CONTINGENCY # 7

The question still begs to be asked. Why haven't the sanctioning bodies raised the Sportsman payouts in over 20 years? Entry fees have increased over 300% in NHRA, and IHRA is following suit by raising fees annually and now actually reducing payouts.

The Pro pay scale continues to increase with inflation, yet ours do not. If DRO is look for a cause to champion, this would be the one.

Alex P. Denysenko
Lyons, IL

CONTINGENCY #8

I started racing in 1973. I have never won or runnered-up at a race where contingency money was offered. I know many racers who have been the recipients of contingency money. When I was still wet behind the ears, I thought that because the sanctions would advertise with full page spreads that there was so much contingency money up for grabs, that the sanctions themselves were paying the money.

How wrong I was. 

I have many friends and acquaintances who have qualified to receive contingency money. Almost to a man, they have stories about companies that take forever to pay the promised $50 or $100. Even in one case, a story of having to threaten legal action to get a check for $200 from a company that was posting for a slam-dunk item that was visible for all to see without having to even raise the hood.

I also know that some racers do abuse the system. I’ve heard of and seen racers who have had contingency decals on their car for many years without having the product on the car. I cannot tell you for certain if they ever collected contingency money, but I find it strange that a racer would want to have decals on the car for product that in one case, as I was told by the racer in question, “It’s junk, but they pay.”

As it is, I have heard of some companies that require racers to register with the company before they will pay money that they have posted with a particular sanction. However, more than one racer has not known of this requirement UNTIL AFTER a win because the company does not advertise that requirement, nor does the sanction inform the racers of that requirement. The company does not pay the racer for that win because the racer wasn’t registered before the fact. Sound like the classic "Catch 22" to me...

Some companies require that the product that is up for contingency payment be purchased from the company within a certain time frame before the win. Many of the products in our racecars have a long useful life, and many racers do their own maintenance and repair to keep products that work around for a long time. Just because I can get a lot of use out of a part, maybe even use it in several cars over the years -– a camshaft, for example -- should I be penalized if I do not have the latest and greatest version of the product, and win with an older version?

What’s a racer to do if he has to change something on the car for whatever reason, during the race, does he need to make sure that all parts in the two systems are identical part numbers just to qualify for contingency?  Most racers have some sorts of spare parts with them at the track, even up to and including engines and transmissions. Does this mean that all his parts and pieces must be from the same manufacturers and/or identical?

If I had an $80-100,000 investment in a racing operation (a modest national event sportsman operation) –- and that figure is probably not even close to the money involved in most national event winner caliber operations -– and had to pay several hundred dollars for entry + hotel + travel expenses, etc. just to get to play in the national event field, why would I be satisfied with winning $1500 when I could take my rig to the local track, and for an entry under $50 take home the same amount (or dang close to it). Where’s the ROI? (for anyone who doesn’t know, it’s business short-hand for “return on investment”)