Gregster

This question was asked on a local form I frequent
I've never thought of that. In theory can you be sued and held liable for hitting someone or having them crash because you dumped oil?

My brain tells me no but it's an interesting topic

rlm328

This has been discussed often in the Racing and Driver's Ed section. Basically you put your car on the track anything that happens to your car is your responsibility.

bkrantz

Including damage you do to the track facility (and Armco can be expensive).

Turbodan

the waivers you sign before going on track usually waive the right to sue other drivers and to accept any damage to your car. That can go out the window for instance if a death occurs like with the Carrera GT in California at a track a few years ago...family sued everyone, and got paid.

ace37

I’m no lawyer but for simple damage I believe you have to show it was caused by an unusually strong standard of bad conduct. Terms like gross negligence come to mind. Perhaps Luigi or another can enlighten us!

996AE

This past weekend a knucklehead with more horsepower than talent passed me on the straight away only to over cook the next corner, lose control and go off roading. Instead of two feet in he tried to save in in the dirt and in doing so looped in back onto the track showering me and the others with a bucket load of sand and rocks.

Damage report.

One gopro(roof mount taken out by a large rock) odds, 999,000,000 to one direct hit.
One windshield
Numerous rock chips past the clear bra

Should said knucklehead have offered to pay for said damage to my car?

By the way he didnt.

Cost of a track day.

Advanced group RED where I have generally found fewer knuckleheads. This event, OnGrid was different. Lots of fast cars and lots of guys driving over their heads.

Sad part was this was just a HPDE.

Greg Phillips

Remember the first 2 letters in HPDE stand for high performance.

While it might have been a nice gesture to pay, he has no obligation to take care of any damage to your car. Each of us takes responsibility for what we bring to the track, it's the only fair way.

Who would like to be responsible for having to pay for repairs to a GT2 (or more) after spinning their 944Spec car?

Or dropping oil and have to pay for a full line of cars that may go off due to it.

No, each of us becomes self-insured. You can buy your own insurance separately if you feel you need it, but don't expect the other guy to pay.

Greg

jnkirk1974

Whenever I'm on track, I also take out an insurance policy for the days that I'm at that venue. I'm tracking at COTA on June 22-23 and I have a two day policy with Hagerty's.
Never hurts......

MarcD147

if I dont like the quality of driving in my rungroup I do either of two things:

• adjust my own driving to keep more distance from a particular risky person
• go home early (in case there are multiple people who drive badly)

I have actually done both...

matttheboatman

Great advice. Complaining to the stewards who are mostly volunteers creates bad blood and usually results in no change of behavior. One weekend I was so pissed, I literally followed a car around the ENTIRE session no more than a car length at every point on the track except the long straight with my lights flashing. Not one pass given. When I pulled in, the stewards had no clue what my problem was. I complained the car in front of me had a mechanical problem - broken mirrors! I retired for the day early.

fatbillybob

I have been in the wrong place at the wrong time 3 times at no fault of my own. It has cost me about $150,000. I'm sure that will never happen again on the day I stop racing.

LuigiVampa

When people ask me if they can sue someone because of <insert issue here> I always tell them "you can sue anyone for anything". Winning your case - that's a whole other question.

Waivers are just as enforceable as the case law of the state in which the incident happened, whether it is negligence versus gross negligence, and the desire of the defendant (and/or insurance company) to keep fighting.

Bottom line, if you do something stupid on track, you could be held to task.

BTW - driving to the track with a trailer in tow is much more dangerous than being on track. I even find the paddock to be even more dangerous than the track sometimes.