my .02.
first of all, if the bmw driver wanted to see your line, why not offer to take him for a ride?
in my region ( nnjr/pca ) the instructor corps and upper run group drivers do that all the time.
secondly, as a pca instructor, i tell all my students, read your policy and if you decide that you cannot not afford to ball your car up, maybe another sport would be more appropriate.
btw--- jupe, still would like you to go for a ride with me ( dave K )

 

Don't take this as a personal flame, but I'm guessing you don't drive on the track (DE's or otherwise) based on your view. As soon as people start "going after" someone that had an incident with them on the track in a DE, DE's are dead and we can all sit at home and pretend to drive on an XBOX 360 instead. I trust you've read through the countless posts above from the track guys that have chimed in since this was cross posted to the DE/Racing forum. As was said multiple times above, if you can't afford to walk away from your car no matter who is "at fault", please do the rest of us a favor and stay home.

 

The death of personal liability!! I think he should go after Porsche because the cars breed aggression!... now I KNOW I need to kill my subscription to this inane discussion.

 

Anytime we can coordinate! 38D is trying to convince me to sign up for NNJR WG in Aug, so you might see me there (though likely just for Sat/Sun).

 

Don't go after the BMW driver, his pockets aren't deep enough. Go after BMW for making a car that can't stay with a 996 without crashing. Go after his parents for making him (maybe that was a mistake too, and you should always be sued for your mistakes). Oh, and on the way home, stop by McDonald's for a nice hot coffee...

 

On the bright side, the damage is plastic only and the beautiful metal fenders are untouched. Heck, living here in Manhattan, replacing/repainting the front and or rear bumpers every year or two is just something I've gotten used too. But man, I'd be nuts if the metal had been bent. Fortunately, again, yours wasn't.

As for liability, it's a track. Life throws you lemons...make lemonade. You're alive, he's alive. If it were me, I'd step up and pay for the damage I caused to another car. But then again, my father raised me with a deep set of values, and I can afford to pay for my mistakes.

 

Keep it on the streets, Fellas.. lol!

 

Glad no one was hurt!

I have State Farm and they will NOT cover your car if it is driven off road. They consider a race track off road. I also have been shopping around and no insurance company I can find will cover a car off road such as a race track. Also timed events are considered racing and not covered.

I was just about to purchase the track insurance for DE's that has been talked about on here but now that guy left the company that was doing this DE track insurance and the whole thing seemed rather flaky the way it was laid out anyway.

 

If asking the guy that admitted to crashing into my expensive car for help fixing it is what's wrong with this country, we're in real trouble. I've already suggested that a perfectly good solution is that the wrecked M3 would probably cover the cost of repairs to the OP's car, so if nothing else, we know that we're talking about a person that truly does have something to offer.

Stepping foot onto the grounds of a track doesn't absolve you from all personal liability, and while I'm not a lawyer, I'm not sure someone can sign over their "right to sue", if you will, to a third party.

In any case, I guess I'm not quite as willing to shrug my shoulders and forget about the incident as some seem to be.

 

Sorry for OT but it reminds me of a story I herd not too long ago about the father of a pro athlete suing everybody for his son's death. Son had too much to drink in a bar, son takes off with his car, son too drunk and swerves on the road, son hit tow truck helping a car on the side of the road and dies. Now father is suing bar for making son drunk and letting him drive, father is also suing stranded car on the side of the road and tow truck company for being there.

 

THEN FOR GOD'S SAKE STAY AWAY FROM THE TRACK

The rules are very clear. You have zero expectiation of anyone else paying you anything even if they are completely at fault. The only people who are even coming close to suggesting otherwise are those who have never set foot on a track, or at least if they have they have not read the waiver and are not paying attention to what all the track rats know.

Could you push the legal arguments and challenge the waiver? SURE, nothing is 100% foolproof in the legal arena, but you would do so at the expense of the sport that we all love.

Please, keep driving the p-car to starbucks and stay away from the tracks . . .

 

I believe that's the norm for track folks, at least from my limited experience from friends of mine.

 

I agree, lets introduce more civil suits. It won't result in increased track costs and or insurance premiums. Those costs are too low as it is.

 

I think that the response to the question asked in this Posting has been great except that we are starting to deviate to from the original question. I have no intension of suing anyone; I feel that going after someone in court over this incident would be terrible. The saddest thing is that I am sure that one of our fellow lawyers is trying to email me now letting me know I have rights, and I might even be emotionally distressed by this incident. Suing does ruin it for everyone and filing an insurance claim only makes things worse.

I think that there is also a clear difference between the racers and DE guys. The racers crash more often and wrecking become a little more common. The DE guys like to keep there car waxed so when incidents occur they ask questions.

As for having a car that you can just throw away I would be hard pressed to find anyone that has that a vehicle they do not care about.

On the other hand does anyone have a rear bumper for a 996?

 

I agree with the above. I race a NA 944 that if its gets totalled I walk away (if I can walk) and look for a new car no matter how the incident happened.
I use my 996TT for DE's and mostly instructing but feel the same way, **** happens on the track all the time no matter the event no matter the run group, YOU are responsible for YOUR own car no matter what the situation.
You are kidding yourself if you think someone who was dumb enough to hit you on the track will be dumb enough to pay up.
Although, on an aside, if I made a pilot error and caused an incident I would feel horrible, I know most people on the track when I am driving and I would try to pay "my share" if I could. My 2 cents and that's all its worth!
tom