Brad Loyet likes to go fast. And he’s made a career out of that love for speed — twice.
The St. Louis native began his professional career as a dirt track racer, competing 80 to 100 times a year in races both across the U.S. and globally. Loyet competed in spring and midget racing, which involves driving open-wheel cars at speeds upwards of 140 to 160 miles per hour.
But an accident seven years ago ended Loyet’s competitive racing career. While putting air in a tire on a race car, Loyet said the wheel exploded and caused serious injury to his hand.
“I broke both bones in my wrist twice. I didn't have any feeling in my hand for like six months,” Loyet said.
The injury came as Loyet was starting another career in fabrication. He launched BP Fabrication LLC in 2015, with the firm initially focusing on providing parts for the racing industry. The five-person shop continues to provide parts for the racing industry, but today has expanded to serve customers in additional industries. Loyet said BP Fabrication's revenue has doubled year over year for the last three consecutive years.
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When did you get into racing? I started racing when I was 14, which is actually old. Most kids are starting at four or five years old. I started at an older age than most people. The highest level we raced was national sprint cars and midgets. We raced all over the country. I used to travel to New Zealand every winter to race down there for about a month every year. We never made it to Nascar. We never made it to IndyCar or anything like that. I raced with a lot of those guys who did make it that far. Those are some of the people who gave us one of our first shots at doing race car parts once it got to that point.
What made you want to pursue a racing career at a professional level? Racing is a lot like a sport like golf, where you kind of control your destiny with every lap and every stroke. You're obviously competing against other people on the track, but you're still competing with yourself. I’m like "how far can you push yourself to drive that car in the corner?" People always ask me “why'd you wanna start your own business” and it’s the same thing. I'm just a competitive person. I'm super competitive. I never take my foot off the gas in racing or in business. That would be the biggest thing, just the competitiveness of it. The part I miss the most is just being out there and competing.
How did you get into fabrication? When I had my first kid, I realized I can't be driving up and down the road racing for the rest of my life. I needed to have something else. I was doing a lot of hand fabricating and stuff like cutting, bending and welding. Now we do almost none of that. We'll now take a part that somebody sends us from a print and we'll make it. We’ve worked our way up from your mom-and-pop shop to one of the go-to shops in the area that can deliver quality parts on time. I'm completely self-taught. I went to school for business entrepreneurship, but I didn't go to school for programming parts and running parts. The business side of things, I have completely figured out but everything else I'm self-taught. My grandpa was a tool and die maker by trade. He passed away before I really got into all this stuff, but I have his apprenticeship certificate hanging up in the shop from when he graduated with his machining degree. I guess it's just in my blood essentially.
You said your company has expanded into serving customers in different industries. How did that happen? Covid-19 is what kind of forced our hand on diversifying. Racing is fun, but it doesn't pay like some of these other contracts that we're getting. Once we got a little taste of “hey these industries pay really well and the contracts are nice,” that's where we've kind of focused all our attention for the most part.
How did you secure initial customers in other industries? I'm a hustler. If the door looks like it's closed, I'm walking around the side and I'm knocking on the window type deal. I did that with several customers and a phrase that we've kind of coined here is crumbs to the bakery. What we do is we reach out to these large firms and we ask for some crumbs: What’s some little work you might have? That gets our foot in the door. Once they realize that we can produce a really quality part in a timely fashion, next thing you know, instead of getting a crumb, we get a piece of bread, and the next thing you know we’ve got the loaf. Then we're doing all the work.
What do you like to do in your free time? I have two little kids. My daughter and son both play sports. It's a lot of just running around with them and spending a lot of time with them. Obviously, I stay in touch with the racing. I watch a lot of it, streaming on the internet or on TV.
What was your first paying job? Bagging groceries at Schnucks
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More about Brad Loyet
Title: Owner of BP Fabrication
Age: 35
Family: Wife, Cassie Loyet; children Josie and Charlie
Education: Business degree, with a certificate in entrepreneurship, from Webster University