It’s Spring time, and if you are a track rat, it means time to prep the car for up coming track season. We’ve covered the important mechanical things that need to be attended to before heading out on track such as fresh brake fluid, brakes, an oil change and good tires. One thing that doesn’t get much attention but is no less important is insurance. Many people don’t realize that your regular car insurance policy will not cover you on track. Incidents on track are extremely rare but it would suck to find out after bent metal that you are out of pocket.

Further, you cannot just call up Allstate and say, “Hi, I want to drive my $75,000 M4 on track and wanted a rider to cover my car on track.” You have to go to a specialized company that issues these track specific policies. Lockton Insurance is one such company and their track policy department is run by track enthusiasts.

Lockton insures your car for an agreed value which includes any mods you have done, for up to two drivers of the car. Once you have the agreed value, next is to find an approved event. Lockton works with the BMW Car Club of America, the Porsche Club of America as well as the SCCA and about ten other on race track driving programs. Lockton uses theses specific events because they know they are put on in a safe manner with instruction for students, instructors that have gone through rigorous certification courses.

Those insured with Lockton can choose a policy for a single event such as a driving school, a time trial or even chose a policy for you that covers multiple events. I personally have purchased Lockton’s policies for track events and consider it part of the cost of driving on track. Lockton’s policy’s max out at $150,000, so maybe not a good choice if you are going to take a LaFerrari out on track.

In my opinion, the best part of Lockton’s insurance is you set an agreed value of your track car. Many of us go though a lot to prepare cars for track duty, especially older cars such as the venerable E36 M3. The 95-99 M3 makes a great track car but as the car about twenty years old they frequently have an expensive after market modifications such as suspension, brakes and wheels on it.

Regular car insurance will not recognize the extra added cost of mods to the car if it gets totaled on the street, whereas an agreed insured value like track policy like Lockton’s does. The real benefit of this is that if you have put a ton of extras on your car, the policy will recognize that. Agreed value is also beneficial in cases where cars are now worth more than their initial purchase price such as the BMW 1M or Porsche GT4.

Interestingly, the reason Lockton offers track policies is because one their employees, Ryan Staub is a huge track rat, racer, and chief driving instructor. He saw the need for these policies as there weren’t many choices out on the market. Staub made the case to his bosses at Lockton as why they should have the program and they have been offering the policies since 2008.

Nothing beats the trill of driving you own car on a race track. The most important thing about race track driving is to do it safely. This includes making sure your car is mechanically sound and unless you want to self insure, track specific policies such as Lockton Motorsport’s. As Road and Track noted there are very few companies who offer these policies. Lockton’s online site makes signing up for a policy easy and quick.

When I drove a Porsche GT4 at COTA, we bought the policy the weekend before we headed down.