Bee opens 2nd center

A new auto care center has opened its doors to Portland residents.

Shawn’s Auto Service, an authorized NAPA auto care center at 611 S. Meridian St., opened in early October.

Shawn Bee, the founder and owner of the auto care center, has been working on cars for more than 20 years. He first got a taste of the automotive world while working on cars with his stepfather.

“I just enjoyed working with cars and I decided that’s what I wanted to do,” he said.

However, Bee didn’t just grow up fixing cars, he also raced them.

Bee started racing when he was 16, and says he got more seriously involved in it when he was in his early 20s, mainly competing in drag racing. Now that Bee is married with a family of his own, he spends less time racing and more time helping his sons Skyler and Seth with their Junior Dragsters.

Junior Dragsters are scaled down versions of top fuel dragsters that reach speeds up to 85 miles an hour. Contestants must be between the ages of 5 and 17 to compete.

Bee said he and his sons purchase the necessary parts such as the chassis and build the rest of the dragsters themselves.

Last year, Shawn and his 13-year-old son Skyler competed in and won the division three championships in Junior Dragsters.

Besides racing cars and working on them with his stepfather, Bee also enrolled in an automotive trade school in northwestern Ohio and worked for two other auto shops, including the Tire Center in Portland.

In 2005, Bee opened up his first shop, Shawn’s Auto Service, in Redkey.

Although the Redkey shop is in a somewhat remote location, Bee said business has been good for the past 12 years. He said he chose Portland for the second location — it’s open from 8 a.m.to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday — in order to expand the business and attract more traffic.

“Business has been good,” Shawn said. “It’s picking up steam every week. I’m happy with the way things are going.”

Both locations will remain open, as the new shop is an expansion, not a relocation. Currently Bee and two other employees work in the two shops. He plans on hiring more employees in the future.

“It’s just something I enjoy doing,” Bee said. “I like to fix things.”