Why?
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 10:47AM
How often do you ask yourself why? This weekend we were treated to motor sport overload. On Saturday we had qualifying for the Turkish F1 race and then in the afternoon the delayed telecast of the Laguna Seca ALMS race, with the World of Outlaws from Charlotte that evening. That does not include various bits from NASCAR and IRL. Sunday we started with the Turkish F1 GP, then Indy 500 followed by the Coca Cola 600 to get us through the day. Yesterday we had Grand-Am from Lime Rock and World Super Bike from Miller. Last weekend we had the French MotoGp, and in less than two weeks we have the Le Mans 24 hour classic and the Canadian F1 GP.
With all this going on I had a wealth of choices, and I watched a lot due to my passion for the sport and also it is my business. But I started asking myself why I was more interested in one race than another, or not at all in some cases. Is it the technology, or lack of, in the cars and motor cycles? Is it the drivers or riders? Is it the track, the quality of the racing, or the length of the race? Or is it the TV coverage and the commentary? Tony Dowe wrote a great piece on Last Turn Club a couple of months ago analyzing the coverage of ALMS, and he was as always spot on.
I am unquestionably more interested in cars with a higher level of technology, but not to the extent that I will not watch a WOO Sprint Car race. That is some of the best racing on TV and deserves a bigger audience, in cars with one gear and some pretty basic technology. I am averse to a one make series because to me a top series should be able to support diversity. But GP2 is good to watch. I prefer Moto GP with purpose built race bikes, but WSB still puts on a better show most weeks. I much prefer ALMS to Grand-Am even though Grand-AM has more cars that can compete at the front.
So is it the drivers or riders? I will confess that to really get me interested I need to feel some connection to the drivers, and as I know many personally that will always get me more involved. Now I have raced, so I understand very well that all these guys, and gals, out there are way better than I ever was and deserve a great deal of respect, but I guess some have more or less of my respect than others, and not just because of their ability to drive. Obviously their personality comes into it, and for me the way to market any sport is to expose the heroes, something NASCAR does very well. That does not mean you will always like them, but any sport needs its heroes and villains.
There are definitely certain tracks that I want to watch, such as Spa and Suzuka, partly because I know what a challenge they represent to the drivers, and also because I expect a good race from them. There were tracks like Magny Cours that I knew would be just plain boring. I get very annoyed by race series that go to tracks that do not show their "product" off in a good light. As I have often said, it is like putting Frank Sinatra on in a barn. Not knocking Lime Rock, a nice and historic track, but not where to run top line sports cars. Listening to the in-car it sounded like the drivers were feathering the throttle for most of the lap.
So the answer is not simple, and is obviously a combination of a number of factors, but last but not least is the TV coverage and the commentary. I tune in to watch the race, not to hear the life story of one of the drivers or the complete history of the track, or how the car was bolted together. Many years ago I stopped watching the Channel Seven coverage of the Bathurst 1000, the best touring car race in the world, because they filled up the seven hours with nonsense and not what was happening on the track. OK, maybe I am a fanatic and want to see all 24 hours of Le Mans, because anything can happen at any time, and a lot of fans need some distractions to help them pass the time, but let them go on line or whatever, just do not drag the racing away from the screen. I swear that if Bob Varsha tells us one more time about the qualifying format for F1 I will throw something at the screen. I know there are probably a few people turning on for the first time, but they can work it out, and will know the second time.
So we come to people like Bob Varsha. If you have read my blog you will know I am not a fan of Bob, but the pull of F1 is such that I will watch anyway. But Murray Walker where are you. Murray commentated on BBC for many years and God bless him he was wrong as often as he was right, but could laugh at himself, and had a way of conveying enthusiasm that does not jar like our friend Lee Diffey on the Grand-Am show. I have to turn him off he is so bad. So watching Grand-Am is OK, but could be much better. As I said yesterday the Indy commentary team was good and I watched more of it than I intended. The NASCAR team does nothing for me, and the WSB does even less. Ralph Sheheen should stick to Sprint car, and no one should let Scott Russel near a microphone. He is one of those guys who obviously can ride a motorcycle, but his voice is not made for TV, I had to mute the coverage. On the other hand, the French Moto GP was not such an good race, but I could listen to Nick Harris or Julian Ryder all day
So, where does that leave me in terms of my selection of what to watch? Thanks to the bad coverage and commentary I have only one must watch on a regular basis, and that is F1, and that is born of passion for the cars and respect for the drivers and teams. Le Mans and the Petit le Mans are a must, despite the Speed commentary, and I will probably tune them out and listen to radio Le Mans via the web. Other events largely depend if there is nothing better to do, sad but true.
On a final note, a car that runs wide on a corner should not have the whole nose ripped off, the suspension damaged and the underfloor rearranged, without getting anywhere near a barrier or tire wall, thank you Lime Rock Park.
With all this going on I had a wealth of choices, and I watched a lot due to my passion for the sport and also it is my business. But I started asking myself why I was more interested in one race than another, or not at all in some cases. Is it the technology, or lack of, in the cars and motor cycles? Is it the drivers or riders? Is it the track, the quality of the racing, or the length of the race? Or is it the TV coverage and the commentary? Tony Dowe wrote a great piece on Last Turn Club a couple of months ago analyzing the coverage of ALMS, and he was as always spot on.
I am unquestionably more interested in cars with a higher level of technology, but not to the extent that I will not watch a WOO Sprint Car race. That is some of the best racing on TV and deserves a bigger audience, in cars with one gear and some pretty basic technology. I am averse to a one make series because to me a top series should be able to support diversity. But GP2 is good to watch. I prefer Moto GP with purpose built race bikes, but WSB still puts on a better show most weeks. I much prefer ALMS to Grand-Am even though Grand-AM has more cars that can compete at the front.
So is it the drivers or riders? I will confess that to really get me interested I need to feel some connection to the drivers, and as I know many personally that will always get me more involved. Now I have raced, so I understand very well that all these guys, and gals, out there are way better than I ever was and deserve a great deal of respect, but I guess some have more or less of my respect than others, and not just because of their ability to drive. Obviously their personality comes into it, and for me the way to market any sport is to expose the heroes, something NASCAR does very well. That does not mean you will always like them, but any sport needs its heroes and villains.
There are definitely certain tracks that I want to watch, such as Spa and Suzuka, partly because I know what a challenge they represent to the drivers, and also because I expect a good race from them. There were tracks like Magny Cours that I knew would be just plain boring. I get very annoyed by race series that go to tracks that do not show their "product" off in a good light. As I have often said, it is like putting Frank Sinatra on in a barn. Not knocking Lime Rock, a nice and historic track, but not where to run top line sports cars. Listening to the in-car it sounded like the drivers were feathering the throttle for most of the lap.
So the answer is not simple, and is obviously a combination of a number of factors, but last but not least is the TV coverage and the commentary. I tune in to watch the race, not to hear the life story of one of the drivers or the complete history of the track, or how the car was bolted together. Many years ago I stopped watching the Channel Seven coverage of the Bathurst 1000, the best touring car race in the world, because they filled up the seven hours with nonsense and not what was happening on the track. OK, maybe I am a fanatic and want to see all 24 hours of Le Mans, because anything can happen at any time, and a lot of fans need some distractions to help them pass the time, but let them go on line or whatever, just do not drag the racing away from the screen. I swear that if Bob Varsha tells us one more time about the qualifying format for F1 I will throw something at the screen. I know there are probably a few people turning on for the first time, but they can work it out, and will know the second time.
So we come to people like Bob Varsha. If you have read my blog you will know I am not a fan of Bob, but the pull of F1 is such that I will watch anyway. But Murray Walker where are you. Murray commentated on BBC for many years and God bless him he was wrong as often as he was right, but could laugh at himself, and had a way of conveying enthusiasm that does not jar like our friend Lee Diffey on the Grand-Am show. I have to turn him off he is so bad. So watching Grand-Am is OK, but could be much better. As I said yesterday the Indy commentary team was good and I watched more of it than I intended. The NASCAR team does nothing for me, and the WSB does even less. Ralph Sheheen should stick to Sprint car, and no one should let Scott Russel near a microphone. He is one of those guys who obviously can ride a motorcycle, but his voice is not made for TV, I had to mute the coverage. On the other hand, the French Moto GP was not such an good race, but I could listen to Nick Harris or Julian Ryder all day
So, where does that leave me in terms of my selection of what to watch? Thanks to the bad coverage and commentary I have only one must watch on a regular basis, and that is F1, and that is born of passion for the cars and respect for the drivers and teams. Le Mans and the Petit le Mans are a must, despite the Speed commentary, and I will probably tune them out and listen to radio Le Mans via the web. Other events largely depend if there is nothing better to do, sad but true.
On a final note, a car that runs wide on a corner should not have the whole nose ripped off, the suspension damaged and the underfloor rearranged, without getting anywhere near a barrier or tire wall, thank you Lime Rock Park.
Reader Comments (2)
OK, regarding commentary teams. In England we obviously get different partnerships for some series. Julien Ryder and Nick Harris are brilliant no question but I might have to be careful with criticism because you may know some personally. The BBC Moto GP team is not my favorate. Steve Parrish is great but Charlie Cox really needs to go back to Top Gear Australia.
Every week you can almost set the timer to when he's going to say "Room in there for a small one" when someone dives up the inside or "He needs that like a third armpit" when somebody crashes. Very annoying. Murray Walker though a legend and one of the few commentaters that could comment on different numbers of wheels with equal knowledge and enthusiasm about both.
Will never have an equal in my opinion.
I was in the Media Center with Ralph Shaheen, Greg White and Scott Russell last weekend. Russel was a dude on a bike. He should have raced the Vette at Lime Rock. I'm glad I was there and didn't have to listen to him. I have a better chance at understanding some of these British announcers speaking English.;-)