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Driver: Don Colbath, III
Home Track: Whittemore Speedway

Don Colbath knows a thing or two about Sim-Racing. As a teenager back in 1994 a friend of his had a copy of the original version of NASCAR Racing from Papyrus. Don fell in love with the Sim and convinced his parents to buy it.  Don has purchased  every NASCAR Racing Sim in the Papyrus series since.  I was able to catch up with him following his 2nd place finish at Kalamazoo in the Michigan Circle Track Sim-Racing League.   Now twenty-six years of age,   Don has taken some of the skills he originally learned Sim-Racing and has applied them to the track in the real world, where he has six years of experience racing mini-stocks at Whittemore Speedway, about an hour and a half to the North of his home in Midland Michigan.

"Back before I was actually racing a real car on the track I had already learned a lot of my track etiquette. When to back out of it, when to try making a pass. learned a lot of that from racing in the Sim.  The Sim helped with the learning curve once I got into the actual car. "   said Don of his on-line racing experience.   Reviewing the rendering of Kalamazoo that is used in the MCT Sim-Racing League, Don says that it compares well to his real racing experience. "Kalamazoo is done extremely well. The straightaway might be just a tick longer than they are at the real track,  but as for the billboards, the textures, the look of the track,  the feel of it and how you drive it, it is all very similar. They did a nice job on Kalamazoo in the Sim."

His favorite track in the Sim?  Don wasn't able to provide just one, but lately it has been Kalamazoo considering that he won there recently at The BullRing League and finished 2nd here tonight. "I was just in the right place at the right time over at the Bullring when the two leaders got into each other." He said with a chuckle.  There is no question however that Don is a short-track racer.  " The big tracks really aren't my style. I like to be able to break it loose and drive the car sideways down the straightaway. At the mile and a half tracks like Texas, Kansas and such where you can't really drive it in harder to make up time, I'm kind of out in left field. The short tracks are what I love. "

As to his equipment for Sim-Racing, Don's set up is a mixed bag. Don has a  fairly new quad-core processor computer running Windows Vista 64 and a 22 inch wide-screen monitor. His wheel and pedals however, a Microsoft Sidewinder Force-Feedback,  are old school and pretty much bottom of the line equipment wise.  "I've had the same wheel and pedals for a long time and have just gotten so use to them that it is hard to change." admitted Don. A force-feedback wheel has an internal motor that responds to driving conditions in the Sim.  Some drivers like it and others do not.  I don't use it myself and Don also falls into the same category. " I can't run with the force-feedback turned on at all.  I just don't like it. I keep tension on the wheel using the force feedback motor, but that's it.

Don's most memorable event in his real racing career was his first feature win at Whittemore, where he was running in a Mustang.  He said that he was shaking so bad as he came up to the line, he was afraid that his foot was going to come off the gas pedal.   On the Sim-Racing side, last year Don won three of the four Championship series over at Old School Racing League (OSRL) which is a stellar record by any measure.  As far as the races he'd prefer to forget,  Don had a good story to tell about one of his Kalamazoo Enduros.  "I started one Kalamazoo race a couple years ago that had something like 205 cars in it.  205 front wheel drive, bone-stock Enduro cars lined up four wide from a standing start for 200 laps.  They leave the "dead" cars on the track, so it ends up being kind of like an obstacle course.  I made it 119 laps and was only one lap off the pace when someone got underneath me and so I had to move up. There was only like a grove and a half in turns 3 & 4 and in that half a grove was a giant oil slick.  I ended up hitting a parked car at the top of turn 3 and bent up my car pretty good, but it was a blast. "  In the on-line world, Don said that he had caused his "fair share" of incidents.  Several years ago Papyrus, the maker of the Sim, would run "open speedway" races. Anyone could join these races and it was not uncommon to have 35-40 people of mixed skill levels, running at Daytona, trying to draft with each other.  Thinking back on that period Don mused, " I'm sure that I caused many a 30 car pile up."  Eventually he realized that Sim-Racing was more than a game and began to take things more seriously. "Since then,  I've tried try to keep my nose pretty clean. " he said, "I did break one of my pedal springs once running over at OSRL, but I don't think that I wrecked too many people."

What advice does Don have someone that was interested in running with us in the Michigan Circle Track Sim Racing League?  "Practice off-line first and get a feel for the Sim. Turn all of the driving aids off.  I've never been able to run a faster lap with the aids turned on. I don't know how people can do it to be honest with you. If you actually want to progress, you need to learn how to drive with all of them off. " Don also recommends driving using the in-car "cockpit mode" rather than one of the video-game style "rear chase" view.  " You may not like it at first, but it is better in the long run."

Besides his experience in mini-stocks at Whittemore, Don made a stab at running Modifieds, but that proved to be a bit of a financial stretch. These days Don keeps a front-wheel drive Enduro car that gets races every so often at Kalamazoo, three hours to the South of where he lives.  "Oh Ya! I will try to run a couple of Enduros this year. Kalamazoo is a blast.  Both Whittemore Speedway and Owosso Speedway will also have a front wheel drive Enduro class this year, so you can count on seeing Don racing those tracks as well.

On-line you can find Don racing at The Bullring on Monday nights ( http://bigdonlinemotorsports.com/ ), at the Old School Racing League,( http://www.osrleague.com/ ) where he also serves as an Administrator and of course here on Thursday nights, running the Michigan Circle Track Sim-Racing League hosted by Blazin' Pedals.