January 28th, 2015
ATI Performance Products, Inc. has decided that they will discontinue their participation in the NHRA Contingency Program for 2015. What ATI will NOT discontinue is its support and payments to the racers who compete in the NHRA National and Divisional Event races. ATI has decided to self-administer a contingency program for 2015.
ATI has been a part of the NHRA Contingency program since 1977. In the past 38 years, a lot has changed with racing, the NHRA, and the world, but the constant has been that ATI supports the racers who support the company.
Many of you are aware of various other companies dropping out of the program over the past few years and have seen the midway at National Events shrink from that and consolidations. Division 1 racers might have also noticed that outside of the tire companies, the 80 foot ATI “big rig” was the only NHRA supporting manufacturer on the midway to support you.
The cost of the NHRA program has continued to rise while the benefits have declined. The most important benefit regarding contingency payments was that an NHRA official be on hand to confirm that the winner and R/U of the classes complied with the rules of the contingency program. Payments to racers by the manufacturers amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. We decided that we needed to manage the last piece of this program ourselves.
What do contingency rules and payments mean to ATI as a manufacture? For ATI they mean we are paying a racer who has supported our company as follows:
1) The Car Owner / Racer has bought an ATI Transmission or Converter in the past 3-5 years or has sent the unit in for an overhaul after that time frame from when it was new.
2) The racer has a clearly displayed current Transmission and or Converter decal on both sides of the car, they are visible from 90 degrees, are not cut, stacked and are not reproduced in a different size or color.
3) Decals are in place for Round 1 and throughout the entire event.
4) Racer does not have a competitor’s decal on the car for the same product(s) being claimed from ATI.
5) Racer has filled the Claim Form, Ad release form and required W9 form.
All 5 of these rules have been in place for the past 4 seasons and items 2-4 are part of NHRA’s regular contingency rules. The same 5 bullet point items will be in place for 2015 with one addition.
New addition for 2015 – ATI will require a photo with your claim. In the photo we need to clearly see the ATI Valid Contingency(s), and the side of the car in victory lane or the tracks designated awards area. You can also include links or attachments of the car on the track. While we will be using the “honor system” that decals were in place for the entire event, ATI will continue to do our own due diligence as well. Any owner or racer that knowingly submits a claim who did not meet the decal requirements, at ATI’s discretion, will not be eligible for a contingency payment, indefinitely. ATI wants to pay our racers, we are a family business, and will not tolerate anyone trying to cheat the system, and ultimately the company.
To win an NHRA National or Divisional event is a big deal! There are tens of thousands of racers who compete and only a small fraction are able to win. This is why we care passionately about the ATI decal(s) and the rules we have in place. If ATI products are in a car that has won an NHRA event, we want to be able to show off not only ATI products but also your accomplishments! We are only able to do that in an advertisement where the ATI decal(s) are clearly visible and the policy has been met.
ATI’s 2015 Contingency Program, outlined in this letter, will be available at
www.atiracing.com/contingency shortly. The process should be easy, straight forward, and best of all, take less time for you to get paid!
We thank you for your continued support and hope to be sending a contingency check your way in 2015, and for many years to come!
Thank you to all of our customers and supporters,
The Entire ATI Staff and Family.