KEITH HAUTLY OF SARASOTA, FLA., IS THIRD NAPA HONORARY CREW MEMBER OF
2010 NHRA SEASON
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 13, 2010) - Keith Hautly, the shop manager at
his family-owned H3 Automotive and Performance in Bradenton, Fla., was
selected as the third NAPA AUTO PARTS Honorary Crew Member of the 2010
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series today at the 41st annual NHRA
Gatornationals.
A second NAPA Honorary Crew Member for the Gatornationals race weekend
will be named on Sunday.
H3 Automotive is a NAPA AutoCare Center that works closely with the NAPA
AUTO PARTS store in Bradenton and manager Jon Lafauce. It is owned by
Keith's parents, Jerry and Kathy Hautly, and his brother Eric is the
service manager.
"We've been there just over five years now and we do general
automotive repair as well as performance work," said Hautly, 27, of
Sarasota, Fla. "We stay very busy."
Hautly says he's a big racing fan of both NASCAR and NHRA, in particular
of NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car driver Ron Capps and 14-time champion
John Force, and races cars himself. "I've been to this track
before," he said of Gainesville Raceway. "I was here at the
Gatornationals seven years ago, and I've raced here before, in a
street Mustang, and then with my father's car.
"We always came here to race because we used to live in Jacksonville, so
it was a closer track. More recently we have run at our local track,
Bradenton Motorsports Park. The last time I actually raced myself was
about a year and a half ago. I traded in my car because my wife was
pregnant.
"Hopefully, I can get back into it now that the baby is a year old. I
want to race a Sportsman car. They have a local NHRA series that runs at
Bradenton."
As for being named the NAPA Honorary Crew Member and being surprised when
longtime NAPA racer Michael Waltrip joined Capps during the presentation
of the award in the Don Schumacher Racing pits, "I love it,
it's unbelievable," he said. "It's an unbelievable experience
all together. I'm really appreciative of this opportunity.
I've seen the nitro classes race and I love the nitro. The smell
and the sound - you'll never experience anything else like it."
Greg Moore, NAPA Distribution Center District Manager in Tampa, Fla.,
helped present the honor. "These fine folks (the Hautlys) were
nominated by their local NAPA store. This is basically a new NAPA
AutoCare Center and they have an outstanding facility down at Bradenton.
They are a fine example of what a NAPA AutoCare Center should be. They
are one of our flagship locations.
"The store nominated them and our distribution center selected them
out of all of our candidates and, because they're big race fans, I
can't think of a finer group to receive this honor." Keith Hautly
was designated the official recipient.
"It's huge for us," commented Moore on the NHRA relationship
with DSR and NHRA. "A lot of our customer base, like the Hautlys, are
huge fans. They follow it, and it's something that our employees
and customers really get a lot out of. I've seen a lot of them out
here today and it's good to run into them."
Hautley's non-wrenching crew-member duties included escorting the NAPA
AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car to the staging lanes for the Funny Car
qualifying rounds today. He then helped retrieve the car at the end of
the track after each pass.
The side window of the NAPA Dodge sported Hautley's name as the NAPA AUTO
PARTS Honorary Crew Member this weekend.
He also met and chatted with the entire NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car
crew, was a special guest in the NAPA hospitality area throughout the
weekend, received a NAPA team jersey, experienced an
up-close-and-personal view of the NAPA crew as the team worked on the
car, and enjoyed a private tour of the team transporter and pit area.
NAPA AUTO PARTS distribution centers at each NHRA event during the season
have different criteria for choosing the persons who are potential NAPA
AUTO PARTS Honorary Crew Members.
-source: napa/dsr
