This Monday, September 28, 1998, we had the chance to do an interview with race car driver Aaron Povoledo at the Holiday Inn in Montreal. Aaron is an Indy car driver, and is here today to explain how he uses race car simulators to practice his driving technique. Although he's not in the Formula One rank right now, he has a lot of experience under his belt. Yesterday, he was racing at Mont-Tremblant, with the help of the prestigious Players's team. Aaron finished 3rd, a respectable place, although he seemed to be a bit disappointed at the results. Aaron was kind enough to join the LadyDragon team for a quick chat. PlayStation Canada contacted us for this exclusive interview. It was with great pleasure that we took this opportunity to meet this young, ambitious driver.

To start the interview, we heard that you love to play music.
Talk to us about this interest?

Aaron: (smiling) Its true, in my spare time, which is not much, I like to play music with my friends in a group. I am a drummer and I also play some guitar. My favorite bands are Janes Addiction and Led Zeppelin.

You are part of the Players LTD Stable? What kind of agreement do you have with them? And how did you approach them?

Aaron: I left for a few years to England, where I was teaching a driving course. Then Players LTD offered the to train me.

Aaron, have you even met Jacques Villeneuve?

Aaron: No, but I know his reputation as a Formula One race car driver. My goal is to be in Formula One division, but now I'm not.

Which simulation did you try and which one are you training with?

And which do you prefer?

Aaron: I like almost all of the games. They help me with the coordination and with the visualization of the race track. Some games, are not very good, but most of them are pretty realistic. Games like Grand Tourismo, F1 Simulation Racing, British Touring Car Championship 97, and C.A.R.T World  Series 97, manage to create an almost perfect simulation. I even learned some tracks using only a simulator.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate these games?

Aaron: CART World series 97 is a  9 out of 10, it's an exellent simulation. Racetracks are very realistic and entertaining as well. F1 Simulation Racing is a 8 out of 10, its a good overall simulation with an excellent driving model and the tracks are fairly good too. British Tour Car Championship 97 is a 9 out of 10. A very good simulation overall with superb tracks, and are of high caliber. Other games like Grand Tourismo are very good to train with too.

What do you have going on with Playstation?

Aaron: Playstation gives me the chance to be known. They set up interviews such as this, and help me with publicity. I also endorse their racing games.

If one day, someone would offer to name a racing game off you,
would you accept?

Aaron: I wouldn't say no... I think it would be a great honor for me to be named after a game. Its kind of obvious that as your popularity grows, the respect and the responsibility of your name grows too.

Because of the risk in driving race cars, do you think that one day the technology could bring a simulation so real, that you could have competitions in a game, rather than running such a risk?

Aaron: Its already happening. Take flight simulators for example. The military uses flight simulators to train there pilots. In Arizona there is a track that's not well known, Firebird raceway, which games have already simulated realistically. But people always like, the real thing, so it will never be replaced by a game. But it can help in training.

Talk to me about the Firebird Raceway.

Aaron: It is in Pheonix, Arizona. The racetrack really teaches you how to race and is designed for the young driver. Its already been simulated quite well in a simulator.

Aaron, I'd like to thank you for your time and cooperation throughout this interview. Now one last question. Do you play games? Or do you only play racing simulations?

Aaron: Well, I would like to play more games, but I don't have enough time. But there are some games, that are not simulators that I like. Each games helps my coordination, and visualization, which are the keys to my training. Well, I want to thank you very much, and I hope to see you in the near future.