Could you please leave this threat stuck at the top for a couple of days??? Thanks! Pirelli Certs have been added to racers accounts for Grattan on May 18th. IF YOU DIDN'T RECEIVE A CERT, CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REGISTERED. Remember, you must have 8 starters in a race in order to qualify. Hopefully going to Barber this weekend. I hope to see you guys there. GOOD LUCK PIRELLI RACERS!!!!
Certs Sweet...... two years with GLRRA and no certs... One race with WERA and Cha Ching a hundred bucks... Thanks WERA and Pirelli...
Nashville?? Judy, It was great meeting you in Talladega last weekend, now I see where the shorty comes from I haven't received any certs for Nashville they were the week before Grattan. May 9-10. Thanks Chris Normand
Judi, I thought that we had already worked through this eight bike minimum thing, but I'll try one more time. In racing, we can't dictate who shows and who doesn't, but you can't punish the one that do show, run, and place well. I agree that Pirelli shouldn't pay for everyone that just shows up, but there should be some payout. Otherwise, it's just an empty promise of a contingency. At Grattan, only 4 LW bikes were there, how about paying at least the top 2? (Neither of my teams finished there, so I don't stand to gain in this situation.) Please respond with your thoughts and comments.
I agree Steve, That would be great. The Sunday sprints were pretty light as well. I like the idea of paying out the top 2 spots, or some concept that keeps the contingency for riders. That's one of the biggest pro's of WERA over orgs like Fasttrax or AHRMA is that you can go there and get some contingency money. Especially at a National ..
Where the heck are my certs at?!?!? This is some crap! And don't run that ' you gotta win to get 'em' crap on me either! I wasn't born yesterday!
For clarification, my top 2 was coming from taking 50% of the field. So, if there are 8 teams, pay to 4, etc.
thanks for your comments concerning the "8 minimum starters to qualify". If it were up to me, I would give it to the top four finishers regardless of how many started. HOWEVER,, I don't set the rules, I just follow them. I know that sounds like a lame excuse, but being one of the "little guys" (no pun intended), my opinion doesn't count for much. I will mention that when Rich Munson was our racing manager, he explained to me why the "top 8 starters" had to be put in place. In a nutshell, there were some guys who were abusing the smaller race classes just to earn the contingency and walking away with several $$$ of contingencies. It would end up being the few took the majority of the contingency money while the majority of racers would be left out in the cold because they abused the system. One suggestion would be to talk with Jeff Johnston (interim racing manager) when he's at the next WERA event and express your concerns. Jeff's a great guy and will listen to you. He may not be able to fulfill your wishes as you would like, but he WILL hear you out...Is that fair enough??? I'm sure that no answer will be the "right" one, but maybe explaining from Pirelli's side, it might make better sense. I want to personally thank ALL the WERA as well as other racing organizations riders who run Pirelli & Metzeler tires. You guys (as well as "the other tire guys") have made road racing a sport that I have fallen in love with!!!!! My hubby, 2 girls (ages 9 & 5) want to know when we are going back to the races. The girls especially love to hear the engines roaring when the race first starts. I hope to meet each and every Pirelli/Metzeler racer some day!!!!
Judi, This is not a personal attack on you or any of the vendors, simply the explanation that you received about the current policy. Feel free to use this as ammunition when you discuss things with the folks in Italy. No endurance teams have ever "abused" the Pirelli policy. If they entered to run an endurance class, I'm sure it was not for the $200 payout, and it surely was not for a $50 4th place finish. I can't imagine that anyone strove to abuse $50 when a set of slicks is $335+. Endurance racing is far too expensive to try to abuse anything except the riders and equipment. Endurance racing requires one entire set of tires, minimum. Even for LW bikes, we sometimes have to change the rear to make it through a race. I've bought 20 sets of tires this year for two endurance teams, and that will probably not get us through the year. And how can someone take the "majority" of the contingency money? Pirelli budgets $500 / class. Each bike can only run one class? There is $2500 per race in contingency available, how can one team possibly bring home $1251+ in Pirelli contingency. The max they can get is $200. (Unless there is some overall contingency money that I'm not aware of.) This view of Abuse is absurd, and the racers that show up every weekend depend on the small kickbacks that we receive. We appreciate them greatly, and hope that the minimum policy will change to reflect the true situation, and NOT some financial chart decided by bean counters that never turn a single lap.
I would assume that her reply is more in reference to sprint races. You make it fairly obvious that you can't make your money back on endurance racing contingency for tires. But for sprints...looks like you can. That being said...can somebody post the link to the Pirelli contingency stuff? I'm trying to figure out how to check/collect the contingency for some recent races. ( I know I have some coming...and I have a race next week!!!) Thanks all!
Any due date on the CCS/FUSA from VIR 6/27? Or the CCS Summit Point from 3 weeks ago? Just wondering because I'd like to spend some contingency on a WERA weekend.
Other aspect is with only a few racers the "cost" of contingency must be spread across fewer purchases. So with 8 racers they can figure the cost spread say 25% fitment so 2 riders have their tires then only 1 gets on the podium so they pay 200 from two sets of tires so 100 "cert cost" is applied to each set of tires. so if you reduce field to 4 then based on averages then only one team has that fitment so 200 "cert cost" must be added to that set of tires. So tire cost would go UP to maintain same contingency!
The bad part for me is that I mount a $385 set of rains along with a few other guys. Some guys don't and take a DNS, so it becomes the law of diminishing returns in order to race. But you know the rules before going in, it sucks but we have to deal wtih it.
I just talked to John over at Pirelli, who is currently the acting race manager. It looks like there isn't going to be any Pirelli contingency paid to races that didn't meet the minimum requirements. No exceptions (i.e. paying less money, paying back less spots, etc) I understand the rules, and while the grid requirements weren't met for every race, it is disappointing. I was pretty much just given the politically correct, "we'll look into the contingency rules next year" bit, with no real answer to my questions.
