[jamesbialas]

Seriously, why is this a problem?

Last I checked, insurance was still less than $100/per car for an event.

That seems reasonable to me.

Were they threatening to yank the coverage? Raise the rates? Was the coverage not enough to cover any potential losses? Will nobody else cover this form of motorsport regardless of cost? Why was there no chance for member input? Why make a press release this soon hinting at a deal with Rally America and then provide no details on that either? The press release mentions nothing about any of this.

I'm seriously bewildered by all of this.

There's a line of beers at the Keweenaw Brewing Company in Houghton for any PRB member or similar that can explain all of this to me.

I'll even obey the Secret Car Club of America Protocol and not tell anybody else. Honest!

-james

 

[Reno Rally]

One of the reasons that ClubRALLY rates haven't risen much is that the bulk of the rate hikes were passed on to the ProRALLY fees to help out the little guys.

David

 

[Team_Harco]

>One of the reasons that ClubRALLY rates haven't risen much
>is that the bulk of the rate hikes were passed on to the
>ProRALLY fees to help out the little guys.
>
>David

Really? Have you seen the entry fees for LSPR? That was the straw that broke our backs. We decided to take our future business to CARS when we saw that. Now it's academic.

Scott
www.teamharco.com
Team Harco Motorsports
"Win on Sunday, Sleep on Monday"

 

[jamesbialas]

>One of the reasons that ClubRALLY rates haven't risen much
>is that the bulk of the rate hikes were passed on to the
>ProRALLY fees to help out the little guys.
>
>David


Even if that's the case, why not just increase the rates and see who is willing to pay to play?

How much of ClubRally is subsidized by ProRally? If this is the case, somebody must have figured it out.

Do you have a reference for any of this?

I don't know what the ProRally insurance rates currently are (couldn't find it on the SCCA website), but current entry fees seem to indicate that insurance couldn't be much more than a few $100/car more.

I'm looking for facts I can verify outside of this forum here...

-james

 

[Bruce]

Briefly, SCCA purchases one policy to cover all its events, from ProRallies and National Road Races to Region meetings at the Keweenaw Brewery. They allocate the premium among these events based on risk...meaning past performance and percieved exposure.

At the moment, SCCA's insurance will go up 20% WITHOUT rally for 2005, and - as I hear it - significantly more WITH rally, because of its bad claim history. In a club where 85% of the members don't give a rip about rally, it's a reasonable business decision to drop the high-risk program so that the other programs aren't threatened.

ProRally insurance was significantly more than $100/car...each rally paid $12,000 for insurance in 2004, and the fields were down. SCCA attempted to shift the burden to ProRally, keeping Club as cheap as possible - and keeping the per-car structure in ClubRally, to help budgeting.

It remains to be seen what the premiums will be for an all-rally organization. Canadian prices don't help us, because socialized medicine and a somewhat different legal structure make insurance a different business there. Rally CAN be insured...a 95-year-old man on his deathbed can buy life insurance, after all.

What we DON'T want to do is cut coverage to save a buck. The coverage SCCA offers its events is getting marginal in today's world...anything less is foolhardy.

I hope this helps. I'll hold you to that beer...

By the way, the current SCCA insurance rates and coverages can be found at: http://www.scca.org/_Filelibrary/File/2004InsuranceHandbook.pdf

Bruce

 

[jamesbialas]

>I hope this helps. I'll hold you to that beer...
>
>Bruce


Thank you, Bruce! That makes it much more clear and answers all my other questions.

I'm still a little concerned about the lack of member input, but this situation makes it easier to understand.

And yes, you've definately got a few beers waiting for you in Houghton.


-james

 

[hilmera]

It sounds like the SCCA needs to shop around for insurance providers. I know that supposedly "that's not how it's done," but there are a lot of providers. Just because the SCCA's Risk Manager and the carrier's account rep are the same person shouldn't be an impediment. 20% is big money and should be enough to trump the interests of a single individual and their long-term relationship with the club.

This is just a rehash of earlier arguments, but it looks like it's finally coming to a head within the SCCA. Club programs should be more important than individual personalities -- at least that's the line the membership hears when there are personality conflicts with the national office. I agree with this principle, but it needs wider application.

Hell, the club is big enough it ought to be able to underwrite its own activities.

andy
--
Viva la ProleRalliat!

 

[jamesbialas]

>By the way, the current SCCA insurance rates and coverages
>can be found at:
>http://www.scca.org/_Filelibrary/File/2004InsuranceHandbook.pdf


There's an interesting bit in the cover letter of this document where they describe the rate increases for 2004.

Apprently, most of the rate increases were attributed to rally activities, but they only passed on about 80% of the cost of the increase. The rest was picked up out of the SCCA general fund.

So, not only was ProRally subsidizing ClubRally, but the SCCA in general was subsidizing rally.

With the often quoted 15% interest level, I can see why this happened. It's suprising all those pavement people didn't hunt us down and beat us with those funny tires they have without any tread on 'em.

-james

 

[Bruce]

>It sounds like the SCCA needs to shop around for insurance
>providers. I know that supposedly "that's not how it's
>done," but there are a lot of providers. Just because the
>SCCA's Risk Manager and the carrier's account rep are the
>same person shouldn't be an impediment. 20% is big money
>and should be enough to trump the interests of a single
>individual and their long-term relationship with the club.

Actually, SCCA puts their insurance package out for bids every few years. The present carrier was low bidder last time this was done.

Not very many carriers bid...

Bruce