Welcome to the first post of our new blog series, The Turn. This time we're talking about Turn Racing's team, and throughout the coming weeks and months, we'll be posting more blog content.
What started as one man in a shop is expanding, meet our current staff members!
Zach - CEO
"Hi I'm Zach, 30, I'm from Minnesota USA. I've always loved racing of all kinds, making things, computer hardware, gaming, and engineering. In 2016 I spent many nights watching Sim Racing Garage, dreaming of having a rig like Barry's. I decided to try and make my own steering wheel and possibly start selling them to be able to build my own high-end rig.
The Audi R8 GT3 was my favorite car at the time to race. No one built this wheel and so with no experience in product design, engineering and production I went back to YouTube, books, and of course the best teacher of all, failure! I took a "learn how to do it as I built it" approach and more or less still do this today as we grow.
Sim racing is a labor of love and even though it has been many long days and nights, it's all been a pleasure as we continue to learn, improve and grow. Just like how the perfect lap doesn't exist, the perfect hardware doesn't exist either, there is always room for improvement!"
- Favorite Sim: iRacing
- Favorite Cars: GT and TCR
Dustin - Discord Community Manager
"Hello, my name is Dustin and I am the community manager on Turn Racing's Discord. Roughly 3 years ago I crossed paths with Zach and Turn Racing and he helped me make a replica of his GTE wheel. After hanging out here a little while and having made friends with Zach he asked if I would want to be a part of the Turn family as the Community Manager.
I jumped at the chance! A major goal of my role was to slowly build up the Turn Discord to be a global community aimed at sharing DIY and sim racing knowledge free of charge, as well as being a friendly, welcoming place to hang out.
As far as sim racing goes I started around 2015. My all-time favorite track is Nordschleife and I have well over 10,000 game miles there, including a 3rd place in TCR at the iRacing N24. I love all tracks that have twisty, rollercoaster-like hills. Streetcars, TCR, and GT machines are the cars I enjoy most. Shutoko Revival Project is also a favorite of mine and often cruise in an F40. AMS2, iRacing, and AC are my most played but I also enjoy Dirt Rally 2.0 and BeamNG."
- Favorite Sim: iRacing, AC, AMS2
- Favorite Cars: Street, GT, and TCR
Luke - UX/Graphic Design
"Hey, I'm Luke, living and from the United Kingdom. I've been on and off sim racing since 2003 when I started with LFS, fast forward to today I'm mostly into ACC and AC.
I joined the Turn Racing Discord in early 2021 after I saw a Bentley GT3 replica with the Turn R20 Evo wheel, this spurred me into making my very own, starting with zero CAD or PCB experience I've since made two versions of the latest of which with some real ex-Bentley race car parts.
Then in late 2021, I joined as Turn's Graphic Designer, now alongside that, I'm working on the UX/UI design for future things as well as content for marketing. I created the stickers for the R series wheels and in the future for the BP2 and Magnetic Plates or whatever else Zach comes up with!"
- Favorite Sim: ACC, AC
- Favorite Car: Bentley Continental GT 2018, Street and Drifting
David - Software Engineer
"Hi, I'm David, 30, residing in Arizona, USA. I discovered my love of motorsports when I was 15 when a friend introduced me to Top Gear and Formula 1. Fast Forward to 2018 after graduating college with degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and working as a Software Engineer, I finally purchased my first sim racing wheel, a Logitech G920 set, complete with pedals and the six-speed shifter. It was radically different than racing with a controller and naturally I was hooked immediately.
I soon turned to the DIY community to expand my setup and quickly found Zach's YouTube series on creating wheels from scratch in Fusion 360. That video series led me to the Turn Racing Discord where I lurked in the background, quite literally in awe of the projects that people on there were making. One day Zach posted a need for a Full Stack Software Engineer, and thought "What's the worst that could happen?" I submitted my resume and after chatting with Zach I found it hard to not be inspired by his passion and vision for the future of Turn Racing.
A month later I started working part-time and I'm now primarily responsible for developing the software for the Turn TDU and future projects which includes, everything from the underlying architecture and implementing the front-end UI from Luke's designs, all the way to consuming and using the data that Ferenc has made available."
- Favorite Sim: F1 and ACC
- Favorite Car: Bentley Continental GT 2018
Ferenc - Software Engineer
"Hey, I'm Feri, 31, living in Budapest, Hungary. I'm part of the software team, mainly focusing on backend development for Turn Software, working closely with David and Luke. I’m a software developer for more than 10 years and an avid sim racer for more than 15 years.
I originally joined the discord server to be a part of a community with similar interests to mine. I wanted to learn more about the mechanical side of sim racing projects as I’m more comfortable with electronics and software. My first encounter with sim racing was with Colin McRae Rally 2.0 and I fell in love instantly.
I played most of the sim racing games released since then to some extent. Nowadays my main discipline is endurance racing as I don’t have that much time day-to-day to participate in competitive events more often.
- Favorite Sim: iRacing
- Favorite Car: Porsche 911 GT3R and TCR
Cliff - Marketing
"I’m Cliff, 36, living in Vancouver, Canada. I work on the Marketing and Social Media side of Turn Racing. Sim racing was always in my blood, starting with MRC Racing on the N64 when I was 11 years old. After spending a long time on the console, I finally made the switch to PC sim racing and jumped into the deep end. This soon had me wanting to build my own custom wheel, which led me to the Turn Racing Discord after purchasing some 3d shifter files. After being an active part of the community for a while, I was given the opportunity to chat with Zach and now I’m part of the Turn Team!
I’m here to make sure everyone knows the quality and value of our products are second to none. We are going to shine a light on the insides of our business and show you the time and dedication that goes into making each product."
- Favorite Sim: iRacing, Dirt Rally 2.0
- Favorite Car: LMP2 and Subaru 22B
