IHRA Contingency

[Michael Beard]

Sponsor contracts are due in the end of the month, so more and more postings will be put online in the coming days and weeks. IHRA's Kurt Olberholzer has said that any sponsors posting after the Immokalee Pro-Am next month WILL pay retroactively for that event.

[Woodro Josey]

Turbo Action is out thru NHRA and IHRA but racers need to go to his web site!

[Ed Wright]

Carl Rossler pays the same way. He says NHRA charges a ton for "admistrative fees" if you post through them. I'm not suprised more don't handle it that way.

[Angela Macy]

Scott got a phone call today from a nice man with IHRA whose name he can't remember. Maybe it was this Kurt guy? They **** chatted about this kind of thing and all that.

Anyways, tell me more about these "administrative fees".....you mean NHRA and apparently IHRA charge the companies some kind of fee to award us contingency? Does anyone have any idea how much they're charging?

I concure, if thats the case I'm surprised more companies don't do like Paul and Carl are doing now. We need to make sure we all know who is still supporting sportsman racers in this indirect way (if you will) - heck if it will save them a buck and allow them to keep supporting us then I'm all for it.

I don't understand why they'd do that (charge a fee), maybe someone can explain, but these companies are doing them a favor because they pay us what XHRA doesn't have to - meaning without the contingency sponsors XHRA could not get by with only paying $1000 to win a race, they'd have to up the purse or no one would show up - we can race at our local track for $1000 with our less expensive to run bracket car. So to know they are charging them a fee to be apart of the program in addition to what they are paying the winners and runners up just seems like double dipping. I'd really like to know just how much they make off that, because I have a hard time believing its enough to justify running off potential purse payers which will potentially run off potential racers. It just seems like a bad idea for everyone involved. Enlighten me, please.

[Tim Kish]

I'm sure that NHRA (and probably IHRA) charge the contingency sponsor on the basis that they are getting advertising by being listed as a contingency sponsor since NHRA publishes their name. Also figure they process the paperwork to the sponsors notifying them of your win and the "labor" to perform the decal verification. There are legit services that the series provides to justify a fee.

[442OLDS]

I might be wrong,but I think the contingency sponsors put up the contingency money and the sanctioning bodies get to keep the money that isn't claimed.For example,if someone was to win a race with a particular brand of slicks,then the other companies that are posting contingency would not have a contingency winner in that class at that race.There is no way for somebody to win a race using three different brands of tires.Instead of just not paying the contingency,the money is paid directly to NHRA/IHRA.They post money in every class at every race whether somebody uses their product or not.That is the way it was explained to me years ago.

[THE LEGEND]

442, I was told the same thing.
Chip

[BAS Racing]

Both sanctioning bodies have industry membership fees of around $5000, I'd have to look up the exact numbers. That fee covers the contingency verification & administration, the midway display space, event credentials, and what mention sponsors get in ND/DRM or online.

NHRA has a minimum payout gaurantee of $17,000 for the first product posting and $13,000 for each additional product posted for. Which means that if the sponsor does not payout the minimum to racers, the difference is paid to NHRA at the end of the season. IHRA does not have a minimum payout gaurantee. Sponsors do not have to pay all the money that is posted for win/runner up at every event.

[mcaruso]

Originally Posted by 442OLDS

I might be wrong,but I think the contingency sponsors put up the contingency money and the sanctioning bodies get to keep the money that isn't claimed.For example,if someone was to win a race with a particular brand of slicks,then the other companies that are posting contingency would not have a contingency winner in that class at that race.There is no way for somebody to win a race using three different brands of tires.Instead of just not paying the contingency,the money is paid directly to NHRA/IHRA.They post money in every class at every race whether somebody uses their product or not.That is the way it was explained to me years ago.

Unless somethings changed, that is not the case @ all.

Back in 2000 I was sponsored by an RV dealership that was a contingency sponsor, & all they had to do was pay IHRA an administrative fee (back then, I think it was $2,500 for a divisional program) & then pay the posting only to the racer as long as the racer met the criteria.

I'm sure that administrative fee has gone up over the years & I'm quite sure it's probaly even more if they wanna post for Nationals also. I'de also be willing to bet that NHRA's admin fee is even more than IHRA's.

So that being said, I think a lot of company's are looking to trim some fat wherever they can & that NHRA & IHRA administrative fee sticks out like a sore thumb!

I believe the future is gonna be registering directly with the companys! Some company's having been doing it this way for years already.

I'de say just my $.02, but I guess I rambled on more like $.25

[Tim Irwin]

The admin fee charged by the sanctioning bodies is used to manage their respective programs. it covers advertisment, credentials, ( when I handled it at IHRA I gave sponsors enough credentials to make up for the admin fees they paid) midway space and labor to police the program to name a few. The sponsors handle the payouts directly to the racers. IHRA has no minimum payout but NHRA does. What that meant was if your minimum payout is 15K per product and you only pay out to racers 11K, you owe NHRA 3K. What that does is make sure a sponsor posts for as many classes as possible. Some sponsors will try to come in and post for 1 class and expect all of the priveliges that the sponsors that a sponsor that posts for all classes. Granted there are some products that don't fit in all classes. in those cases a sponsor may choose to pay "decal only postings" to keep from paying NHRA the balance. You would honestly be surprised how many guys try and take advantage of the system. the 2 percent that do make it for the 98 percent that follow the rules. the rules are simple. Run thr product and the decals. And return any information the company might need to register you as a racer that qualifys to recieve contingency. You'll see more sponsors asking the racers to fill out information cards and return them to the sponsor to qualify them for contingency. All because a few can't follow the rules.

Remember that our country is going through hard economic times, that includes some of the sponsors that have been so good to us when times were good. please remember to thank them for their support, past and present.