Valley is start line for racing school

Track Time's performance driving courses are now offered coast to coast.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- The auto-racing bug bit Jack Layne when he was 8.
Now the Cornersburg racing fan makes his living on racetracks around the country, rubbing shoulders with some of America's most talented drivers.
Layne is president of Track Time Inc., an Austintown company specializing in performance driving courses for individuals and business clients nationwide. He says he wouldn't trade places with anybody.
"Nobody has a better job than I do," he said with a wide grin as he showed off a fleet of race cars at his North Meridian Road race shop. "I get to make a living doing what I love. How many people get to do that?"
How it started: A Boardman High School graduate, Layne earned a bachelor's degree in psychology at Youngstown State University. He was an investment adviser for WRP Investments in Youngstown and was doing graduate studies at YSU in 1983 when the idea for Track Time was born.
Layne and two friends, all amateur auto racers, thought they'd try giving performance driving lessons as a side job. "We just did it because we wanted more driving time," he recalled.
Layne and his partners, Denny Mytinger and Joe Lane, began by offering the courses on the track at Nelson's Ledges Quarry Park in Portage County. At first they taught only members of car collector groups and clubs, but soon they were enrolling individual sports car owners as well.
"These were people who owned really nice cars that they wanted to be able to drive aggressively, and they knew they couldn't do it on the street," he explained.
"I'm not there to teach them to drive faster. I'm there to teach them to drive better."
Growth: The partners started with two weekend-long classes a year, but as the courses became more popular they decided it was too much to operate as a part-time business.
In the late 1980s, Layne bought out his friends and began working at the business full time, and by 1990 he was offering the course 20 times a year.
Now the company has moved into full gear.
Track Time Inc. offers the course 137 times a year on professional race tracks and driving courses from coast to coast, with all stock car and Formula 2 classes at Michigan International Speedway, about 55 miles north of Toledo.
"It's the difference between playing a baseball game in a neighborhood park and playing it in Yankee Stadium," he said.
Categories: The company features five different driving course categories, with several skill levels in each, along with a corporate division. Course fees range from $325 to $3,000.
It has a fleet of race cars for class use, including 12 stock cars, 12 open-cockpit Formula 3 cars and 12 BMWs.
Layne wouldn't reveal financial figures for the privately-held corporation, but he said it has annual sales of "several million dollars." Despite the economy's overall slow-down, he said, January was Track Time's best month ever.
Track Time has nine employees at its corporate offices, five other full-time employees working at the Toledo and New Jersey offices, and 144 part-time driving instructors around the country, many of them professional racers.
Staying put: Layne said he's been asked to relocate many times and has been offered free office space at some of the race tracks where his courses are offered, but he has no plans to leave his North Meridian Road headquarters. He has offices and a race shop at the site.
"I'm staying put because my best personnel want to be here," he said. "They're the best in the country, so as long as they want to be here, this is where we'll stay."
Those key staff members include Tim Reese, director of operations, and Craig Bodine, director of sales. Both live in Canfield.
The cars: Many of Track Time's race cars were purchased from professional drivers, a fact that adds to the excitement of the driving experience, according to Layne.
For example, the company recently bought a Ford stock car that champion racer Jeff Burton drove in several 1998 and 1999 Winston Cup Series races.
Like all stock cars, the vehicle's interior is criss-crossed with steel safety bars and has a specially-designed protective driver's seat.
Track Time makes only two changes in the stock cars it buys, Layne said.
The 750-horsepower engine is replaced with a 450-horsepower engine, and the seats are generally replaced with larger seats to better fit the "average American frame." Professional race car drivers are generally small in stature, he explained.
Corporate division: Layne said Track Time's corporate division has become a significant part of its business. Philip Morris and Mitsubishi are among the large corporations offering the company's performance driving courses to customers, suppliers and the news media as a way to build relationships.
The company also is finding business opportunities in race-related promotions. For example, a computer game company recently hired Track Time to run a media promotion for its newest auto racing game.
Business has been so good, Layne said, that he seldom gets a chance to race.
This summer he and a friend, a longtime racing buddy, plan to remedy that by spending a week at the Road America track in Wisconsin at one of the company's Formula 3 schools.
"These are the best days that Track Time ever had. Every day is better than the last," he said. "But I don't want to be so far removed from driving. That's the reason I got into this. I need some track time."