Q: “I’m fairly new to the sport of track driving, and I’m wondering whether I should be insuring my car when I do track events? I’ve looked at the cost of track day insurance, but not really sure it’s worth it. What do you think?”
A: First, I’m nowhere near being an expert on this topic. And when I was at a point in my driving career where I had to worry about crash damage and the cost of it, track day and/or HPDE insurance didn’t exist. So, I’m going to do two things here. First, I will give you a few of my thoughts on the subject. And second, I’ve asked my friend Ryan Staub to provide his advice. Ryan is a car guy, a track driver, racer, chief driving instructor for his chapter of the BMW CCA’s HPDE program, and runs Lockton Motorsport. Most importantly, I trust him fully to give a balanced response to your questions.
The decision about whether track day insurance is worth it is no different from the decision on any other form of insurance. If you can afford to push your car off a cliff and feel okay about that, then insurance is probably not worth it. If that would put a financial strain on your life, then you need to consider insurance.
The decision is mostly a risk assessment exercise, right? If you think there is enough of a risk of damage that it’s going to cause a financial hardship if something happens, then you should get it. But also, if you think the thought of damage is going to impact your state of mind when driving on track, you should probably get insurance, too. I’ve “driven with my wallet” in the past, and it’s not as much fun. I’m not saying that once you’ve purchased insurance, that you should go crazy on track! But the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you’ve limited the financial risk as much as possible will lead to better driving performance.
Okay, those are my thoughts. Time to hear from Ryan Staub:
- “Track Day insurance ranges in cost depending on a variety of factors including: vehicle value, deductible option selected, track where the event is conducted, and organizer of the event. While rates vary from insurer to insurer, premiums for a $30,000 vehicle typically fall between $190 and $230 per event; premiums for a $60,000 vehicle typically fall between $370 and $410 per event; and premiums for a $90,000 vehicle typically fall between $560 and $600 per event.
- “The value of Track Day insurance varies depending on the unique circumstances for each track day enthusiast. For an individual that has a relatively low-cost dedicated track car and a healthy bank account, the value of track day insurance might be relatively low. If they have an incident that causes considerable damage to their car, they might easily have the funds to either fix the car or buy a replacement. For an individual that has a loan on their car and/or uses a vehicle in Track Days/HPDE that acts as a primary mode of transportation away from the track, Track Day insurance can be a very high value. While insurance certainly helps from a financial security perspective (not having to pay for the cost of repairs), it also adds to the peace of mind of a driver to ensure they can focus on fun and learning, rather than potentially driving nervously and being more focused on the consequences of track driving than enjoying the experience.”
Luckily, there’s a simple test that many track day enthusiasts rely upon to scientifically parse this question: They ask, “Can I afford to put the car into the barrier?” If no, purchase track day insurance. It’s that easy!
There are three distinct user groups when it comes to track day insurance use, and two of them are happy:
1. Those that never spent money on insurance and have yet to damage a car in HPDE. Some day they may graduate to one of the other two groups.
2. Those that unfortunately wadded up their DE car, but they had insurance.
3. Those that unfortunately wadded up their DE car and had no insurance.
Plenty of people fall into all three categories, but if you expect to trend into category 2 or 3, Is rather be in category 2.
There is a lot to be said for driving a “disposable” car. i.e. Maybe tracking a GT3 RS is not the best idea. Assuming you are financially mortal… At best, nothing will happen but you won’t be comfortable pushing the car anywhere near the limit. At worst, you crash and your track career is over. Keeping with the Porsche example… Perhaps an old 944 is a better choice? At best, you will have a car that you can safely push to the limit all day long. At worst, you crash it and transfer all the good parts over to another chassis.
most people who have driven more than a few HPDE days have seen somebody significantly damage their car. those insurance premium numbers are telling you that there is close to a 1% chance of 66% damage to your car every track day you go out, on average.
Seems about right in my limited experience of around 50 track days over the years. If there are 4 groups of twenty-five in an event, there’s often one person who wads up their car, at least at Sonoma.
So certainly makes sense to consider a dedicated track day car if you are going to do this a lot, as replacement fenders, etc. don’t devalue a track day car as much as a daily driver. On the other hand, resale value of a track day car is not great.
This certainly depends on the track or tracks a person is driving on. For sure, Sonoma is much less forgiving than many other tracks. For example, go to an event at Buttonwillow, and damage is rare because there is very little to hit there. But other tracks are not as forgiving, so I’d suggest taking that into consideration. Still, insurance is a great investment, if only to relieve the stress and allow you to focus on driving.
Ross, I think you just made a key statement in considering whether to get track day insurance: “…damage is rare because there is very little to hit there.” I’m a novice track driver, and in my experience I’ve never seen significant car collisions with each other, but rather lots of running off track, hitting stationary objects, and other events that I would generally call preventable or controllable by a driver.
I was in Group 1 above for about 4 yrs until I was in group 2. My GT3 was totaled after hitting tire-wall at VIR. In this situation Locton paid without hassle at agreed value and I replaced the GT3. I continue to buy HPDE insurance for the new GT3 and agree completely that driving without stress of “what if” makes for better weekend. I now have track-prepped Miata which I still insure but much less expensive.