It took just one night out, followed by a year of hard work, for one family’s business venture to get revved up and ready to go. Now, the Bedoya family’s new racing simulator center in Kennewick has taken off from the starting line. 

Co-owner Alex Bedoya said he hadn’t heard of simulator racing before going to a sim racing facility in Idaho last year. But something sparked, and he began asking the owner questions. The owner had launched it as a side business and it was doing well. 

“I turned to my son, to Kenton, and I said, ‘Hey, we don’t have anything like this in the Tri-Cities. Let’s talk about maybe opening one,’” Alex Bedoya recalled.   

Talks quickly turned to reality, and on June 6, and the family opened Revzone at 10379 W. Clearwater Ave., Suite 120, in Kennewick. 

Four family members went in on the venture: Alex Bedoya and his wife Lisa, their son Kenton, and his wife Mackenzie. 

At the wheel

Simulator racing requires several pieces of equipment. Revzone has seven “rigs” to race on – a setup with a seat, pedals, steering wheel, headphones, and a wide, curved monitor screen. One of the rigs is kid-sized, and another one is full-motion.

While all provide haptic feedback so drivers can feel vibrations through the seat, pedals and steering wheel, the full-motion simulator is set up so that the chair will move with the turns – or crashes. 

Racers must sign a waiver, then an employee helps them get set up. Settings can be changed to make the simulations easier or harder depending on the player’s ability. 

Alex Bedoya races on one of Revzone’s simulators, which have hundreds of track and car options and settings for various skill levels.  

| Photo by Rachel VisickThere are options to pick a track from hundreds of real tracks all over the world, as well as just about any race car a person can think of, Alex Bedoya said. 

“If you know what you want, you can come in and choose. If you don’t, we also have a list of our recommended first-time racing tracks and cars,” said Mackenzie Bedoya. Players get to practice for about 10 minutes to get used to the seat and make adjustments, then they’re off to the races.

Revzone is partnering with the Tri-City Raceway and is excited to be a part of the racing community, Mackenzie Bedoya said. At first, the business venture was aimed at the racing community, she said, “but as we got going and talked to more people, we realized that it was a lot broader than we thought,” she said.  

In the past year, the family has talked with a lot of people and found a lot of encouragement and support. 

With a kid-sized rig in place, the center is all-ages and family-friendly, and can be rented out for kid or adult parties – or even corporate events or teambuilding. 

Booking races

Time slots for races come in two options: a 30-minute race for $25 or a 1-hour race for $40.

Players can come with friends and race against each other, talking through the headsets’ microphones, or simply race against the simulator. Mackenzie Bedoya said they’re also launching a monthly “time attack” challenge, to beat the time at a specific track in a specific car. At the end of the month, the person at the top of the leaderboard wins some free racing. 

Revzone is also planning to start league tournaments. 

In addition to the rates for hour or half-hour-long races, Revzone offers monthly membership packages and gift cards, including a family race night package. 

Revzone currently has four employees. Because the center only has seven rigs, the Bedoyas encourage people to book online so that they know they’ll have a spot. 

Labor of love

The Bedoyas didn’t have any racing background themselves, just the belief that they could provide something fun that was missing in the Tri-Cities. 

“We just thought that it was a great entertainment business to have in the Tri-Cities. People here in the Tri-Cities, myself included, are always saying we don’t have enough things to do in the Tri-Cities for fun, and so I figured that this will be one fun thing to do,” Alex Bedoya said.

Their location was one of the first places they looked. It was perfect, with a good size and spot, Mackenzie Bedoya said. 

The family invested plenty of their own time and money into getting the space ready. Alex Bedoya said he and his wife helped pay for their half of the investment through a delivery service Lisa Bedoya has run for nearly nine years. 

Kenton Bedoya, left, and his father Alex Bedoya stand outside of their new Kennewick racing simulator center.  

| Photo by Rachel Visick

Both Alex and Kenton Bedoya work full-time jobs, but they painted and got things set up until 2 a.m. some nights – and still got up and went to work the next morning, Mackenzie Bedoya said. 

“It was hard in the beginning doing that, but we know that the payout would be worth it to be able to get it open to the public,” she said. 

For Mackenzie Bedoya, part of the appeal has been spending time together as a family setting up the business and having her 3-year-old son come in and race. 

Future focus

Alex Bedoya said the family is open to hearing ideas from the community. They have room for double their current number of rigs if their business gets a lot of interest. 

People also have asked about flight simulators, he said, which could be something they expand into in the future, and they’re also looking at rigs with drifting simulation. 

Mackenzie said they’re also interested in a mobile rig that they could take to parties or community events. 

The Bedoyas signed a three-year lease for Revzone, “so we need people to come in and help us stay for the three years,” Alex Bedoya said. 

“It’s for everybody,” Mackenzie Bedoya said. “You don’t have to be into sim racing to come try it.”

Revzone: 10379 W. Clearwater Ave., Suite 120, Kennewick. Open 2-8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, closed on Monday. Go to: revzonewa.com, 509-604-5988, [email protected].