Wendy Tysinger Stallings never imagined her summer internship at Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School as a recent University of North Carolina graduate would lead to all this.

Stallings, the founder of Tysinger Promotions Incorporated, and her staff are celebrating a decade of providing turn-key event management and first-class hospitality services while emerging as an industry leader.

“This is all the result of hard work, perseverance, and identifying and taking advantage of opportunities that we saw for improved promotions services in a wide array of industries, the most notable being motorsports,” said Stallings. “I never could have done it without my incredible staff. As we take a look back at where we started, we’re even more excited about what the future holds for TPI.”

Wendy Tysinger Stallings never imagined her summer internship at Roy Hill’s Drag Racing School as a recent University of North Carolina graduate would lead to all this.

Stallings, the founder of Tysinger Promotions Incorporated, and her staff are celebrating a decade of providing turn-key event management and first-class hospitality services while emerging as an industry leader.

“This is all the result of hard work, perseverance, and identifying and taking advantage of opportunities that we saw for improved promotions services in a wide array of industries, the most notable being motorsports,” said Stallings. “I never could have done it without my incredible staff. As we take a look back at where we started, we’re even more excited about what the future holds for TPI.”

The daughter of longtime Super Stock drag racer Joe Tysinger, Stallings had a passion for motorsports and knew it was in her blood, but decided her career lay elsewhere in the field of law. Stallings pursued that career by graduating from the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University in North Carolina, but never let go of her motorsports roots.

“I’ve been doing promotions since day one,” Stallings continued. “I handled sponsor sales and hospitality for Roy Hill at his school between college and law school, then worked to provide the same services for tracks like Fayetteville Motorsports Park, Coastal Plains Raceway Park, and Darlington Dragway while in law school. I took advantage of the connections and familiarity I had with tracks in eastern North Carolina and parlayed that into promotions and hospitality services for teams and eventually the sponsoring companies themselves.”

By the time she graduated from law school at Campbell, Stallings’s surging business had changed her career aspirations; she would no longer become a lawyer but would continue to expand what would eventually become Tysinger Promotions, Inc. in 2000.

The most important part of that expansion came the following year when a chance occurrence at what is now Motor Mille Speedway led to Stallings hiring her most important asset: eventual TPI Vice President Whitney Dowdy.

“I was working as an intern at New River Valley Speedway, which is now called Motor Mile, and  Wendy was there doing promotions for the Hooters Pro Cup one weekend,” Dowdy recalls. “I didn’t meet her, but she left behind a business card and I got word that she was hiring. One thing led to another and we met in Charlotte for an interview and I’ve been a part of TPI ever since.”

Stallings recognized that quality people like Dowdy were the key to unlocking the business’s full potential, and in 2007 TPI added another key component.

“We added Katie Stewart just a few years ago, and she has already exceeded our expectations,” Stallings said. “In the past few years we’ve seen our business grow from exclusively motorsports related promotions to include services for other industries such as aviation and corporate hospitality, and Katie’s strengths outside of motorsports have been an integral part of that growth. Ten years ago, I never would have envisioned corporate hospitality away from the track becoming as important as it has, and with our diverse staff we’ve been able to adapt to those market changes.”

“The secret to our success has always been our strength as a team.” continued Stallings. “We each have our strong points, and by combining those strengths we’ve been able to adapt to a changing market and economy, and continue to grow TPI.”

Ever the optimist, Stallings believes the changing market and economy have opened new doors for an independent promotions firm.

“Our biggest competition has always been in-house marketing and promotions teams,” Stallings admitted. “With the current economy, many companies have been reducing their permanent workforce in those areas and outsourcing the services to companies like TPI, and we’ve been there to take advantage of the opportunity.”

In 2010, TPI begins its tenth anniversary with a roster of clients that includes professional motorsports series such as ARCA and the American Drag Racing League (ADRL), premier race teams such as John Force Racing and other organizations operating within the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and NASCAR, top-tier motorsports facilities Charlotte Motor Speedway and zMax Dragway, and large corporations such as Old Dominion Freight Line. 2010 will also mark the first year of TPI’s involvement with EAA AirVenture OshKosh, the world’s largest aviation celebration.

“Over the course of ten years, our business has grown from just managing sponsor services for local race tracks to a nationwide hospitality and event management firm,” summarized Stallings. “We’ve grown to be able to manage services for series, tracks, sponsors, drivers, and now corporations while simultaneously delivering the same level of attention to detail for each client, and that’s something we pride ourselves on.”

With new services in media and public relations added to its strong portfolio for 2010, TPI is looking forward to making its tenth anniversary year the best yet. If the past decade of explosive growth is any indication, Tysinger Promotions is just beginning its ascension as an industry leader.