The Contingency Connection

After a storied career of administering the contingency program for the IHRA (pre-the Bill Bader days), Ronnie Ball and Jackie Ressa wanted to do more. What they started is a company that provides contingency programs available to local race tracks from one end of the country to another.

The 2002 Champions are shown here receiving their checks and hardware from Linda Vaugn at the PRI Show in Indianapolis . Jacob Rutledge (left) was the lucky recipient of the Drag Racing portion of the program, while Ray Sveeggen took home the awards for the Circle Track portion.

Long time advocates who lobbied for more exposure and less cost for the manufacturers, both Ball and Ressa have always been advocates for the little guy, weekend racers. Their program, the Contingency Connection, rewards those with a national program designed for those who do well at dozens of local tracks across the nation. In the past, it has been almost impossible for marketers to reach those masses. Now, through the Contingency Connection's efforts, nearly 100 manufacturers are able to easily reach the people who purchase their products with rewards for doing so.

The concept is as simple as any contingency program should be. Win at your local track, carry the decal of a participating company, and you win a part of the nearly $7,000,000 in cash and product certificates. For the track operator, it's his ability to increase his awards and cash to his weekly racers without having to raise the purse or the entry fees. What was as hard for a manufacturer to come up with a program for the weekly racer, was equally as hard for a track operator to implement a program, such as this, on his own. Now, with a national series administrator, both are able to help their customers. In addition, there is a Contingency Cup Championship that provides the overall track champion with additional sponsorship support from the Mr. Gasket Company under the umbrella of their Mallory ignition division, in the form of the Mallory Cup.

Bob Romanelli, President and CEO of Mr. Gasket said, “We're proud to be able to sponsor a grass-roots oriented program like this series, and we're committed for the long haul. This program is great at rewarding our customers for their weekly racing efforts. Our company is full of racers and performance enthusiasts and we make products specifically for those people.”

Ron Funfar, President of Hedman Hedders said, “We're proud to have been the first company to sign up for this program back in 1994 and we plan to stay with them for the duration. They add value year after year by expanding the race markets to us, which would have otherwise been impossible for us to do on our own.”

In 2002, Jacob Rutledge, who raced in the Sportsman class at Atlanta Dragway, took home a bonus check for $5,000 with his overall win of the Mallory Cup. In addition, he carried with him the entire 2003 season a sponsorship from Mr. Gasket. Not too shabby for a guy who raced a '79 Ford Capri, and only had to make sure he had placed the correct decals on his car and purchased the products from the participating sponsors. And he wasn't the only one who took home big money. In fact, the series awards the 20 track champions, out of which five are chosen from a drawing to be eligible for an additional $10,000 in awards. In 2003, Dana Thompson from National Trails Raceway in Ohio won the award and the $5,000 check.

Ressa says, “To be able to partner with the many companies that we work with, who know the true heroes of our sport, and are willing to reward them, is a reward to us all in itself. We intend to keep aggressively building the Contingency Connection for years to come.”

For more information, and to find out how you can also take home some money of your own, check out their website at www.contingencyconnection.com .