Thinking about entry fees paying out prize money in
Endurance is a not new idea. In fact the GAHR had a 50K$ purse paid by the
competitiors.
It was paid out to the top 10 due to the creators
founder, Randy Scheiding. The race was falling apart due to a lack of
promised infrastructure like Vets, Logistal Support...etc... We had to
institute a daily riders fee of $5 per day to pay those bills which was not part
of the orginal agreement, and the Riders Committee instituted those fees.
That kept the race going.
Due to the foresight of Randy the race made it to
Sacramento. He put the $50K in an escrow account and said if you want it,
take the race to Sacramento. That was the impetus the GAHR needed at the
time to keep going.
No one made money...the promoters, the vendors and
those that invested in the dream of 76. They all lost money. The
only one who 'may' have made money was the winner, Virl Norton who got 25K$ for
first place and had sponsorships. If taken into account what he lost in
wages he surely did not make money that summer. Everyone else 'lost'
money.
But, it was a ride of a lifetime and well worth the
stresses and money it cost to do it...
Give new ideas a chance. Just think what RC
would be chattering about if what happened in 1976 happened in
2010?
