In NASCAR, simulators aren't just toys anymore (cont'd)

Simulating a race track is painstaking work that takes three or four months to complete. While some companies use laser-scanning methods, Sim Factory's preferred practice at the moment is to schedule flyovers of high-resolution satellites, and augment that information with blueprints, interviews with contractors who built the facility, and monitoring cars on the track for real-life data. They interview drivers, who might remember a certain dip or bump, or whether they drop down into a corner or swoop in. The goal as always is to make the finished product as realistic as possible, so drivers can prepare for the real thing without actually having to be there.

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Now that we're not going to be testing anymore, it's going to be an ever bigger tool.

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MIKE DILLON

That certainly helped Bowyer this year at Montreal. Mike Dillon, aware that his RCR driver was going to hit the road course with no practice, and seeing the progress his sons were making on a simulator, approached Coulter at Gateway International Raceway and asked for help. Sim Factory found a version of the Montreal track, and fine-tuned it. Bowyer went to Dillon's house and drilled on the simulator, making lap after lap on Circuit Gilles Montreal. During a caution in the actual race, Bowyer radioed in that he felt like he already knew the race track.

"This driving thing, for somebody who has already raced some, a lot of it's about confidence, of having a lot of confidence once you get to the place," Dillon said. "Everybody has certain tracks they're really good at, and a lot of that is due to confidence. If you've never been to a race track, you're not going to have it until after you've made your first laps around the track, and you've wasted some practice time trying to get there."

If there's a knock against simulators, it's that they might produce drivers who are a touch too aggressive, and carry that mind-set onto the race track. It's easy to see why; Coulter said the Sim Factory cars have a tremendous amount of grip, almost inviting a three-wide pass in the corner. They're driven "down to speed," which means as fast as a driver can take them until he hits something, and the exact opposite of how cars are driven on a real race track. And many of the drivers who prefer sims are young, relatively fearless, and more willing to take chances on an actual or virtual track.

"Drivers drive in a sim pretty much how they do in real life," Coulter said. "The lack of patience is definitely there in every young driver. I think that's a product of their generation. Whenever they can get experience, it leads to their heads growing. Drivers are very cocky people, and they need to be. If they go into a sim and they find that comfort level to where they can push it this way or that, then when they get onto the race track, they may take more chances. You've got to transfer that to the real thing, where you face fear and the possibility of injury."

The simulation industry may have received a boost from the recent NASCAR ban on testing. "I think more next year than any time, they're going to be used," Hamlin said. "The more realistic they can make these games, the better it's going to be for these race teams and drivers."

Dillon agreed. "Now that we're not going to be testing anymore," he said, "it's going to be an ever bigger tool."

Sim Factory has seen a small increase in sales since the testing ban was announced, and more top drivers like Carl Edwards have inquired about custom setups. It's another step forward for an industry that for years has tried to make inroads in NASCAR, and appears finally on the verge of becoming mainstream.

"I don't think you can make a race car driver in a sim," Coulter said. "But I think you can make one better. By far, you can make one better. I come from military sims, and you don't put a pilot in a sim and make him an F-18 pilot. But you can make an F-18 pilot better. You can help him learn to make better decisions, decisions that help pilots get home, and keep race cars from getting wrecked."