Towards the end of April it was announced that Maconi Setup Shop would join eNASCAR and iRacing as an official partner. For 2023 and 2024, viewers of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series and eNASCAR College Series will see MSS branding during the event. Maconi also takes over the NASCAR C-Fixed naming rights.
🚨NEWS: Maconi Setup Shop and @eNASCARGG partner until 2024!🚨
Notable aspects include:
•Maconi Setup Shop is the official setup shop of eNASCAR
•Maconi Setup Shop becomes official title sponsor of @iRacing’s most popular oval series, C-Fixed Trucks
•Extends across 25S1
⬇️ pic.twitter.com/99m4HiffUc
— Maconi Setup Shop LLC (@MaconiSetupShop) April 24, 2023
Founded by Jeff Maconi, Maconi Setup Shop is a company that offers competitive setups to iRacing members racing in the Open Setup Oval series. Since the company’s inception in 2020, MSS has grown from Jeff just making the sets to now more than 15 members providing setups for multiple areas of the iRacing service.
The partnership, announced in April, includes enabling sponsorship during broadcast events, as well as enabling at select physical circuits where fans can enjoy the eNASCAR Arcade fan area halfway down the track.
As for C-Fixed, arguably the most popular oval racing series on the iRacing platform for those with a C-Class license or higher, Maconi has no intention of changing the iRacing fixed setups for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series vehicles. but says it could be something to consider in the future.
Those naming rights will last until the first iRacing season in 2025, and when the Maconi Setup Shop logo is loaded into the iRacing paint booth, Jeff says there will be gifts for drivers using the logo on the platform.
HOW THE SETUP SHOP BUSINESS BEGAN
“I founded Maconi Setup Shop in March 2020,” Jeff Maconi told Traxion.GG. “Originally I built all the setups that we sold myself. Pretty soon I realized that there were others who were better than me at certain cars, like the Late Models, so I hired people like Bill Gros to make my job a little easier.”
Of course, March 2020 is just the right time for the world to shut down due to the pandemic, which is why Maconi wanted to capitalize on the increased focus on simulation racing. “It was also while I was studying mechanical engineering at Purdue University, and I was building the company while I was graduating,” said Maconi.
“By the time I graduated from Purdue in 2021, (Maconi Setup Shop) had announced a deal with Richmond Raceway Esports.” Maconi, now known as Rise Esports, has been in the top-flight for a number of years and just last year had an entire car from Briar LaPradd veiled at JR Motorsports.
Briar LaPradd in Nashville in 2022.
Last year really took off for Jeff and the brand. After working as an engineer at Hankook Tire for a year, Jeff sold part of his company to investors so he could run the fitment shop full-time.
“In May 2022, I was asked to sell part of the company to investors,” Maconi said. He did just that, and that deal “was signed and completed in September 2022.” Since then, Maconi has also inked a broadcast deal through Maconi Entertainment and hosts special events there through Maconi Competizone.
“Since I took over the company full-time, it’s been developing at a pretty rapid pace,” said Maconi. “When I left my job, we had enough revenue to keep the company in its current form with the goal of growing it further. From there, however, sales have increased by over 50 percent, and that growth has been sustained. That was before the eNASCAR and iRacing deal too.”
HOW THE eNASCAR AND iRACING DEAL came about
The Maconi Setup Shop logo is featured on both Rise Esports devices.
Maconi and its name brands, still collaborating with Rise Esports, are taking it a step further and are now bringing his name to what is currently the largest iRacing esports series.
“We’ve always had an open dialogue with the eNASCAR and iRacing teams and have worked on collaborating on smaller projects in the past, but this deal takes it to a whole new level,” said Maconi. “Discussions of a potential deal started with just sponsoring a single Coca-Cola race. We finally settled on a two-year deal in all areas, which we signed and announced a couple of weeks ago.”
“There was a safer way, of course, a smaller deal with fewer moving parts, but working with the eNASCAR and iRacing teams has been phenomenal and they have proven over the past few years that they are at the top of their game in the Capable of making a difference.”
WHAT DOES MACONI SETUP SHOP HAVE ABOUT IT?
As an official partner of eNASCAR, the most popular iRacing oval esports series out there, Maconi Setup Shop is spreading its name to more potential open setup drivers who are either looking to break into open oval racing or potentially gain a new competitive edge there.
“It’s been a crazy journey to this point, but it’s been worth it,” Maconi said. “I get to spend my days working on something close to my heart while being surrounded by an incredible team of people like William Hale and Joey Masiewicz, both of whom are critical to running the company.”
“It’s incredible to be able to speak to all of our customers and see that they have increased confidence and success on the platform.”
In addition to supporting the simulation, Jeff and the Maconi brand have been able to support real-world racing efforts. Most notably, Maconi was partnered with Frankie Muniz, former star of the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, who competed in that season’s ARCA Menard’s Series.
At Las Vegas, the first race of the new partnership, the #36 Letarte Esports Chevrolet, driven by Brandon McKissic, sported Maconi Setup Shop logos throughout. In the same race, the program had commercials during the breaks in operation.
Overall, the partnership helps support both eNASCAR and iRacing, and in turn, the presence helps more customers find their way to Maconi. In an iRacing environment with many different setup shops to choose from, Maconi has positioned its brand to stand out from the crowd.
Now that it’s come this far, Jeff says there’s still work to be done. “There is so much more in the pipeline, with various projects that I want to do and projects that are already in the works. I think iRacers will really like what’s coming soon.”
