At some point or another we have all caught the love bug.

Bill Protzman did too, but he also caught another bug — the racing bug.

“It’s like a bug,” Protzman said. “Once you start, it’s hard to quit.”

Protzman, 83, is the technical inspector at Lernerville Speedway in Buffalo Township and has been doing that job since the 1990s, he said.

The primary responsibility of the technical inspector is to inspect vehicles as part of the racing procedure to assure the vehicles comply with specified guidelines for competitors, along with simple safety guidelines.

“I make sure cars are legal and safe,” Protzman said. “Not as stringent as NASCAR, but all the same.”

Lernerville is not the only track where Protzman has worked.

Protzman has been employed as a technical inspector since 1983 at about half a dozen tracks in Western Pennsylvania, which includes Sharon and Pittsburgh.

“It’s honestly not that hard,” Protzman said. “Just getting people to do what you want them to do. Some people don’t understand you are trying to keep them from getting hurt.”

Protzman got into the racing world when he was 22 years old through a friend of his, Harry Hein, and never looked back.

He worked on cars for about 20 to 30 years, Protzman said, at the same tracks where he would eventually work as the technical inspector.

“I never drove the cars, I just owned and worked on them,” Protzman said.

Protzman got to know Hein after high school when he started taking his car to Hein’s mechanic shop to get fixed.

Protzman attended Butler Senior High School and never moved outside the area.

“I’ve been here all my life,” Protzman said. “I grew up three miles east of Butler, then when I got married, I moved about three miles west of Butler.

“I just enjoy being around the people and racing.”

Protzman’s work outside of racing has included working at Warehouse Sales, but racing was his first passion.

Lernerville opened in October of 1967 and Protzman was part of the inaugural race that took place.

“The first race Lernerville ever had, which was 1967, my car got third place,” Protzman said. “Since then, we had won quite a few feature races.”

Lernerville has four different race classes, and Protzman has had his hand in all four classes at one point or another.

“I like Lernerville because it has always been run right,” Protzman said. “And because it is the closest track to where I live.”

Racing isn’t something people just fall back into. It’s a passion project, and more times than not you don’t get back what you put in.

“I don’t think I want to tell you what my biggest tip would be,” Protzman said with a laugh. “What I can say is it costs a lot of money.

“There is no book to teach you anything. My advice would be find someone who has been doing it for a while and learn.”

Protzman has proven to be a creature of habit. His 50-plus years in the business has gotten him to a good spot in his life, and there isn’t anything he says he would change.

“I wouldn’t change anything,” Protzman said. “I’ve just done it long enough that I wouldn’t want any change.”

Protzman’s wife passed away a while ago, he said, but not before raising five children in the process.

“The kids didn’t get into racing,” he said. “They were too smart to spend that kind of money.”

Protzman said four of his children currently reside in Butler County, along with everyone else in his life, which he says is the best reason to keep around the area.

“I’ve never moved because everybody I know is here,” Protzman said.

It’s been said that work really isn’t work if you truly enjoy what you do, and Protzman exemplifies that.

“When you take a job like this, you got to be willing to work wherever there is a race,” Protzman said. “You have to be interested in order to do it.

“You just got to enjoy it.”