Insurance woes put the brakes on suburban Chicago high school auto club
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Homewood-Flossmoor auto club has been forced to shelve its drag racing car.
The reason: The insurance company dropped them.
CBS 2's Shardaa Gray spoke to the school about their significant hurdle and why their coverage was revoked.
"This might be a good spot for it."
This isn't your typical classroom.
It's an auto class program at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. Since 2016, students each year worked on a 1997 Ford Mustang.
They fill the gas, rotate the tires, change out the oil, and even race it.
Automotive Instructor Benjamin May said working on the car and racing builds team character and helps them with problem-solving and management.
"This carries on beyond the classroom, but also beyond Homewood-Flossmoor when they get to their career positions," May said.
They even won the track championship at Byron Dragway in 2019. But this year, their dreams of drag racing are cut short because they can't drive it.
"Just something you put all of this effort into and then you don't get anything back out of it. It was sad not being able to do it," said Homewood-Flossmoor sophomore Charly Dieringer.
The school district said the company that insured the race team in the past, has dropped coverage.
"We went to our broker to go out to all the insurance. So we've reached out to 19 insurance agencies," said Homewood-Flossmoor District 233 Superintendent Scott Wakeley.
They even reached out to eight different states, but all declined to provide a bid because a high school racing team is too niche of a market.
They have received some messages from a few community members with potential leads for coverage.
"I'm guessing it's the nature of having enough and because there's only one, that creates a challenge of the cost associated if something were to happen," Wakeley said.
While Superintendent Wakeley is optimistic about help from the community, he's also reaching out to corporate businesses that have insurance that can help cover the car.
The superintendent said the school's program is distinct because it's one of the few remaining in the state.
