Practice Safety?

BriarcliffMx

BriarcliffMx

PR Founding Father
Just some ideas here after battling with some insurance carriers on practice insurance coverage. Some of these companies are starting to require flaggers, liscensed medical personnel, and all practices must be organized by skill level. Bottom line, to achieve these goals to satisfy some insurance companies tracks may be facing a $1,000 increase to hold practices. Provided they use insurance brand X. Now my question, in the name of safety would people be willing to pay an extra $10 to have all of that at the track on each practice day?

Im not saying we are doing that, just wanted to get a feel for where people stand on this. My guess is that mini parents will pay for it, and the Vets will say no way.
 
Cost of doing business. I seriously wondered how some tracks got away with it for as long as they have.
 
Im a vet so the answer is no! Lol


Seriously though, think about younger adults in school still. $35 to practice? most of these kids have part time jobs and can barely afford a bike and riding now unless mom and pop are paying. And for the rest of people that are living pay check to pay check in this crappy economy......

An extra 10 bucks is going to be the difference between riding and not riding. There is a tipping point where it no longer becomes economically feasible for people to ride. Just to put it into perspective, between gas, tolls and entry fees it costs me $75 to ride at ramjam each time I go. It cost me about the same to go to Steel Valley indoor and about $30 more than that to go to NEMX because of the distance ( Since Im scared I dont go there anyway...LOL, right MX955 and Georgie?). The Cliff costs me about $110 each time unless I can get some peeps to car pool. How many people can really afford that each week? Cost is the one and only reason I dont go to the Cliff more often.

What is $10 bucks more, right? Well it is the difference between riding and not riding for lots of people in my opinion.
 
I know we have not been racing as much as we used too. With gas at $3.89 a gallon, family to get in, entries, food, etc. every race is $200 usually.
 
I remember when it cost 10 bucks to go ride its now just getting out of control this is just one more step in the derection of killing our sport its already a very exspensive another 10 bucks doesnt seem like much but like hershey said add in all of the other cost its just not going to be worth it any more count me out
 
812 said:
I remember when it cost 10 bucks to go ride its now just getting out of control this is just one more step in the derection of killing our sport its already a very exspensive another 10 bucks doesnt seem like much but like hershey said add in all of the other cost its just not going to be worth it any more count me out
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LOL, I remember when Honda Hills increased it from something like $12 to $15 (i believe), and I was thinking WTF? Funny how things have turned......
 
I personally feel like this is the direction the sport is headed......down the road the insurance carriers are dictating...Will it kill it? I doubt it, will it hamper it? Probably.
 
Absolutely wont kill it. It will become another ( and has already started to ) sport that will only be enjoyed by those with a fair amount of disposable money. After attending the last couple of qualifiers it is very apparent that is the direction the sport is taking. I was in the minority riding out of my truck and trailer. The money most of those people have in their racing rigs is more than I have in my house.
 
another vet rider/racer perspective...not only am I riding but my son is getting more into the sport as well and is looking forward to racing potentially later this year. Bottom line, $10 doesn't seem like much but with two of us now looking to practice, that would be $70 just to hit the practice track. Add that to the cost of a family of four going to the race track on the weekend and it's becoming a financial burden to ride.
 
What choice do you have?
None. I like the idea of flaggers, but 1,000.00 a day is some doe.

Wait until they start really going after the riders... that was a whole other discussion.

I guess the government and lawyers want us all to be a bunch of TV watching game playing marshmallows.

Im already a marshmallow.
 
As a vet rider I'm in the same boat as the rest. Upping the cost will force me on weekends I do ride to ride closer to home to save on gas. That means no Cliff. Other weekends I won't be able to from spending so much last time out.
 
My fear is that at some point, we cant get insured unless we meet their criteria. Meaning that all of the insurers will be on the same page as far as what they require. They want me to fence in my pond too. I think these are the "loopholes" they will use to dodge a claim.
 
hershey said:
Absolutely wont kill it. It will become another ( and has already started to ) sport that will only be enjoyed by those with a fair amount of disposable money. After attending the last couple of qualifiers it is very apparent that is the direction the sport is taking. I was in the minority riding out of my truck and trailer. The money most of those people have in their racing rigs is more than I have in my house.
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Exactly..... Think song.... Money money money.... MONEY!!!!!
 
BriarcliffMx said:
My fear is that at some point, we cant get insured unless we meet their criteria. Meaning that all of the insurers will be on the same page as far as what they require. They want me to fence in my pond too. I think these are the "loopholes" they will use to dodge a claim.
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I agree with you 100%. And my previous comment stands with my agreement on your point. Like john259/338 said it is a cost for you and it needs to be offset or you lose money and close. But there is a tipping point where you lose volume of riders charging higher gate fees to make overhead costs. The insurance companies are rising rates across the board to offset a loss in profits because of obamacare. I listened to a radio show interview with one of the ins co execs and he said they had no other choice. BS because their bottom line net profits are in the billions.
 
So what happens if you just dont get insurance? For years smith road had a sign at the gate stating " no insurance ride at your own risk".
 
It is disappointing that someone would sue a track knowing the risks unless the track owner did something crazy that deserved it. I often wondered how someone could win a case after signing off and accepting the risks, but I now understand that actually doesn't mean that much and people will sue regardless. Now, does that mean there are that many people that sue that should cause the insurance companies to raise their rates at such a big hike, not if I had to guess. I think Hersey is probably right. Its just the way things are going with todays economy and insurance and banks taking advantage of us.

Personally I would pay. I am making a good living at my age (around 40) and can afford it, but this may not have been the case 10-15 years ago.

Thanks

Michael
 
If I were betting, the sign at Smith Road was in regards to medical insurance, I have seen stuff like that at various tracks in my time. "this track offers no medical insurance, ride at your own risk". In this day and age, Im not looking at whether the good riders that I see each weekend will sue. Heck no, you people will be dead or unable to respond in a hospital, its your wives and next of kin that scare me. It only takes one rickhole lawyer, we have several hundred thousand of them around.

Fundraiser? Thats the $10 extra per rider. Potentially in the near future, we could be looking at NOT a $1000 per year increase, it would be a $1000 PER DAY increase! Back when we ran 40 rides+, thats $40,000! If this were to oocur, and its purely hypothetical, so those people joining in late, dont get confuse more than you already are, but we would be forced to examine $35 to practice or shut it down. That is the reality of the ship we run. How many of you would stomach doubling to tripling your operating costs.

Now there is a unique flip side to this. We provide all of the things they want improved for races, we could become a race only facility, that would be the other option.

Again this is all BS talk right now, but its something that i have seen trending the last couple years.
 
Would it make a difference if you we're a club? Insurance wise .
You just need to hire a sleezyer lawyer to out sleez the sleezyer. Easy yes?

BriarcliffMx said:
If I were betting, the sign at Smith Road was in regards to medical insurance, I have seen stuff like that at various tracks in my time. "this track offers no medical insurance, ride at your own risk". In this day and age, Im not looking at whether the good riders that I see each weekend will sue. Heck no, you people will be dead or unable to respond in a hospital, its your wives and next of kin that scare me. It only takes one rickhole lawyer, we have several hundred thousand of them around.

Fundraiser? Thats the $10 extra per rider. Potentially in the near future, we could be looking at NOT a $1000 per year increase, it would be a $1000 PER DAY increase! Back when we ran 40 rides+, thats $40,000! If this were to oocur, and its purely hypothetical, so those people joining in late, dont get confuse more than you already are, but we would be forced to examine $35 to practice or shut it down. That is the reality of the ship we run. How many of you would stomach doubling to tripling your operating costs.

Now there is a unique flip side to this. We provide all of the things they want improved for races, we could become a race only facility, that would be the other option.

Again this is all BS talk right now, but its something that i have seen trending the last couple years.
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