CHEK Upside: Island company designs racing simulator for NASCAR teams

CHEK
WatchA Sidney based company is drawing interest from NASCAR teams with a high tech simulator.

A Sidney based company is drawing interest from NASCAR teams with a high tech simulator.

The Shockwave Motorsports Sim Rig aims to recreate the environment of racing on a track without teams having to travel from their shop.

The idea came as a result of COVID-19. Shockwave president David Smith was looking for a way to keep his on track skills sharp during the pandemic, so he enlisted the help of a few friends.

“We’ve been working on the simulator idea with VRX who’s a company up the road that builds simulators,” says Smith.

“Our concept with this is that we’re going to build them for people that have that particular style of [car] so that it builds muscle memory,” Smith adds.

Inside the cockpit the sim rig is like any race car. It comes with a full containment seat, safety harness, instrument display, switches, shifter, pedals and a fire extinguisher button. They’re even able to replicate cockpit temperatures inside the car with a special heat suit worn under the driver’s uniform.

“It gives the driver a chance to rehearse all the things that they would have to rehearse at the race track,” says Smith.

“We can put the driver in the exact same environment that they would be as if they were racing in a real race car,” adds Smith.

The simulators, which run on a realistic online racing program called iRacing, have already been ordered by several NASCAR teams.

“We’re building some right now for Derek Kraus who we sponsor for the Daytona race in the [NASCAR Truck Series] trucks and his simulator will be in his shop and it will have all the bells and whistles and switches and everything that his truck will have,” says Smith.

It’s been the ultimate pandemic pivot project.

“This is just a new idea in a pandemic to bridge the gap as it were from what we can’t do to what we can do,” says Smith.

CHEK’s very own Cole Sorenson inside Shockwave Motorsports high tech racing simulator. (CHEK News)

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Cole SorensonCole Sorenson

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