![]() "From our NASCAR-style 5-car hauler, to our shop (expansion), to the new dynamometer, to our in-house body shop. Ulfelder said the company is continuing to invest in equipment. I think people see that and they want to be part of it." and our customers have been able to get faster with the data we go through with them. "We have the biggest rig, we have the biggest awning. "I guess you could consider us a big fish in a little pond," he said. Leverone said the company relies on a lot of word-of-mouth advertising at the tracks. They also travel farther afield, to tracks such as Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Mosport International Park in Ottawa, Canada, and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., putting 30,000 miles a year on the company’s hauler. The location is also about equal distance from the two road tracks in New England - New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H., and Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.įlatout Motorsports also travels to Watkins Glen (N.Y,) International and attends a couple of events at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway each year. And its proximity to 495 makes it convenient when we hit the road." Ulfelder said, "Bellingham is a business-friendly town. "We tried to keep it central to the three owners, and we felt Bellingham was a good middle-of-the-road for all of us and it was close to I-495, so we ended up here." "This is basically where we started," Leverone said. The building’s owner is building a 4,800-square-foot addition to keep them there. Now, the business is located in a 5,200 square-foot building on Mendon Street in Bellingham, and it is still growing. It moved to a larger shop on Williams Way in Bellingham, but soon outgrew that location, too. Originally, Flatout Motorsports was located in Marlborough, but the business outgrew that site in about a year. And at some point we decided we needed to rent a couple of cars to see if we could offset some of the costs. "People were asking us questions about stuff that we were doing to our cars to make them faster. "It all derived from our racing," Leverone said. Leverone founded the company in 2004 with Ulfelder and Andy Bettencourt of Bridgewater. Leverone has gone the highest, running successfully in the Sports Car Club of America World Challenge and Grand-Am series They have a total of 60 years of experience in racing between them. And one thing Flatout Motorsports’ owners know is speed. Speed on the track still brings in customers. "But we have a lot of customers who still want to do the whole season, or do as many races as they can." "We kind of thought it was going to (slow down) and it’s finally starting to. Leverone said the economic downturn hasn’t affected the business as much as he expected. The weekly cost to prepare an Arrive & Drive car for a race weekend is $1,500 and $2,500.įlatout Motorsports has 15 clients in the Arrive & Drive program. The cost of building a race car varies dramatically, Ulfelder said, "depending on how fancy the customer wants to get." A competition Miata can be built for $20,000-25,000 (including the price of the Miata), while a professional series car can cost more than $50,000. and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got to own my own car.’ "Ĭustomers can have Flatout build a car for them, or they can bring in a Mazda and have the staff make it race-ready. "Guys get their license, rent a few more times. "I would say better than 60 percent of our Arrive & Drive customers come from the rental program," said Leverone, a Westborough native who now resides in Bellingham. All the customer has to do is show up, suit up and jump in the car. They own the car, but Flatout Motorsports stores, prepares and transports the car to and from the track. The Arrive & Drive program is the next step for Flatout customers. "We have had a lot of use on those cars, but the main thing is they bring us Arrive & Drive customers." "The rentals are great," said company president and co-owner Nick Leverone. It costs about $1,000 to rent a Flatout Motorsports Mazda Miata to drive at one of a number of road courses in the northeast. "Some people rent our Miatas for race-driving schools, others rent as a cost-effective alternative to building their own." "We own five race-prepared Mazda Miatas, which we rent to a wide variety of folks," said Southborough’s Steve Ulfelder, a co-owner of the Bellingham-based business. Price and size are often key factors when people want to rent a car.īut if speed is what they need, then Flatout Motorsports is the place to go.
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