<CORSA Chapters> CORSA Liability Insurance for Timed Events

[Allan Lacki]

Hello Everybody,

I’d like to discuss CORSA’s liability insurance for timedevents.  You may have heard that timedevents are specifically excluded from our current liability insurancepolicy.  It’s true and it means that, ifthe officers of the national organization or hosting chapter are sued in connection with a timed event, they’reon their own.  Our liability insurancecompany won’t step in to protect us.
 The September newsletter from one of our chapters suggestedthis may mean the end of “moving events” hosted by CORSA and its chapters.  It’s not quite that bad.  Actually, the liability policy excludes"timed events", not "moving events".  There is a difference, of course.  Things like fall foliage tours and cruisesare not affected by the exclusion.  
 But obviously, autocross and gymkhana events are affected bythe exclusion because they are timed.  Rallies are a gray area.  I presume economy runs are not affected, but wehave no way of knowing for sure.
 Why don’t we know?  It’sbecause there are no precedents on which we can rely.  In other words, our insurance agent, eventhough he works nation-wide, is not aware of any car club that has been sued –not even for damages associated with an autocross.  High speed track events like the NECC timetrials – yes.  Autocross? – No.
 For what it's worth, I made contact with other clubs thatdo autocross.  They pay about $700 foreach autocross they run, which is bearable if, say, 100 drivers show up.  They can mark-up the registration fees by a few dollars to cover the cost.  For smaller events, it's a harder pill toswallow.  

I was told that the number ofdrivers has no bearing on the price of a day’s worth of insurance.  For example, if you're expecting only 20 drivers to show up for your autocross, the markup would have to be $35 per driver.   ( $700 divided by 20 ).

 SCCA regions pay less because the SCCA national office hasan umbrella-type policy that covers all their regions.  It’s underwritten by K&K InsuranceGroup.  CORSA may or may not be able toarrange a similar deal.  We’re exploringthat possibility.
 Of course, there is nothing preventing either the nationaloffice or a local chapter from obtaining insurance for a single timed event onits own initiative.  But like Imentioned, it will cost. 

Another alternative is simply to have the local SCCA runautocrosses for CORSA.  These thingsstill need to be hammered-out and it will take time.

Allan Lacki,Secretary to the CORSA Board of Directors