Hyundai needed more than a race team. Bryan Herta built it.

Bryan Herta Autosport raced Hyundais. It also sold race cars, supplied parts, created content and welcomed Hyundai owners into the paddock. The commercial relationship reached well beyond the space on a bonnet.

For a team putting together its next sponsorship package, that is the part worth examining. The work your people can do may give a company more reasons to buy than the places you can put its logo.

BHA dates its Hyundai partnership to 2018. The public record shows several ways the relationship developed, without revealing a contract price or allowing us to calculate its financial return.

The race team became a route to customers

When IMSA announced the 2019 programme, BHA’s role included selling Hyundai TCR customer cars in the United States. The team would also provide technical assistance and parts to other teams running those cars.

That creates a practical relationship with a manufacturer. A customer deciding to race its product needs somewhere to buy it, obtain spares and get technical answers. The team’s expertise can become part of what makes the product usable.

By October 2021, BHA had announced an Elantra N Line TCA race car built at its Indiana headquarters. The launch described sales through the BHA/Hyundai customer racing operation, alongside engineering, setup and tuning services.

A smaller team may never build a customer race car. It can still examine its own capabilities: product demonstrations, technical feedback, installation knowledge or access to a specialist customer group. The offer becomes stronger when it solves a task the company already has.

A race season became a media series

The racing also gave Hyundai a story to distribute. In its Pole Position: Next Level campaign case study, MotorTrend describes following BHA across the season and into drivers’ hometowns. Seven episodes were produced for that instalment, with a longer finale appearing on television before YouTube.

The distribution went further: shorter edits appeared on social channels and in a digital campaign. The racing was the source material for a planned media programme.

That distinction matters when a sponsor asks for content. Agree what will be made, who can use it, where it will appear and who approves it. “We will post about you” leaves the work and its value unclear.

Explore Hyundai’s motorsport films ↗
Hyundai’s own page includes Next Level films and its Nürburgring journey. These are external viewing links, not Sponsor AI productions.

A car key became an invitation

In PRI’s August 2023 interview, Herta described the N Lounge: a race hospitality programme where Hyundai owners could show their key, visit the team and meet a driver. He also described BHA’s work producing motorsport social content and running a driver camp.

The invitation gave existing customers a reason to feel closer to the brand. It also gave the team a specific experience to deliver. That is a more useful starting point for a hospitality proposal than simply listing available passes.

For your own event, establish who the company wants to invite and what those guests should experience. Then cost the hosting, staff time and follow-up. Our team hospitality guide turns that into a workable plan.

The part a smaller team can use

BHA’s arrangement combines several capabilities built over time. Treat it as a way to examine your team, rather than a package to promise tomorrow.

Choose one piece of work you can deliver reliably. A technical supplier might value a demonstration with useful feedback. A regional business might value an event for customers. A consumer brand might need a short film it can publish on its own channels. These are possible offers to test, not claims about what any named company has agreed to buy.

Write down the buyer’s objective, the work, the delivery cost and how completion will be recorded. Put that into your team sponsorship package, then keep the scope visible during delivery.

The Hyundai story gets more interesting when you look past the livery. There is a customer racing operation, a media programme and an owner experience behind it. Those are concrete reasons for a business to keep working with a race team.

Independent editorial analysis of BHA, IMSA and MotorTrend publications and PRI’s 2023 interview. These are dated examples, not a description of every current contract obligation. No partnership fee, sales uplift or return on investment is asserted. Bryan Herta Autosport and Hyundai are not presented as Turn One or Sponsor AI clients. Sources reviewed October 14, 2026.