Bathurst will once again be “humming” this week to the sound of V8 Supercars. Tomorrow, Wednesday 4 October, two of the official Fujitsu V8 Supercar Championship drivers, David Clark from Optima Sport, and Michael Caruso from Decina Racing, will drive simulated laps of Mount Panorama in the computer games laboratory which is part of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Information Technology. Paull Young from BAM Media, which looks after several V8 Supercar teams said it is like the real thing. “Michael hasn’t driven at Bathurst before, and David hasn’t driven a V8 Supercar around Mount Panorama, so their first experience of the Bathurst track will be in the computer lab.” As well, CSU lecturer in Computer Science Errol Chopping, says the computer games lab is well fitted out with enhanced graphics PCs, game consoles, a large fixed silver projection screen, high powered projectors, audio systems, joysticks and steering wheels. “The lab is used to research feedback which the user gets through feel, touch and motion, rather than eyes and ears. For example, we are hoping to mirror an experiment that was done in the United States about untrained pilots flying into cloud. They have a life span of about 147 seconds because they lose spatial orientation and they don’t believe their instruments. They go into graveyard spins and spiral dives because they have no feedback from their eyes.”