Greentree

Many of us who like to go to HPDEs have bought State Farm auto insurance. Their policy form doesn't mention anything about driving on race tracks. Thus, State Farm would provide coverage if a car was damaged or destroyed during an HPDE. I have never claimed on my policy (except for a cracked windshield), but had little doubt I would be covered if the worst were to happen.

Recently I got a notice that my upcoming renewal was being replaced by a new "policy offer". When I got it in the mail, it came with a new policy form. They asked me to read it carefully. Sure enough, the form has an exclusion which excludes coverage --both liability and property damage-- for losses incurred on a race track involving high speed driving activity among other things. It does offer an exception for low speed driving activity. I suppose the intent is to cover parade laps, car shows, exhibitions, and the like. I'd be hard pressed to claim that an HPDE is a low speed driving activity. Maybe their computer flagged my Porsche GT3 or maybe everybody is getting the new form.

Nevertheless, a track buddy of mine didn't get this new policy offer and instead got his usual renewal certificate. It turns out that years ago he had purchased a since discontinued endorsement which guaranteed renewal of his policy regardless of his claim history. If you have this endorsement, you might have dodged the bullet. But for the rest of us --oh well.

My costs for track day have now more than doubled unless I want to go barefoot.

Spyerx

All of my State Farm policies in Cali (on all cars) have had this exclusion for years... Welcome to the club!

jackb911

Just a heads up regarding the guaranteed renewal thing - State Farm does offer guaranteed renewal to certain customers with good claim histories but the company can add or delete endorsements, or update to the latest policy form which can modify what is covered or not covered. Policy forms do change from time to time, usually due to State legislation or unusually negative loss experience like $10,000 stereo equipment thefts in $5,000 Honda Civics or sporty cars damaged or totaled in on-track incidents.

Hopefully this clears up any confusion on this issue.

(I retired from State Farm as an Auto Claims Manager after 33+ years of service)

NAM VET

I suspect most insurance companies now have some sort of track exclusion. I have been a USAA member since the early '60's, and with a house fire, and a burnt TR8, and other minor claims, always found them helpful and fair with me. About 30 years ago, my Huffaker modified Triumph TR8, the rare one with the 3.5 liter aluminum Buick motor burned in my garage due to a fuel leak. A traditional way for an English sports car to commit Hari Kari. Plus all the stuff in my garage. The adjustor had them send me a check for a lost TR7. I told USAA it was actually a very rare TR8, and USAA just told me to give them a new value, and without question, sent me several thousand more right away.

If you ever have a serious claim, you want a company who will support their policy holder. They did and do for me.

As for me, when in the past I staged at the Christmas tree for a drag race in our Superformance Cobra, or left pit road in the Cobra, I always knew if something happened, it was all on me.

I no longer do any track of any sort, but i think if I were to do it, it would not be in an irreplaceable car, like a GT3. I would get something like a replaceable Miata.

Gofishracing

yes- all have exclusions now- one company "may" honor a claim. Changing world. no more DE coverage with regular car insurance. My first time in 25+ years - no included DE coverage.

rbahr

In the fine state of MA, insurance companies have been excluding track events for a while. Folklore has it that some yahoo put in several claims in succession and that annoyed off his company and others...

CosmosMpower

Texas had a state policy instead of their national policy. Since there was a dust up between the Texas State Insurance regulators and State Farm where State Farm wanted to raise rates which were deemed to be unreasonable and it went to court where State Farm won the state of TX got pissed and put their new policy requests on hold for quite some time.

I guess that hold has been released so now they are switching their TX policies over to the national policies which do have the HPDE/track exclusions.

bpu699

I don't think state farm has covered DE for years... Unless this is state dependent. There are threads back to 2008 where people complained they weren't covered...

Seems hit and miss...

I would bet most folks would be willing to pay a premium for coverage... but they don't offer it.

Lockton/OnTrack, etc do offer it... but while not unaffordable, it aint cheap either. $60,000 in coverage, 5% deductible, is $300 bucks or so... Liability is $1500 on top of that...

Plan to look into it for next year...

There was one post on here I believe where 2 cars crashed at a DE, and each driver understood that its basically no fault as it was on a track.

Turns out one of the drivers filed with his insurance and it WAS covered. The insurer then went after the other driver for damages under subrogation...

I always thought that the PCA liability insurance WOULD cover a HPDE driver under such a scenario. The PCA policy insurance statement states that it covers the track/instructors/participants in the event of liability...

I am not saying that the PCA insurance would pay if you crashed your car. But they do provide liability protection if you kill someone/etc, right? In that case, if a drivers insurance decides to ignore the signed damage waivers, shouldn't the liability insurance pay to defend a "participant"?

Otherwise, I don't understand what if anything the PCA insurance does protect you from. The insurance clearly states that it covers "participants."

Bo

bpu699

Addendum:

See post #25 below, 2014, per PCA:

http://www.planet-9.com/automotive-o...wording-2.html

At least this source states that liability IS COVERED for drivers...

bruce987

I'm the track buddy GreenTree (Paul) talks about in his post. I've been with State Farm for about 46 years. Back in March of 2014 I totaled by 2005 GT3 at TWS. It was covered and then some; the value of it had gone up since I had bought it. State Farm knew exactly where it happened and never questioned me other than to ask if anyone was hurt. I was told that State Farm had offered something called GPO which basically states that no matter how many accidents I have they can never drop me. I confirmed this with my agent and he did verify that I had this coverage. Of course State Farm quit offering this since it was such a good deal. The other interesting thing is my insurance premium has not gone up. Now what does all this mean? Maybe I'm the lucky one and don't have to worry... I have not received any policy updates in decades, so I believe I'm grandfathered in. As for those who jumped on State Farm recently, I can only assume that they are revisiting those policies and bringing them in line with other insurance companies.

misterwaterfall

Almost every company files their policies on a state level as every state has their own insurance commissioner governing these things. They mainly look out for the consumer and also make sure there aren't any monopolistic practices going on, but this means that the policies can vary state to state for the same company.

YnotGT3

If you have State Farm, the (GRP) guaranteed renewable policy was discontinued January 1st in 2005 or 2006. If you have it NEVER (ask your Agent) change carriers as you will not get it back. No HPDE, timed events or high performance driving coverage is available from St Farm

bruce987

Thanks, yes its called GRP and I do have it. I have no plans on leaving State Farm.

Greentree

Well anyway, the party's over. I wanted to get the word out --especially to HPDE'ers in Texas.