At the start of V8 Supercar racing a fraction more than a decade ago, merchandising meant caps, T-shirts and keyrings. There were only a couple of players big enough to use pan-techs to transport their gear to the tracks and the great boom was yet to come.

Today, post-boom, huge pan-techs are de rigueur for the vastly expanded merchandise alley. Former HRT director John Crennan told us last year that HRT sold $25m in merchandise in 2001, and that it was an active profit centre and source of funding for the team.

Every major team now has a significant presence in merchandising, even the pragmatic Larry Perkins-led operation from Moorabbin (Vic) has a range. As does Rodney Forbes and, soon, V8X too. V8 Supercars is hot property, and the tribal nature of mankind means we want to show our alignments.

To date the crowds have been a sea of red as HRT has dominated the landscape, but now we have a new blue force emerging as FPR comes into play with its Ford colours. It was evident at Eastern Creek on its first weekend of selling, and it will grow even more.

FPR's Ken Wilson has been in motor racing merchandising for years - he even had a spell at HRT before joining Glenn Seton a few years back. His rival in the red corner is Dean Grimster, the merchandising manager for the whole of HSV although, as we are all aware, his ties could change a little soon. Both, however, agree that the predominance of the colouring in FPR merchandise will win a few hearts as did red with the HRT.

"It's only day one," says Wilson, "but we have already sold into the Ford dealer network, and that's been an enormous success. We've launched our website and from our advertising that's been a great success too.

"There is no doubt Ford fans have been left wanting for a number of years, and our greatest satisfaction is that a lot of our customers are saying, 'we've been looking at HRT for a lot of years wishing we could buy that merchandise under Ford. Thank goodness somebody now has an offer to rival HRT'.

"There is not a successful team - either in Formula One or at this level - that has merchandise in different colours from the racing car. So if you have a look at the HRT: HRT is red; Holden is red. If you're a Holden follower you're going to buy that merchandise.

"The first criterion that we set down when FPR was established was that this team's going to be navy and white."Grimster thinks the emergence of the FPR brand is good for the sport, and will spur new and innovative merchandise as well as boosting sales for all.

"Anything that brings more consumers and more supporters into the sport is going to be good for our business," he says. "And we've seen it on a number of occasions with AVESCO bringing in new events.

"We go to New Zealand, and NZ has always been a very good market for us. But at a race meeting at Pukekohe it all of a sudden escalated to another level," he added, starting to salivate at the thought of the Chinese market opening up next year and all the red gear he has on his shelves.

Both men have similar backgrounds in retail merchandising, and they say that while there is rivalry in merchandise alley, it isn't the same as it is in pitlane - the nature of the competition is different.

"I think the first decision any person makes is whether they are Holden or Ford," Grimster says. "'Do I bleed red or do I bleed blue?'.

From there they make a decision based on the team itself or the driver."Merchandise sales can ebb and flow based on the success of the team on the track. We've had some interesting experiences with departures of drivers and so forth, and luckily for us our customers tend not to wander off. I think one of the most underestimated things is the fact that it's the Holden Racing Team, so we're seen as... I wouldn't say the parent brand, but the umbrella brand.

"We have the Holden name in the brand and that is probably one of the most important aspects of what we do, and that we are considered the representatives of Holden at the race track.

"The other aspect is that we have a car company as well, with HSV, which is the Holden HSV/Holden Racing Team link. So the consumer who drives a Commodore, or standard Barina or Astra, or whatever it may be, he or she will get a link there back to the race team.

"And I think that's another thing that Ford is going to try to work on. It'll make a very interesting year."Grimster has a full-time staff of eight, and starts preparing for a new year in the middle of the previous year. He works with the team doing the design of the car so that all the main graphical elements can be worked into the merchandise - such as the new edgier HRT logo for this season.

Wilson didn't quite have that luxury this year, with the sell-out of Glenn Seton Racing to Prodive having a pretty significant effect on what he was doing, but he will be aiming for the same time frames this year.

"We actually had the Glenn Seton range ready to go, and then all of a sudden there was a new set of parameters. "It wasn't a decision where one day it was GSR then it went to FPR; there were a number of weeks and months lost while negotiations and contracts were being completed and all that type of thing.

"So we didn't start on this range until late-January when the whole FPR thing was put to bed. We missed the first couple of rounds, and we've had people stationed over in China who were just pushing this merchandise through. What usually is a six month program we had to narrow down to three."

Both have seen a lot of changes since they became involved in the sport, and not just in the growth of the product range but also in the dollar investment. Each of these players outlays millions of dollars at the start of the season as the range keeps growing and becoming more innovative.

"When we became involved basically merchandise was men's T-shirts and a few polos and everything was done reasonably badly," Wilson said of his early days. "The first thing we did was expand on the menswear range, and that was easy because there was a base customer who had been buying the product. But we blew the whole thing out into shorts and pants and boxer shorts and pyjamas, that type of thing.

"I suppose the kidswear came next, because a lot of dads wanted their kids to look like them. So that was a fairly easy shift into making little boys, particularly, want what their dads wanted to wear; and of course the young boys want to wear anything that the team is wearing because they want to be part of a race team.

"Then we expanded into womenswear and that was a fairly daunting experience, because then most women weren't walking around with Holden merchandise on their backs. We started a little bit delicately with the positioning of the logos, we kept it quite soft.

"But what we're finding now is the female fans who come along to the race meetings really want to be a part of the Ford and Holden euphoria and what we're doing over the last couple of years is that women's garments are actually starting to become as emblazoned with the logos as the guys' were."

Where the real competition comes in for these guys is developing something special, innovating and leading, so to speak. Day one of the season the Carnies run around and check out the new ranges, eagerly eyeing the rival product and hoping they've got the best stuff.

"You can't do everything you want to do," Wilson says, "we have limited space and we're not a department store; we are selling in mobile units. There is a lot of merchandise that we look at on a year-to-year basis that we want to try, but we have space restraints where we have to then fit one item over another.

"I suppose what's great down Merchandise Alley here is that every team - although they do the hard core items - has a different view of the ancillary items. And that's great for the race fans.

I look at the things we have in our range and I think, 'Jeez, we've done a good job', but I get really shitty when I look at other people and they've done something and I haven't thought of it." He says he also knows when they've come up with a design stinker on the very first day they opened for business in Adelaide.

"Even though we've been doing this for a long time, and even hough we think we've got it pretty much down pat, we can have 10 people in the office who say, 'This is the greatest item', and when it gets out into the public arena no one wants to touch it.

"I would say we have a 90-something per cent strike rate. But there are some items every year where you think, 'Why did I do that?'."

Both men think they run a pretty good ship, and certainly looking at the ranges you can't help but be impressed... now, I wonder what I'll get for my efforts. The jackets are good and it is getting cold, I've got a friend who makes me breakfast who wants a Skaife cap and a G-string... hang on, Darwin's coming up, think I'll grab one of the thousands of stubby holders.

The History Buffs Memorabilia has always been such a big thing in sport. Fans want to remember the glory days, and special photographs, autographs and personal items are an integral part of that memory process. Dean Parker runs SPP Motorsport, which you will see at each race selling Brock and Lowndes memorabilia, among other things. "We're different because we specialise in the production of quality memorabilia for most of the leading V8 Supercar teams," Parker says. "Our products are priced for everyone's budgets: we have low-end products as well as the really high-end individual race suits and jackets. "We recently become involved with Peter Brock, and we run and organise all of his Holden merchandise program - his personal program - including clothing, accessories right through to memorabilia. We run and design Peter's own website, (www.peterbrock.com.au), as well as taking care of Club Brock." Unlike a lot of others in merchandise alley, Parker doesn't see race weekend as his prime selling time. "We have about 700 good quality retailers across the country where we wholesale our products, that's our main focus. Race weekends to us are really just flying the flag for the teams as well." The key to SPP is exclusivity. Parker has signed most of the leading teams to his program which means that to get official stuff you have to buy through him, either directly or indirectly. "I thought there was a market for it many years ago, and it all started then. There's a lot of people out there who dabble in it, who have their own framing shops and whatever, but nobody does it on such a grand scale. "We have national distribution. We've always had a passion for V8 Supercar racing for many years. It all started about 10 years ago when I bought a few photographs off a guy at Oran Park and wanted a different way to mount them. Then mates popped in and said, 'Wow, I love that', and it just grew and grew and grew until where it is today. "It's good, we love it - the whole scene. All the merchandise guys are very competitive, but it's a group of guys who all get on well and have a lot of fun. We can honestly say that we love what we do and we wouldn't swap it for anything."

The Driver's Club One of the more prominent changes to merchandising is the emergence of the drivers as individual brands. We know that Brock is one of the biggest brands in the country, but how do other names like Skaife, Lowndes and Ambrose stack up? Marcos Ambrose is an interesting example, one of the young guns of the sport. His Devil Racer tag has grown significantly in prominence during its two-year life in V8 Supercars. The Devil Racer Club is growing fast as Ambrose looks for new ways to give his fans something extra. According to business manager Graham Sattler, this has been done in a way so that it does not compete with the product lines of SBR. "Marcos' philosophy is to give the fans a V8 experience," Sattler explains, "One that will hopefully capture the fans' support and keep it throughout his career." The Club is growing, there are more than 2500 registered users ofmarcosambrose.com, which acts as the foundation for the business. There is a free subscription section which gives fans the chance to stay up-to-date with all the Devil Racer news and is the first step into the Devil Racer Club, which is the core of the activity. The membership fee is $75 a year, and for that investment members get the basic club merchandise - hats, stickers and so forth - plus access to some of the more advanced stuff. At most rounds of the series club members are invited to a special function where they can spend time talking with Ambrose. There are also pit tours available when the special nights are not possible, although one wonders what will happen as the club grows in size. The Devil's Track Club is about to kick into life and will provide a little pocket of Pirtek Blue in the crowd. There is a six foot tall Devil Racer mascot on the way too, so it is going to be hard to miss what is going on. The final part is to get involved in the fast growing memorabilia market, and Club members will get first crack at these. Item number one is a celebration of the win in the first leg of the Clipsal 500. All this work is being done outside of SBR and all at Ambrose's instigation. The internet is certainly a key enabler, and it will be interesting to see where the Devil Racer heads next.

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