Elon Werner, who directs the publicity and
communications for drag racing’s biggest
star John Force and Force’s championship team,
today was
announced as winner of the 2014 Jim Chapman Award for excellence in motorsports
public relations.
The Chapman Award is considered by many in
the industry as the highest honor in racing public relations. It is named in
memory of Chapman, the legendary PR executive and innovator, who worked with
Babe Ruth and was named Indy Car racing’s “most influential man” of the 1980s.
Chapman died in 1996 at age 80.
The announcement and presentation were
made at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before Sunday’s NHRA national
event by Michael Knight, chairman of the selection committee, and one of
Chapman’s closest friends. The award is determined by a vote of national media
members, most of who knew Chapman, and is authorized by the Chapman family. PR
representatives from all forms of motorsports are eligible for
consideration.
Werner not only works directly with the
16-time NHRA Funny Car champion, but also Force’s rising-star driver daughters.
Ashley Force Hood twice won the U.S. Nationals before stepping aside to start a
family. Courtney Force has won eight Funny Car races while Brittany Force was
last year’s top NHRA rookie in the Top Fuel class. Robert Hight, Force’s
son-in-law, was the 2009 Funny Car titlist.
“Elon’s work in developing successful
relationships with the media is reminiscent of Jim Chapman and so this honor is
most appropriate,” said Knight, the longtime journalist/publicist and award
rights-holder.
“Jim set the ultimate standard of
professionalism, class and dignity. He knew that building good one-on-one
professional relationships with journalists was important in good times and
absolutely essential in bad times. That’s too often missing today in a
communications age where an E-mail or text message or over-reliance on social
media is incorrectly considered ‘relationship-building.’ Jim was a true ‘people
person’ and knew nothing could replace a handshake, a face-to-face conversation,
or the sound of another person’s voice.
“John Force has been NHRA’s greatest
cheerleader for decades, working to create new fans and new customers for his
sponsors. Elon has done more than coordinate the numerous interview requests for
John. Just as importantly, he’s provided wise guidance to Ashley, Courtney,
Brittany and Robert, as they have followed John’s example. Elon’s outreach to
motorsports-oriented reporters, and well as to those in the mainstream media,
has helped produce a vast amount of news coverage for the sport, Force and his
team, and their corporate partners.”
Werner worked for the NBA’s Dallas
Mavericks before joining the Texas Motorplex as PR manager in 1993. He
eventually became that track’s general manager. After positions with several
Dallas-based sports agencies and coordinating media for a number of motorsports
clients, he became John Force Racing’s PR director in 2007.
Significant national media placements have
included Courtney Force’s ESPN The
Magazine cover, The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno, CBS Sunday Morning,
National Public Radio and virtually every major motorsports publication. Werner
also has built JFR’s social media presence.
With longtime Force publicist Dave
Densmore the 2007 Chapman Award winner, this is the first time that the honor
has been earned by two people from the same racing organization.
Knight also announced that, as has
happened before, the selection committee has chosen two equally-deserving
Chapman Award recipients this year. Announcement and presentation of that person
will be made next weekend at Phoenix International
Raceway.
Established in 1991
by media and publicists within the CART series, the Chapman Award originally
focused on achievement in CART. After a hiatus of several years, the award was
resumed in 2004, with eligibility expanded to anyone working in racing
PR.
Chapman started as sports editor or
managing editor of several Southern newspapers before joining the New York Times. He served in the U.S.
Air Force during World War II. He entered the PR business in 1946, as regional
PR director for Ford Motor Co. in Detroit.
Soon thereafter, Chapman hired Ruth as
consultant to the automaker’s sponsorship of American Legion Junior Baseball.
They traveled together for more than two years for personal appearances and
became close friends. Chapman was one of only three friends at Ruth’s bedside
when he died in August 1948 and then officially announced Ruth’s death to the
press corps that had maintained an around-the-clock vigil at New York’s Memorial
Hospital.
Chapman proudly
showcased several photos of Ruth in his office.
One was inscribed: "To a pal that is a pal." Chapman also displayed a
framed letter, written on Ruth's personal stationery from Memorial Hospital,
dated July 13, 1948, inviting him to the July 26 premier of the film, The Babe Ruth Story. That letter read,
in part, "That evening would not be complete without your being my guest. To you, Jimmy, I say you must be with me that
evening."
In 1950, Chapman left Ford to start his
own PR firm. One of his first clients was Avis founder Warren Avis. Chapman
devoted much of his time to financial PR, which he once called his “favorite
form of PR,” and helped companies get recognition among analysts and even gain
admission to the New York and American stock exchanges.
Chapman’s first venture into motorsports
was in 1951, when he joined with NASCAR founder Bill France to promote the Motor
City 250. The race was part of Detroit’s 250th birthday celebration,
a Chapman client. In 1967, Chapman entered Indy Car racing with client Ozzie
Olson’s Olsonite sponsorship of Dan Gurney’s team, which later featured Bobby
Unser as driver.
“Jim was one of the most innovative and
imaginative PR men ever to grace a pit lane,” said Gurney. “Jim practically
invented most of what is now considered routine sponsor PR work. He was the
first, as far as I know, who thought of putting up a sponsor hospitality tent
alongside a racetrack (at the old Riverside International Raceway), filling it
with extravagant race car ice-sculptures, beautiful food and beautiful people
from the business, sports and movie industries. He started an ‘open house’
tradition in Ozzie’s hotel suite in Indianapolis, where journalists could rub
shoulders with John Wayne or (astronaut) Scott Carpenter.”
Chapman also directed Olsonite’s
sponsorship of the Driver of the Year award. He orchestrated all the details,
including the media panel voting, and an annual luncheon at New York City’s
famed ‘21’ Club. That gathering was considered so prestigious it was routinely
attended by leaders of all the major U.S. sanctioning organizations regardless
of what series the Driver of the Year competed in.
Chapman’s greatest professional acclaim
came from 1981-1992, as director of CART series sponsor PPG Industries’ program.
Chapman was instrumental in raising PPG’s prize fund from $250,000 to more than
$3.75 million at the time of his retirement in February 1993. The all-female PPG
Pace Car Driving Team was another Chapman innovation, as were the PPG Editors’
Days, when he brought business and feature writers to the tracks for lunch, pace
car rides, and driver interviews.
In 1982, Chapman negotiated a landmark
sponsorship for PPG with then- Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Joe
Cloutier, which formally made the Indy 500 a points-paying event in the PPG Indy
Car World Series, an arrangement that continued through the 1995 season. “That
was one of the most satisfying moments of my career,” Chapman recalled. “Roger
Penske, among others, told me it was the best thing that had ever happened to
CART.” In addition to a major contribution to the prize fund, PPG later became
sponsor of the $100,000 Indy 500 pole award, and paid a special winner’s bonus
in the early years of NASCAR’s Brickyard 400.
“With Jim, when he says ‘jump,’ we just
ask ‘how high?,” Indy 500 winner and PPG Cup champion Al Unser Jr. said on
behalf of his fellow drivers. “And we do it right then.”
Indy Car Racing magazine named Chapman
the sport’s “most influential” man of the 1980s, saying he turned “a public
relations assignment into an art form.” After his retirement, Chapman continued
to consult PPG, and agreed to Mario Andretti’s personal request that he serve as
honorary chairman of Andretti’s “Arrivederci, Mario” farewell tour in
1994.
Chapman's
professional achievements earned him vast recognition. The mayors of Detroit and Long
Beach , Calif. Indiana Michigan
“The true honor of this award is not the
plaque,” Knight concluded. “The true honor is having your name forever
associated with that of the great James P. Chapman.”
JIM
CHAPMAN AWARD HONOREES:
1991 – Michael
Knight
1992 – Tom
Blattler
1993-94 – Deke
Houlgate and Hank Ives
1995 – Kathi
Lauterbach
1996 – Marc
Spiegel
1997 – Mike
Zizzo
1998 – Tamy
Valkosky
1999 -- Carol Wilkins
2000-2003 – (Award
not presented)
2004 – Doug
Stokes
2005 – Susan
Arnold
2006 – Kevin
Kennedy
2007 – Dave Densmore
and Bob Carlson
2008 – Judy
Stropus
2009 – (Award not presented)
2010 -- Jim
Hunter
2011 -- Bill
York
2012 -- Judy
Kouba
Dominick and Nancy
Wager
2013 -- Anne
Fornoro
2014 -- Elon Werner
and TBA.
[ second Chapman Award announcement here Friday . . . ]
