The Asetek SimSports Difference

I live and breathe racing and I believe that’s what makes Asetek SimSports different. In two years we’ve built a strong brand, and the quality and performance of our products is the key to that – an Asetek brake pedal feels like a brake pedal in a real racing car, it doesn’t feel like a toy. Authenticity is at the heart of everything we do. I know how to race a car in real life – although I’m not pretending to be Max Verstappen! – and I’ve designed Asetek’s products absolutely to suit that reality.

I don’t know where my drive and passion come from, but I’ve always had it. Growing up, my family wasn’t interested in motorsports at all, but I’ve always been obsessed with racing. As I still say to my friends – I’d race people with a shopping trolley given half a chance!

I started racing when I was a kid. I did motocross but my parents couldn’t afford it, so I had several jobs, from being a newspaper boy to wiping factory floors, to pay for my racing. Eventually, I had to stop because it became too expensive to compete. When I was 18, a friend whom I often raced with had to miss an event, so he asked if I wanted to borrow his bike. I went on to win everything that weekend and that’s when I stopped because I realised that, although I had the talent and knew how to ride, I didn’t have enough money to buy the equipment that would enable me to always compete at the front.

I was naturally faster than this guy, but he was richer and that meant he could buy equipment that would make him go faster than me. That was a lightbulb moment and it inspired everything we do at Asetek. Our aim to is to give everyone the ability to have a real racing experience, the ability to compete, and the ability to have fun in an accessible, fair, and cost-effective way.

In 2008, I moved to Silicon Valley. My friend, Henri Richard – who was Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for AMD – took me to the Sonoma kart track and, before I left, I bought a helmet, a race suit, and two karts. I found a professional driver, Kris Shaw, and I asked him to coach me to become a champion in the Californian Masters Championship. I worked so hard, I lost weight – 20kg – and, in my second season, I won nine races out of 10 and the championship title. It was just a hobby, but I took it very seriously. My life was – and still is – racing. And Asetek.

After winning the Californian Championship, I bought a Pro Formula Mazda which is like a Formula 3 car. So, at 40 years of age, I swapped a kart for an F3 car and I nearly s*** myself on my first time out on Sonoma Raceway! Suffice it to say, that car was a handful and a massive step up. But, as an IT guy and an engineer, I wanted to understand everything about this incredible machine and how it worked – from the data system to the engine and everything in between. I hired two brothers, Richard and Steve Cameron – who were professional racing engineers, drivers, and coaches running a race shop at Sonoma – to help me. In my second season competing in the West Coast Formula Car Challenge, I was leading the standings and doing pretty well for a guy my age. Unfortunately, my brother was diagnosed with cancer and I decided to stop because of that, but did eventually finish the championship in second place.

Moving to and racing in the USA was great for my personal development and for my team because I had this urge to prove I was the best. I had some success on track and I’m proud of what I achieved, but it took a lot of hard work to get there and there were bumps in the road. When I was younger, I was probably guilty of taking it out on my team, but I became aware of it and I hope the people at Asetek would say I’m easier to work for now!

I may have mellowed with age, but the urge to be the best has not – and will never – leave me and now I have it solely and completely on behalf of Asetek. I’m engaged with every part of our business personally, including customer support. That’s not because the people here at Asetek aren’t doing a good job, far from it, because they absolutely are. It’s because I love it.

I built my first simulator in 2008, and my passion and expertise are built into every one of our products. I’m a racer, I’m a toolmaker, and I’m an engineer. At home, I have lathes, milling machines, and welding equipment, so I really understand the technical side of things as well as racing and racecraft and I think that’s why people who know racing like our products so much.