Photo courtesy of Track First

In an age of advancing technology, doing business person-to-person may be viewed as outdated. Nonetheless, it remains one of the most effective methods of activating sales, especially at the race track.

In a world of Skype calls, Zoom meetings, Facebook pages, and Instagram Reels, there are more ways than ever for racing entrepreneurs to conduct business from afar. 

But for many of the most successful business owners in the performance industry, nothing beats personal relationships. That is why it’s still important for them to be at the race track to improve a company’s overall business strategy. 

It’s the personal interaction, the handshake, the looking a customer straight in the eye, and the real-time problem solving that can’t be beat in business.

“You keep in touch with your customers,” said Bernie Stuebgen of Indy Race Parts, Indianapolis, Indiana. “If they have a question or a parts failure, you are able to be there and understand what the issue is. It’s easier being at the race track to diagnose and help a customer or to see what the issue is as opposed to trying to watch it on the computer, or have him try and call you, or you get hearsay. It’s better to be in touch with them by being at the track.”

Stuebgen understands the importance of conducting business the old-school way. “I go around and call myself the mayor,” he said. “I shake hands and ask the customers how things are going and ask them if they are happy or whatnot. If they have any questions.

“We don’t have a parts truck that goes to the races, but we hand deliver lots of parts to the races when we go to watch,” he added.

In addition to owning and operating Indy Race Parts, Stuebgen also owns a race team and serves as the crew chief. In turn, that has helped him expand his retail business.

“We can try things on the car and see how they work,” Stuebgen said. “I’m a pretty open book. My wife gets mad at me. Whatever we do, whatever I try or whatever parts, I share that information with the customers.

“We’re really busy at the shop,” continued Stuebgen, “so I don’t get to race as much as the other guys, but we still race 30 times a year.”

Stuebgen’s job duties don’t stop there. He is also the co-promoter of Terre Haute Action Track, the half-mile dirt oval in Terre Haute, Indiana, so he is at all the races at that famed track.

Stuebgen cited several examples as to why it is important for him to be at the track as far as business is concerned. “You get to the race track and some customers might be customers of the competition, and they are not happy with their service,” he said. “I’ve gone to the races and ended up selling someone a couple of race cars.

“Being there to pick up someone else’s slack is a good thing,” he continued. “Being in the right place at the right time, that happens in everyday circumstances of living.”

He is always willing to share his expertise with racers, including new entrepreneurs, about what they should and shouldn’t do when conducting business at the track. “You should never criticize a customer on their performance,” Stuebgen said. “Always offer words of encouragement.”

Visible in Victory Lane

Larger companies, such as Rocket Chassis and Mark Richards Racing, Inc. in Shinnston, West Virginia, feature an elaborate and sophisticated website. But for Steve Baker, the importance of being at the track is one of the reasons Rocket Chassis has become the most successful dirt track car in racing.

In 1986, Richards and Baker started the business with the goal of producing the fastest dirt late models in the United States. Nearly 5,000 chassis later, Rocket Chassis has become the winningest dirt late model manufacturer in the world.

Baker has five people who travel to the tracks to conduct business. The company has 22 employees. “We are racers providing services for racers,” he explained. “They are local racers going out racing that represent our company.

“That’s our advertising,” he continued. “That’s how we advertise our product, being at the race track.”

He stressed, “You have to be visible.”

Nothing is more visible and validates a product better than winning. With all the success Rocket Chassis has enjoyed since 1986, it is the best way to market its products.

Proof in Action

The main focus of Wasted Diesel of Huntington, Indiana, “is diesel repair for pickup trucks with the pursuit of performance,” said Chris Hoffman. “We are pushing the performance side of it more and more as we grow.

“Being at the track is significant because it’s a proof of concept and proof of parts, proof that we know what we are doing and the parts work really well.”

With its location in the hotbed of racing in Indiana, Wasted Diesel can focus on both racing and tractor pulling, along with its street-based clientele. “We do a lot more with the street stuff, guys who want to play with their dailies,” Hoffman said. 

“I’ve been doing the diesel stuff 10 years now,” he continued. “I go to events, but it’s based on what my schedule allows me to get to. It’s been just a handful. I’m short-staffed and so busy that it makes it hard to get there and get everything together and ready for the track.”

Building Awareness

Track First in Richfield, Ohio, opened in 2013. The company sets up displays at Pittsburgh International Race Complex, better known as Pitt Race, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and at local drag strips, asphalt, and dirt tracks in the area.

The company is the official trackside support for the Northeast Great Lakes NASA tour. It specializes in safety apparel and other safety equipment for drivers and cars.

“It’s important to be at the track for awareness,” Sally Wadsworth said. “Our business grows through word-of-mouth from it. We’ve done Facebook and all the other social media, but being at the track, people are very grateful we are there. 

“It’s not something we sell a lot of things at. It’s awareness and helping the community,” she stressed.

It’s important for Wadsworth to take enough inventory to each race, predicting what parts may be needed for racers as well as keeping helmets, fluids, and the basic trackside essentials in stock. Her son deals with electronics and shoes. 

The display tent is a miniature version of their showroom. “We have samples where people come, they can get fit, and they can feel it,” Wadsworth said. “They can take it if we have it, but on the whole we dropship items. 

“Woody Hyman, in the MX5 Cup, we met him at an auto interest event at Mid-Ohio about seven years ago,” she continued. “We introduced him to NASA. He has since moved into endurance racing. He still comes back to us to get all of his safety equipment, and now he races MX5 Cup.”

Wadsworth looks for events that are most useful to grow the company’s customer base, such as NASA and SCCA competition, but not pro series racing. 

“My advice to other businesses is they should show they are there to help, rather than to just sell,” she said. “The motorsport community is one degree of separation, not six degrees. Everybody knows everybody. 

“Most people are very loyal and have a great experience from it. Most people return to us. We have a great return rate in our customers because they know we are authentic. We’re not just trying to sell them T-shirts and helmets,” Wadsworth added. 

Need to be Seen

Todd Sherrer of Everything Horsepower in Abercorn, Quebec, Canada, takes the “out of sight, out of mind” approach as a reason to be at the track. He realizes it’s important just to be seen at the races.

“It doesn’t take long for people to forget about you,” Sherrer explained. “It’s great exposure, especially if you can do something good while you are there. You become irrelevant quickly if you are not participating and showing your wares.” 

Sherrer has been in racing since 1984 and has operated out of his current shop since 1993. His role at the track is easy to explain. “We are racers, and we end up providing service,” he said. “A lot of clients bring our cars here [to the track]. We end up doing a lot of tuning and service at the track. People always need help with suspension and engine stuff.

“I’m the old-school guy. I stay with the carb stuff, and my son is the fuel-injection guy,” he continued. “We cover everybody. We do full service from chassis to engine shop, fab shop. We do the whole car. If somebody comes in with a blank slate, we’ll build them a car.

“We have a little bit of everything. The bulk of our work is the job somebody started and didn’t finish. That covers the gamut of people out there. 

“I wouldn’t say we have a majority of any one type of racing,” said Sherrer. “Any door car, we are all over the place. We do a lot of the small-tire stuff. I don’t think that makes us unique.”

Although Everything Horsepower began as a restoration and engine shop, its focus has evolved. “If I look at the shop right now,” Sherrer revealed, “it’s all race cars. It’s odd, but it gets us where we want to go.”

Sherrer’s main benefit of being at the track is picking up new work and meeting clientele. He doesn’t advertise, so the track exposure is crucial.

“People come to me for parts and tires,” he said. “That’s all track exposure, that’s the only advertising we are doing right now because we can’t keep up with everything. It’s 80% to 90% of what we do right now during the season.

“Being at the track is very important if you want to grow your business, especially in the racing venue. It’s everything.”

For Sherrer, it all started out just to have some fun racing. Then it grew into helping other racers. “Our race car is 100% built here,” he explained. “We always made it faster and faster because that is what we wanted to do. It has drawn a lot of attention, and we ended up building a clientele through that.

“We have a few customers that we babysit, for lack of a better word. Some of them really want you there to walk them through the weekend to get them from A to B. We’ve had good success with that, too. Once you win one event, they want you there every time.

“It’s fun,” Sherrer continued. “We like doing it. It’s not all building the business, it’s a personal passion thing for us, too.”

Sherrer is also a strong believer in professionalism, which should be a top priority for any trackside operation. “Don’t be unprofessional,” he stressed. “Don’t show up looking like a slob. Don’t take junk leaking all over the place to the track and make yourself look like you shouldn’t be there. If you are there representing yourself as a professional and a business, try to present yourself as a professional. That is the simplest piece of advice I can give anybody.”

Take Notes

Edward Bertram of K&E Sales in Clintonville, Wisconsin, has been in business for 22 years. He is the trackside parts supplier for two dirt oval tracks in Wisconsin—Outagamie Speedway in Seymour on Friday nights and Shawano Speedway in Shawano on Saturday nights.

He is the epitome of doing business the old-fashioned way. “If you don’t have a parts trailer and go to the race track, it’s difficult to let those people know about your company,” Bertram said. “Just because you have a Facebook page doesn’t mean they are going to see it.”

Bertram stocks tires, wheels, suspension parts, spindles, tie-rods, ball joints, tear-offs, radiators, fan belts, gaskets, as well as helmets and fire suits.

“You can’t really predict what is going to sell on a given night,” he said. “Anything can break, anybody can crash. A lot of times something never moves for months, but if you don’t have it, you can’t sell it.”

Bertram has plenty of small-ticket items, but with more than 100 cars at some of his races, by the end of the night he can easily have $3,000 or more in sales. “You could have 20 different people looking for little pieces,” he said.

Bertram believes loyalty and territory are important. He does not go to any other tracks that already have a parts vendor. He expects the same in return.

He also has one key bit of advice to anyone in the parts business that conducts business at the track. “The most important thing I think to anybody running a parts trailer is, every single item you sell goes on a notepad automatically,” he explained. “Whether you have three of them hanging on a wall or 10 of them hanging on the wall, if you sell one part number, you have to write that number down so when you come back on Monday, you have enough inventory back in the trailer.

“Too many parts guys tend to forget to jot down the part number,” he continued. “The next week when they go to the track and the guy wants to buy what they didn’t write down, guess what? They don’t have it.

“Also, pay attention to your customers. They will tell you what to put in,” Bertram added.

Meeting customers, forging relationships, shaking hands, and getting to know the client base may seem “old school” by today’s standards, but those business concepts have stood the test of time.

Sources

Everything Horsepower
facebook.com/everythinghorsepower/

Indy Race Parts
indyraceparts.com

K&E Sales
kandesales.net

Rocket Chassis
rocketchassis.com

Track First
track-first.com

Wasted Diesel
wasteddiesel.squarespace.com