Involve car insurance company?

My C2 had a coming together with a wall at a CA track at a DE event. I plan to have the damaged quarter panels/frame repaired and resume driving enjoyment. Question: Should I bother with involving my car insurance co. (AAA)? I anticipate they will either decline to get involved, cancel the policy, raise my rate. I have filed zero claims on this fifteen year old policy. Including the Porsche there are three cars on the policy. Any insight is appreciated!

Hard to say if they will cover a track accident. Must companies will not cover track events. Racing is not a good word to use when taking to your Insurrance company.

Have you read your policy carefully. Most Insurance companies won't cover accidents occuring at tracks but maybe your insurer will. Don't assume that it doesn't. Obviously if it doesn't, you can only cause harm by notifying them of your accident.

I had an on-track DE incident a few years back that resulted in ~$4k worth of damage. I ate the cost figuring that if I got the insurance company involved it might be covered (but probably not) and they would either cancel me or bump up my rates and make it back fairly quickly.

If you do talk with the insurance co. don't use racing or say it was a time event. I would say driving instruction course or school, something like that. If you can afford to pay the damages with cash, that is what I would do. Pay to play. Save the insurance for when you might really need it.

Hill, If you're who I think you are, I'm glad you're ok. I didn't get to talk to you before you left but when I heard that you were ok and that your car was drivable, I felt relieved that your situation wasn't as bad as I feared. At any rate, you should talk to some of the organizers of the event. A GT3 had a SERIOUS incident on turn 3 Saturday afternoon during the last time trial session. Serious enough to warrant the attention of the ambulance (fortunately, he was ok) and a lot of speculation from the crowd that his car was totalled. I spoke with the driver Saturday evening after he had a chance to calm down. He received good advice based on the previous experience of others. PM me if you'd like me to share more info. I think I have his contact info and can put you in touch with him.

I made the same choice last month. Painful, but probably worth it in the long run.

I have personally crashed on the track at a DE and had a friend who did the same. In my case (USAA) they happily paid the claim and then suggested that if I do it (crash on a race course) again they would be forced to drop me. This was in 1998, I believe. A few years ago a friend of mine had a bad crash which ended up totaling his car (which he had bought from me only a couple of months earlier) and All-State also happily paid his claim and did not drop him. You have insurance for only two reasons - one is the mandatory liability coverage, and the other is to make you whole again after an accident. It is stupid to not file a claim in a major accident. If you don't file a claim because you're afraid of raising your rates, then maybe you should just have liability and self-insure yourself against collision. Otherwise, file the damn claim! Unless of course, the loss isn't significantly over your deductible, or you've done an extensive cost/benefit analysis of the claim payment and your future premiums. Now - if your company (and many do these days) specifically excludes any activity that takes place on a closed course or a course specifically designed for racing, even if you are not racing, then they won't pay. If they won't pay, then I would say, hey, why bother telling them? You may be contractually obligated to inform them of any incidents, but if you don't tell them, how would they ever find out? Regardless of all that, I'm glad you are OK. You can buy a new car, you can't buy a new head. Michael

do a search this has been covered. If you are in a competitive timed event then no way your auto-policy will cover you ... ever. If it is a High Performance Drivers Education or Drivers Education event run by many of the car clubs around the country then it is more than likely a covered loss (unless your policy has it specifically omitted). Again the key is any kind of timed or competitive event is what your everyday auto ins policy will not cover. If the event that you are partcipating involves you looking up your lap times or seeing how you placed, then you pretty much know the outcome. There are insurance policies specifically written for folks who "race" their vehicle. They are actually even reasonably priced considering the outcome of balling up a $50-100K race car. Just sharing some personal experience in this matter, please consult your own legal or insurance expert.