Turning Fortune?
Turning Fortune is a website about the soul of motor racing by Luke Butler and Jon Mitchell. We’ll bring you our digest of any and all motorsports news from anywhere, whatever jewels we unearth from the endless depths of racing lore, and journals of our experiences at race tracks and in the wider racing and automotive world. Our goal is simply to connect with everyone who loves motorsports and contribute to its rich, global culture.
About the Editors
Luke Butler
Lore Editor
When Luke was a young child, he once found himself standing face to face with the exhaust pipe of a 1963 Corvette Grand Sport as it fired up to race in a vintage grand prix, and it awakened something that he would soon learn he shared with his father and grandfather. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Luke cut his teeth as a child in the infields of Nazareth (R.I.P.) and Pocono, and his favorite activity as a child was to set up races with his Racing Champions 1/64 Cup cars and keep meticulous stats of laps led and points accrued (using the Latford system, of course) in composition books.
All this to say, he caught the racing bug early and leaned all the way in.
As Luke grew up, he became more interested in the twisting, turning history of motor racing and how the sport arrived where we are today — the cars, the drivers, the teams, the sanctioning bodies, the tracks. He enjoys sharing and learning these stories and looks forward to doing so on this site.
Luke still lives in Philadelphia and feels fortunate to have the Simeone Foundation in his backyard. He will happily visit with anyone who may come into town.
Jon Mitchell
News Editor
Jon is a writer with both journalism and communications experience whose most employable qualities involve making websites. His beats have included consumer tech, American politics and spirituality, and Burning Man culture — in times when those things were a lot of fun to cover — and now he wants to spend the rest of his life writing about cars and motorsports.
Racing is a relatively recent interest for him. His first season going to races in person was 2025, but he’s fallen for it pretty hard.
He wanted to be Hunter Thompson when he grew up, and he more or less succeeded, but he enjoys a little bit more stability in life. He has, though:
- chopped the top off a ’90s Jaguar in a whipping dust storm
- stared an alpha male orangutan in the face in the jungles of Borneo
- played electric guitar in the backing band for an alien invasion
- gotten an entire masquerade ball to sing the national anthem of a country he made up
… and other hijinks he’ll surely write about on this website eventually.
Jon grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and after a wandering 20s, he moved back home. He lives in Decatur with his wife, Rabbi Ariel Root Wolpe, and their two [at press time, increase imminent] children. They drive a 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5 in lucid blue, and the children request it always be driven in sport mode.