Tim grew up in Lincolnshire, which is on the east coast of northern England. Tim has three brothers: One a little older and two a lot younger. From a young age Tim expressed an interest in two main things: Auto racing and American Football, supporting both Nigel Mansell and the Chicago Bears to their last championships…

After developing an interest in Sim racing (not simply “racing games”; these are realistic simulations of the real-world experience), Tim founded a Web site based upon it in 1999. This Web site (then named Legends Central) imported Danish-language forums into it’s existing content and took additional staff to become Race Sim Central in December, 2001. In early 2001 the Legends Central Web site received a Golden Web Award under the ‘community’ category – since won by Web-giant MySpace.com.

RaceSimCentral, Tim’s Web site from 1999-2005.

After running that Web site for six years Tim was offered employment with Bedford (Massachusetts) based company, iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations by John W. Henry. John was a member of Tim’s Web site, founder of iRacing.com and Principal Owner of the Boston Red Sox. Tim leapt at the chance to work in a field he had enjoyed so much over the previous years: To be able to work with individuals from Papyrus Racing Games who had produced the best simulations available at the time was an exciting opportunity and in May of 2005, Tim was employed by the company. Also in May, Tim handed over ownership of his Web site to other individuals who had first joined him in 2001 to avoid a conflict of interest with other simulation developers. At this time, the Web site had grown to have 80,000 registered members.

In June 2006 Tim began communicating via MySpace with Sheila about his growing hobby of photography, initially interested in how she was capable of taking stunning photographs in low light. Two months later after a lot of communication via MySpace, IM, phone and email they met in a Chicago airport and from the first moment (which included meeting her father in the waiting car!) the two of them were falling in Love.

Also in June 2006, Tim completed a two-day Skip Barber Racing School course at Lime Rock Park racing circuit in Connecticut, USA. The course included driving a Dodge Neon, Dodge Viper, Dodge RAM and Skip Barber 2000 open-wheel racing car. The second day was recorded onto DVD and (part two of) Tim’s laps in the atrocious wet conditions can be viewed above. Part one is here.

Tim and Sheila married on 11th April, 2007 and Tim became a Legal Resident in the United States on 22nd April, 2008. Tim lived with Sheila in Chicago (Illinois) until December 1st, 2008, but moved to Woburn, Massachusetts on that date with her to regain full-time employment with iRacing.com.

After 11-months in Massachusetts, both Sheila and Tim moved back to Illinois so that they could be closer to Sheila’s family and friends who she missed terribly. Tim continued to work for iRacing.com as a contractor until August, 2010 when he began to work for Image Space Incorporated – another sim racing developer – out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is doing licensing and marketing work for the company.

Tim was able to amuse himself (and Facebook) by posting this with the words: 'So it's official. My frank and beans are capable of making hot dogs and chili.'

On December 14th, 2010 Tim and Sheila announced they are expecting their first child as Sheila had entered the second trimester. The pregnancy went well and their first child, Suzannah, was born on Father’s Day the following year.

Suzannah Wheatley.

Last Updated: 14th December, 2011.