Magazine for the professional tire industry
Issue link: https://mtd.epubxp.com/i/567620
MTD September 2015 Tire Dealer of the Year Te move to Clarkton came at the same time Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. was looking for ways to expand its retreading operations. Benton is a longtime Goodyear dealer, and with his penchant for loyalty and building relationships, he and Patrick Demianenko, Goodyear's business development manager for retreading, put a deal together. Te 50,000-square-foot space now is running at full capacity, producing 225 retreaded tires a day. Ashley Parnell has spent the last fve years of his decade's worth of employment with Black's Tire at the retread shop. It's "hot and nasty" work, he says. "It ain't a gravy job. I'm on my second T-shirt of the day and it's not quite noon." Still, he calls it "a good atmosphere to work in," because of the Bentons. "Tey treat their employees like their own. "Any good boss man has high expectations if he wants to stay in business. If he was nonchalant you'd be closing the doors in six months," Parnell says. "In the past two years we've increased our production by 35% to 37% just by taking on new customers and growing this side of the commercial business. On average we've been up 10% to 17% this year over last year's business." A childhood love of racing Perhaps it's no surprise that Benton ended up wheeling and dealing tires. As a kid he raced go-karts, but had to give it up when he and Dianne married and started a family. But racing never really lef him. In the early 1990s he got back into the sport, but not as a driver. He formed RBR Enterprises and built a race shop next to his home in Cerro Gordo, N.C. Initially he ran in the NASCAR Late Model Stock Series, winning the regional and track championship in 1998, the USAR ProCup Series championship in 2002 and having his driver win Rookie of the Year in 2004 and 2008. In 2010 his team moved up to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and runs the No. 92 truck. Crew chief Michael Hester says the team is working its way back up the ladder in the truck series. So far this season they've run in the top 10 at some point in every race, and fnished sixth at Daytona and seventh at Kentucky. But even though Benton loves racing, and sees its marketing power and benefts in other segments of his business, he says it's become a much more expensive sport to compete in. As a result his team is competing only part-time. To run a full season of 22 races would require an investment of at least $2.5 million. "So I run as cheap and economically as I can aford. We might run eight or 10 races." Even as a part-time racer he's had success, and in 2014 he was inducted into the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame. Te honor also recognized his work to support other racers with donations or equipment. Mat Cox, a young driver who recently lost his father, is the latest racer to get Benton's support. Cox's car is in Benton's race shop, and Black's Tire is among the logos on its shell, even though he's not ofcially part of Benton's race team. "I help him some," Benton says shyly. Making a diference Clearly, helping others is the rule for Benton, and not the The southerner's sport of racing has gotten too big, and too expensive, for Ricky Benton to compete all season, but the No. 92 truck runs in at least eight races each season. "It's a way to do marketing," he says. 46