Racing Fantasies Fulfilled--for a Price

EASTON, Pa. —  So you want to be a race car driver, eh kid?

Well grab your helmet and your checkbook and head for Chris Schneider’s little garage here.

Executive Auto Sport Inc. will lease you a race car, a crew chief, pit helpers, spare parts and even provide advice from an experienced driver. It’s everything you need to spend a white-knuckled weekend driving around in circles at a very high rate of speed.

Schneider’s clients fork over between $2,500 and $15,000 for each race, all for the chance to live out their racing fantasies.

“It’s expensive,” the 30-year-old entrepreneur says. “You’ve got to have a relatively large entertainment budget. Most of our rentals are on the lower end of the spectrum.”

But there are some regulars, including several New York City lawyers and corporate chief executives, who spend the big bucks a couple of times a year.

The three-year-old business grossed about $800,000 last year and is profitable, says Schneider. He already is thinking about expansion.

What’s that? You don’t have a race-car license? No problem. Schneider can fix you up with that too.

In the past two years, he’s walked a dozen new drivers through the red tape and paperwork, racing schools and required preliminary races needed to get their Sports Car Club of America license. The cost: about $20,000.

“Our customers fall into two categories,” he says. “First, there are hobbyists, using it to get their release or take out their aggressions. This is their hang gliding or scuba diving or parachuting.” This is the category into which Schneider places the lawyers and chief executives.

“The second group I call the young bucks,” he said. “These are the people who want to make a career out of racing. That’s a tough row to hoe.”

Schneider should know. The Blairstown, N.J., man has been around racing all his life. His father was a race-car driver, and the younger Schneider competes in the SCCA professional division. He’s been building his own race cars and driving them for the past 12 years, while working as a mechanic for several exotic-car dealers.

“I was racing myself and prepping cars for other people,” he says, “and someone came up to me and asked how much to rent a car. That’s how the rental idea started.” There are a few other places around the country where you can rent a race car, Schneider says, but he claims his cars give weekend racers a better “edge” on winning.

The company maintains a fleet of between six and 10 cars -- machines that are slightly smaller than Indy-style racers. They run 45- to 50-mile “sprint” races in which there are no pit stops. Last year, Schneider supplied cars and teams on each of 27 racing weekends.

You’d think insurance costs would be killing him, but Schneider’s employees and clients are covered by the SCCA’s multimillion-dollar policy while at the track. And you can’t buy crash insurance on race cars, so each client pays a substantial security deposit on the car and is bound by contract to pay the full cost of any repairs.

There are lots of fender benders, Schneider says, but the potential for a more serious accident does exist. “One customer had a pretty bad accident this year,” he says, “the only serious one to date. He broke his arm. He’s the first customer they had to take to the hospital.”

The seven-employee company gets about 90 percent of its revenues from race-car work -- leasing, rebuilding and repairing crashes -- and about 10 percent from the repair and restoration of exotic cars like Jaguars and Rolls-Royces. Schneider hopes to expand the “street division” to include more restoration and repair of luxury automobiles.

Schneider also would like to own a classic car dealership. “We’re right at the bottom of College Hill,” he says, adding that he may be able to sell sporty cars and classics to well-to-do Lafayette College students, or their dads.

“I’m not in debt,” he says, “but I put a lot of my own money into the business. I’m pretty well in the black. At least I’m not worried so much about going into the slow winter months as I was last year.”