rcg412

Just spoke with Laurel DE... they have changed their policy, now they only offer 30 track days for 1Y. Px was $2230 for 55K of coverage.

They said there were A LOT of claims last year, and it was no longer profitable to offer 10 or 20 day... I got the sense they are really struggling.

Anyone Have any other DE insurance options... if I cannot get DE insurance this effectively kills the DE Experience for me.

Thanks,

Ross

RickBetterley

Hi Ross
I'm not so sure about the struggling observation, unless it refered to struggling to get the product right (that is, they had a bad year claims-wise and have had to revamp the product and price to get it profitable).
I believe the 30-day requirement is correct; I don't know the thinking behind it but it is going to be a problem; how many DE particpatnts do 30 days? Not many.
I don't know of another source, unfortunately.
This is not good for DE.

LVDell

This is the whole reason I made the comments I did in another thread recently about DE insurance. Either self-insure or hope that your regular ins covers you. But for a company to not be bound by the laws of the US they do NOT have to pay out if they get in too deep. Maybe they would. But, do you want to take that chacne? What happens if there is ANOTHER rash of DE/Track claims that puts them in a situation where they have to pay out more than they took in? Still want to take that chance?

TR6

What's the conventional wisdom/experience of your everyday street insurance coverage paying out on a claim from a DE incident? I'd heard that as long it was not a timed or competitve event, that it would be covered as it is considered a "driving school". But I haven't actually asked my company directly because I'm afraid of giving them the impression that I drive my car on a race track on any regular basis.

LVDell

Without saying who or what I can tell you that I have talked to a few people here on the boards that have had to go round and round with their ins company and got the claim covered but then dropped or told that DE would NEVER be covered again. Ins companies are starting to write new language at your 6-month renewal that EXCLUDES these events.

ltc

Self Insure.

You need to be on track with a vehicle that you can wad up and either fix or walk away from.

This was advice given to me a while back.

Phokaioglaukos

Greg, grab your policy and find the phrase that excludes coverages for racing. When you find that you have only a few lines around it to see whether it also excludes DEs. There is a clear trend in the industry to exclude anything that happens on a track, whether or not it's racing. If you are one of the few lucky ones with a policy that does not now exclude DE, watch your renewals for a change and consider that a DE incident, although not exlcuded, could still lead to a refusal to pay if the carrier argues that it was preparation for racing, which is generally excluded. If you have driven in autocross (an excluded timed event for most policies), your DE experience may be viewed as prep, and coverage denied. If you have the exclusion now, you are warned.

rcg412

Self insurance is seems like the only (and best?) option... Looks like separate track car for me...

mitch236

30 days is one weekend a month with a couple extra days for longer events. Most people I know do that many days a year. We seem to be in a transition period for insurance. DE insurance issues are fairly new since for many years most guys had a reasonably inexpensive car and shunts were less frequent. Now it is not uncommon to have a 100k car wadded up. Major insurance companies are protecting themselves. At some point there may be enough demand to get the major players attention. Until then, either self insure or pay for 30 days.

Bull

DON'T rely on what is said by others or "heard". You can't generalize with this issue. READ your policy, that is all that matters here. And check your policy at every renewal, as this is changing quickly with many companies.

mitch236

Be careful even if you don't have exclusionary vocabulary. If you make a claim while on track, from what I've heard, you will be dropped and finding insurance will be very expensive. Either self insure or use Laurel.

And the insurance companies are getting good at figuring out if you were at the track so the days of dragging the car out to the street and then calling the cops are over.

Bull

While nobody should rely on it, my experiece has been that after a DE accident is covered, the specific vehicle and activity have been excluded from the policy, not cancellation of the entire policy.

The "days of dragging the car out to the street and calling the cops" should never have existed, and being caught doing that can make one's life really difficult, as being caught at insurance fraud should!

dave morris

Hi Mitch,
I think this might be a bit of an exaggeration ... at least it is based on my experience. I know it has happened ... but I can't recall ever seeing a 100k car wadded up at any DE I have ever attended. Don't mean to be a nit-picker, but I just don't think it's common at all.

mitch236

Hey Dave, no problem. I have seen a 996 TT go into the wall coming out of turn 6 at Homestead right in front of me. You may be right, I'm just repeating what Maura at American Collector's Insurance company in New Jersey told me was the reason they don't write policies any more. The loss ratio is way too high.

BTW, did you notice how many 997 GT-3's were at Sebring? I counted 6. Most of the front runners in DE were driving late model Porsche's. I'm sure each would be valued at 80 and up.

Bull

Agreed, that is the way to go. Fortunately, I don't have a problem with 30+ days/year.