A young entrepreneur is helping racers store, rent, and repair their cars right in ProFormance’s backyard.
It’s well known that racing careers begin at ProFormance Racing School. But businesses are born there too. When Todd Weed bought an e90 M3 and took ProFormance Racing School’s One-Day High Performance Driving Experience, he fell in with the Pacific Northwest’s vibrant and welcoming amateur racing community. That led to lapping, competition licensing, and finally, the founding of Raceway United, Pacific Raceways’ only storage and service shop. The business is dedicated to supporting performance drivers of all stripes, from experienced competitors to those just testing the waters.
Putting Motorsport Within Reach
“What drove me to start Raceway United? Meeting a lot of people who felt that high performance sports car driving was out of reach,” says Todd. There are, he notices, a lot of people who want to do sport motoring, but they love their downtown Seattle apartment. “They’d love to buy a car for the track, but they don’t have a place to put it. And they don’t want to buy a house in the burbs.”
Todd took it as his mission to serve those people who would love to be part of the Northwest motorsport community if there were services and support to make it happen for them.
Partnerships Make the Difference
The new facilities at Pacific Raceways were the ideal location for what Todd was planning. He reached out to Jason Fiorito, president of Pacific Raceways, and also to other vendors, suppliers, and partners, to see if he could make the business work.
Raceway United opened its doors in November, offering various levels of membership for those wanting to store their car conveniently at the track.
Need a car? Rent one!
“When I came out of the program,” Todd says, “the first thing I said was, ‘Now I need to find a car.’” Many people emerge from the HPDE with a yen for more track time, but aren’t ready to spring for a performance car right away. Renting is the answer, and Raceway United is planning to make cars available for rental in popular platforms like PRO3, Spec E46, BRZ, and Spec Miata.
“There are a lot of drivers who are looking for experience – they don’t necessarily want to win races at this stage; they’re just kicking the tires. Renting out cars is a good way to get folks experienced in a platform that has a good-sized class to compete in.”
Doing the heavy lifting
Beyond storage, Raceway United offers service facilities to drivers at Pacific Raceways, including tools, expertise, design, fabrication, prototyping, and a big trackside plus: lift rental. “A lift is a huge investment for most people,” says Todd. “You’re looking at 5 grand or more, twice that if you want it professionally installed so you don’t kill yourself.” Right now Raceway United offers one lift, and two more are in the works.
“Suppose something went wrong at the track, and you could fix it if you had a lift? What if you could just roll your car 300 feet down the road onto a lift? That means that all the money you invested on your race weekend wouldn’t go to waste.”
“Suppose something went wrong at the track … and you could just roll your car 300 feet down the road onto a lift?
More to come
Todd plans to add more services and support to Raceway United’s menu, such as round-trip transport to far-flung tracks. He’s also opening the space to other companies for related offerings: SIM racing, detailing, car wrapping. “We want to bring in services that make us more attractive, but which we wouldn’t be staffing ourselves.”
The ProFormance connection
According to Todd, a lot of credit for the growth of Raceway United goes to the partnership that he forged with ProFormance Racing School. “It’s a great marriage of two companies,” he says. “We’ve partnered with the best driving school, the best driver development company – it makes sense.”
To Todd, Don Kitch, Jr. and Donna Porada-Kitch are mentors. “They’re the kind of people you listen to. If you’re new to motorsports in this region, and you’re looking to get a good foundation, you should definitely connect with Don and Donna.”
Service at your fingertips
Raceway United is a five-minute walk from ProFormance, in Suite 115 and 117 in the orange building. To show how vital physical proximity is to their business, Todd performed a test himself: “Recently I got in a PRO3 car, drove from the shop to ProFormance, to the driver’s meeting, to the track, finished my lapping, and went back to the shop. I wanted to get the whole experience.” You can see a version of that experience on their website.
In the coming years Raceway United is set to become a valuable part of racing life at ProFormance and Pacific Raceways. “It’s a community effort,” Todd says. “We couldn’t have done it without the support and encouragement of Don, Donna, and Jason.”
Now that it’s off the ground, what’s next? “Much excitement, and a lot of hard work.”