Spoken like a true category 1 person the event is going to screen out.
Have you actually attended the event? Driven the course? You do NOT get to take a passenger with you on course, at least not without a professional BMW instructor sitting in the passenger seat. If you do MANAGE to inflict personal injury on a non-BMW staffer, you have done some serious negligent stuff WILLFULLY to have been able to inflict said personal injury.
Seriously, almost all the exercises that YOU can potentially injure someone in, you are in the car BY YOURSELF. If you're not in the car by yourself, either you're not driving, or you are under strict, watchful eyes of the in-car instructor. If you still managed to hurt someone, you would have done so absolutely willfully and absolutely negligently, and at that point, you SHOULD assume responsibility for said damages.
You can keep parsing it all you want. That waiver does exactly as I have described. If you're so afraid that some sh*t will happen when you're there, don't go. Don't sign it. The waiver has done its job as a screener. And if the waiver should have kicked in? You would have done some pretty f**ked up, personally, willfully, NEGLIGENT sh*t for BMW to want to pursue it. Drive like you're playing Grand Theft Auto 2016 and try to mow down pedestrians and bystanders? WAIVER. Drive like how BMW has structured and instructed you, within their rules and confines? No way in hell will you EVER be able to inflict any personal injury on others.
What most of you category 1 that's been screened out will NEVER realize, is the way BMW runs these events, everything you do once you set foot on campus is CONTROLLED to the utmost to ensure everyone's safety without you seeing or knowing it. There are hundreds of sets of eyes on you while you're on course. The courses are controlled in a way that makes it virtually impossible for you to crash and hurt someone. All the instructors are hand selected and trained to keep all situations under their full control. None of this stuff is as mickey-mouse as you all seem to think it is.
The chances of you walking out and get struck by lightning at the facility is infinitely greater than the actual chance you'll be given the reigns of the car enough to hurt someone besides yourself. Are you guys going to try and secure lightning strike policies while you're attending the event too?
Actually, something looked very stupid and suspicious, so I re-read the original post by the Roundel reader, and he's a f**king moron.
I'm 99.9% certain that you have to carry personal and vehicle damage liability insurance in order to register a car in all 50 states, or at least in California, have a bonded, $35,000 deposit with DMV. If you choose to use a $35,000 bond to secure the registration for your vehicle, then NO you do not have personal and vehicle damage liability insurance. But then, you probably shouldn't sign the waiver. You SHOULD go home.
But just as in ANY and all situation involving a rental car, if you were to get into an accident in said rental, your own personal vehicle and liability insurance would kick in even if "it's not your car." So if you own a registered vehicle, you would have satisfied the waiver requirement. Should SOMETHING happen that requires BMW to pursue damages, they would ask to be compensated by your own car owner's policy.
The truly "grey" area of this worth parsing, is the fact that majority of auto insurance policies out there exclude "surfaces used for competition." THAT is really what's worth discussing here, not the actual waiver requiring you to have insurance policy.
Seriously though. Don't go. It's not for you, if you REALLY think that you'll end up Porsche Carrera GT someone and that BMW is going to go after you for it.