by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Dottie Lay, a Realtor with Davidson Realty, can still hear the roar of race car engines in her ears.
“You can watch it on television, but to be there in person makes the hair stand up on the back of your arms and neck,” said Lay, who took a seven year sabbatical from real estate to do public relations and tour with the NASCAR set. “It’s the sound, smell and the feel. It’s indescribably powerful and exciting. All the people are
so wonderful and family
oriented.”
Lay and her husband have been racing fans for many years.
She had spent 13 years in real estate in Jacksonville Beach, mostly with Watson Realty, and she just needed a change.
“Real estate was changing and I just woke up one morning and said that there has to be more to life than this,” she said. “My husband Richard and I knew someone who had done public relations for a race team and she had just come back from Las Vegas. About this time, I was feeling pretty sluggish and I said, ‘You know I’d really like to do that, too.’ My husband was like ‘Yeah, right, like you could get into NASCAR.’”
Lay said is a real tight knit group and they don’t ever advertise open positions, so she had to get creative.
“My friend gave me some ideas on how to break into it,” she said. “With the sales background that I have, I would call several of the race teams and tell them I’ll be in their area on this day, would they have any time for me at a certain time.”
Lay said it didn’t take long before she and her husband had a position with API Championship Group, which was the marketing company for Hershey’s and Reese’s candy bars.
“Bill Elliott was the driver in the car they sponsored,” she said. “We took that car on show wherever Hershey’s wanted us to market their product. We did that for the first year.”
The “show car” driver is an entry-level position and it;’s a tough job, hauling a replica of the race car from town to town, setting it up outside a sponsor’s place of business and being available to answer questions.
They then got an opportunity to work for Richard Childress Racing, whose drivers included Dale Earnhardt.
“We took Dale Earnhardt’s No. 3 show car everywhere that General Motors wanted. This included the race tracks, autograph sessions, banquets or wherever they wanted the car. That is how they get their return on their marketing dollars.”
Earnhardt died in a late-race wrech during the 2001 Daytona 500 but the work went on
“Immediately, driver Kevin Harvick stepped in,” she said. “Within two weeks, every black car that was in our shop was painted white with red numbers. That black car with a 3 on it went to a 29 white car with red letters on it. We went back to the shop, helped paint the cars and remove the decals. Kevin Harvick was a young rising star and Dale Earnhardt helped pick him for the Richard Childress team. So, Kevin stepped up to the plate and won. It was a very a very emotional time.”
They stayed on with Childress for about another year and a half to help handle the transition to Harvick.
“By this time, we had been on the road traveling for seven years,” said Lay. “We would be on the road for six weeks at a time and be home for five to seven days and then out again for six weeks for the whole race schedule, which is from February to November.”
She decided to leave the life of traveling with the race team to return to her real estate roots and joined Davidson Realty about a year ago.
“We were burned out from the traveling and always knew we would return to Florida,” she said. “Jacksonville Beach was our home, but it has changed so much. It is so congested and there is a lot of traffic. When we decided to come back, St. Augustine is where we decided on. I had always done general real estate, so I knew I could do that, but I wanted something a little different. World Golf Village is just pristine and absolutely gorgeous and I live 10 minutes away.”
She bought a house in St. Augustine but is looking to move within World Golf
Village.
She is working out of the Davidson’s Realty’s Village office and Richard - he’s a retired U.S. Marshal - is again working with her, but now as a teammate in real estate who handles her paperwork so she can spend more time out
selling.
“I had intended to be gone for one year, but seven years later I’ve finally resettled into St. Augustine and the World Golf Village,” said Lay.
Though her racing work days are over, Lay still has a memento from her experience that she just loves to show off.
“When Earnhardt finally won Daytona 500 in 1998, I received a championship ring worthy of showing off to all my friends and customers,” she said. “Just the ones who worked with Dale got them. Our names are engraved on it and on the other side is his car and signature. It’s very much like a Super Bowl ring.”
Lay is a member of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors and the St. Johns County Board of Realtors.
She started her career with Pablo Towers in Jacksonville Beach.
“You didn’t have to have a license, but I absolutely loved it and I didn’t know that about me,” said Lay. “I was a housewife who went back to work. I realized I loved showing the apartments, and all that.
“Then I had the opportunity to manage and work at Pelican Point, so my husband and I did that for three or four years. With each step that I took, I got more involved, and that is when I got my real estate license. I did all the property management and the sales. I really blossomed in property management and served as the president of the Property Managers Association. Eventually, I ended up with Watson Realty and did general real estate.”
Lay said her opportunity with Davidson Realty has been interesting and exciting.
“Once you are a Realtor, you are always a Realtor, but it is kind of nice to do something different,” she said. “I had not worked with builders before and it’s been an exciting challenge because we have so many here. There are so many different types of personalities and different types of homes. That is what makes it so exciting to work out here because we have virtually anything that anybody could walk through the door and ask for in any price range and any type of home.”
Since she was away for seven years, Lay said there have been many major changes in real estate, but she is keeping up just fine.
“The biggest change would be the use of the Internet and communicating via e-mail,” she said. “We don’t have the real estate books anymore. Everything is computerized and wireless. There is a lot of paperwork involved and contracts are lengthier and more complicated.”