prizemoney

[Noo Noo]

Hi all, I just read that montoya got 2.5 million for winning indy, in little under 3 hours, not a bad hourly rate, even the guys starting off the back row, and crashed out on the first lap got 200k!!.
So, does montoya and co get to keep all there prizemoney, or does it all go to the team/owner/s.
Would like to hear any prizemoney/winning stories, I know the toyota racing series puts up a car and 20k for the series winner, what sort of thing have you won through your careers fellas?

Graham McRae had his only start in the 500 in 1973, qualifying in 13th place, credited with 16th place and being awarded rookie of the year.
When he was out here the following summer for the Tasman Series he gave a talk at the Wellington Car Club about his previous years racing including his experience at Indy. 1973 was, of course, a terrible race with all it's carnage and there was a lot of talk of measures to stop anything like it happening again. There was serious consideration being given to drastically reducing engine size and even to building chicanes on the straights.
In reply to a question from the audience for his thoughts on the subject he gave an interesting answer. He said it was calculated that in terms of prize money, product endorsements and future drives, winning the race was worth somewhere in the region of 1 million US dollars. That was a colossal amount of money in those days and was, in GMs opinion, for an afternoons work, not unreasonable to put your life on the line for.

David Hunter