Horrible Pro Mod Crash - Your Thoughts

[tommy d]

Originally Posted by boostedf22c

I agree.

Pro Mod is my favorite class by far. Imagine that.

Troublemaker!

[Nathan Stinson]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

I'm betting Pro Mod and classes like it are driving the cost of insurance up for track operators and sanctiuoning bodies, you don't have that many violent wrecks with parts flying everywhere and have the people who write policies ignore it. Which means all of us are paying their insurance premiums. Further, we're also having to sit around and wait while they clean up the mess.

I don't want to see the class eliminated. But by the same token, I don't think everyone else should be paying the increased costs and sitting around during the clean up. They need to clean up their act. If they don't, odds are, it will get cleaned up for them and they won't like it.

So you dont think the pro mod racers are paying a share of the the insurance cost with each entry? They are racers that built cars to a class in the rule book just like any other racer at the track, paid the fees and passed a technical inspection. They are subject to the same oil down penalties as any other racer and no matter if its a stoker or fuel car that oils the track or crashes, everyone is sitting around waiting. Just part of life in the big Mello Yellow circus......

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Nathan Stinson

So you dont think the pro mod racers are paying a share of the the insurance cost with each entry? They are racers that built cars to a class in the rule book just like any other racer at the track, paid the fees and passed a technical inspection. They are subject to the same oil down penalties as any other racer and no matter if its a stoker or fuel car that oils the track or crashes, everyone is sitting around waiting. Just part of life in the big Mello Yellow circus......

It is not a matter of what I think. It is a matter of math and statistical analysis. That is how the insurance company determines what it costs to insure an event or a track. They simply calculate how often a serious incident happens. The higher the percentage of serious incidents for a given number of cars and passes, the more risk and the higher the premium.

Do the math and answer your own question.

For St. Louis, count the number of Stock Eliminator and Super Stock entries. Multiply that by the entry fee for one car, one driver, and one crew. Now count the total number of passes made by those cars. Now count the number of passes by those cars that had an oil down or a serious crash. Now you can easily calculate the number of wrecks and oil downs per clean pass for those classes. With that done, you can calculate how much the classes paid in compared to the ratio of clean passes to incident passes.

Now count the number of Pro Mod cars, calculate their entry fees for car, driver and one crew. Count the clean and incident passes and make the same calculations.

Now, tell us all the ratio of clean passes to incident passes for both classes, and the amount of entry fees collected per serious incident passes.

You can even leave out oil downs and just count serious crashes where there was at least significant impact with a retaining wall or guard rail.

I may be wrong, but given the huge disparity in the number of cars and passes, the Pro Mod cars would have to pay a real high entry fee to make the numbers even out.

Again, I don't want to see the class eliminated. However, given their incident rate, the insurance companies might look at them like they did fuel altereds. So could the sanctioning bodies. I'd much rather see the Pro Mod guys figure out how to reduce the number of these crashes than see NHRA or insurance companies do it for them. One real tragedy might be all it takes.

[Chuck Beach]

I like Pro Mod but to follow up on what Alan said, when I entered the Jeg's Northern Sports Nationals I did not have to pay the additional $100 for insurance like at all other national events ... and you got it, no Pro Mod, no Pro Stock, no TF, no FC, no alcohol .... so what are we the sportsman racers paying the $100 insurance for at the other national events?

[Nathan Stinson]

Thanks for the statistics lesson Alan, I never liked that college course I took years ago anyway! My point was you said "we" are paying "their" insurance and it looks to me like each racer pays the same to play $100. Regardless of how the premium is calculated the cost is shared equally among participants at the track. The exception may be the pro classes. I am not sure if they pay a insurance fee or not. Either way I bet if pro mod did go away tomorrow, the $100 fee wouldnt!

I do agree, I dont want the class to go away and I sure dont want to see a fatality, but I believe overall that the cars in that class are safe and I am sure that NHRA is learning from these incidents and will make them better.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Nathan Stinson

Thanks for the statistics lesson Alan, I never liked that college course I took years ago anyway! My point was you said "we" are paying "their" insurance and it looks to me like each racer pays the same to play $100. Regardless of how the premium is calculated the cost is shared equally among participants at the track. The exception may be the pro classes. I am not sure if they pay a insurance fee or not. Either way I bet if pro mod did go away tomorrow, the $100 fee wouldnt!

I do agree, I dont want the class to go away and I sure dont want to see a fatality, but I believe overall that the cars in that class are safe and I am sure that NHRA is learning from these incidents and will make them better.

Nathan, my point is exactly that, lower risk classes are footing the bill for higher risk classes if everyone pays the same insurance surcharge in their entry fee.

If you think that is okay, and fair, then maybe you want to pay the same car insurance premium as a 16 year old high school kid with one wreck and two tickets.

It's a sad fact that in motorsports safety rules are written in blood. Some one almost always gets maimed or killed before things get taken care of. In this modern era, we really can't afford for that happen, the cost is too high.

[Rollins_2241]

Not a large enough sample to be statistically useful, but the last two major oildowns I saw at Nationals were Stockers with no diapers.