Thread: Race cars and insurance, "when things go bad"?

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So on Sunday things are looking good, we qualified number one in S/G (11.90 Index) for the second time this season and were going into the semi finals. I'm pulling my son up in the staging lanes and someone from the other lane jumps out and stops us part way in the lane so they can move their car between lanes. Then after a minute, they waive me forward, but in the mean time my son got out of his car (my fault for not looking more carefully) and I slowly start to pull forward. His car slowly rolled straight as the staging lane turned and the our left front fender ran into our friends right rear fender on his truck. I'd guesstimate the damage to be around $1500 to each car. Thankfully no body was hurt in the accident.

Now for my question. Our race car is street legal, licensed, registered, and was insured. All three vehicles are all insured by the same insurance company. My thinking is this accident occurred in the parking lot and "not racing on the track" so it should be covered by either my truck's or the car's policy after a deductable. I know this is a "grey area", but where does the race track start and my insurance end?

Thanks for any advice on filing my claim.

I wouldn't mention the race track at all.. Insurance companies by nature are always looking for any excuse to not pay... They will spend more money to dodge a claim than it would cost to pay it

if the car is at the track and is racing they will not cover it. that is what they told me now if you were watching the event and back in to your friends fender in the track parking lot they should take care of that no one was participating in any form of racing that the way i see it

They are going to say you were "participating in a racing event". No coverage. But lucky for you, it happened at the drive in after the races!! Spilled my coffee, burnt my crotch, now I can sue for millions. Or, they can fix the cars, and we'll call it a day!!

John,
I think you are screwed, when you sign in releasing the drag strip of any obligation, the insurance company will probably ask for the manifest that day.
Congratulations for qualifying "1, twice!!
Ken

do what ever you want but you may want to edit this post in your name ?? your screwed they just will not pay less your going to try to tell them you were not doing any racing .that is not worth it just tell them the truth and see what happens

I'd guesstimate the damage to be around $1500 to each car.

Which is worse, paying the $$ to fix the cars, or the possibility of your insurance company catching you for 'insurance fraud', cancelling your policies, going to court, lawyer fees, etc?

Mike

If you know your agent deal with him truthfully and tell him you need his help to protect a friendship and fix two cars. The accident did not happen in the act of racing, but in the area leading to the race track. You failed to notice that your son had stepped out of the vehicle, pulled away and the rest is history. Could have happened anywhere, but it happened at the local drag strip in the drive lanes leading to the track. If your agent is any good he will indeed act as your "agent" to the insurance company to give you reason to continue doing business with him.

I think you should just pay the damages out of your pocket and that will be a good lesson to you to watch and see who is steering the car or IF there was anyone still in it in the lanes, you weren't ON the track when the accident happened but you WERE at the track to Race the insured vehicle, It will still be insurance fraud IF you lie and say it happened someplace else. And I doubt that your agent will lie for you and possibly lose his livelihood for a mere $1500 bucks, I wouldn't.. .

Sorry John, I am your insurance agent and I now will know what really happened. Sorry John, just skidding, but you probably are SOL unles your lucky at gambling. Odds are they might not catch you in a white lie, but if they do you will be sorry you tried. They take that fraud stuff pretty serious and would rather spend a million dollars trying to catch you lying then just to pay for the mistake. Sometimes its better to bite the bullit and this is one of them times !

Thanks for all of your advice on this matter.

Let me first say that "I'm a HIGH ROAD type of guy" and do not plan to try and defraud anyone on this matter. My position is that I was towing a vehicle when an accident happened. Both of my vehicles are licensed, registered, and insured as legal street vehicles. I was not racing, nor was I on the race track surface at the time of the accident. I'm not sure why a claim to repair the friends truck would be denied by my insurance company. I will be making a claim to see if they will cover the damage to the other vehicle and eat the damage on our vehicle.

I'll let you know how it works out.

I'm with rspears on this one... just lay it out for the agent and maybe you'll get lucky. There is race car insurance available but I don't know that any will cover incidents occurring on the track... there may be some listings in National Dragster. We have a local insurance company as a minor sponsor at our track that covers race cars.... your incident here has me thinking I should upgrade from good ol' State Farm.

Good luck getting sorted out...

-Chris

I think that if you had a good lawyer he would win in a Court of law . There is no reason that a vehicle that is not racing is denied a clam unless it was hit by a Race Car. If you have an accident and they can deny you for that why have any coverage if they have the option of backing out of the claim .

Best thing about the truth: it's easier to remember than a lie.