Special from Sports Business Journal - Race Team Alliance Chair Rob Kauffman and NASCAR HOFer Ray Evernham have teamed up to purchase the IROC brand in a bid to revive the iconic racing series. Details on their exact plans for the series are scant, but the duo plan to announce this morning that they are re-launching the brand that formerly held all-star style races from 1973 to 2006. Kauffman, who is a former NASCAR team owner, and Evernham, the former crew chief for Jeff Gordon, bought the trademark of IROC from Pelican Marketing Group, according to U.S. Patent & Trademark Office records. The price that Kauffman and Evernham paid was unclear.
According to the new trademark filing for IROC from Kauffman and Evernham’s group, IROC Holdings LLC, the group plans to offer “entertainment services in the nature of automobile racing and exhibitions,” including organizing such events, as well as selling merchandise around the brand. The application to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office was made Dec. 7 by law firm Robinson Bradshaw attorney Lani Barnes Baxter, who has deep ties in racing.
IROC stands for International Race of Champions and is seen as something of a forerunner to the modern Superstar Racing Experience. It featured drivers across different disciplines such as Mario Andretti, Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Rahal, Cale Yarborough and Tony Stewart. Evernham was one of the founders of SRX, but he stopped making public appearances on behalf of the property in 2022 and his status with SRX is unclear. The new ownership group says it plans to host an IROC event this year with historic cars from the series, and that it will initially be based out of Mooresville, N.C., near Charlotte.
Story - Adam Stern, Sports Business Journal
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