At Phoenix International Raceway in Arizona, President BRYAN SPERBER said the attendance for the NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series race is 90 percent Latino, and its game face is somewhat different from the ‘regular’ NASCAR fans. For the Mexican race, the fans chant, do the Wave, beat foam sticks, and generally have an enthusiastic good time.
Sperber said the demographics are different for the Mexican race compared to the NASCAR Sprint Cup fans. For Cup races, the fans are 50 percent under the age of 25, and 33 percent are under the age of 39. For the Spring NASCAR race, the fans tend to be more local-based, while in the Fall, the fans come more from out of state. He surmises that in the Spring many locals are in time for all the usual activities such as Spring Training. In the fall, it’s the end of the season, part of vacation schedules, and the penultimate race in The Chase.
Sperber also pointed out that the NASCAR fan base tends to be slightly more than 50 percent female. He said these stats debunked popular conceptions about NASCAR fans. PIR is working on a Beta version of software which has facial recognition to help identify the attendance demographics. It should be firmly in place for the November race weekend.
For the 2013 NASCAR Mexico Toyota series debut, when ABRAHAM CALDERONE won, it was wild. The cars were going three and four wide in the corners. Sperber said he didn’t know four cars could fit in a corner. It was clean, hard racing, as good as any Cup race. ANTONIO PEREZ led most of the race, until the last lap when he was pipped by DANIEL SUAREZ. The fans went crazy and everyone wanted to be in Victory Circle.
The PIR track offices are located in Avondale. Sperber said “The community has embraced the Series. It resonated with the city, which has a minority majority population. The Mexican Consulate sung the National Anthem, and the City treated the event like the Olympics. There was a large contingent of international media.”
Left to right: George Silberman, Daniel Suarez, and Federico Alaman.
FEDERICO ALAMAN, of OCESA & General Manager of the Mexico Series announced Tuesday a ten-year extension of the contract with NASCAR for the Toyota Mexico Series. Now it’s mostly an oval series with one road course, which has been a change from its original concept with mostly road courses.
GEORGE SILBERMAN, NASCAR Vice President, Regional and Touring Series, said “NASCAR is unabashed about spreading its series in more places. With the Mexico Series, it’s been ten years, two countries and one sport. It’s a real signature event for us tonight-Friday night.”
Suarez is one of the drivers in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Program, as well as in the NASCAR NEXT Program for promoting young talent.
The 2014 season marks eleventh year for the Mexico Toyota Series, which has been a NASCAR-sanctioned series since 2007. The inaugural year featured just one oval, while now there is only one road course. What has happened is that Mexico has built a lot of new oval tracks, which has led to a change in the focus of the series schedule.
Left to right: Abraham Calderon, 2013 Phoenix Mexico Series winner; Daniel Suarez, 2013 Series Champion & Rodrigo Peralta, NASCAR Diversity driver making PIR debut.
ANTONIO GARIBAY, father of Mexico Series driver, ANTONIO PEREZ, was one proud papa on Thursday. Antonio, his middle child, was fastest in the Thursday morning practice session; and his youngest son, SERGIO (Checo), was fastest in Formula One testing with the Sahara Force Team in Bahrain. His oldest child and only daughter, PAOLA, manages both brother’s careers, and also runs the Fundacion Checo Perez.
Garibay hopes that someday both his sons will race in the Sprint Cup Series, and thought it would be a kick, before Sergio left F1, that the two do one of those NASCAR/F1 swapping cars commercials. Currently, there are no Mexican drivers in Sprint Cup, and Garibay thinks once there is – hopefully his son – that the Hispanic fan base for stock cars would grow even greater.