So I was looking at BMW contegency and noticed it pays $2,200 for a novice win on the 1000, but it’s not listed on the wera contingency page. So is it paying novice class?
Qualifying Classes Races: 8 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th OPEN SUPERSTOCK NOVICE $2,200 $1,800 $1,500 $1,200 $1,000 WERA SUPERSTOCK EXPERT $2,200 $1,800 $1,500 $1,200 $1,000 SERIES PURSE $123,200 2018 WERA NATIONAL CHALLENGE
No clue, we haven't heard anything from BMW one way or another. Ridiculous if so to pay that much for Novices.
Wow There was a time when novice/amateurs were not allowed to race anything bigger than a 600 because they hadn't developed the skills to ride a big bore. And now they throw money like that at them, so I'm guessing BMW has a huge overstock of parts and is trying sell them?
Shouldn't this entice more to make the leap to racing? Shouldn't this in theory produce larger grids? Shouldn't larger grids make spectators happy? Shouldn't this bring more money for the series? Shouldn't this promote series growth? Shouldn't everyone be happy and want other manufacturers to jump on board?
No actually it will do none of that. It will entice people to stay Novice to win money and it will pay a small handful of riders. It will entice Novices to push harder than they have skills to handle. Contingency programs do very little for the orgs as a whole. They have never produced larger grids and long term I believe have hurt the sport as people think they're racing for money - and if they can't win money they stop racing. It changed things from racing for a love of the sport.
Crap, I'm going to have to start racing again....it's been since about 1991, so I would qualify as an over 50 novice.
But you are going to have to spend, what, $18k on a BMW(plus the other stuff) to potentially make $17.6k. Doesn't sound that efficient.
Well you forgot to factor in the cost of the entertainment factor. I currently pay to go to the movies, out to dinner, wine tasting, etc., those costs would be gone and applied towards this program. I also haven't factored in the cost of tires and transportation. I'm thinking, it could be like the late 80's-90's again and I could travel in a van and hit as many club races as possible. The other cost I haven't factored in, is the loss to my business and the fact Mama would probably divorce me, so I would lose 1/2 of everything.
You can buy the bike at a pretty decent discount if you are a racer too. But, I am sure they have rules like grid size that would prevent most payouts.
Wait a minute, I thought it was bad when contingency in the sport went away years ago. Now it's bad when it's coming back? Speaking of coming back, I'll be Novice in 2018. You heard it here first.
You never saw me bitching about it going away. I can easily see this driving riders from WERA as we won't allow the BS excuses to stay or go back to Novice