Many of the manufacturers now have come to the point where
the money generated by the contingency program is outweighed
by the amount of money it takes to participate. In simpler
terms, the advertising they are doing by encouraging all
racers to buy their product and stick the decal on their
car isn't selling enough parts to offset that cost, much
less make a profit.
In researching this story I talked to contingency managers
at MSD, Moroso and Comp Cams. In each case the men I talked
with had horror stories about how much money they had paid
out to racers in the past that they felt sure weren't actually
using their products. They all had tried depending on their
own employees, the sanctioning body's employees or the racer
for proof that racers were indeed using the parts they claimed.
They all expressed some helplessness and some bitterness
with the racers whom they felt weren't upholding their part
of the "advertising contract" between the racer
and the manufacturer.
So, now they've begun doing the only thing that makes sense
for the manufacturers: they've cut down on the amount of
money they put into the contingency programs over the last
few years. What I found was that many of them have done two
things to cut back:
1) They've reduced by 30 to 50 percent the number of products
that they pay contingency on. A company which in the past
may have paid contingency on five or six of their products
or lines may now post for only two or three.
2) They've quit paying contingency on products that can't
easily be identified without a teardown.
What the crux of the problem is with contingency programs,
according to the manufacturers I talked to, is that they
have gone from being a very profitable advertising program
to one that is becoming much less profitable with each passing
season. Because of that some of the manufacturers in contingency
programs are taking what some racers think are extreme measures
to keep the programs from costing them a ton of money. They
insist that if they (the manufacturers) are going to pay
a fee to the sanctioning bodies in addition to paying the
racers then they are going to hold the sanctioning body responsible
for doing everything possible to make sure the racer is living
up to the advertising contract. Requiring that their decals
be on the car before the first round of eliminations is one
way, and requiring the racer to provide proof of purchase
and do paper work before getting paid is another.
From the racers' point of view, the problem is that while
the sanctioning body is making sure the manufacturers only
pay racers who actually use their products, no one is making
sure that the racers who have earned their contingency money
get paid in a timely manner by the manufacturers.
The bottom line for the manufacturers is that many of them
simply can't afford to keep paying hundreds of thousands
of dollars to racers who either don't really use their product
or don't live by the rules required of them to get paid.
The sanctioning bodies perhaps overreacts in some cases
but the fact is that for many of the Sportsman classes if
it weren't for the contingency money the purses wouldn't
be enough to attract racers. So, the sanctioning bodies do
everything in their power to keep their contingency sponsors
happy so the sanctioning body won't have to start paying
more of their own cash to those racers lucky enough or good
enough to get to the winners circle.
There are those on both sides of the issue who abuse the
system, making it that much more difficult for the ones that
do the right thing. We don't know the complete answer, but
maybe by starting a dialog we can move in the right direction
for everyone involved.
One thing is sure. If the racers and sanctioning organizations
can't find a way to satisfy the contingency sponsors, then
the amount of money in those funds will continue to decrease,
especially from those companies that manufacture parts that
every racer uses -- and those often are the companies that
ensure that Sportsman racers who are good enough or lucky
enough to win actually get a nice payday. Without them contingency
programs would just be window dressing and not a real benefit
to the racer or sanctioning body. 
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