Denver—When a racer rips down a quarter-mile track, a mechanical failure can result in poor performance and even injury. Stick Shift racer Harvey “Scott” Bennett, third-generation owner of Midtown Automotive Repair, a European and Asian specialist and performance shop Fast Lane, said he pays attention to repair details not only on weekends but during the week with his customers’ cars.
“In racing, you double check everything you do,” said Bennett, who gets a helping hand in the pits on the weekend from four of his technicians. “For the eight to nine seconds that you go down the track, you can’t have anything go wrong.”
This attention to detail carries over into the shop during the week, Bennett said. “They’re more careful, more particular about their work and make sure the car goes out the door right.”
Technicians that are into racing cars have a love for cars and are motivated to make them run well, Bennett said.
Shop owner by week, racer by weekend, Bennett said he has devoted much of his time to running the family business that his grandparents Rita and Harvey Staab opened in 1959 at Lincoln Street and East Seventh Avenue.
Bennett said he has put equal effort into drag racing and co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Stick Shifters (RMSS) in 2006, a non-NHRA-sanctioned league—Fast Lane Stick Shift Series—that races in 16 competitions throughout the summer at Bandimere Speedway, Douglas Motorsports Park in Wyoming, Julesburg Dragway, Pueblo Motorsports Park, and Western Colorado Dragway in Grand Junction. A complete schedule can be found at www.rockymountainstickshifters.com.
On summer weekends, Bennett pilots his ’67 Camaro with fellow racers in the RMSS league’s Stick Shift class, one that he co-founded to keep racing affordable for the average person.
“Drag racing has become unaffordable for most racers,” Bennett said. “We wanted to create a class that’s more nostalgic with more driver skill.” The 27-member league is sponsored by several companies, and funds are returned to the racers in “round pay” as a way to help subsidize their sport.
“It helps normal guys who work 50 hours a week to still have some fun on the weekend,” Bennett said, adding that there are 16 races each season, which help keep racers from competing illegally on the street.
Involvement in the racing scene naturally translates into repair business, said Midtown Automotive Service Manager Jeremia Stanton, a 2003 graduate of University of Southern Colorado’s Automotive Industry Management program, now known as CSU-Pueblo. “If you’re able to put together a 9-second car, people take notice.”
Although more than 75 percent of the shop’s business is Volkswagen, Audi, Honda, and Toyota, Bennett said, many of the racers on the circuit bring him their domestic pickups, street vehicles, and wives’ cars. “Many people we see race as a hobby and want to take care of their personal vehicles as well as their rigs.”
Working alongside Bennett, who is an ASE-certified master tech specializing in Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen, is air-cooled VW specialist Randy Montoya, a 27-year employee who jokes that “he came with the building,” while Eddie O’Meara and Waid Wynn, a graduate of the Fred N. Thomas Career Education Center in Denver, handle most domestic work.
“There are a lot more people fixing and repairing their old cars instead of buying new ones,” Bennett said. The average person spends $1,200 a year on maintenance and repair, he said, which is a bargain when compared to a $500-a-month payment on a new car.
Nonetheless, jobs need to be sold at the counter, which involves customer education, Stanton said.
Stanton said his educational background has made his skills well rounded by combining technical automotive repair with business management. “It gives you not only the technical side, but the business skills to run a shop.”
That education works well in selling service at the counter and explaining why certain maintenance and service recommendations are required, Stanton said. “If you keep the customers informed, they have a little bit more understanding and knowledge the next time they come in,” he said.
A good example is the process that occurs when educating customers on why they should replace their water pumps and timing belts at 60,000 miles.
“It’s best to take care of it while it’s still running instead of dealing with broken belts and bent valves when it fails,” Stanton said. To do the job, he said he prefers CRP Automotive’s Pro Series Timing Kits sold through Import Car Parts, which come complete with a timing belt, water pump, and other model-specific parts that are needed.
Other key parts suppliers are WorldPac and NAPA, he said, adding that Midtown is a NAPA AutoCare Center, giving it the ability to offer a nationwide warranty, which draws business from those who find their way to the shop for such warranty work.
In addition to recommended repairs, performing preventive maintenance on many German vehicles is vital to keep them running well, Stanton said.
If a customer extends his or her oil change interval, the oil can become thick, causing carbon buildup, Stanton said. To reverse the affects of the buildup, the shop’s techs use a MotorVac CarbonClean machine to do the $200 job, he said, adding that it takes approximately a half-hour to clean the fuel lines and intake valves for better performance.
