Standing inside Race Division’s polished new workshop in Chatswood, it’s easy to think that life is smooth and all is good. A G-Wagon here, an M2 there, for any outsider it’s automatic to assume that this is the playground for the rich and their expensive toys.
Luckily for us, Leon is always open to conversation and what immediately becomes apparent is his passion for cars, and the activity of driving. For the majority of small businesses, the brand is built on the philosophies and attitudes of the owners. The more Leon and I discussed our love for all things automotive, the better sense we got of what Race Division actually is.
“Our customers are mainly performance-based,” Leon told me, “and as much as you see the expensive cars, we really began as a group of friends who just wanted to build and track our cars”.
Leon’s personal automotive journey is what drove him to create and commercialise Race Division in the first place. What was a group of friend who tracked together (Lan Evos), became a crew of micro-influencers who had the likes of Nulon and Hankook in their corner, using their frequency of track driving to leverage the products.
Assisting with product placement and affiliation is one thing, but Leon believed that his group’s influence was worth more than just the small share that they gained to source so many parts for fellow amateur enthusiasts.
“We all worked on our vehicles and did things in the garage,” Leon reminisces, “but with the amount of enquiries for products we used it was a no-brainer to open our own shop and start building a community”. Then and there, Race Division went from a crew, to a small workshop.
The principles of the business are simple, and like all successful brands, the customers come first. Leon stands by this from previous experiences, “I’ve been burnt before by previous workshops and I don’t want anybody to feel the way that I felt. We build relationships, and that has been the foundation of our success”.
It’s this principle in mind that got Race Division’s connections with Japan’s most influential tuning shops and brands. A WTAC adventure with their Evo VII RS in the early 2010s was the catalyst for this expansion into JDM product distribution. Leon remembers:
“We were running a set of specific JDM suspension at the event, and were still a bunch of nobodies. By coincidence the engineer of the suspension was at WTAC, having flown over from Japan, and inspected our vehicle. He advised making specific changes to the geometry, but was rebutted by our then-suspension specialist. Having then refused to make the changes, we decided to man the tools and make the adjustments in line with the engineer’s design. Regardless of whether it benefitted our times or not, the respect was built and he assisted us in building the connections with other Japanese partners.”
Little anecdotes like that give us a significantly better idea of who Leon is, and what he is trying to build with Race Division. The host of Japanese partners now is immense, and he’s willing to sacrifice his profitability and immediate wins for the satisfaction of his customers. He gives us an example, “a customer buckled his wheel on a cruise and requested a Rays replacement for an upcoming track day, bespoke spec. With other suppliers, it’s 6-12 weeks, but for us I’d rather air freight it and make less, so at least we can keep the customer happy. There’s more work coming later on anyway”.
It’s very easy to take the easy or most profitable route and blame external factors or circumstances to justify the way your business operates. But time and time again, the ones that have the customer’s best interests at heart, are usually the ones that continue to grow over time.
Race Division doesn’t have the craziest equipment, nor do they build the pinnacle of what Australian automotive has to offer. The reason as to why they’re trusted and loved by those who invest in their services, is because they make the effort to ensure the customer feels comfortable and at home dealing with a workshop they can trust.
That’s Race Division in a nutshell, but what about Leon? “Running a business is very time consuming, I don’t have much time to track these days and I spend more time organising them for others!” he says with a tinge of regret. Nonetheless, making sure Race Division continues to grow is his priority, which is why he was willing to sell a portion of the business to Melbourne giants V Spec Performance.
It wasn’t an easy decision he says, “it was very difficult because my partners and I built it together, but it needed to be done to continue growing”. In the short amount of time since they’ve linked up, a lot has begun to roll forward with Race Division. First was the move to the new workshop in Chatswood, complete with a separate undercover carpark along with workshop space, and the commencement of a new importing business that will fulfil the JDM needs of customers across the country.
There’s so much to look forward to for everyone involved with Race Division, and unfortunately with bookings and appointments we weren’t able to continue our discussion and learn all the great Race Division stories from the past decade. Leon’s down for more in the future, “I got a lot of great memories I’d love to share! Also, if you head down to Melbourne let me know so I can make sure the V Spec guys give you time and space to shoot!”.
As Larry Chen often says, we didn’t even have to scumbag him!
