Warner Music deal to get BAM Racing back on track

Beth Ann Morgenthau has spent many days since her NASCAR team was shuttered working her South Florida garden or watching racing on television. Now the BAM Racing namesake appears only a few months from returning to the race track.

BAM Racing has announced a marketing alliance with Warner Music, which Morgenthau said will serve as primary sponsor of the team's No. 49 Toyota for the duration of the 2010 Cup season. Although the organization has not yet named a driver, Morgenthau said she still has her shop in Huntersville, N.C., she has eight cars that can be altered to fit next year's templates, and that BAM will return for a full campaign beginning with Speed Weeks in February at Daytona.

"It's just been a tough year, but of all years to be out of racing, this was the year," Morgenthau said, referring to the recession that has taken a toll on sponsorship. "We want to do it right. We want to come back right. We want to be extremely aggressive on the track and in marketing."

A key to that is the deal between BAM and Warner Music's Nashville division, whose stable of country singers includes Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Blake Shelton. Morgenthau said the agreement entails the record company featuring its artists and album releases on BAM race cars, a presence on video advertising screens owned by a company that Morgenthau and her husband, Tony, are primary investors in, and live performances during race weekends.

"In one day in Nashville we made four presentations, and Warner grabbed it," Beth Ann Morgenthau said. "They were so excited about it. They were the first ones who said, 'Yes, we really understand what you're going to do, and we really think this will turn the music industry around.' They were the first ones to jump in."

Warner Music did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the release announcing the marketing agreement, president John Esposito called the deal "a unique opportunity to extend our artists' brands to the vibrant NASCAR community."

Morgenthau said she has not yet decided on a driver for next year, but has a pool of candidates. "They're name drivers," she said. "You know the ones that are available, I know the ones that are available, and they're sending us resumes."

The Morgenthaus, investment bankers and avid race enthusiasts who live in Coral Gables, Fla., started BAM Racing in 2001. The team competed in 167 events on NASCAR's premier division, recording a top finish of sixth at Bristol in 2004, before sponsorship shortages forced it off the track following the spring race at Martinsville last season. Ken Schrader was BAM's primary driver over most of that tenure, although the organization also used John Andretti, Mike Bliss, Mike Wallace, and several others.

With a shop and several race cars already in place, Morgenthau didn't think reviving the race team would be too difficult. Pending sponsorship, she's even holding out hope of eventually fielding a second car. "I'm not ruling that out one bit," she said.

And Morgenthau's tropical garden will have to wait. She and her husband never seriously considered dropping out of the sport altogether, she said. "We just couldn't sit at home and do nothing," she said. "I would rather be racing. We have it really bad, I would say."