It's also very big business during an average day when Skip Thomas' Culver, Ind.-based Performance Driving School is in town. Driving schools dot the land, but this one is a bit different. Here, students use their own vehicles, typically Dodge Vipers, though Corvette Z06s, Ford GTs, Pontiac GTOs; other late-model performance vehicles, too, are welcome (including the popular Dodge Neon SRT).

Considering 500 to 600 drivers attend the school each year, these factors add up to some impressive profits, along with other significant benefits. Vendors have the opportunity to spend valuable face time with customers. That time has led to new product developments. Taken all together, this grand experiment in safety, speed and excitement has created a sales venue the aftermarket would be wise to study and take a lesson or two from, as well.

Background basics

One awful day, he received terrible news that a close friend had lost his life in a car accident in Florida. That friend had accelerated all the way to 20 mph, slipping his Viper into second gear before losing control and flipping the uber-powerful coupe on top of a fire hydrant. That experience convinced Thomas that drivers, particularly those with Vipers and other performance cars, were in dire need of training that would allow them to fully enjoy their vehicles without risking their lives. Thomas decided to start a school.

Such a school would need a format that could draw students in and then back again to relay its message. Thomas, therefore, created a format where drivers progressed through a series of driving levels gaining training and experience — putting in significant classroom time then moving to the track where they are paired with a ride-along instructor who dispenses more advice. Once a driver reaches the top level of training, he or she can begin competing. (Thomas says many return every year to go back through the same classes as a kind of training tune-up.) Most do move on to competition.

"This is their weekend sport. This is their fishing or hunting trip or how they relax. This is what they do," says Thomas. "Some fly into where the school is meeting for the weekend and fly out on Sundays."

Notable here, drivers don't attend these events by themselves. Both the school training and races cover several days so drivers bring their families. The school structures itself around families by adding events and choosing locations where everyone in the family can get involved and generally have a good time. Many families share some of this time on the track. The school has several husband and wife teams, and older children also spend time driving. The school also offers an extremely popular Young Drivers program where students learn defensive driving tactics they can take from the track to the street.

"We thought one time about offering cash, but the drivers quickly spoke up to say they didn't want it," Thomas says. "They want trophies. The trophies give them recognition. It's something they can display that shows they won. That's just how important it is to them."

Important enough to keep bringing them back to an experience where everyone involved — drivers, their families, vendors and the school — all seem to come out winners.

Portrait of a driver

Veteran driver Jim Stout, too, brings that full image to mind. Though he modestly claims to "sell dog collars" for a living, he's actually the owner of Alliance, Ohio-based Coastal Pet Products Inc., the largest pet supply distributor in the nation. He's spent most of his life engaged in nearly every type of race or thrill-ride sport.

"Before I started the school, I raced a lot of things. I raced cars, micro-midgets, even dog sleds," he says. He's also hunted big game in Africa. He describes himself and his wife (who also races) as "adrenaline junkies."

Stout joined the school in 2000 after searching for a venue where he could race a Viper. He loved the experience almost immediately. Stout raves even more about gaining competitive advantages through the skills he's picked up, among them concentration and practices such as entering slow into a turn and then fast out. The competitive fires burning in him, he, too, talks about the mental challenge of racing.

What Stout raves most about, however, is the exhilaration of besting a competitor if only by a second or two. Again, that's how razor thin many races are and why drivers search so diligently for products that can either earn them points or cut crucial micro-seconds from their times.

"Winning means a lot," he says, repeating a mantra that runs throughout the driving school.

Vendor bonanza

John Archer, owner of Archer Racing Accessories in Duluth, Minn., says he encountered the school after hearing of one of its Viper Day events almost nine years ago and decided to take a 24-foot trailer stocked with parts. Nearly a decade later, he and 14 employees regularly attend the events with three 53-foot tractor-trailers.

Calling his business a "service on wheels," Archer explains it transports and services cars regularly for 13 drivers (with a long list of drivers wanting to sign on). "We care for the vehicles and take them to the race while the driver gets there on his own," he says.

His company serves many more vehicles than that. Archer discovered early on that drivers want to race. Broken-down vehicles do them no good and are a real inconvenience if that happens to be the same car a driver takes to the race. He decided to offer full repair and installation services to participants. That decision is paying off royally.

"We want to help people drive safe and get home," he says. In recent events, his team has repaired a number of vehicles that hit walls, blew their engines or transmissions or had similar problems that might keep them from competing. They also work on exhausts, suspension, air intakes and other parts or systems that can help drivers cut their times. One of their more popular services is wheel alignments (they sometimes do 30 to 40 a weekend). When carried out by his experienced staff, that service can shave off precious seconds.

Besides the immediate financial gains, Archer says the school helps keep his company in close touch with its customers, which helps with its overall marketing efforts. "We get to pull a load of parts in front of drivers to see what they want and find out what works best," he says.

These same drivers carry their experiences home, where they begin addressing performance in their other cars (many Viper owners own several Vipers along with other sport vehicles). Archer says one of his Viper clients recently brought him a Neon SRT with a simple request: "dress it up." Archer promptly did with a new exhaust, suspension and some other pieces.

Third, spending time in this atmosphere gives his company time to devise other products, which it can then begin to market. For example, Archer says that Vipers, because of their high torque, shatter or crack pieces made of plastic. His company has developed new parts constructed of aluminum that he says last for the life of the vehicle. That's an important commodity, especially at the track.

"Our goal is simple," he says, "Keep people on the track. Track time is important time." That's one more lesson that easily applies to city streets as well.

Signing on

Unless you've got more business than you could ever handle, the Performance Driving School undoubtedly sounds like the type of marketing venue your company has been looking for. Ready to sign on? You'll have to wait in line.

The Performance Driving School maintains only one vendor for each track part — one for brakes, one for clutches, etc. Still, if you can offer a superior part and demonstrate it, you could displace a vendor. Better yet, you could offer a new product that easily lends itself to the track.

As an example, Bristol, Ind.-based Renegade several years ago signed on as a supplier of transports, which can carry owners' vehicles to the track. It has been a successful, integral sponsor ever since. Thomas, the school's owner, invites other vendors to have a look, though he cautions that the school won't accept any parts that simply are trendy. All parts must contribute significantly to the safety and comfort of participants.

Even if you don't make the cut, the school — or its model, at the very least — still provides a beacon of hope. With the right combination of excitement, fun and an inviting atmosphere, vendors can come up with their own school or some other format in which to sell their products and touch base with their customers. Perhaps that's the great lesson this school can teach the aftermarket. Selling parts and accessories isn't simply about filling orders, studying demographics and buying patterns and talking to shop owners and jobbers.

Ultimately, selling is a matter of understanding and then catering to the basic interests that drive customers to the store in the first place. Following that, providing some great extras such as a whole lot of fun in an environment that might otherwise escape them, doesn't hurt either.