Replies

'The Race' is still good - depending upon how you look at it; or don't. _I_ remember listening to it on the radio and loving it (it's been YEARS; do they even broadcast it any more?). Watching it is totally another matter and the Awful Broadcasting Company doesn't do it any favors. We don't NEED fancy graphics, commercials every 17.21397 seconds, and all the material thats part-and-parcel with the 'vidiot generation'. No more than you need to WATCH a baseball game when you have a competent individual calling the game for you. Play the track announcer instead; we'll 'manage to survive' having to do without the 'lens lice' that enjoy seeing themselves in their monitors.

Hey ABCDisney: why don't you PUT the track announcer on your SAP feed (secondary audio program) next year and GIVE US THE CHOICE?!?! Then take a survey after the race and you'll be pleasantly surprised how much you can save in unnecessary salaries for the 2005 race. :)

Let's see: "...go like heck, turn left, repeat..." Okay, got it. There's only SO MUCH you can DO to 'hump up' a format like that with video (even with 13,287 cameras showing us everything except the second stall from the left in the ladies' bathroom in the museum). But it was nice to see that Mari Hulman is still up and around and that Jim Neighbors is looking well.

Having three weeks of foolishness leading up to it (qualifying, bump, bubble, whatever) burns you out before the race gets here. Formula One qualifies the day before and races the same cars the next day - AND they don't fill up the car in-between: the tank you qualify with is the tank you start with (the more you use, the more you lose). Then you can go and stop and fill up ANY time you like after the flag drops. :)

The Professionals do STANDING STARTS too. Did you SEE that start today? Strung-out halfway around the track, irregular groups of three, at racing-speed coming OUT of the 4th turn. And for a race that finishes 1/2/3/etc... For a TIMED race (remember those? ever watch 'em?) something like that works, but not for a 'finish line' race. Disgusting.

For 'racing's greatest spectacle' (kind of like the way 9/11 was 'terrorism's greatest spectacle' - MEANING NO DISRESPECT TO THOSE INVOLVED/AFFECTED BY THAT TRAGEDY; I merely use it as an illustrative device and i refuse to use the term 'greatest spectacle in racing') there's a LOT that COULD be done to return it to the glory it used to command.

My 2¢ worth,
-§-