Business F1 Top 20 Petrolheads: Gene Haas, The Billionaire with Passion

Gene Haas is a successful American businessman and an exceptionally talented engineer. He established Haas Automation, one of the world’s largest independent manufacturers of automated machine tools. Being the sole owner, he enjoys complete autonomy in choosing the company’s strategies, including its communications. A long-time automobile enthusiast, Haas ventured into American motorsport as a means to promote his enterprise. The motorsport sector was a major customer for Haas CNC machines and was also very demanding. In 2006, recognising a need, Haas decided to build a wind tunnel for the NASCAR team he had established in North Carolina. He purchased a site next the Concord regional airport, and in 2007, the construction of this state-of-the-art wind tunnel commenced. Its sophisticated design features a moving floor and accurately simulates the dynamics of a car on the track.

Today, the Wind Shear tunnel is widely used by teams in NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula One, and the American Le Mans Series.