Antron Brown’s sponsor found customers in his paddock.

Your next sponsor’s customer might be the company that machines your engine parts. Antron Brown’s partnership with Hangsterfer’s shows what happens when a race team notices that connection and does something with it.

Hangsterfer’s sells metalworking fluids. Brown’s racing suppliers operate the machines that use them. That made the team’s purchasing relationships commercially useful, alongside the visibility on his dragster.

His parts suppliers were potential customers

In PRI’s August 2023 interview, Brown described taking Hangsterfer’s products to the companies making his pistons, crankshafts and valves. Suppliers could try the products in their own machining operations. According to Brown, those trials led vendors to switch, creating business for the sponsor.

The fit was practical. Hangsterfer’s own account of the relationship describes matching its products to the machining requirements of Brown’s team during his Don Schumacher Racing years. These were products connected to the work happening around the car.

By February 2025, NHRA’s partnership announcement named Point 1, DSR Performance, Race Winning Brands and Darton Sleeves among AB Motorsports vendors using Hangsterfer’s coolant and cutting fluids through trackside relationships. It also described the brand’s continuing involvement with Brown and Angelle Sampey.

These are reported customer relationships. The sources do not disclose the sponsor’s resulting revenue, profit or contract price. There is enough here to understand the mechanism without inventing a return on investment.

The relationship started working both ways

Then a sponsor connection brought something back into Brown’s business.

In its May 6, 2025 announcement, Centroid said it was partnering with AB Motorsports and its FAB Machining division to add a five-axis machining centre. Brown credited Hangsterfer’s Mike Ditzel with developing the connection. The release traced the relationship to an introduction at the PRI Show.

The machine expanded FAB’s ability to repair cylinder heads and blocks and make components it had bought elsewhere. The companies described a relationship developed over several years, not an instant deal from swapping business cards.

That changes the question a team should ask before approaching a sponsor. Alongside “Who watches us?” ask “Who does business with us, and what do they buy?” A supplier, workshop or existing partner may be a more relevant route to customers than a broad follower count.

What can your paddock actually offer?

Start with relationships you genuinely have. List the businesses your team already buys from, people who attend your events and companies connected to current partners. Then identify a commercial reason two of them might want to meet.

For example, if a workshop has mentioned a machining problem, ask whether it would welcome a conversation with a relevant supplier. That is a proposed approach, not a claim about Brown’s private sales process. Get agreement from both sides before making the introduction.

A racing licence does not give you access to every buyer in the paddock. Keep the offer within relationships you can actually reach. A smaller driver programme might arrange one useful meeting; a team may be able to organise a product trial or workshop visit.

Our guide to introductions between racing partners explains how to turn that opportunity into a defined activity without promising someone else’s purchasing decision.

Count the next conversation, not just the introduction

A contact passed across a table is a starting point. Record whether the meeting happened, what the buyer wanted, whether a trial was agreed and who owns the next step. An introduction, a trial and a purchase are different outcomes.

Agree with the sponsor which outcomes it wants reported. If an order follows, let the company confirm its value and whether you may include it in your sponsor report. Keep private customer information private.

Brown’s example gives teams a more useful place to look for sponsorship value: the businesses already working around their racing. The commercial opportunity starts when you understand what those businesses need from each other.

Independent editorial analysis of PRI’s interview and public company and NHRA announcements. Antron Brown, AB Motorsports, Hangsterfer’s and Centroid are not presented as Turn One or Sponsor AI clients. Business outcomes are attributed to the sources; no deal value or independently audited return is claimed. Sources reviewed October 14, 2026.