Do yet.

 

Due to some ******** with a 911 who kept damaging his car at drivers schools and made fraudulent claims to his insurance co saying he damaged the car on "private" roads.

After the 3rd claim the ins co investigated and sued him. The upshot is any of us with MA insurance aren't covered in ANY kind of track event. Timed, untimed, auto-x, whatever.

However, most insurance co's will cover you for a drivers school, esp if an instructor is in the car with you.

I never, ever come close to pushing my car at drivers schools. I take alot of crap from my friends about it, but I only have this 1 car and my goal is for it to leave the track in the same general state of being as it arrived...

 

I believe that the dot.com boomed allowed lots of people to buy sports cars and participation at track events increased as did incidents. Insurance companies will make changes to the policies if claims increase. Right now, they usually only have speed contest or competition exclusions.

Supposedly, somewhere in the midwest a judge denied coverage because the student was not with an instructor even though it was a "driving school."

My M5 is worth just under $20k and I am willing to risk that as I am pretty careful. I don't think I would be out there in a $43k Audi if there was a good changce I would be denied coverage.

 

I don't think there was a single incident (unless you crash into something, it's not an incident; it's an adventure) in February, even with all the Panteras all over the place (how can you spin when you're only pulling 0.5g on the corners?). AFAIK, Audis have a spotless record at TWS.

What does your policy read on the subject? That's what matters. Call me this weekend if you need. If you total your car or have a serious, major claim, you're gonna be in the high-risk pool anyway (like I still am from a 10/96 wreck -- the high risk insurance company subsidiary anyway, even though my rates dropped about 8% 3-1/2 years after my wreck), regardless of whether or not you're dropped (which they might do even if it happened on the street if it was something you were at fault for).

 

Please let us know-- so I can avoid that group.

 

1

 

Last year I totalled my Subaru at Lime Rock - you may have seen the in-car video, as it made it's way around the 'net quite a bit. At the time I had USAA insurance, and after investigating the claim for 4 weeks they did cover the claim. However, as people have already mentioned, USAA dropped me the next time my policy was up for renewal.

From talking to other people over the 'net, it seems that all the insurance carriers use a similar statement around the country. For my policy the statement was something along the lines of "We will not cover any vehicle damaged while participating in, or practicing for, a speed contest." The "speed contest" thing was the key phrase for me. I've heard a number of variations on that, using somewhat different phrasing (competitive event, timed event, whatever).

USAA basically determined that they could deny the claim, but I'd have a pretty damn good case against them in court that I was not involved in, or practicing for, a "speed contest", so they went ahead and paid me.

Unfortunately for me, I don't have a great driving record to begin with (I had 3 citations and one at-fault accident in the 3 years prior to the track accident), so it was easy for them to justify dropping me. However, I even asked them, "Hypothetically, if my record was clean, would you still be dropping me?", and I was told, "Yes, because when we issue a policy we do not assume that customers will be participating in such high risk activities." I really wish my record was clean, because I would have enjoyed fighting them on that statement. I'm sure they have absolutely ZERO statistics that prove OT events are any more dangerous than "normal" driving. As a matter of fact, I even asked the lady I spoke with and she didn't have any data to support her statement. But, with my record, that was a moot point, as USAA could easily justify dropping my policy.

So, the moral of the story is, go to the event and have fun, but drive safe. Don't push the car to the absolute limits (which is what I was doing) and it won't bite you in the ****. Give other people plenty of room in case they screw up.

Pat Olsen
'97 Legacy 2.5GT sedan (replaced the '99)

 

damn! I screwed my USAA standing too. almost quarter century member 8-(

 

The yellow one did that a year ago last fall in turn 7. Geez, I miss one event and everything goes down the tubes! I won't be there next weekend, so you guys be careful!!! :-)

 

Just a CYA-- These accidents did -not- occur at Driver's Edge events!