The announcement by Col. David Lee, director of strategic communications for the U.S. Army, to eliminate sponsorship of two Don Schumacher-owned NHRA Pro Stock motorcycles in 2008 and the resulting comments by some of those involved (including fellow National Speed Sport News columnist Susan Wade) move me to comment.
Never, ever expect money-paying sponsors to stay with a team because of loyalty, because loyalty stops as quickly as a Porsche Turbo Carrera when the “budget-whoa pedal” is applied.
Such is the case with the U.S. Army, and its NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle budget. 
Companies are involved in motorsports for one reason and one reason alone — and that’s to develop or swell name branding and impact consumer buying decisions.
In the Army’s case, sponsorship is used to attract future soldiers via recruiting efforts, and somewhere along the line this motorcycle budget is being trimmed. (Could it be because Pro Stock motorcycle never runs a full schedule, appearing at 16 of 23 events in 2007 and a scheduled 17 of 24 in 2008?)
The end result is regardless of how good a spokesperson they are, NHRA motorcycle racers Angelle Sampey and Antron Brown need to find new sponsors. In military terms, that’s an order.
Granted, we’ve had our share of business people who happen to love racing for racing’s sake, and loyalty seeps out as part of a sponsor deal. But the modern-day loyalty deals are few and far between and usually go only to the biggest winners of all, like a Richard Petty (STP), Jeff Gordon (DuPont), John Force (Castrol) or Brandon Bernstein (Budweiser).
The good news is the U.S. Army’s continuing sponsorship of the Schumacher Top Fuel team, a perennial championship effort.
Yet, there have been other loyalists. I date myself back to Augie Pabst, of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer fame, who supported many sports-car racers in the 1950s. He was way ahead of Anheuser-Busch in his support of racing.
Another loyalist? How about coal-mining magnate J.D. Stacy? He was so loyal, he had seven cars entered in the 1982 Daytona 500. His loyalty ended when litigations ensued as his pockets went dry and his seven cars disappeared. 
Back to the issue at hand — the U.S. Army should be thanked for its years of support of the Pro Stock motorcycle teams, not criticized or questioned on loyalty issues. Both Sampey and Brown are pros, and business is business, regardless of sponsor uniform. Additionally, the military continues as one of racing’s top supporters. Cars flying the colors of the Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force and the National Guard are commonplace in this day of multi-million-dollar advertising budgets thanks to the demographic makeup of the motorsports fan. 
So, I thank the military for its support, and tell them I enjoy the fact that they’ve been flying their airplanes and jets over race-day opening ceremonies for decades. However, when a spokesperson for the Army announces the dropping of Sampey and Brown “was a hard decision to make,” he shouldn’t be taken to task for it.
With a similar example used in the opinion piece in this paper that quoted Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. and loyalty, let’s end this way: In General Patton’s era, he would probably debunk any scribe for using his name in an attempt to downgrade a colonel to “private first class” status because of lost motorcycle sponsorships. And, if you ever saw the movie “Patton,” he’d probably do worse because he didn’t like whiners or criers.