Gateway GM revels in thrill
By Repps Hudson
SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH
05/09/2008
Lenny Batycki of Gateway International Raceway.
(Jim Compton )
Lenny Batycki is not a name-dropper. If he were, that of his former boss, the late Dale Earnhardt, would be enough to impress just about anyone in his world of auto sports. He said that 2001, the year Earnhardt died in a crash in the last lap of the Daytona 500, was the longest and hardest of his life.
Today, Batycki runs Gateway International Raceway for Dover Motorsports Inc., a publicly traded company that also owns and operates raceways in Dover, Del.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Nashville, Tenn. Spectators from a 300-mile radius converge on the track in Madison for about 250 events a year, from NASCAR, motorcycle and NHRA drag races to road rallies sponsored by the St. Louis area chapter of the Sports Club of America.
High fuel prices this year may whittle down the 400,000 spectators a year who attend Gateway Raceway events. But Batycki believes he can hold onto many of them by precision marketing and relying on what he learned about the Great Depression: People love auto racing, even in hard times.
We spoke in his orderly, spacious office beneath the stands.
Do people come here to see accidents or races?
The thrill of motor sports is the same as it has been for over 100 years. Here in St. Louis, car racing started with the World's Fair in 1904. Those people would have been thrilled about seeing the beautiful cars, the brave drivers, the air of danger — it all combines into the excitement in the air that is a race. It's a festival.
It's different than other sports. The drivers have other skills that are less obvious: the eyes, the coordination, the endurance, the intense heat — you're talking 140 degrees for three hours inside the cockpit.
They are wearing a three-layer fire suit and a helmet. They'll lose anywhere from six to 10 pounds during an event. Just sweat it off.
Do people speed out of here when a race is over?
That can happen any time there is the bravado of sport. The interesting thing about our sport is the fans see the drivers in all that protective equipment and always wearing their seat belts. This adds an element of awareness of how important all that is. When they do have those wrecks, they know those seat belts do save those lives and all that protective gear really does work.
But there are accidents. Do some people like to see that?
Just like the hard slide into home, the hard hit of a running back, a big check on the ice. Sport always has that element.
Have you had any fatalities here?
Nobody since I got here.
Have you done anything different?
No. The sport tries to keep its competitors as safe as possible. But that's always a moving target.
What races here?
We are one of the most versatile facilities in America. We have over 250 events a year. We run a dozen of what could be considered premier events, from the NHRA to NASCAR to large monster truck races all the way down to Shriner cars. If somebody is chasing a win light or a checkered flag, we want to be part of their schedule. We want to entertain their fans.
What's the favorite event?
NHRA, National Hot Rod Association. There's a history of the sport here. Some 30 years before this track opened, there was a small drag strip that was an eighth mile. Ours is a quarter mile, championship length.
St. Louis has had a lot of drag racing from the ground up.
There's a community of drag racing. Oval racing, on pavement, is still new to this area.
The sport of dirt racing in this region goes back to Walsh Stadium, where the Science Center is.
Our oval track is a mile and a quarter, the only one in the country.
Is that good?
It makes us unique. We're one of the non-traditional shaped tracks that give the competitors a whole different challenge. We're egg-shaped, so corners one and two are very tough to negotiate, where three and four are wide, sweeping arcs (that) create a lot of speed. It's thrilling trying to watch the drivers try to take that speed into a very narrow corner.
Can you recommend one event for the novice spectator?
Both NHRA and NASCAR Nationwide. There's an ebb and flow to an NHRA event, from the fan's perspective, that is really unique. Every ticket is a pit pass, which means you're able to get backstage, by the competitors. You're able to see things, to smell and touch a lot more. Being an NHRA fan means movement.
If you're a NASCAR fan, you can have a few dogs on the back of the truck and go in and sit. The action is all going to be in front of you. You don't have to leave your seat.
What's the top speed of dragsters?
A little over 330, in a quarter-mile.
The G's are on that guy, aren't they?
Oh, the reverse G's. The launch G's are actually less than the reverse G's. When you try to whoa up at 330, you are really thrown forward. In the early days, before head and neck restraints were developed, a lot of the older drivers had neck yaw, where they pull forward. Now they are held in place. It balances the head much better.
Will the cost of fuel today hurt racing?
As an amateur history buff of our sport, I think about what the old promoters did. They ran as much as six nights a week during the '30s in the Depression.
Those spectators were eating in soup kitchens somewhere. In the Depression, people went to movies, and they went to car races.
What about air pollution here?
Long ago, NASCAR and NHRA took the lead in working with a company called Safety-Kleen (Systems Inc.). That company works with almost all the major facilities to be in compliance. We use environmentally conscious products to absorb the oil. Even the rags used to absorb the oil go through the recycling process.
What about carbon dioxide and other air pollutants?
NASCAR is going to unleaded, and a lot of NHRA uses alcohol. Like anything, there's a carbon footprint to what we do.
What about the impact of racing on global warming?
Not specifically racing. We all have to be conscious of the environment, and we have to be smart enough in ways to do it. I am a big recycler. I even recycle the little tab off of a milk carton.
Lenny Batycki
Position: Vice president and general manager, Gateway International Raceway
Age: 44
Career: Professional motocross racer, team manager and announcer, 1981-1985; announcer for drag racing, Miami-Hollywood Motorsports Park, 1985-1990; marketing official, North Carolina Motor Speedway (now North Carolina Speedway), Rockingham, N.C., 1990-1995; vice president of the team of the late NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt, Winston-Salem, N.C., 1995-2002; senior vice president, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, 2002-2004; consultant, drag racing and NASCAR teams, 2004-2006; present position, 2006
Education: Associates degree in business administration, Broward (County, Florida) Community College, 1985
Personal: Lives in Creve Coeur with his wife, Annette, and a son.
Janice Rick
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