Insurance Companies refuse to Cover Driving Schools, Track Days

Insurance companies have long kept drivers uninsured if they raced their cars, but they are finally catching on to a loophole that many amateur racers had been able to take advantage of.

The wording that insurance companies had used to define racing was a timed event. This left track days and high-performance driving schools in the clear as far as the insured drivers were concerned. All this is changing now that insurance companies have realized how costly this loophole could be for them.

Jerry Kunzman, executive director of the National Auto Sport Association, says that participation at its track events have jumped five-fold since 2003. He also said many of the drivers attending are unaware that they are not covered at the events. "Maybe 25 or 30 percent have done the research," he remarked. "The middle third just assumes they are covered and the top third just don't have a clue."

Some insurance companies have experimented with coverage for racetracks but this idea was universally rejected when it was shown that the vast majority of claims were huge losses for the companies.

Source: New York Times