Bob Jane & Calder Park Not Informed Of Potential Insurance Deficiency

[RaceTime]

BOB JANE & CALDER PARK NOT INFORMED OF POTENTIAL INSURANCE DEFICIENCY

November 19, 2003 _ Bob Jane, owner and promoter of Calder Park Raceway and Adelaide International Raceway (AIR), is now able to detail the reason why Calder Park and AIR’s motor racing promotional operations were all but ceased from early 2000.


Ridiculous rumors of the period insinuated all manner of completely fictional scenarios in relation to the financial status of Bob Jane, one of Australia’s most successful businessmen, right through to the so-called sale of Calder Park, along with numerous other wrongful assumptions.


Jane can now reveal that the Bob Jane Group of Companies recently incurred significant exposure of a possible multi-million dollar damages claim plus legal claims due to the Confederation of Australian Motor Sports (CAMS) failure to disclose the insurances it arranged for the Bob Jane Group.


As the party responsible for organizing the insurance cover, CAMS had an obligation to disclose to the Bob Jane Group of Companies the adequacy of that cover.


Not being informed of the cover or its adequacy at all relevant times, the Bob Jane Group was placed in a dire position by the party responsible for the event’s insurance, an action that has cost the group operational losses, plus significant and unnecessary legal costs for the Bob Jane Group.


The details of insurance cover for promoters at any motor racing venue conducting a CAMS sanctioned event, is without any doubt the responsibility of CAMS.


“Every promoter relies upon being made aware of their own potential liability and the insurances that cover that liability by the organization providing their insurance”, said Jane.


“The process undertaken by CAMS should be reviewed to ensure other promoters are not faced with lengthy, costly and unnecessary litigation _ not to mention the disruption that this lengthy action has cost our venues since 2000”, he added.


MOTORSPORT INSURANCE NEEDS CLARIFICATION


Bob Jane wishes to encourage Australian motoring clubs, associations and motor sport competitors to question the current situation in relation to motor racing event and competitor insurance cover.


The insurance cover provided by AASA (formerly referred to as AAA) and provided for Calder Park and Adelaide International Raceway (AIR), and for other venues, was arranged with two Lloyd’s syndicates in London with a major portion provided by the same syndicate as CAMS insurance. So it is pointless for CAMS to continually suggest in any way, that AASA insurance is not a good and complete policy.


However, there are distinct and very important differences between AASA & CAMS event insurance. The AASA policy has a $25,000 deductible component being absorbed by the promoter using AASA Public Liability Insurance and this $25,000 excludes legal costs.


The CAMS policy has a $100,000 deductible factor for any incident, which includes all legal costs relating to each claim. This is a four-time increase compared to the AASA cover and when legal costs are taken into account, the increase could be 12 to 14 times more for each claim.


CAMS has offered to absorb this $100,000 deductible, introduced on July 1, 2003 for affiliated clubs, but it is believed that CAMS has a liability for at least thirty-four claims that include a $25,000 deductible payment from claims prior to June 30th 2003. This totals a potential exposure of $850,000 before taking into account the claims since July 1st 2003.


Bob Jane encourages motoring clubs and competitors to ensure that they clearly understand the implications of existing motor racing event or participant insurance coverage.


“It has come to our attention that clubs, competitors and organizations are being recommended against using our venues in relation to insurance,” he said.


“This is quite bizarre given that the coverage gained for our events is in part from the same insurer as CAMS, and that the coverage AASA affiliated venues has gained has been provided at lower costs for both circuit users and racing circuit owners in the event of any claim. It is important to ensure that the organization providing the coverage has the long term ability to cover the costs of such claims and that organizers and competitors question the deductible component of any claim and who is liable for it,” Jane added

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[GTRMagic]

Um, what is CAMS doing here? You are either covered with insurance or you are not, and an offer to make it all go away with a cheap deductible seems like they are covering something up

Who would pay the gap?? If the cost of the claim is say $250k, does CAMS pick up the other $150k out of their own revenues?

Sounds pretty nice to think all the CAMS licenceholders are funding an insurance inadequacy if this is indeed the case

[mixxer]

doesnt explain why BJ owed prizemoney to Drag Racers from the mid 90's, why the facilities fell into disrepair, why the racers in gerneral were treated like scum...........
Sorry its OT