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Insurance companies close track day and advanced training loopholes
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If you've taken your car to the track for either an open lapping session or an advanced driver education course, you're undoubtedly aware of the potential risks. While most insurance policies say that the car isn't covered if it's participating in a "timed event," that's all changing now that track time is becoming more common.
A report by The New York Times goes into detail about the loophole and how the big insurers are taking measures to include high-performance driving schools and track days. One interviewee has decided to stop his weekend excursions altogether after learning about the policy changes, and more disturbingly, when another player in the piece asked his insurance company if his Subaru WRX STI was covered during a track event, his policy was dropped six months later.
While the well-to-do are largely immune from the new terms, purchasing dedicated track-day toys or additional insurance, those of us with shallow pockets might have to think twice before we wring our rides out as God intended.
[Source: NYT via TTAC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
knightuc1992 7:37PM (10/20/2008)
I guess we can call this sequel "The Fast And The Surcharged"...
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DL 7:39PM (10/20/2008)
Mike Barr, a dentist from Palm Beach, Fla - He's real bright for calling his insurance and probably shows up with too much blue tape.
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DL 7:44PM (10/20/2008)
http://www.palmbeach-smiles.com/dr__barr's_biography.htm
In full racing suit too!
mike barr 11:30PM (10/21/2008)
Mike Barr, here. Geez... you guys sent my website stats off the charts! LOL! I was wondering where a a sudden 200 visit increase over an average day came from!
You should realize that most newspaper articles are limited in scope and space.
First, I'll dispell the blue tape accusation. :) The front of my car (2004 Subaru STi) is proudly FULL of chips. I had a Lotus Elise that also got its share of chips despite the clear bra that came with it from the factory. :)
So... I had my auto policy with USAA for 24 years. I never had a ticket, never had a crash, never had ANY kind of claim... for 24 years. I had a perfect record.
I had already purchased a track day policy from American Collectors Insurance, which oddly enough is a company endorsed by... you guessed it... USAA.
I had heard (from many sources) that traditional auto insurance often covered track incidents AS LONG AS it wasn't RACING. Racing was defined as a "timed event." HPDEs are not timed. So, being an honest and straight up guy, I thought I'd check it out with USAA. They told me they'd get back to me. And, they did. They called me to tell me they would not cover me in the event of an incident on the track.
I called out of curiousity. I fully expected they would say no. No problem. I understand, I told them. I have a policy with the company they endorse, American Collectors. And, so I thought it was a closed question.
I was wrong. A few months later, I got a notice of cancellation. I called to ask why. They told me it was because of me "racing." I explained that I don't "race," and did not understand how this affects me on PUBLIC ROAD driving.
I asked if my 24-year perfect record meant anything. They basically told me, "too bad." It was simply because I asked about track days... as opposed to what they told that reporter (who is a track junkie, incidentally). They told him I was dropped "for other reasons." Yeah, right! A perfect 24-year record!
As for the racing suit.... I realize there's not much chance of me going up in a ball of flames at an HPDE. But, the chances are not zero. BUT... I kinda value my skin. I also wear a full-face helmet. And, I even put the visor down. I value my face and my eyes. I wear nomex gloves, too. My hands are very valuable to me. Overkill? Perhaps. My wife calls me "Mr. Safety." :D I figure I can afford a very nice nomex suit, and my skin is worth the price paid for "skin insurance."
You may enjoy my other website more than my dental site, if you're car nuts: www.RacingDentist.com.
Mike
Danny 7:43PM (10/20/2008)
Great. I'll let my car loose on public roads then.
So what if I kill a family? I'll be insured.
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Serge K. 7:53PM (10/20/2008)
Unfortunately, you said it best.
Insurance companies do not give a flying f(*& about you or your family, or anybody else for that. Rather, they care about their "bottom line". They would rather have you killed than keep paying to fix your car.
blogged to death 8:26PM (10/20/2008)
Your normal insurance was never quoted to include track days where cars can get damaged b/c when you drive beyond yours or the cars limits. Frankly the track is a safe environment to do so b/c there is plenty of safety provisions built into the track, tire walls, gravel traps, runoff area, standby workers, EMT and fire fighters, plus your safety gear in helmet, head support, gloves and sometimes an experienced instructor to help stop you from making the mistake or preventing it from being worse (I've had a student spin me out in a high speed chicane with walls on both sides - he listened to me and did "both feet in" at the proper moment to slide the car straight and stay on the track rather than have the car go into a tank slapper trying to recover and hit the wall (which usually happens at that point).
If your idea is you'll drive like an idiot on the street and endanger everyone else - likely Darwin will cut that gene pool short. Track insurance is pretty darn cheap at $70/$80 per $10k w/ $1k deductible. I got to see it all in action last weekend where someone bought $18k (value of their car) and he had an accident at the track and is covered. Cost him $140 for insurance for that weekend and he was driving his daily driver. After watching him long before he did this I could tell he was eventually going to go off - just where I wasn't so sure. When I instruct at these events (and I have students who drive $100k cars) I purposely hold back speed until they are ready to add it incrementally. But there are always those who are just not mature enough to do this sport and they will always waste a lot of money for nothing - not really a better driver - just their ego thinks so and after totaling a couple cars they do eventually get the idea that they suck and don't understand the laws of physics.
Don't think I back the insurance companies as they have one purpose and that is to make money not be charitable (only they are when they get a good something out of it more than they spent on the charity). However - track events tend to cause crashes from poor drivers - but it's always safer for these people to crash at the track in safety than on the street like was inferred by this post.
Vintage 10:37PM (10/20/2008)
Or just drive fast on uninhabited public roads. Know the road. Know the places traffic can enter it. Get a friend at both ends, and have a blast. >shrug<
I've gone over 140mph on public roads without ever endangering anyone except myself. It's fun, cheap, and safe for everyone else if you do it right.
blogged to death 12:59AM (10/21/2008)
Thank you for being a participant in the national raffle for organ donor-ship - doing your fast and furious driving impersonations often enough will increase your likelihood of winning!
Public roads are not for racing - no matter how much you think you are an expert and believe that a "known" road is safe is a b/s excuse. I've read of plenty of the public road racers who've gone through their favorite corner at speed only to find out that the road is never the same all the time. Just some sand gets dumped or someone leaves a nice oily patch and seen many a Porsche reduced to salvage yard status and owner in the hospital b/c they thought racing and high speed driving on public roads is safe. Just plain reckless.
Jeff Banks 7:57PM (10/20/2008)
Most guys I know who do track days usually have a dedicated beater of some kind with a roll cage slapped in it. Usually an unregistered salvage title of some sort. It really isn't worth the risk of damaging the bodywork of your road car and losing your insurance and warrany. Trust me, if you make a claim a block from a track, they will deny it. I hear a lot of companies are looking online at forums for track day pictures and putting plates on their blacklists.
Oh yeah, I totally agree with Danny in his above post ^
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AZZO45b 11:27PM (10/20/2008)
Jeff...I know what you are saying (in general). BUT let me know where I can find a dedicated beater-Lotus Elise that I can prep with a roll cage!!!
I'll bet those Lotus Club members taking their Elise & Exige models out onto the track for lapping days are using their "daily drivers".
BlogTo Death's comment of track insurance... not all track events offer the insurance. Plus would they cover everything... & how would your primary insurance company NOT find out about the on track damage?
Also the AB story on the Nissan GT-R & its built in "big brother" electronic sensors... its getting harder & harder to get your car onto a track.
JayP 7:59PM (10/20/2008)
We'd been expecting the hammer to drop for a while. Event coordinators have been investigating companies who will offer DE insurance.
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integradude 8:05PM (10/20/2008)
another example of the man trying to squish our fun
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blogged to death 8:15PM (10/20/2008)
Track insurance is pretty cheap. No deep pockets are needed and you only buy it per each event. Usually it is around $70-$80 per $10k in coverage with a $1k deductible.
If you don't have insurance don't overdrive your car or your ability and approach those limits slowly and carefully.
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AZZO45b 11:45PM (10/20/2008)
I'm sure the bigger driving schools have this (Skip Barber, Russell, Track Time,etc) but the majority of my track days/ lapping days were done at a small local SCCA track where the organizer of the events collected our $$$ & then rented the track.
blogged to death 1:03AM (10/21/2008)
You can purchase insurance from a 3rd party and not part of an event. There are some 5 different companies that sell it.
With respect to the SCCA, NASA, Car Guys, TrakAddix, Car Clubs, etc. all purchase insurance for their liability from the drivers and from the track - they do not provide it for the drivers from damaging their own cars and that was the coverage that was removed.
tankd0g 1:47AM (10/21/2008)
Insurance for the event was never an issue. The issue is insurance companies dropping you if they find out you have been to an event with your car.
VWsat 8:18PM (10/20/2008)
I thought the same thing, but maybe it is a subtle pun on the Nurburgring
Since we know that Autoblog proofreads carefully and would never make a mistake like that.
I also agree with Danny on the racing on public roads. If you have no coverage on a dedicated track event, people will race in suburbia instead. What's the loss? If the insurance company suspects racing, they may or may not pay, but the possibility of payment is better than 100% certainty of no payment on a dedicated track day. (Except maybe the guilt of killing an innocent bystander, but how many people actually thing through the consequences of their actions....including the President)
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BoxerFanatic 8:44PM (10/20/2008)
I figured someone had come up with some sort of solution that they can afford to apply. Sounds like they have. Isn't the free market great? Track day insurance, right at the track.
And a track day beater is probably the best real option. Street legal and registered to get to and from the track, pull the plates (for those nasty tattle-tales with their pictures), put the pedal down, and then box it back up, and drive back home. Liability only, or basic coverage otherwise.
Keep the nice car nice, make the fast car light and quick. Taking the daily driver to the track is probably do-able, but of course it is risky.
And regular street insurance is never going to like the risk of a motorsports event. I am sure an actuary has figured out just how much more likely a big or a small claim is on a track, than the street, even as unpredictable as the street can be.
And I get and appreciate the device used to illustrate the dis-incentive of denying track coverage and moving competitive driving to the street, but please don't. It is an interesting rhetorical device to explore the logical ends of things, but the risk is very real, and will hit someone's home.
Then logic is out the window when someone's loved one is gone, or hurt.
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jonathan charak 8:50PM (10/20/2008)
I'm an actuary... never saw a study on track days (but I don't work in AL). But if we allowed track days in the coverage, then we would be subsidizing a small percentage of the population with the rest of the population. When the public would find out they would be outraged.... especially since we would implicitly be condoning and subsidizing the cost of an inherently dangerous hobby