CHICAGO — A Homewood-Flossmoor car club has been forced to shelve its drag racing car.
CBS 2’s Shardaa Gray spoke to the school about their significant hurdle and why their coverage was revoked.
“This could be a good place for it.”
This isn’t your typical classroom.
It’s an auto class at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. Every year since 2016, students have worked on a 1997 Ford Mustang.
They fill it with gas, rotate the tyres, change the oil and even race it.
Automotive instructor Benjamin May said working on the car and racing it builds team character, and helps them with problem solving and management.
“This carries over beyond the classroom, but also beyond Homewood-Flossmoor when they get into their career positions,” May said.
They even won the track championship at Byron Dragway in 2019. But this year, their drag racing dreams will be cut short because they won’t be able to drive.
“It’s just something that you put all this effort into and then you don’t get anything out of it. It was sad not to be able to do it,” said Homewood-Flossmoor student Charly Dieringer.
The school district said the company that had insured the race team in the past had dropped coverage.
“We went to our broker to get all the insurance companies. So we’ve gone to 19 insurance agencies,” said Homewood-Flossmoor District 233 Superintendent Scott Wakeley.
They even contacted eight different states, but they all declined to quote because a high school racing team is too niche a market.
They have received a few messages from some community members with potential leads for coverage.
“I suppose it’s the nature of having enough, and because there’s only one, it creates a challenge in terms of the costs involved if something were to happen,” Wakeley said.
While Superintendent Wakeley is optimistic about help from the community, he’s also reaching out to businesses that have insurance that could help cover the car.
The superintendent says the school’s programme is unique because it’s one of the few remaining in the state.
