SDC Staff Bios - Instructors

Jonathan Urlin - Chief Instructor:

Jonathan has been a championship competitor in multiple formulas of karting, open-wheel and closed-wheel racing. He has been competing in various international motorsports competitions for over two decades. During his championship reign in karting, Jonathan represented Canada with top-10 finishes in the prestigious International Race of Champions in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and the World Karting Championship in Genk, Belgium. He is a multi-time champion in Canada, North America and US Grand National Championships. Highlight events from his car racing history include Indianapolis Motor speedway and most North American road courses, street circuits and superspeedways in racing series from IRL to NASCAR. For the last 15 years, Jonathan has been sharing his passion for sport driving through his responsibilities supervising and instructing the Porsche Experience, venue ownership (Delaware Speedway) and series operation and management (ASN/FIA GRK). Jonathan looks forward to seeing you at the next Porsche Experience program. 


Zacharie Robichon - Instructor:

Zach has been involved in motorsports as a driver since 2006. He has competed at the regional, national, and international levels in karting, open-wheel, and sportscar racing. His achievements include winning the one-make Porsche GT3 Cup series in Canada in 2018, as well as winning all eight races he competed in in the Porsche GT3 Cup in the United States, winning the inaugural IMSA GTD Sprint Cup Championship in a Porsche GT3 R in 2019. Currently, he is the only Porsche Motorsports North America-selected driver that competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Zach’s passion for motorsports and the automotive world knows no bounds, and his enthusiasm for driving shows in his interactions with participants at Porsche Experience.





Kees Nierop - Instructor:

Kees is a Dutch native living in Kelowna, BC. He has been involved in motorsports since the 1970s where he has raced in multiple professional series. His career highlights include winning the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1983, competing at the Daytona 24, being a Porsche Factory driver in the 1987 24 Hours of Le Mans, Champion of the Rothman’s Porsche 944 Cup, and competing in the TransSyberia Rally. Additionally, Kees is the only Canadian to have his name on a car in the Porsche museum. Although Kees no longer races professionally, he is still active in motorsports, competing in vintage races across North America. Motorsports is in his blood and that is on full display in his instructing style at Porsche Experience.


Pierre Desmarais - Instructor:

Pierre has been involved with the Porsche Brand for more than 30 years, having started racing in the Porsche one-make race series in the 1980s. He has since been involved in numerous marketing programs for the brand, such as introducing new cars to the sales force and the general public. Sharing his passion for teaching is his main objective, and he loves winter.



Travis Hill - Instructor:

Travis has been racing and coaching with the Porsche brand since 2008. He has dedicated his extensive career to the teaching of motorsports. In addition to being an internationally certified Porsche instructor, Travis is also the track pro at Calabogie Motorsports Park and cofounder of TWOth Autosport—a sportscar racing team focused on driver development.




Keith McIntosh - Instructor:

Keith was raised in Calgary, Alberta, and now lives near Toronto, Ontario. After racing go-karts, Keith campaigned his own Formula Ford 1600 in Western Canada. In 1986, Keith moved to Mexico to race in the CAR series. In 1991, Keith was accepted to the mechanic/driver training program at the Spenard-David Racing School in Shannonville, Ontario. One year later, he became a full-time employee of the newly named Bridgestone Racing Academy, where he rose to the position of assistant chief instructor. In 2000, he started a seven-year instructor relationship with the Panoz Racing School at its locations in Sebring, Texas, Road Atlanta and at Mosport. In addition, he has had opportunities to work with Saab, Audi, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz, VW and, until recently, was the chief instructor with the Ariel Atom. Since 2012 Keith has been a full-time instructor with Porsche Canada and Porsche USA’s Track Driving Experiences and Ice Driving Experiences.



Paul Robinson - Instructor:

Born and raised in Gibraltar, a British territory in the south of Spain, Paul started his motor racing career at the age of eight, competing in the Iberian karting championship before climbing the motorsports ladder in different single-seaters until reaching Formula 3. After two successful seasons in F3, Paul was scouted to race with a Porsche in the International GT Championship driving a 996 GT3 RSR before becoming a works driver for Radical Motorsports Portugal and their Prototype development program. Upon invitation, Paul joined the Porsche family in 2009, becoming a certified Porsche AG instructor and travelling the globe with the Porsche World Roadshow and their summer and winter experiences. For the past five years, he has been the chief instructor for Porsche Central and Eastern Europe where he is in charge of the region’s 26 driving programs including the Porsche Experience Center in Istanbul, Turkey. 




Axel Mas - Instructor:

Axel has been an international instructor for Porsche for the last 15 years. He competed regionally in his home country of Spain in karts as well as the Renault Clio Cup. Furthermore, he has worked as a Precision driver for photo shoots, videos, and commercials. Axel is fluent in Spanish, English, and German. 



Ben Cooper - Instructor:

Born and raised in the UK, Ben moved to Canada in 2012 to start a kart racing academy in Mont-Tremblant. He is a four-time European karting champion and a three-time World karting champion. Ben now runs a successful karting academy and race team with over 36 drivers involved in the program, which is geared to children and youth between the ages of 7 and 16. The team has now collected 17 national and regional titles. This year will be Ben’s third year working with the team at Porsche Experience.




Darryl Timmers - Jr. Instructor:

Darryl has been a part of the Porsche Experience team since 2016. Darryl’s career started in karts where he won races as well as championships at provincial, national and international levels. Darryl turned his passion from racing towards performance coaching in 2007, after an extensive racing career that peaked in the Grand-Am series’ “ST” class. Darryl graduated with an Automotive Products Design Diploma from Georgian College. Thriving off his passion for motorsports, Darryl has turned his vast racing career into a successful driver training business. Darryl now owns a support team in the karting industry, and also privately coaches the future stars in motorsports as well as the everyday adult looking to get their motorsports fix.



Stefan Rzadzinski - Jr. Instructor:

Stefan has a background of 20 years in motorsports and 10 years as a driver coach, including racing with Porsche. He has competed all over the world, from the Porsche GT3 Cup in Canada, to Indy Lights in the United States and the Chinese GT3 Championship. His success across every continent and series means he brings a wealth of experience to all of the participants at Porsche Experience. 2020 will see him working his third year with Porsche Experience.



Andrei Mortila - Jr. Instructor:

Andrei is an advanced driving instructor, working with multiple premium brands and driving experience events since 2013. Originally from Romania, he grew up with a passion for motorsports and sports in general. In Europe he has been instructing for multiple manufacturers’ Track Days, Travel Tours, and Offroad Experiences and has been involved in one-on-one coaching. After moving full-time to British Columbia, Canada, he started work as an instructor at the Vancouver Island Motorsports Circuit, and in 2018, became a part of the Sport Driving Canada instructor team. Andrei is an experienced instructor and thrives on sharing his passion and knowledge with other people, whether it is about driving cars, snowboarding or kitesurfing, he is always aiming to provide the experience of a lifetime. 



Nathan Kelly - Jr. Instructor:

Nathan turned his passion for motorsports into a career instructing and coaching with Porsche Experience. He began his motorsports venture in karting at the age of nine. Originally from Nova Scotia, the Canadian was able to progress his career into racing across North America. From karting, he found himself behind the wheel of Formula BMWs, Porsche Cup cars, and a multitude of other sports cars. Nathan says his biggest inspiration for his passion was his late father, who grew up racing motorcycles and drag racing.



Curtis Fox - Jr. Instructor:

Curtis started karting at the age of 10 in Ontario. After six years of karting with championships in both the USA and Canada, he graduated to formula cars. Curtis competed in select Skip Barber Racing events, as well as contested in the full season of the Formula Car Magazine F2000 Championship in Canada, finishing second in that championship. After a short career in auto racing, he moved into a coaching role in the karting and auto industries. Curtis has worked all over the world as a karting mechanic and coach with many drivers that have graduated to motorsports. He has also been fortunate to work for many major manufacturers and track day organizations as a performance driving instructor.



Graeme Peppler - Jr. Instructor:

Four decades of competition, across a broad spectrum of sports, have given Graeme a trove of exposure to human performance, coaching and instructing. As a racecar driver, Graeme’s competition career spanned 14 years, two seasons of which were in New Zealand and seven of which saw him competing within Mexico’s internationally recognized motorsports scene. Day-to-day, Graeme runs a small publishing company that specialises in the publishing of flight training manuals for student pilots. He is also an aviation columnist for Canadian Aviator Magazine, and he holds a private pilot licence certificate.