What you need to know when it comes to insurance on racetracks
These days, most of us have one car for everything. A car for the daily commute morphs into the Friday night cruiser which might see the odd session on the track. Your standard insurance policy is designed to cover you when using the car in normal driving circumstances. Using your car on a race track steps outside normal use and most insurers have a blanket exclusion for losses that occur on a race track or if there was any element of competition surrounding the loss.
NAC Insurance explains: “This is because use on racetracks usually exposes the vehicle to higher-risk activities such as high speeds, high-speed cornering, and close proximity to other drivers not used to driving their cars at speed.”
That doesn’t mean insurers won’t cover you, you just need to ask. “Some insurers will relax that rule if the proposed use is for driver education purposes or the use is in conjunction with a highly controlled event — usually done by varying the contract of cover by using a policy endorsement.”
NAC understands car culture and what it means to people like us to own and drive a car in special events with like-minded people. They wanted to allow their customers to be able to celebrate car ownership and have developed an inexpensive special addition to its full cover policy that enables customers to use their vehicles on race tracks when taking part in the Cruising Sessions at the NAC-sponsored
4 & Rotary events (Nationals, North Island Jamboree, and South Island Champs) and the Chrome Expression Sessions. These aren’t events where you get to drive like a circuit racer or fang it, but they are an opportunity to drive your car on a race track with your mates aboard in a safe, controlled environment that most other insurers will not allow.
There are a few conditions to be aware of:
1. Your car must have a current warrant issued for the condition and equipment that will be on the car when on the track. This means no swapping tyres or mucking around with the suspension to squeeze a bit more from the car.
2. And because you’re the person who knows your car best, the insurance will only cover you as the driver. If you sneak one of your mates into the driver’s seat and they crash, it won’t be covered.
3. You must have held a full licence for 2 years.
“To keep the premium affordable, at just $100, we have had to impose a limit on what we will pay for your car a maximum of $20,000, and limit liability (what you have to pay if you damage someone else’s property) to $10,000. Additionally, the standard excess applied to your vehicle is doubled for the day.” More detail can be found at: nac.co.nz/Pages/track-endorsement.html
