Victory Lane Racing closes due to economy

ABINGDON - For 14 years, race fans have flocked to Victory Lane Racing, the region’s last independently owned NASCAR-themed store.
    Those customers have been greeted by brightly colored, collectible die-cast cars both inside and outside of boxes. Stacked six deep on tables, floor-to-ceiling on shelves and covering nearly every square inch of wall space, the thousands of cars and other racing items have made the store one of the nation’s top 50 racing collectible distributors, said owner and founder Aaron Trent.
    But that will end in January, when the store closes, a victim of the sluggish national economy and an uncertain future.
    “I planned to keep the business open part time, but it’s gotten so bad over the past few months that we just can’t justify paying rent, water, labor and everything else,“ Trent said. While Trent sells other items such as T-shirts and caps his bread and butter has been the 1/24th scale metal and plastic cars that closely resemble those driven by such stars as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.
    “It’s really expensive, and the cost just keeps going up every year,“ Trent said. “We just got an e-mail that our prices were going up 10 percent for next year. That means the car that I’m paying $42.50 for now will cost $46. They tell you to retail that at $76, which you can’t do that, because you’re competing with the Internet, eBay and flea market people.“
    If merchandise becomes dated or sits, Trent said, he often lowers prices below his cost just to move it.
    While Victory Lane began as a retail business, about 80 percent to 90 percent of current sales are to a nationwide network of dealers, the owner said.
    Concerns about the national economy have affected sales, both locally and across the country.
    “Our wholesale (business) has gone way down. I used to talk to dealers once a week,“ he said. “Now I hear from them every two or three months. One of my best customers was in Martinsville (Va.) and I never hear from him anymore.“
    “This (collectibles) is what you cut out. When you have to buy groceries, this is something people cut,“ he said.
    Last year, Motorsports Authentics, the firm that controls much of the multimillion-dollar die-cast souvenir business, ranked Victory Lane among its top 50 dealers, based on gross sales.
    “It’s pretty bad if one of the top 50 dealers can’t make it,“ Trent said.
    He recently earned his bachelor’s degree and plans to enter a master’s program next year, and said he might continue in the wholesale business on a limited basis.
    “I’m probably going to do this on the side and just carry new products,“ Trent said. “You make a lot of friends and that will give me an excuse to still talk to them. It will be a lot less than we do now.“
    He plans to reduce prices and liquidate most of the store’s current inventory by year’s end, but likely will continue operating for a few more months the tanning business he owns adjacent to the collectibles store.
    Trent said the market changed drastically when Motorsports Authentics was formed in 2005.
    The firm is a joint venture between International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Inc., the two publicly held companies that own most of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race tracks. Three years ago, the company acquired the assets of the two largest racing die-cast manufacturers and took over licensing agreements.
    In addition to specialty dealers, Motorsports Authentics sells its products at retailers like Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and Toys-R-Us.
    According to the Motorsports Authentics Web site, the region’s nearest licensed racing collectible dealers are in Hillsville, Va., Morristown, Tenn., and Asheville, N.C.
    Bill Sanders, owner of the Hall of Fame Race Shop in Morristown, said his sales also have slowed dramatically.
    “The market for the collectible stuff is down. The low-end stuff is decent, but the apparel side is slow,“ Sanders said. “We were busy in August when the race was in Bristol, but during a normal week, it’s very, very slow.“
    Sanders, who just opened his store a few months ago, said plans to build an adjoining racing hall of fame are now on hold.
    “With the economy the way it is and tourism down, it’s just a wait and see kind of thing,“ Sanders said.
    Kevin Triplett, vice president of public affairs at Bristol Motor Speedway, said current economic conditions are having widespread impacts.
    “Regardless of what it is, discretionary income is getting smaller during this time,“ Triplett said. “I think it will rebound, because history shows us that happens. But history doesn’t show us how quickly it will rebound.“
    Sanders said the racing collectible market hit its stride in the mid-1990s, when drivers like the late Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace invested in marketing their own merchandise.
    “After Earnhardt died and now drivers like Rusty, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Jarrett have retired, those are drivers that a lot of fans followed. It’s not the same and, I think, NASCAR has its own issues,“ Sanders said.
    Trent agreed the business changed after the 2001 death of its biggest star.
    “A lot of people quit watching it (racing) when he died. A lot of people tried to keep watching it, but they just seem to be losing interest. I hear that a lot. Which it’s not the same it’s all just a big corporate thing now,“ Trent said.
    Dale Earnhardt Jr. remains the sport’s top seller, accounting for “80 percent” of the firm’s business, Trent said. Beyond the Earnhardts, only fans of Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are regular customers.
    “What saved us was eBay. We started doing that in the late 1990s and, through that, we started meeting people and that’s how we started doing a whole lot of wholesale,“ Trent said. “Always into collectibles,“ he said, he opened his store when interest was booming.
    “I started out with two sawhorses and a piece of plywood set up at Southwest Flea Market (in Abingdon). We did pretty well with it, and this place came open in 1994,“ Trent said.
    “I had done it as a hobby, so when we opened, it was mostly retail,“ he said. “We also operated a store in Bristol Mall for a couple of years during the Christmas season. Eventually, we began selling on eBay in the late 1990s.“
    Asked what customers from the Tri-Cities to Grundy, Va., and beyond will do once the doors close, Trent said, “I guess they’ll have to buy over the Internet.“