RickBetterley

MA?? That would be great. I am in the Ellington/Fireman's Fund program since it is available in MA, but their communications could be better.
I remain optimistic.

JasonAndreas

I don't know the specifics (I can't find my pacer account info) but the lawsuit against the estate of Ben Keaton was just recently dismissed.

Mussl Kar

After reading this entire thread would I be right to think that in the event that you do stuff your car, and your every day insurance does pay, they will most likely dump you? Or jack your rates sky high?
They may also drop you if they find out you are driving on a race track?
The big question. What would an every day insurance carrier think if you showed them that you had another carrier(Snellings/Walters, etc.) just for track damage coverage?

DanS911

Whew!!
I just read every single one of 168 posts.
I am doing research for an article I want to write for a PCA newsletter on the subject.
Organizing all the info is a major part of the problem, and of course I don't want to give out any info that isn't fact.
I am good to go on the DE Insurance Companies, I still have my American Collectors policy in force until August and have the paper work in hand from Chris Maume w/ Snelling Walters and after reading all these posts will no doubt be going in that direction.

What I could use some help with is compiling a list of Insurers that YOU KNOW FOR SURE have the exclusion written in about events held on a race track.

Thanks in advance for any help, feel free to PM me or email me if you are uncomfortable posting here
DanSmithyman@Bellsouth.net

Bill935K3

Thanks for posting the Snelling/Great Lakes policy text,
Has anyone booked insurance with them? I sent ALL my data - photos etc etc 3 weeks before Lime Rock weekend and got a lot of excuses RE waiting for England to quote a Club Racing policy. Have not heard from them yet

Phokaioglaukos

Bill, I (and several others here) have DE insurance with Great Lakes. Sounds like you are asking them to create a race policy. That would take more time, I expect. Hope they (and others) do it. Keep us informed.

Qwickrick

Anyone know if they have coverage in NY?
Please keep me informed
Rick

DanS911

Thanks RG
I decided not to name names (companies) that have added exclusions for this particular article.
I might in the future though so I appreciate the first hand info.

Brian P

I think it depends on the state. When I made a claim in NJ, I was told that an "at-fault" accident counts as 4 points on your insurance history. After 9 points, the insurance company must mandatorily drop you. Every year, you get 2 points back. In addition, every year a company can drop anybody anybody that they like (maybe it was capped at some percentage of their customers) but for every person they drop, they must take on an additional 2 people of the same risk profile. I figured since most companies are trying to get out of NJ, this bid doesn't get hit too often.

Anyhow, given the 4 points for an at-fault accident, and the fact that many people don't have a completely faultless driving record, I think this is why many insurance guys tell us that they'll cover one screwup, but if we do it again, then we'll get dropped.

FWIW, my claim was actually made when my wife was driving the car (with an instructor in it). I think that perhaps because a woman was driving the car, they were more inclined to think that this wasn't a driving competition. Sexist, yes... but when it works for you, who's complaining? I was just surprised about how little they cared that the accident was on the racetrack.

Then again... our dismantlement of the tire wall cost about $12K. I figure that any major screwup on the street would likely involve other cars and probably put someone in the hospital for at least one day. Given the cost of today's medical care, $12K is a drop in the bucket to what an accident could add up to. I actually think track coverage should be somewhat cheaper than normal coverage because we usually have so much extra safety equipment and it's pretty damn rare that any of our off road excursions necessitate a trip to the hospital. Sure, the bent sheet metal may be a bit pricey because it's a Porsche, but that is a very small cost in the grand scheme of things.

DanS911

Wow Brian that's interesting.
Did they pay for the wall?

Brian P

The wall wasn't the part that cost 12K I never got a bill for bent armco, so I'm assuming the only thing that needed to be done there was to restack the tires.

TR6

I'm curious if your policy had any specific exclusions in it that would cause a DE not to be covered that were in force at the time of the accident. In my case, my recently amended auto policy states in the exclusions that any accident on a private race track is not covered whether it is drivers education or not.

Brian P

No. At the time, it had language like the following... An event would not be covered if
A. It was a competition or timed event. I believe there was language saying that a competition had to have prizes.
AND
B. It was at a racetrack or some other facility that was designed for racing

From this, I concluded that DE's would be covered because they are not timed events. Autocrosses and rallys would be covered because they are not at facilities designed for racing. (However, if your autocross is in the parking lot of a racetrack, all bets are off).

FYI, I'm not a lawyer so my interpretation of my policy may be completely incorrect.

When we reported it to the insurance company, I could tell there were a few big questions that they really cared about. Once we answered them, the questions stopped and they said we were covered.
1) Were any other cars involved?
2) Was anybody else in the car?
3) Was anybody hurt?

Bull

Brian, as I recall your claim was 4 or more years ago, right?. A lot of policy wording has been changed since then.

TR6

Mine just changed as of the begining of this month.