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Rookie Operators Shine in the California Sun
By Timothy Denman

Raceway Express Car Wash is thriving under the guidance of an unlikely source: the man who built it.

Mike Austin built one of only a handful of express washes in Southern California, but had no plans of running it until economics forced his hand.

Austin, a retail developer and investor, developed the 4.5-acre site with plans on selling the finished product. Unfortunately, once the site was finished in August 2008 the country was in the depths of a recession and buyers were scarce. One parcel containing a fast-food restaurant was sold, but the remainder of the property, which included the car wash and a 10-store-retail center, was still owned by Austin.

Faced with the selling the property undervalued, Austin decided to hold onto the site and found himself thrust into car wash ownership.

“I was not a car wash operator at the time,” Austin says. “We were not planning on going into the car wash business. We built the place on spec with plans to sell it. We rolled up our sleeves and found ourselves car wash operators. We had to learn real fast.”

Once Austin decided to keep the wash, he hired a manager to run the place. Unfortunately things didn’t work out with the manager, and Raceway became a family owned and operated affair.

Austin stops by the wash once every two weeks to make sure everything is running smoothly and to attend strategic planning meetings. Brother-in-law Rick Salisbury handles the daily operation with the assistance of Mike’s wife Lori.

Salisbury was a mortgage banker before the market collapsed and was working 18-hour days in the beginning learning the business. Although it was a rough couple of months after the opening, things are running smooth for the operators now, as Raceway solidifies itself as a member of the Fontana, CA community.

Raceway is the only express exterior in the area — the surrounding competition is all traditional full-serve operations.

“The competition is certainly there for the full-serve sector,” Austin says “I think we serve a different customer, and we market ourselves that way.”

To help capture customers from the surrounding middle-class community Raceway mailed out free wash coupons before the grand opening to help get people acquainted with the wash.

“California doesn’t have a lot of express car washes,” Austin says. “We needed to get people used to the concept. We have been open for over a year already and I am still explaining the concept to customers.”