Former driver finds way to stay involved

Mike Harris

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2000 | 4:18 a.m.

It's an image seen frequently in auto racing - a battered car at a standstill, pieces strewn across the track.

Many a team owner cringes at such a sight, thinking about the potential loss of $600,000.

Unless the car is insured.

That's where Steve Chassey, a former driver, comes in. Over the past three years, he has sold insurance to team owners in CART, the Indy Racing League and the Indy Lights and Toyota-Atlantic series.

"I worked for an underfinanced team for a year as a team manager, and I didn't particularly enjoy that," Chassey said. "All that time, I was trying to think of some way to stay in the business and I came up with this idea to insure the race cars."

The result was Accordia Motorsports Insurance, a subsidiary of Accordia of California.

His company covers about 30 percent of the teams in CART and Indy Lights, 20 percent in the IRL and 75 percent in the Atlantic series.

Chassey had no insurance background, but he and business partner Phil Kerrigan got all of the teams' daily notes for a five-year period and recorded all crashes.

"We used those for averages, and that's how we came up with our premiums and deductibles," Chassey said.

He wouldn't say what premiums are, but indicated they range up to half the value of a car.

"It's always difficult because the numbers are a lot larger than your typical automobile insurance for the street because you're looking at a $600,000-valued vehicle in an Indy car," Chassey said. "It took some selling.

"Now there are those who would not race without it, and there are some of those that would rather pay for their own stuff and not pay for insurance."

Pat Patrick, a team owner who is a Chassey customer, says insurance is expensive, but the risk is high for the underwriter.

"So you have to figure out what you can pay for it in relation to what it would cost if you're self-insured," Patrick said. "We've run the numbers over the last five years and some years we'd be ahead and some years we'd be behind."

Bob Dorricott, who owns an Indy Lights team, also is insured by Accordia.

"No matter how good a driver is, there's a lot of unforeseen risks," Dorricott said. "It's either you pay now or you pay later. I'm a businessman, and I can't take big risks like that."

Deductibles are between $50,000 and $100,000.

"It's very beneficial for the teams," Chassey said. "The small accidents they can take care of, but if they have a really large accident - $300,000, or $400,000 - it takes the sting out of it when they pay a $50,000 or $75,000 deductible and then the insurance company pays the rest."

What actually makes the program work, though, is Chassey's unique ability.

"I'm the adjustor because of my background in building race cars for all the years I did and driving the race cars," he said. "I know the people in all the series, so they welcome me in their garage area after a crash.

"They trust me and I trust them."