It was the recipe for disaster: an un-insured race driver with a spinal cord injury at a track with very little coverage. But, thankfully, Tim McCreadie wasn't paralyzed, hospitalized or facing major surgery following his nasty flip at the Chili Bowl in Tulsa on Jan. 15.
The dirt modified star from New York suffered a fractured vertebrae and must wear a back brace for another couple months before he can drive again but it could have been so much worse -- in every way.
McCreadie had no personal insurance and Chili Bowl promoters Lanny Edwards and Emmit Hahn carried a paltry $25,000 policy for the 295 drivers entered in the winter indoor midget classic.
In this case, both parties are negligent.
"If Tim would have been injured like Jacques Lazier was a few years ago and required surgery it would have been a minimum of $60,000 for the operation," said Dr. Terry Trammell, the orthopedic saviour of racers for the past three decades who examined McCreadie last week.
"If he would have been paralyzed, well, the costs to take care of him would be astronomical."
Like many young racers, McCreadie had no coverage on himself, for disability or hospitalization. Tony Stewart admitted he never had any when he was a midget/sprint regular in USAC. Ditto for Kasey Kahne and two-time USAC sprint champ Levi Jones just started buying some when he got engaged.
"A lot of guys don't think they can afford it but there's a policy out there that a driver can't afford not to have," said Tracy Hines, the multi-USAC champ who began buying insurance when he went to NASCAR a few years ago.
"It's only $425 a year and it provides $250,000 in coverage."
This particular policy was the creation of former USAC champ Larry Rice, who passed the business onto his son, Robbie. It's called the Short Track Independent Drivers & Associates and it's underwritten by Nationwide through K & K Insurance.
"There was nothing for the young guys starting out who ran the weekly sprint shows," said Rice, the 1978 co-rookie of the year at Indianapolis with Rick Mears who has been working for K & K for 19 years.
"And 60 percent of the calls my son Robbie gets are the wives, mothers and fathers of the drivers, the drivers hardly ever call because they either don't think about it or don't think they need it."
IRL veteran Davey Hamilton is the perfect example of somebody who needed a push from somebody else to get insurance and was forever grateful.
"I don't think I had insurance until I drove for Rick Galles because I was young and invincible and never thought I was going to get hurt," recalled Hamilton, whose feet were shattered in a ghastly accident at Texas in 2001.
"It cost $20,000 a year and it hurt making those payments but thank god I had it because I needed it. I would have been financially ruined without it. I was junk physically for two years and that was tough enough without being broke."
Wiley old Steve Kinser takes a different approach. The World of Outlaws legend makes himself an independent contractor and simply uses a workman's comp policy.
On the flip side, drivers depend on tracks or sanctioning bodies to provide adequate coverage, which isn't always the case.
"I don't bash USAC because it provides the best coverage in motorsports," said Tom Johnson, a longtime racing insurance man with Wells Fargo who also co-owns USAC Silver Crown cars and promoted the Hoosier Hundred in 2006. "USAC has taken care of a lot of people over the years but, unfortunately, a lot of promoters don't think like that.
"It's insanity to only have $25,000 worth of coverage and that really screws over the drivers."
The bottom line is that USAC provides better coverage than everyone except NASCAR and the IRL. A USAC member has $200,000 worth of medical while a temporary member is entitled to $100,000. And this doesn't count all the money sent to disabled racers through the years from the USAC Benevolent Fund.
Obviously, all short trackers can't run in USAC so a driver has to look out for No. 1 or at least his family.
In Hamilton's case, he almost needs insurance from himself. After two painful years of rehab, K & K determined he was permanently disabled since his ankles were fused together. He was awarded a big settlement.
But, since racing was all he knew, the personable 46-year-old couldn't stay away and driving the IRL 2-seater wasn't enough. He was back in the Indy 500 starting lineup in 2007 and nobody has ever paid more to drive at IMS.
"I had to give K & K their money back and that hurt almost as much as my feet," chuckles Hamilton, who is now protected by Gorsline with medical and personal disability and plans to run in his third consecutive Indy 500 this May in addition to starting his own Indy Lights team, running selected midget and sprint races and promoting at Terre Haute.
"But I've had two great companies with K & K and Gorsline and I can't stress enough to young drivers they need protection."
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator
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