HPDE Insurance, do you buy it and who from?

JJ427R

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Curious how many of you that run HPDE track days buy insurance and if so who do you get it through?
I have purchased it previously from Lockton Motorsports but noticed now Hagerty insurance is also offering it, pricing appears to be about the same.

I got it last year at Road America but generally don't when I run at my home track BIR. I do now at RA because every year I have been there for the last 8 years I've seen at least one car wreck and several years multiple instances. This will be my 9th year running on track and as I get faster I'm beginning to think I should get it for every event now? It's not so much my car I'm worried about, but you have to pay for the damage you do to the track as well.
 
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nawagner

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I wouldn't go without it having been through a track incident.
 

Vorshlag-Fair

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I tell our clients this:

"If you cannot afford to push your car off a cliff while it is on fire, you shouldn't be at the track."

i-Kv46qQw-L.jpg


Track insurance is somewhat expensive ($300/weekend?) and I'm not sure how well it covers track damage. If someone reading this has direct experience with a payout for a car and/or track damage, please let us know. :)
 

Juice

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Not sure which ins co offers track insurance at the glen event. (I dont buy track insurance) But I seem to recall you buy it like an "agrred value" policy for the event. The more your car is worth, the more it will cost.
 

Racer47

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I've never bought track insurance. But I don't buy $60k cars (I just outrun them)
 

JJ427R

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Not sure which ins co offers track insurance at the glen event. (I dont buy track insurance) But I seem to recall you buy it like an "agrred value" policy for the event. The more your car is worth, the more it will cost.
Yes that is correct. I purchased it for Road America last year on my 2018 GT PP1 and it was $300 for the weekend. You give all the info on your car, you can specify options you've added, and the amount you want to insure it for, they review it and send you the quote.

As far as damage at the track, thru Northwoods Shelby at Road America you are responsible for any damage you might cause at the track. One guy blew his motor and had to pay for several hundred dollars of oil dry. I can only assume it is this way an any track? My understanding the insurance will cover this but I guess I'm assuming that as well.
Lockton states: "Lockton Motorsports offers a policy that covers what standard auto insurance won’t—damage to your car when you’re participating in HPDE, Track Day, or Time Trial events.This coverage protects your car from the time you enter the grounds of a track to the time you leave."

I tell our clients this:

"If you cannot afford to push your car off a cliff while it is on fire, you shouldn't be at the track."
Try telling that to guys who run Porsche's, Ferrari's, and Ford GT's. I drove my new 2018 GT PP1 with only 2500 miles on it at Road America last year. Sorry but I guess I don't have you're money to just throw it over a cliff if I wreck it.

Also realize this is HPDE days we are talking about, it's not racing. Yes many cars that attend are race cars but a great number of street cars also run. How many of us can really afford to just throw a car away?
 

JJ427R

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I sent Lockton a message this evening to see if their HPDE insurance also covers damage to the track such as an oil down like I explained above. I'll post response when I get it.
 

Juice

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Yes, you are responsible for damage fo the track. They make that crystal clear at the first drivers meeting.
 

Norm Peterson

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Yes, you are responsible for damage fo the track. They make that crystal clear at the first drivers meeting.
For the purposes of this thread, the question is whether or not track day insurance will cover track damage and/or related expenses for you as well. I don't know the answer to that either.

I haven't been purchasing track day insurance.


Norm
 

JJ427R

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Here is the response I received from Lockton regarding an oil down on the track.

We would only pay for the vehicle and or clean up of pollutants if it was a direct result of a specified cause of loss. Please see the below policy language:
c. Pollutants -- We do not pay for “loss” caused by or resulting from release, discharge, seepage, migration, dispersal, or escape of “pollutants”:
(1) unless the release, discharge, seepage, migration, dispersal, or escape is caused by a “specified peril”; or
(2) except as specifically provided under the Supplemental Coverage – Pollutant Cleanup and Removal. We do cover any resulting loss caused by a “specified peril"

So if I read correctly it pretty much means no? What the hell is a specified peril?
I sent another question about damage caused to the track, example I blow a tire and hit a wall and the wall needs to be repaired?

Waiting on response.
 

Norm Peterson

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What the hell is a specified peril?
My guess is anything that you might find itemized in your agreement, perhaps buried in the "fine print".

Look through any documentation that you have for the time(s) that you did purchase this insurance. It is at least possible for this to vary from state to state.


Norm
 

nawagner

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I tell our clients this:

"If you cannot afford to push your car off a cliff while it is on fire, you shouldn't be at the track."

Fair enough. At the same time if you can afford to push it off a cliff while it's on fire, you can certainly afford the insurance which limits your out of pocket expenses if it's going over a cliff on fire! Why fork out $30k for your lost car when insurance + deductible can limit it to $2k + few hundred dollars for the insurance premium?
 

Racer47

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Thats one way to look at it. The other way is that insurance compaines make money, a lot of money. Because you pay more for insurance than the risk you are under. If you do it enough, eventually you will pay out more in insurance that you will ever get back. But if you crash the first time, then obviously you come out ahead or really just less behind.
 

JJ427R

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Insurance companies make money because the majority of their clients don't make claims. Thinking of my parents, they paid for insurance their entire lives and never made one claim I can ever remember. I'm 58 and I've only ever made 1 claim and that was for a snowmobile accident.

Running on the track is a whole different story because your chance of something bad happening is much greater, especially with the high speeds and hard cornering at a track like Road America.

You know the old saying "it's not a matter of if you'll wreck, it's a matter of when" seems I hear this at every track event I go to, and I've seen at least 1 wreck at RA every year I've been there the past 8 years. That get's me thinking a bit more about the insurance every time I see one of those, and especially a couple years ago when I saw this one. Turned out he did have insurance. The guy in this Mustang should have slowed much sooner too!!!

 
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Juice

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I cant think of a single track day where nobody had a mishap.
That said: when I started doing track days, my approach was "how fast can I go relatively cheaply" A track day costs plenty without spending even more for insurance. And neither of my cars cost enough to justify the extra cost for 'coverage'. But thats just me.
 

JJ427R

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I completely understand that, last year at Road America was the first time I've ever had the insurance in 8 years, and I got it because I was driving a new car with only 2500 miles on it, was not quite ready to write that one off! As I stated before it's not my car I'm so much worried about, but it's the track repair and damage to another person's car or person's I get concerned about. It's not just me out there either, in the case of Road America there are about 50 other cars on track with me at the same time that could have an issue, you have to think about that too.
 

Racer47

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Insurance companies make money because

Insurance companies make money because they analyze the risks and charge accordingly. They are still making plenty of money on hdpe insurance. They are not a charity for stupid drivers. $300 a day for 3 hours of track time is expensive because the risk is high.
 

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