Factory-backed is a term commonly used in motorsports to describe a sponsored racing team, car, motorcycle or driver that competes with official sanction and financial support, or "backing" from a manufacturer. As motorsports competition is an expensive endeavor, some degree of factory support is desired and often necessary for success. The lowest form of factory backing comes in the form of contingency awards, based upon performance, which help to defray the cost of competing. Full factory backing can be often seen in the highest forms of international competition, with major motorsports operations often receiving tens of millions of dollars to represent a particular manufacturer.

One-make series can also be backed by the factory, notably Ferrari Challenge

Ferrari Challenge

The Ferrari Challenge is a single-marque motorsport championship that was created in 1993 for owners of the 348 Berlinetta who wanted to become involved in racing. It now encompasses three official championships in the United States, Italy, and Europe. Competitors from each series are brought...

 and Porsche Supercup

Porsche Supercup

The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is the international motor racing series supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship organized by Porsche AG....

 purely to allow themselves sell their competition specials of their models to customers and to organise series. These series commonly offer prize money and even sometimes a factory drive to an upper lever series.

In lower level racing, the term factory backing is also used to describe support from dealership

Dealership

A dealership is an authorized seller and may refer to:*Car dealership*Franchised dealership...

s and importers. In drifting

Drifting (motorsport)

Drifting refers to a driving technique and to a motorsport where the driver intentionally over steers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels through turns, while maintaining vehicle control and a high exit speed...

, where factory backed teams are far and few (Mopar

Mopar

Mopar is the automobile parts and service arm of Chrysler Group LLC. The term was first used by Chrysler in the 1920s and has been in continuous use ever since. Mopar parts are original equipment manufactured parts for Chrysler vehicles...

 and Pontiac

Pontiac

Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...

 of Formula D

Formula D

Formula DRIFT or Formula D is the premier United States drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that brought D1 Grand Prix to the United States. The new entity would solely own,...

 for example), works team/drivers are those backed by large or highly established tuning

Car tuning

Car tuning is both an industry and a hobby, in which an automobile is modified in order to improve its performance, handling and appearance. As most vehicles leave the factory set up for average driver expectations and average conditions, tuning has become a way to personalize the characteristics...

companies, as opposed to those entered by the drivers themselves or a smaller and less well-off tuning companies. The advantage to this is drivers can get access to expensive prototype parts provided by the company that are not yet available to customers and in the event of their car being too badly damaged to compete, a back-up car will be available to them.