CHESTER, Vt. — From the time that Roger Batchelder was 15 years old he knew he wanted to be an auto mechanic. It was a dream destined to be realized, despite decades of time and countless unforeseen challenges that threatened it.
But with the relocation of his auto repair shop, Route 103 Auto, from his home residence to the recent purchasing of Heads Up MotorSports, Batchelders’s dream has transformed from a fruition to an expanded harvest of new customers.
“I have always dreamt of working on cars. When I was 15 my dad came home from work one day and we were sitting at the dinner table and my dad said, ‘Hey Roger, there’s a guy at work who has a car for sale. It’s only $100. It’s a Volkswagen Bug. It doesn’t run. We’ll have to tow it home. But I thought if we bought it now we would have a year to fix it up before you got your license.’” Batchelder said,. ‘So that’s where my love for cars started. So we fixed the car up, made it shiny and pretty.”
Immersed in the automotive culture since he was a small child, Batchelder said automotive repair and stock car racing run in the family.
“My grandfather — on both sides of the family — worked on cars. My mother’s father raced as did her brothers; they were all into stock car racing,” Batchelder said. “My dad worked at a dealership for a while when I was young and always wanted to own his own shop but ended up working in the machine tool industry instead. It runs in the blood. My dad raced too.”
Batchelder said his family raced at Claremont Speedway and Monadnock Speedway and those childhood experiences continued to fuel his desire to become an active member of the automotive industry.
But it would be more than 30 years before he embarked on his journey as a high performance European auto mechanic.
When Batchelder was 17, he was washing dishes at Idlenot Restaurant and his longtime best friend, David Waldemann, mentioned an opening at Vermont Hardwoods in Chester. Batchelder jumped at the opportunity.
“I did not like washing dishes at all so this was a great opportunity to do something different,” Batchelder said.
Batchelder and Waldemann, friends since they were 8 years old, continued to work there for three years before they ended up buying the business. Batchelder, then 22, and Waldmann, then 24, ended up saving not just their jobs but everyone’s jobs and Vermont Hardwoods.
“We basically bought our jobs because if we didn’t the owners were going to close it down,” Batchelder said. “I was the shop foreman and I took care of employees, production, maintaining and repairing equipment. We ended up owning the business for about 20 years”
Though his dream of being an auto mechanic was put on hold during that time he still had opportunities to work on fixing mechanical and different types of company-owned fuel driven equipment.
But the day came when Batchelder said he knew it was time to make the change and take the leap he had always wanted to take into the automotive repair business.
“Finally at age 43 I was like, ‘You know what?’” Batchelder said. “I woke up, I remember it like it was yesterday, and thought, ‘If I am ever going to realize the dream of working on cars I better do it soon because time flies.’”
Batchelder said he started looking around for a business to buy and struck a deal with an auto body shop in Springfield.
He then took a risk and sold his half of Vermont Hardwoods to David Waldemann and used the money to build his business and stay financially afloat.
“But the deal fell through so I started looking at the workshop I built at home as the place to start my auto shop,” Batchelder said. “So that’s when I started opening my own auto shop right here.”
Batchelder’s wife, Ruthanne, helped him build the initial structure, which had been intended to be his personal workshop, before she jumped back in when Batchelder decided to transform it into a working garage for auto repair.
“We have pictures of Ruthanne raising the walls and all kinds of stuff,” Batchelder said.
Ruthanne said she wasn’t the only one involved.
“We had lots of help,” Ruthanne said. “We have a big family and everyone helped. So family, friends, and neighbors just pitched in to help.”
Batchelder did not go to school for auto mechanics, although both he and his wife have been immersed in learning the automotive business in other ways through a couple of nationally recognized institutions.
“I had a natural aptitude for mechanical things and I knew there was enough information out there to help me with things I didn’t know,”Batchelder said. “So I found the information I needed and I took night courses. Sometimes I went away for training sessions. So I learned along the way but a lot of it was on purpose.”
“It was very intentional,” Ruthanne said. “For years when he worked at Vermont hardwoods he had always worked on our own vehicles.”
Batchelder earned his certification as an inspection mechanic which he said is the only thing Vermont requires for automotive repair. His focus has always been on repairing high performance automotives.
“I like to fix things no one wants to fix or can’t fix,” Batchelder said. “It’s a challenge I love. The state of Vermont does not require any certification to work on cars, although, I believe they should.”
The Batchelders continue to go on biannual trips to take courses, workshops and attend seminars learning how to take care of customers, staff and innovate the high performance specialization of their automotive business.
After the Batchelders and additional friends and family came back again to lay the concrete and install the wiring to make the workshop up to code for a working auto garage, he opened the shop in June of 2010 alone without a mechanical staff.
“I started working on cars for friends and family first and just got the word out there and started working for customers. Once it got too busy Ruthanne came on to work for me,” Batchelder said.
Not long before Batchelder opened Route 103 Auto he broke his wrist.
“When I was working on the shop while I was installing the furnace I fell off the ladder and broke my wrist. It seems that about a month before we opened our doors so when we opened I was working with a broken wrist,” Batchelder said.
For the next two years he had help in the shop from the two oldest of his five children, Danial and Chris, and sometimes financially.
“They helped out financially a little bit and every little bit helps you know,” he said.
Then, two years later, the Batchelders came to a turning point that almost closed the doors on his dream.
“Then a couple years later, when we were really busy but I was still by myself, I had a dirt bike accident and I broke my leg,” Batchelder said. “That’s when we hired an actual person to work in the shop.”
Batchelder hired a young 17-year-old to do the hands-on repairs as he expedited the instructions to his mentee but he still felt that things were looking grim.
His father and a couple friends helped fill in. Ruthanne, who had helped with all the legal paperwork, continued booking appointments and handling the ordering of parts.
Batchelder said one day he reached a place where he questioned the solvency of the business. He called his business coach and told her he was going to shut the business down.
“She said, ‘No you’re not. You’re going to keep going and make this business work,’” Batchelder said.
That pivotal conversation he said infused him with a new determination and he pressed on.
By the fifth year he was hiring a full staff and his daughter Jenny at 19 had taken over Ruthanne’s office position.
The Batchelders said they were finally starting to see a profit, supporting other people financially through employment and solvency in their business.
“It felt really good,” Batcher said. “I love helping people. I love people in general and I like fixing things other people cannot fix. It’s a great feeling and a big win for me.”
Batchelder likes solving a puzzle as an aspect of mechanics.
“Sometimes in this work you have to make new pieces to fit the puzzle you are working on,” he said.
Now, 10 years later, they have outgrown their home auto shop and the day before Thanksgiving they purchased HeadsUp MotorSports from Kelly Arrison and after a month of preparation they opened Route 103 Auto at 3441 VT Route 10.
Batchelder and his wife Ruthanne said the increase in customer base has been incredible.
“We see new customers every day,” Ruthanne said. “But it’s hard to keep Roger out of the garage.”
Roger’s eldest son brought him a BMW motorcycle one day that Ruthanne secretly purchased for him.
“I told he needed a real hobby,” she said. “We had to get him out of the garage a little more and this was the way because he just doesn’t stop.”
Batchelder said it was a great gift.
“I love riding my motorcycle and just thinking, clearing my head. It was a great way to get me a little bit out of the shop,” he said.
Both Roger and Ruthanne said they have two major pieces of advice for budding entrepreneurs.
“Do not give up,” Batchelder said.
“Always ask for help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help,” Ruthanne said.
By Layla Burke Hastings of the EAGLE TIMES STAFF