In March of 2008 I participated in a specific racing school meant for Ford GTs. It was taught by Neil Hannemann, the Ford GT’s chief engineer, at Willow Springs Raceway. If you’ve got a car with a lot of horsepower this track will allow for some pretty high speeds. The Ford GT was capable hitting 140 mph on the back stretch…if I was willing to push it that hard. Here’s the story that ran in March of 2008.

2005 Ford GT Willow Springs

The Ford GT School offered dedicated instruction at Willow Springs Raceway

“Hello, Auto Claims division? Yes, there was this event called ‘The GT School’ that involved driving my 700-horsepower Ford GT at speeds up to 140 mph at Willow Springs International Raceway. But Turn 9 is a little tricky. It’s this decreasing radius corner….”

This conversation never actually took place, but I heard it inside my head about 50 times during my nine hours at The GT School. In truth, my insurance company would have simply laughed and hung up had I called to make a claim about wadding up my $150,000 Ford supercar on a racetrack. Most insurance companies have a specific disclaimer, usually deeply buried in the policy, that shields them from coverage for “competitive driving events” or “racing activities” or similar behavior.