Scott Sutton walked out of the Chicago Indoor Racing facility in 2007 and thought to himself: What a unique business model.

The place offered not only fun on the track, but corporate meeting spaces and food. The Broomfield resident stored away his impression of the facility and brought it back out a few years later after selling his technology company and trying to figure out what to do next with his professional life.

Eighteen months ago, even though the country was in the middle of a recession and bank loans were dry, Sutton went through with his plans to open an indoor, high-end entertainment venue. With a limited budget, he purchased the former Larry Miller Toyota building at 7300 Broadway and retrofitted the second floor with a racetrack for high-speed go-karts. Unser Racing and Entertainment opened its doors Oct. 18, 2010.

“Phase one was to utilize the existing space, get the doors open and generate revenue,” Sutton said.

Unser is in the process of phase two – constructing a tavern-style restaurant adjacent to the second-floor track and installing a racetrack on the rooftop.

“Our goal is to have (the restaurant and rooftop racetrack) up and running in the spring,” Sutton said.

The Adams County Board of Commissioners earlier this month approved a liquor license so the tavern can serve not only pizza and sandwiches, but alcohol as well.

“We’re focused on the bar aspect,” Sutton said. “The food aspect we’re going to take slow to find out what customers’ needs are.”

However, there will be procedures in place so that only people who are not planning to race or who have already raced can drink, said Scott Shirk, director of marketing.

“We have a very strict policy about drinking and driving – we don’t allow it,” he said.

Safety is a priority for Unser – all newcomers must complete a 10-minute training, every driver must wear a helmet and the go-karts can be remotely controlled if a driver is being unruly and ignoring flag warnings.

Although the facility caters to corporate customers for team-building meetings, the track is open to the public. Drivers must be at least 6 years old.

“This is a safe and controlled environment for kids to be exposed to motorized vehicles,” said Shirk, whose 7- and 12-year-old children love going to work with Dad.

The drivers get to go around 18-20 times. At 45 to 50 mph, that takes about seven minutes.

“(With the karts) that low to the ground, it feels like 110 mph,” Shirk said. It’s priceless, he added, to see “the people’s faces when they get off the track.”

The go-karts are made in France and are gasoline-powered. The racetrack has a full-ventilation system.

There are more plans in the works at Unser that include a third racetrack on the ground floor, and perhaps eventually, the use of the outside ramp to connect the first- and second-floor tracks, Shirk said.

Within five years, Sutton said he sees Unser branching out to other Colorado locations and places outside the state. His enthusiasm is fueled by how well the business has been received by the public, despite the tough economic times.

“We’re approaching the 35,000 (new customer) mark since we opened,” he said. “It shows the business is fresh and people are enjoying it. It’s been fun to create jobs and contribute to the economy.”

For more information on the indoor racing facility, visit unserracing.com. To view the original article, CLICK HERE.

When I say working hard on closing the funding, I’m not kidding.  Funding a new business like Unser Racing with less then two years of operating history is a challenging task in these economic times.  Challenging may be a bit of an understatement.  Next to impossible is probably more accurate.

To put it into perspective, I started looking for funding over 2 1/2 years ago.  I had a pretty good business plan in hand and a grand idea that I could fund this whole venture on a combination of debt financing through banks supplemented with some private equity investments.  I never really stopped looking either.  To date we have gotten one small loan to purchase our youth fleet last year and that’s it.  Little did I know what I was in store for when I set out on this funding journey.

In early 2010, well before any location had been selected, armed with the business plan and a good power point, I started calling on banks, private equity investors, and a few VC firms.  I received some positive initial interest but as a unique business model and a revenue stream that is completely dependent on disposable household income or a company’s party/event budget, there wasn’t a lot of faith that we could build a sustainable and profitable business.

After getting laughed out of a dozen or so banks and speaking with several private investors, I resigned myself to the fact that this wasn’t going to be easy and happen as planned with outside money.  Some of the most entertaining comments that I received included; “Are you out of your mind,” said the VP of prominent local Colorado bank in front of a loan committee of 5 other bank executives as he hysterically laughed and pointed to the exit door of his conference room.  “This all sounds good and we would love to work with you but our bank doesn’t lend money or for that matter work with any businesses that haven’t been operating for at least 2 years,” said an executive from one of Colorado’s largest bank’s.  “There is no way for us to validate your forecasts or pro-forma projections,” said one of the nations largest banks which to this day still claims to be one of the best and most aggressive small business supports.  “No kidding,” I responded.  “That’s why they call them projections and forecasts!”  That pretty much sealed the deal.

I’ve saved all 19 rejection letters, bankers business cards, notes, comments, and small business banking packets as a monument of rejection.  I’ve got a pretty good pile of private equity and VC rejections included with that bank pile not to mention the offer letters requesting a 75% ownership stake for a very small and insignificant investment amount.  I guess it didn’t hurt to ask!    Now I know what actors feel like when they are trying to break into Hollywood.  Expect 99.9% rejection and maybe, just maybe you will get that lucky break and get a call back.  Well, I’m glad to say we finally got that call back and funding and expansion are on the very near horizon.

We have also been working behind the scene’s to get a liquor license so we can open a track side bar.  Driving and drinking only not the other way around!  So on Wednesday of this week, after more then 5 months of bureaucratic wrangling, Daniel Carpenter, my GM who was responsible for the entire application process and I stood before the Adams County Board of Commissioners testifying why it was a good idea for them to approve our tavern license request.  To be honest with you, I was pretty worried about it not knowing what to expect or what “issues” may surface.  I didn’t sleep well the night before.  To date, we haven’t had a very positive experience with Adams County.  (more details on that in the future)  I’ve been pretty vocal about my battles and wondered if any of my public rants would come back to haunt me.  The outcome couldn’t have been better.  The Adams County Attorney and the Adams County Board of Commissioners were very supportive and very positive.  They unanimously approved our liquor license and handed out several compliments on our unique business and our solid operations.  In addition, the board was very gracious and thankful to have us operating in their county.  Thank you Adams County!  I slept great Wednesday night.

So with funding closing in the next few weeks and several construction and expansion projects beginning, we are really excited about 2012 here at Unser Racing.  Good bye stuffy hallway area and hello new viewing area with a full sports bar and coffee shop, comfortable seating, a VIP lounge area, new entertainment area, new conference rooms, on track and infield seating and viewing, new track layout and barrier system, and a new entrance featuring several of Johnny’s and his family’s racing artifacts.  This all won’t happen overnight so be patient with us.

Here’s to 2012.  I would love to propose a toast but I’ll wait for the bar to open and charge you all $3 for that beer before we raise our glasses.

From the Unser Racing family to yours, have a great and prosperous new year.

Blogging will be a new thing for me.  I love to write and more importantly I love to share the experiences that we’ve gone through trying to get this business off the ground and keep the doors open.  I distinctly remember a year ago on October 19th finally getting the approval from Adams County and North Washington Fire District that we had met all of the demands and could now open for business.  I literally stood there wondering what to do next.  My team and I had fought so hard and so long just to get the doors open that I was literally shocked into paralysis when we finally won the first battle.

I started this adventure two years ago quitting my management position with a large technology company to again, peruse my own business.  This is my second start-up so I thought I had prepared myself for the unexpected.  I thought to myself that whatever could go wrong probably will go wrong.  I had underestimated that statement which seemed impossible at the time.

As I went through the process of finding a location, investigating code requirements, and dealing with economic development groups, I was under this false perception that occupying a vacant building, creating 35 new jobs, and bringing a cool business to a community would be welcome and in some way easy.  The brutal fact was that it would be far from easy and it became very apparent that none of this mattered to any agency or politician I reached out to or had to deal with.

I could paraphrase a great leader about dreams and ambition but the bottom is this has been a crazy and incredibly challenging two years.  My team has been amazing and I’m proud of the product we’ve created.  We’re doing a lot of things right.

I hope you enjoy the adventure as much as I have.