What about the sportsman racer IHRA?

[herbjr]

Ok, I will chime in here as a track operator and a racer. There is almost no insurance that will pay for you to be air lifited out of a track. My mom had it done in a car wreck and her insurance wouldnt pay it and it was VERY EXPENSIVE. That 40.00 goes into an acct that pays for the air transport helicopter to be at the track and incase a racers needs to be air lifted out its there and its paid for the way it was explained to me as a track operator. When my mom rode in one for 12 minutes to Duke Hospitol it was $16000. Just think about that, I will pay the 40.00 if it means the air support is there.

Herb Jr

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by herbjr

Ok, I will chime in here as a track operator and a racer. There is almost no insurance that will pay for you to be air lifited out of a track. My mom had it done in a car wreck and her insurance wouldnt pay it and it was VERY EXPENSIVE. That 40.00 goes into an acct that pays for the air transport helicopter to be at the track and incase a racers needs to be air lifted out its there and its paid for the way it was explained to me as a track operator. When my mom rode in one for 12 minutes to Duke Hospitol it was $16000. Just think about that, I will pay the 40.00 if it means the air support is there.

Herb Jr

And how often is it that a sportsman racer is transported from the track to the hospital via helicopter? At any one NHRA national event, you will have AT LEAST 300 sportsman racers. 300 x $40 = $12,000. So, in ONE RACE, you just about pay for the cost of that helicopter ride. After 2 races, you're up $8,000. In an entire 24 race season, you take in $288,000 from JUST the sportsman racers.

There's NO WAY that the sportsman racers use up $288,000 worth of ambulance and helicopter rides from national events to the hospital in a year. I have no numbers to back this up, but I would bet there probably wasn't more than 10 total trips to the hospital this year by sportsman racers from national events.

An even better question is, why do drivers that enter two cars have to pay the insurance premium twice??? I doubt they can seriously injure themselves twice in one weekend (granted, their chance of seriously injuring themselves does probably double, though unlikely as that may be).

And I'm not trying to downplay the cost of medical care because I do realize it is expensive. I just don't think it is anywhere near as expensive as what we're being charged for.

[THE LEGEND]

Jason,
In IHRA if you enter 2 cars you only pay one insurance premium.

One more thing I'll pay the 40 bucks just to know the helicopter is there if I need it.

Chip

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by THE LEGEND

Jason,
In IHRA if you enter 2 cars you only pay one insurance premium.

Sorry, my bad. I should have read the title of the thread. I was speaking of the "other" sanctioning body. Thanks for the correction.

As for the insurance, I don't mind paying into the fund to have the services of the ambulance and helicopter available to me if I need them, but I don't feel that I need to pay $40 at every single race. That seems excessive. It would seem to me that the "insurance premium" could be a one time $40 fee for the season. Not $40 per race. And I don't know about IHRA, but what is my membership for, just the pin, patch, decal, and Drag Review?

http://www.nhra.com/insurance/

If the entry fee needs to be $40 more per race for whatever reason, then make the entry fee $40 more and justify the reasoning behind it. Don't mask it as an "insurance premium". Just my $0.02.

[THE LEGEND]

I agree

[FED 387]

Do they in fact have a helicopter & crew/medical staff sitting on the grounds at the track??? If so, are they working for free or are they being paid for the time @ the track???---If they do not have a copter/crew/staff at the track but on call @ a remote location should an emergency arise AND they could be used for emergencies other than at the track,anyway, then they are overcharging. If the copter is dedicated solely to the racers and no other emergency then we should pay the "insurance charge" if not maybe a small charge $5-15 ---- Comp 387

[herbjr]

Ill pay the 40.00 and have no problem with it as long as the staff is there since it was explained to me that way. Hell you could fall out of your trailer and hit your head. Its happened before.

[Adger Smith]

Question? What is your life or your lifestyle worth?
Situation: 9-5-99 IHRA PTS. Meet Cordova Il. I had a steering failure on my C/SR at 140 MPH
Died in the wreck. EMS crew Revived me. Called in air life from East Moline Il. for transport to Illini Hospital & then to The University of Iowa. I had a broken back and air transport probably saved my spinal cord. (smoother than ground ride) From the track to Illini Hospital it was $800 (15 mi). Died another 2 times and had 6 major & many other minor surgeries that put me back together. I spent(insurance didn't cover it) about $4400 on the Air Transport. (not to mention the crew revived me a second time while in flight) The last total I remember hearing from Bill Bader was Wisenburg Insurance paid a little over $238,000 on my hospital & rehab expenses. I was out of pocket a little over $20,000 on top of what they paid out. I also had an uninsured Dead(totaled) race car. As a foot note to my personal insurance, I had a better personal policy because I have a pilots license that was also supposed to cover me racing.... NOT! DON"T EVER believe the insurance agent that writes your policy.. READ the fine print or have an attorney that works with insurance read it. That was all in 1999. Just think what it would cost today. Gosh, in all my 30 years of racing I had never touched the guard rail. A major accident just couldn't happen to me. Go ahead, gripe about it, but remember it could save your life or one of your friends. Oh, if you do survive the scrapes, bruises & breaks, it could also save your bank account from breaking.

[Mike McCandless]

Wow, that is an amazing story. Unreal!

[cambria]

Don't for a minute think the sportsman racer is dispensible.It may be that the pros fill the seats but the shear number of sportsman racers not only bring in entry fees they bring in much need concession money and allow the sanctioning bodies to tell sponsors how much product thesportsman racers buy.Sportsmen racers are a must for any national business plan to succeed.Taking us out of a national will cost any sanctioning body a ton.