Well, the 2006 Mini USA contingency program has been announced.

good news and bads news.

The good news is, its back, and, pretty much the same with one exception.

The bad news is Divsionals are listed as $200, 100, 50 for Divisional Championships only.

They do not list a Prosolo Challenge per event or a Prosolo season points contingency at all this year either. I thought they listed the year end Prosolo last year, but, I cannot remember for sure.

Craig Wilcox

Go to www.miniusa.com then select Motor on, then freestyle racing, then win race money from Mini. Then select the program and there you go.

 

Also, I wrote a quick email to Susan Lee about possibly adding the Prosolo Season Points, Challenge and Season Challenge to the contingency.

Susan.Lee@miniusa.com is her email.

Heck, the Prosolo Season Points per class is SO much bigger than winning a Divisional. And, the Prosolo Super Challenge is also a HUGE honor for each event, not to mention the season points race for the Prosolo.

You would think, this has to be an oversight, maybe they don't understand the Prosolo system.

Oh well, don't get me wrong, I DEEPLY appreciate their support of our sport, but, just wish the Pro had more respect and recognition.

 

So I looked to last years stuff to compare:

Divisionals went down from 500, 250, 125 to 200, 100, 50. To me, this makes sense since the divisionals get less entries per event.

National Tours and Pro Solos went down slightly for 3rd place from $125 to $100 per event.

The Solo National Championships doubled from 1000, 500, 250 to $2000, 1000, 500. That is a huge increase.

It sounds like the ProSolo Finale gets grouped into the regular Pro Solo events, so no big season finale contingency. Unfortunately right now there is no year end championship bonus either. I talked to Susan (who doesn't determine the payouts) at MiniUSA and she asked the person who does and apparantly he gets his information from the SCCA website to determine what warrants payout and how much. So I would say that the SCCA website probably doesn't explain these things clearly enough. Susan did say that he was going to look into it and to possibly look for an updated program.

Realistically, the Pro Solo Finale didn't do much to justify large payouts this year. What did GS have, 9 competitors compared to 40 or 50 at the Solo Nationals? There have probably been better turn out at Divisionals. However, you did have to qualify for it, and the 9 competitors were pretty tough competition. I don't know.

All in all, I don't think it is still the best program out there for Solo2/Pro Solo, so I am not going to complain about it.

Jake

 

Good info Jake! I think your input to Mini will make a difference if its possible on the Pro's. It sounds like they just don't understand how the Pro's really work.

Craig

 

Speaking of Tours, I don't see either of you signed up for San Diego. Are you 2 going?

 

Where do you guys do/get your magnetics/graphics from for the MINI wings or MINIUSA.com (what font is that?)?

I see that we actually should have gotten some money from a SEdiv last year..oh well!

Per

 

Per

www.soloracer.com has the MiniUSA magnets.

James

Yes, I'll be there for sure, co-driving with Grant Barclay. I see you now have an 06!! Its going to be fun!! Can't say for sure if Jake will be there or not.

 

James

I'll be there for sure too. Glen Hernandez will be co-driving with me this year, and we'll be doing all the West Coast stuff. Glad to see you got your '06 ready to go

See you guys there!

Jake

 

Or this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-M...5760QQtcZphoto

 

Are Abe & Jason coming as well?

 

Jake mentioned they might not. It sounds like Glen Hernandez is running with Jake now, so, things should be interesting in GS on the West Coast again just like last year!!

 

I haven't talked directly to Abe, but Jason mentioned that with the Pro Solo series having only the first 2 out of 3 events counting, it may make sense for them to just run in Atwater, Wendover and Packwood. All of which are a fair amount closer than Southern California from Washington. I'm not sure who else from the Pacific Northwest are thinking the same thing.

Jake

 

direct link
http://www.miniusa.com/downloads/MIN...ds_Program.pdf

 

Direct link
http://www.miniusa.com/downloads/MIN...ds_Program.pdf
miniusa.com/downloads/MINI_Racing_Awards_Program.pdf

 

You know what? It just hit me. The thing is, on the Mini USA website, it says, "National Championship". SO, that could be deciphered as BOTH the Prosolo "National Championship" as well as the Solo II "National Championship" since they are both decided in "Topeka" as noted on the contingency schedule. Right?

 

Abe pointed something out to me last night... Minimum number of entries are WAY up. 5 entries for first, 8 for second and 10 for 3rd. It is unlikely we will meet these for most events this year, Particularly H Stock. Can they really be requiring this level of participation for Solo?

 

Keith - I think this is a rare occasion where you are mistaken

At the bottom of page five (the page that outlines the award money) it says participation is the same as last year - 3 finishers - 1st place, 4 finishers - 1st and 2nd, 5 finishers - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

edit: I see where your info is from. That would be pretty harsh for us. I hope it is not the case - like I said, it has other information elsewhere on the sheets.

Jake

 

I just got this responce from MINIUSA...


Keith-
Thanks for pointing this out. We will get this corrected.

For 2006, awards will be made based on the following finishers:
1. 5 for 1st
2. 8 for 1st and 2nd
3. 10 for 1,2,and 3.

Thanks again and good luck this season.
Sincerely,
Jeff Stracco]
MINI Product Manager

 

Are you Fkin kidding me? So, they are changing it now that you've inquired? This can't happen right before the start of the season. I never would have picked the car up if I had known they would change it to this plan.

Why!?!?

 

Jake

Did you print this out before they made the change?

This is a bunch of BS. It was perfectly fine the way it was, why would they change it now after people have purchased cars and prepped for the season?

 

they haven't made the change yet, at least not when I open the pdf. It is pretty clear on the second page that they intend the to expand the number of required participants. The old participation requirements seem to be leftovers from the previous form on page five.

 

They already deleted and changed it on page 5.

This is completely unethical on their part IMO to make a change after it has been released, changing the plan after its released is not something that should happen.

At the same time, I don't want to bite the hand that feeds us, but, they have to understand our frustration with the change after its release

 

On it's way

 

Yep, more BS. You can call it contingency, but with MINI only paying for Divisional Championships and requiring 5 entrants just to pay the 1st place finisher at other races, you can call the program dead.

Write letters. Maybe we can get them to realize that part of the reason we're in MINI's is because of what they were offering.

BTW - Robert Carpenter is back in GS in his black Toyota. It's faster than ever and he's determined to put it back on top. Make that 8 entrants before any MINI's get contingency.

 

Anyone know when they actually posted the 2006 contingency plan? I see it was linked here on 1/21. Not that it really matters, but I think most of us made our plans for the season before they posted the program for this year.