World Racing Group last night hosted the inaugural World of Outlaws Agency Challenge at East Lincoln Speedway in Stanley, N.C., pitting nine agencies against one another on the dirt track. Retail Sports Marketing bested the other agencies, all with a presence in Charlotte, racing to victory in both World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and Late Models at Ray Evernham's 3/8 mile red clay oval. RSM VP Jim Richards and Account Exec Josh Neely emerged victorious in a race that came down to the final driver, defeating two-employee teams from Octagon, IMG, GMR Marketing, HMS, The Marketing Arm, HMS Worldwide, Bulldawg Marketing and HB&M Sports. After the race, Richards said, "What a great event, I'm so proud of our team, and I can promise that it is a lot harder than it looks out in those cars, loud, sideways, but a lot of fun." In celebration of the victory, Richards then gave his entire staff the day off on Friday. A pair of IMG VPs -- Tom Knox and Jay Martin -- finished just behind the RSM team in second place, and HMS Worldwide President & CEO Todd Hirschfeld and fellow company exec Chris Gordon drove to a third-place finish. WRG created the event, which also offered cornhole, beer and BBQ, to help kick off the summer season for motorsports marketing, said company CMO Ben Geisler. “We’ve had good relationships with a number of agencies over the years, but there’s some that we haven’t worked with and people are always changing,” Geisler said. “This gave us an opportunity to put World of Outlaws and dirt track racing on everyone’s radar as they get ready to begin 2012 planning.” More than 150 people attended the Agency Challenge, a much better turnout than WRG initially anticipated, said Geisler.
