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Originally Posted by Rick Parker
The rest of the show is to me a bunch of Hype, much like Sensationalized Jounalism or newscasting, for increased ratings and viewership. I'd rather watch the old Can Am Clips on You Tube!
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I think TV networks have oversaturated the race viewer with hours of endless babble, useless drivel and contrived hype.
Practice, Qualifying, Pre-Race, Post Race, Post Race Analysis, Nightly Talk Shows, Weekly Talk Shows, etc, just show the darn race and shut up.
I miss the "old" days when ESPN broadcast most of the races. The typical telecast would start at 1:00 with a quick rundown of the starting grid and where the top driver's qualified. Usually the cars were already on the track for the warm up laps. A quick commercial break and we were back for the green flag at ~1:10. Once the race was over there was sometimes a Winner’s Circle interview but more often than not they cut to the next program. Wow, a race telecast that focused on racing, what a concept.
There was no fluff, no touching family background story, and no stories on how the driver took his wife’s favorite dog to the vet yesterday because it was sick.
I really don’t want to see or hear another has-been driver, crew chief, or big chested bimbo explain understeer or oversteer for the newbie to the sport while standing in front of a cut-away car.
People also may not be watching because the races don’t offer much variety. Three of the last six races were on very similar tracks, Charlotte, Atlanta and Texas. Yeah, let’s watch the same race over and over. At the same time there are tracks like North Wilkesboro (which has an elevation change between the turns), Darlington (with its egg shape) and Rockingham sitting vacant. Aren’t Chicagoland, Kansas, Las Vegas and Homestead the same track in different locations?
Just think if the road racing folks put copies of Laguna Seca, Road America or Watkins Glen everywhere, do you think people would still enjoy watching a race at a signature track when the next track looks the same but in a different city?
I can’t wait to watch the Australian V8 SuperCar broadcasts on Speed in a couple of weeks. Stock chassis cars with V8s on road courses. Did we used to have a popular series like that???