How a NASA Driver Went From the GR Experience, to Time Trial to Running a Sim Racing Business

Robert Butler’s advice for everyone is to chase the dream that’s been calling you, regardless of age.

The NASA Rocky Mountain Region racer wishes he had taken his own advice when he decided to start racing later in life. Now 59, he says the real lesson is that it’s never too late to start.

“If you have the desire to go do it, then do it,” Butler said. “I hate to use myself as the guy, but I didn’t do it because of circumstances that I could have changed. So, if you really want to do something, don’t wait until you’re dead. You’ll kick yourself for never trying it.”

Butler is as enthusiastic about racing as a newcomer can be, having jumped into the sport just two years ago. He’s now making it a business venture with the launch of Kenaz Sim Sports at the Apex in Pueblo, Colo.

The 18-year Army veteran joined NASA after purchasing a Toyota GR86 and receiving in the mail a one-year NASA membership and a free day in HPDE1. Butler had done limited drag racing and autocross before taking part in the GR Experience at Colorado’s High Plains Raceway in September 2023.

“I got out there, got some coaching and found out I wasn’t as good as I thought I was,” Butler said. “The coaching and everything showed me a lot of the deficiencies that I had and that got me hooked.”

Within six months, Butler added an oil cooler to the GR86 and pressed forward with adding a cage and a fire suppression system. Butler upgraded the brakes and the suspension system, truly transforming the Toyota GR86 into a track car.

Butler went further than most new GR86 owners would, and in hindsight, he would do it differently.

“I probably shouldn’t have transformed it as quickly as I did and invested more of that money into coaching and more HPDE days,” Butler said. “I took it a little too fast.”

Taking the advice of his coaches and Time Trial competitors, Butler started focusing on himself rather than the car. He spent the 2024 season running as many laps as possible, quickly recognizing the cost for consumables and wear on the car.

Drawing on his years of experience in the firearms industry, Butler took a different approach to his 2025 Time Trial season.

“If you get to a point in your firearms training and there’s no benefit to training, you need to stop because you’re doing nothing but wasting time and ammunition,” Butler said. “The same goes with the car. If you aren’t learning, there’s no point continuing that day. Come back to it fresh.”

Butler, who lives in Pueblo with his partner DeeAnn, is a regular at four tracks around Colorado, averaging one weekend a month plus open track days. His daughter Megan, 27, is an officer in the Air Force.

To make up for lost time and improve as a driver, Butler took the advice of respected driver Dan Williams, who is Regional Director for the NASA Rocky Mountain Region.

“I basically told him your only chance is sim racing,” Williams said. “You have to put in more hours and work harder than the younger people or you will not be able to compete with them. He’s absolutely taken it to heart.”

Butler opened the Kenaz Sim Sports at the Apex in summer 2025. Featuring three Simagic driving simulators, Kenaz has commercial licenses for iRacing, giving racers a chance to drive tracks around the world. Butler said they are hosting leagues, and the triple-screen simulators are available for hourly or daily rentals.

As Kenaz Sim Sports grows, Butler has plans to add full-motion simulators and take it a step further by having a Spec Miata available to drive at Pueblo Motorsports Park.

“They can learn the track, learn to drive on the simulator and then go out to the track and drive my car,” Butler said. “That’s ultimately what I want to do with this.”

Practicing on the simulator has helped Butler improve his lap times in Time Trial as well as his confidence on the track. Butler spent the season working on trail-braking and steering input, and his fellow NASA Rocky Mountain racers are noticing.

Butler is heavily invested in data, drawing parallels to his days in competitive shooting. He uses a RaceBox Mini and a DauntlessOBD in his racecar to capture the data and Lap Legend to review it. Butler will do a cursory review at the track and do a deeper dive after the weekend. Data overload can be a real issue for drivers.

“I turn all my timing devices where I can’t see them on the track,” Butler said. “I am such a data-driven person, sometimes I obsess on stupid stuff instead of what I need to be working on. It becomes data overload, especially at my age.”

Proof that age has no limit, Butler took over the social media for NASA’s Rocky Mountain Region. There’s an old military ethos that if you complain about it, you just volunteered to fix it. Butler is creating content with motorsports photographer David Torsiello and other photographers to promote the NASA Rocky Mountain Region.

“My goal, personally, is just to get more people exposed to it and get them out there doing something that they may have never tried before,” Butler said.

NASA’s Williams said Butler is the poster child for staying active.

“If a guy is looking for an avenue to stay young, get in a racecar, because you’re going to associate with young kids,” Williams said. “When I leave work and I go to the racetrack, I want to be around people like him. I want to be around people that are ageless.”