Raceway Auto & Truck Parts started in 1987 as Bobby’s Body Shop. Gary’s father, Bobby Coln, had a dream to own a used parts business and the body shop was his start. That’s when Gary came into the picture.
“I came out of school in 1989 and was very energetic,” explained Gary. “I liked his dream. It inspired me.”
Gary got his first ideas by attending Locator on Location conventions. That’s when he prompted his father to buy their first inventory system, Auto Info, and the parts business grew. By the early 1990s, the body shop was gone. Over the next 10 years Bobby’s Body Shop switched inventory systems twice and acquired a second yard, Raceway Auto Parts in Lawrenceburg, Tenn. Raceway Auto Parts was built on an oval dirt racetrack. The Coln’s liked the name and changed Bobby’s Body Shop to Raceway Auto & Truck Parts to keep the businesses consistent. The renovated Lawrenceburg location was sold two years later to an interested party for a profit. It was then Gary and Bobby decided to solely focus on the original Savannah location.