Bret grew up in Jasper, IN and dabbled with cars during high school. After high school, he worked various jobs in Jasper and then took a job in Florida as a tech rep for the NHRA Drag Racing circuit. A few years later, he started working for a company in California to work for Blower Drive Service. He had been traveling about 300 days per year and decided to settle down back in Jasper with his new wife. He worked a tool truck and was building his own pro-street hot rod. He wanted to be able...

Steve has known he was going to work with cards since the first grade. His dad was an engineer and his mom was a pianist and they encouraged Steve and his siblings to pursue any passion they wanted. This even includes Steve attempting to build a submarine as a kid. He ended up getting drafted to the Vietnam War and worked as an electrical engineer supporting the airplanes. Once he got out, he went to college and got an engineering degree. While at school, he worked at a BMW repair shop. It...

Jason grew up in upstate New York and spent his childhood around cars. For college, he went to Clarkson University and got his Mechanical Engineering degree. He had every intention to go work for an auto company in Detroit but he just couldn’t commit to the cold weather. So, he moved south to work for Home Depot as a mechanical engineer. He worked his way up the ranks and eventually moved on to work for Newell Brands (makers up Rubbermaid and other household items) as a product engineer....

Brent is a first generation American and his parents immigrated to the states after WW2. He spent a lot of his childhood playing with electronics. During high school, he practically took over the computer lab in the mid 80’s to code and tinker however he liked. He went to college to get a Computer Science degree and worked for Microsoft after graduating. He then moved over to GE Capital to do software support for them. At this point, he discovered Autocross and fell in love immediately! He...

Dave grew up in Melbourne, Australia and has always been a petrol head. He knew from an early age that he wanted to work with cars and left school at 15 to get an apprenticeship at a local dealership. During that time, he began racing go carts to satisfy his need to race. Once he finished his apprenticeship program, he became qualified to be hired as a mechanic. He then got a job at a shop that focused on motorsports and he began racing cars himself. After that, he took a job at MoTeC in...

Lance is from South Africa and he grew up working with his dad at his dealership and salvage yard. When he grew up, he took over part of the business and spent years growing it. Eventually, he decided to make the move to America and attempted to continue with the auto salvage business. He came over on a holiday visa and quickly discovered how hard it is to become an American citizen. After 3 rejections, he was able to finally make it legal and he and his family got their citizenship. Along...

The Ring brothers grew up around their dad’s fueling station and spent their time tinkering with whatever they could get their hands on. Jim moved around a few times and eventually moved his family back home to Spring Green, WI (2 hours west of Milwaukee). He saw a 1969 Camaro Indy Pace car for sale in the paper and had to get a loan from a bank to purchase the car. He fixed it up and ended up selling it for a profit. This was the catalyst for starting his own shop. Jim found a vacant car...

Kris grew up in Chicago and stayed there to go to college. His family has always been enthusiasts and he grew up tinkering with anything he could get his hands on. He got a degree in Aviation Flight Management and got his A&P License. He never worked in the aerospace industry because he got offered a job at a fuel management company. This company was buildings components of Holly’s EFI throttle body. His next move was over to AMS Performance as their 4th employee. He helped them grow the...

Gary was born in Panama but grew up in the United States. His father had a machine shop and Gary was always around cars. He worked at his dad’s shop at a very early age and learned the importance of hard work. His parents ended up getting a divorce and Gary moved to Panama to live with his mom when he was 9. In his early 20’s, he bought a truck and began modifying it immediately. He increased the power with a supercharger and did basic tuning adjustments. He went to law school and became a...

John was born in Florida but moved to Philadelphia when he was 10. His dad and he were always tinkering and fixed things rather than replacing them. He stayed in the area and went to college at Penn State to get a Mechanical Engineering degree. Even though his passion for cars never went away, he got a job at a beverage company and ended up in California managing a facility. During that time, he had a side hustle of selling other people’s parts online. It became more and more difficult to...

Scott grew up in Minnesota and enjoyed tinkering and making stuff as a kid. He played with dirt bikes and 3 wheelers anything else he could get his hands on. His dad got transferred for work and ended up in Colorado. After high school, he enrolled in an automotive program while working at a construction job. After graduating with his Associates Degree, he went hunting for a job. He had bought a Mitsubishi Galant VR4 and fell in love with imports and turbos. During this time, he meets Nick...

Dennis grew up on a farm in Indiana and went to Nashville Auto Diesel College before getting drafted to the Air Force during Vietnam. He took a position as a mechanic for their vehicle maintenance division and spent his time repairing equipment. When he got back to Indiana, he met a girl whose family lived in Ft Worth. During one of their visits to her family, he realized there were a lot of jobs in Ft Worth and made up his mind that is where they wanted to move. He got a job as a tractor...

Bob has been racing his entire life. He got started in small Morgans and Triumphs in California and was jealous of the loud and fast American race cars. He stepped up to Corvettes and started winning immediately. He caught the eye of Carol Shelby who was trying to get Bob to race in the Shelby Cobra. After Bob had to race against a Cobra, he was convinced it was superior and went over to Carol’s team to drive. He won a bunch of races that year and then they took the Cobra to Europe with Dan...

Tim was practically born into working on cars. His dad worked at an automotive repair business and Tim immediately took a liking to cars. When he turned 14, he got a compact truck and began modifying it for the mini-truck scene. He built the car all by himself and was happy to show it off at high school. He got his associates degree and got a job at O’Reilly Auto Parts as a delivery driver. Over the years, Tim worked his way up through the ranks, managed his own store, and even worked at the...

As kids, Trevor and Travis saved up their money and spent it on go carts. With a matching contribution from their dad, they were able to get pretty serious and eventually toured around the US and Canada to race go carts. They both ended up going to college but continued to race. Their goal the whole time was to be professional race car drivers and they thought of school as their backup plan. Travis ended up working at the race track in Calabogie as a driving coach and began developing a...

Dirk has always been a builder and tinkerer. He started working for a clutch company called Kennedy Engineered Products that built engine adapters and clutches for VW’s. He was working as a clutch assembler and was in college for a Mechanical Engineering degree. He worked his way up the ranks at KEP. In 1994, Dirk was working on a project for the Japanese import vehicles and asked his boss if he could take the idea and run with it. In 1996, he started Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT) and...

Description: Doug and Brad DeBerti, the father and son duo, have a new Discovery Channel show called Twin Turbos. Doug was born and raised in Montana and moved down to Bakersfield, CA when he was 18. In the late 80’s, Doug got a new truck and began making custom parts for it. He wiggled his way into a building lease and took out 4 credit cards to raise capital for the new business. In an ingenious move to project inventory, he would buy empty boxes from manufacturers and weighted them down!...

Glen is from New Zealand and his dad actually used to own a trailer company. His dad sold the company in the mid-eighties and it was a couple decades before Glen got back into trailers. After high school, Glen got into construction and went off to create his own construction company. Glen then moved to Dubai and did construction there as well. Over the next decade, he built a very large business with around 700 employees. His next adventure went down a completely different path. He took his...

David was born and raised in Ohio and has been there his entire life. Growing up, he was very active in outdoor activities and his dad was racing. By the time he was 18, he had his SCCA license and was racing pretty regularly. When he went to college, he started off in Accounting but changed it to HR and Psychology. During school, he wrote a business plan to distribute wheels in the Midwest. His dad owned Dayton Wire Wheels and he noticed there was a void in the market of distributing wheels....

Bob grew up in Colorado and has been around racing his whole life. His dad raced with SCCA and then became the chief driving instructor in Colorado. His dad brought the family to a race and they met another family of racers. It was at this time that Bob would meet his future wife (she was 11 and he was 13). Bob went to college for a business degree and ended up in California after graduating to become a stunt driver. He ended up moving back to Colorado when he and his wife got married. Back...

Scooter grew up as a mechanic and got his first job right out of high school. He was drafted to the Navy during the Vietnam War where he served as an aircraft mechanic. When he came back home, he got a job at Racing Head Service around 1972. They were having trouble finding good camshafts for their market so they started Cam Dynamics (now Comp Cams) to fill the need. Over the past few decades, Scooter and the team have built Comp Performance Group into a juggernaut in the aftermarket...

Larry scraped and saved up $1000 to purchase his first Canon Rebel XT DSLR camera back in 2004. He had been taking pictures with a simple point-and-shoot but wanted to step up his professionalism. He had his own business fixing & building computers but also took pictures as a paparazzi. These jobs were a means to an end that allowed him to take automotive pictures. Over the last 13 years, he has traveled all over the world and been to hundreds of events to pursue his passion. As a...

Chris went to college at an art school in Michigan and focused on graphic design. After graduating, he worked at several design firms and worked his way up the corporate ladder. He was also running a forum called EFHonda to pursue his passion of the EF Honda chassis. He even started his own parking lot meet up called the EF Honda Meet to hang out with fellow enthusiasts. In 2004, they stepped it up and rented Gingerman Raceway on a Monday and took their cars out on to the track. They called...

John bought his first Eagle Talon when he was in high school and upgraded to a turbo Eclipse when he got to college. He did quite a few mods and ran it a lot at the drag strip. Then, John and some buddies got together and rented a small shop to modify their cars and others for customers. After a few years, John separated off and took his fabrication equipment to work at another shop. That second shop began to shift to more domestic cars so John decided to go out on his own. He bought an 8500...

Trevor raced cars all through high school and he progressed over the years with more powerful and faster cars. When he turned 21, he bought a Trans Am that came with the new LS V8. At that same time, his now business partner Jason Mangum also had a Trans Am and they raced against each other any chance they got! Trevor graduated college in 2000 and moved to Dallas, TX to look for a job. It was at this time that Trevor and Jason really considered starting a real business. When they pulled the...