from the event we found a press release from Suzuki waiting for us, confirming that Myers will ride a race-prepped Suzuki GSX-R600 from American Suzuki for the 2011 season.
Myers gave a shout out to Chris Ulrich for helping her secure the Dainese deal, and we imagine her contract to the folks at Team Hammer helped pave the way to what looks to be a very interesting contract with American Suzuki (one we imagine we’ll see other rides take in the future).
As a part of her deal with American Suzuki, Myers will interact with SuzukiScoopFans on Facebook and YouTube. On race weekends, the 17 y/o will select a fan comment (on Facebook) from each of her post race updates, and then display the comment on the tank of her GSX-R600 (for inspiration, naturally) during the following race weekend.
“I’ve been on facebook for a couple years now, and let me say, I’m a really big fan of it,” said Myers. “It’s been a great way for me to communicate and connect with fans all over the world. That said, I’m extremely excited to be riding for SuzukiScoopFans for the 2011 season. For me, it’s an amazing opportunity because it’ll help get my name out more to fans other than those of road racing, and also give me an even better way to connect with fans.”
Myers will operate out of the Team Hammer truck, but will be sporting a SuzukiScoopFans racing livery (official artist render shown above) on her GSX-R600. Increasingly manufacturers are looking for ways to engage fans with their teams, and riders are slowly realizing the value of building their personal brand. As both these considerations grow, don’t be surprised to see social media becoming more in your face in motorcycle racing. For what it’s worth, we’re really big fans of Facebook too.
Source: Dainese & American Suzuki
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