insurance & seattime

[Jeff Pharr <pharr@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Jason,

I am insured with USAA and have talked to them specifically about their
coverage policies with respect to driving schools.  They asked me a lot
of questions about the driving schools and timed laps seemed to be a big
thing for them.  Autocross was specifically mentioned as a no-no.  I
made sure they understood that there were no real speed restrictions and
that this was not typical defensive driving class.  I ended the
conversation with a comfortable feeling that I would be covered in the
event of an accident during a driving school.  But you can be sure that
they would want to talk to your instructor and whoever was in charge of
running the school.  You might be in trouble if any of those people
mentioned how many seconds you had trimmed off your lap time or that you
were known for disregarding safety rules for the event.  I don't know
what the rules are for FATT or seattime but even if OTHER people are
routinely timing laps it could be a problem.

Standard disclaimer here:  Your situation with USAA could be completely
different.  I have had no major claims in the last 10 years and was
asking specifically about driving schools as run by NCC.  The NCC does
an excellent job of discouraging exactly the sort of behavior that would
be likely to give USAA heartburn.  YMMV with other events.

One other thing to mention is that USAA won't discuss this unless you
give them your policy number (I tried the anonymous approach first) and
they will place a note in your records that you were asking about these
sorts of things.  They made a point of telling me that there would be a
record of the conversation in my file.  Not sure why, but I just thought
you might want to know before you call...

- --Jeff