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Re: Vintage race and nervous insurers

To: MalcolmCox <malcox@napanet.net>
Subject: Re: Vintage race and nervous insurers
From: "Richard E. Buckingham, Jr." <rebjrmd@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 07:35:01 -0800
Malcolm, CSRG is insured through the VMC (Vintage Motorsports Council)
insurance program.  Every member of the VMC who uses this insurance pays the
same premium with the only variation having to do with spectator vs.
non-spectator events.  The insurance company does NOT do any risk-management
work with the individual clubs nor does it dictate what rules, tires, or safety
equipment are required in order to qualify for the insurance only that you have
a set of rules and that you are a member of the VMC.  In my club  SOVREN)
people are always making comments like: "we need to have stronger roll-bar
requirements in order to keep our insurance premiums low."  This is baloney.
The premiums are determined by the "loss ratio" of the overall VMC program
which has been excellent.  What an individual club decides to do about tires,
roll-bars, gloves, balaclavas, etc. will have no effect on premiums or on the
ability to get insurance.
Dick Buckingham, Jr.
Race Chairman -- SOVREN
Past-president -- VMC

MalcolmCox wrote:

> The primary issue for CSRG (and doubtless others) is how to convince the
> insurers that our racing is safe and will continue to be safe.  The insurers
> will make their assessment of risk and charge premiums accordingly.
>
> Implementing more restrictive tire rules may change the spectrum of who
> passes who, but is an adminsrative nightmare to stay on top of, given the
> constantly changing availability.
> AND it wont make any fewer incidents.  It wont even make the insurers any
> happier since the highest incidents groups already have the most restrictive
> tire rules.  Thats going to be a hard sell to the insurers, looking at stats
> is what they do.
>
> I think that some effort toward rewarding sporting behaviour would a good
> idea.  As I recall, at CRSG end of season meetings in the past there have
> been awards for several worthy people for long time contributions to our
> sport. Perhaps we could reward people for short term contributions like not
> running into anyone and not banzai-ing anyone. For example we could devise a
> points system though the year culminating in an award for sportsmanship at
> the end of the season.  Although I havnt thought through all the
> possibilities and difficulties of implementation, job 1 is to see if anyone
> likes the idea enough to try and make something work.
>
> By contrast, perhaps we could keep a running tally of bad behaviour.  I
> understand how it must be onerous for a club official to send someone
> (possibly an old friend) home after an incident of poor behaviour, however
> if points were accumulated for poor behaviour though the season or across a
> rolling 3 event sample period, an entry could be refused if the points tally
> got too high.  If poor behaviour points were accumulated in small
> increments, drivers would be less likely to get really steamed  up following
> a specific incident when they were possibly not to blame and where
> collecting evidence would be difficult and time consuming and just wouldnt
> get done given the time available.
>
> For example, last weekend my friend reported that I passed him under yellow.
> I am not at all sure that I did, but I have done in the past, so I guess I
> am not immune. If I accumulated a single bad driving point point for this,
> it would not be worth the effort to dispute it..  However if I collect 2 or
> 3 every race weekend, pretty soon a pattern would emerge which would be
> plain for all to see and I wouldnt have a leg to stand on if my entry was
> refused.
>
> Oh and by the way, dont we already have enough black flag listings to refuse
> entries to bad sports?  Do drivers ever have their entries refused for a bad
> sportsmanship?
>
> Malcolm Cox


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