Best and worst motorsports commentators

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Feel free to use this thread to judge all of those who call the action in your favorite series.

Best for me:

Paul Page
and Parker Johnstone made for a competent, but short-lived duo in the CART booth. The roasting of drivers that screwed around - mainly from Johnstone - certainly helped.

Leigh Diffey has been a fine modern-day Indycar commentator, with my only qualm being that he was, in my experience, just as uncritical of Santino Ferrucci as his biggest fanboy Paul Tracy. Also, while exploring the depths of Youtube for old races, I discovered he already called a NASCAR Busch North (predecessor to K&N East) race at Lime Rock in 2004 (maybe others too, but obscure coverage like that is hard to come by), far before any open wheel commitments. That was kinda cool.

In NASCAR, I can always appreciate the likes of Bob Jenkins or Mike Joy who are generally well aware of on-track happenings and are able to keep coming up with something new to say even if the race might be stagnant and uneventful.

David Addison of BTCC gets the job done in the same way.

Rick Allen and Phil Parsons were great in Trucks (plus occasionally ARCA and K&N) while it lasted, particularly when there were PRAWBLEMS! on track. Too bad the former's "promotion" to Cup has turned out pretty bad, and now whenever I hear him, he's basically overacting like it's nobody's business.

Not so great:

Vince Welch
was picked for Truck commentary some time after Allen left, and my god, if he's that anemic in the highlight reels, I don't have much faith for his full race performances either. I guess the subpar commentary of modern day NASCAR fits its overall state rather perfectly, though.

When I caught up with TCR International and TCR Europe, I couldn't help but think Mark James is much better suited for a pit reporter's role. That, and he's awfully lonely in the booth, often running out of interesting things to say unless the race is extraordinarily good, or missing events that occur right on camera because he's busy listing the running order for the 11th time in a row.

Bob Dillner has actually seemed knowledgeable and competent at his jobs so far (coverage of lower level stock car races basically), but his voice is basically nails on a chalkboard to me. That's kind of a deal breaker over a full race distance.
 
My favourite duo ever was Barry Sheene and Darrell Eastlake commentating Motogp in the 500cc era. Barry for his sometimes brutal honesty along with a great sense of humour, and Darrell, I'm not sure how to describe his attributes other than HUUUUGGGGEEE.



Leigh Diffey and Neil Crompton also rate highly for me.

One of the worst for me would be Murray Walker. In his early days he was very good but his retirement came far too late and unfortunately that ruined what could have been a great legacy for me.
 
It's unfair but commentators you dislike stick out a lot more:

Ben Edwards
David Croft
James Allen

Go. Away.

The ones I like are few and far between:

Halo: Martin Brundle
Jacques Schulz (German commentary)
Marc Surer (German commentary)
Tim Harvey

Sometimes back in the past you'd get random people doing one-off commentaries. Steve Sutcliffe and Barry Nutley were quite good at the BTCC in the 1990s on the rare instances you would hear them.
 
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I think the lead commentator job is much tougher than the ex-driver sidekick gig. The sidekick often gets all the glory for having the insider's perspective, where as the lead commentator has to carry the broadcast from race start to finish. Which includes filling in the gaps when nothing is happening but also trying to take in, digest and commentate on periods where everything is happening - or even still unfolding - which i imagine is a lot harder than it appears. Especially when they're just going on the live shots that we watch at home and are just reacting to what the producer decides to concentrate on at that point. The sidekick has the luxury of injecting their considered comments as and when they think of them.
 
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Best Play By Play:

Ken Squier
Bob Jenkins
Alan Bestwick
Mike Joy
Leigh Diffey

Best Color Commentators:

Benny Parsons
Ned Jarrett
Neil Bonnett
Chris Economaki
Martin Brundle

Worst Play By Play:

Bill Weber
Jerry Punch
Vince Welch
Rick Allen (Cup series only)

Worst Color Commentators:

Michael Waltrip
Rusty Wallace
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Richard Petty
 
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My favourite duo ever was Barry Sheene and Darrell Eastlake commentating Motogp in the 500cc era. Barry for his sometimes brutal honesty along with a great sense of humour, and Darrell, I'm not sure how to describe his attributes other than HUUUUGGGGEEE.



Leigh Diffey and Neil Crompton also rate highly for me.

One of the worst for me would be Murray Walker. In his early days he was very good but his retirement came far too late and unfortunately that ruined what could have been a great legacy for me.


"Darrell" Looks like a condom full of peanuts.
"Barry" Glad I didn't say that. :lol:

I remember those two all those years ago, good memories.
 
Who's the Geordie sounding guy who does a lot of British commentary as well as sportscars? He's quite good, actually.
 
John Hindhaugh

That's the one, I was thinking Hindmarch or something like that. Yeah, I don't mind him. Has good enthusiasm without being overbearing.

Edit: And he's from Wearside. I did say Georgie sounding....
 
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Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti is an excellent partnership in Formula E. There's a reason they've never been replaced as the lead pairing and it's because they're so good together. Jack is entertaining and excitable without being loud (that's my main issue with commentators - I hate the ones who thing excitement equals shouting *cough*Crofty*cough*), while Dario has a great skill at translating his experience in a race car into understandable anecdotes. They both have the ability to explain the complicated aspects of the series in a way that new viewers can get their heads around - without going on about it in a way that annoys the people who already understand it. Franchitti is up there with Harvey, Chandhok, Coulthard and Brundle as one of the best former-driver commentary analysts.
 
Hindhaugh is great, most of the RLM team is generally on point to be fair, and for me, hey - and they - are a really important component of endurance racing.

And, I'd second a vote of support for Tim Harvey in the BTCC.

Sam Collins bugs the crap out of me to listen to, but he can be quite funny, and he's got a lot of knowledge.

Martin Haven is by far the commentator I like the least.
 
Keith Huewen really irritates me. So big headed and rude. The way he kept interrupting and disagreeing with Toby Moody made me want to punch the TV. Didn't help that I really liked the pairing of Toby Moody and Julian Ryder - who he somehow managed to replace when MotoGP was lost to Eurosport and went to BT Sport.
 
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John Hindaugh and Jeremy Shaw form a very good partnership for IMSA Radio. I would rather wait for the races to hit IMSA's Youtube channel than watch them live most of the time. I also think Shea Adam is one of the best pit reporters out there.

Hindaugh and the rest of the RLM crew do a very good job. But like @MatskiMonk said, Martin Haven is my least favorite of them.

For Formula 1 my all time favorites were Bob Varsha, David Hobbs, and Steve Matchett. I know a lot of the British and Europeans in general didn't like them but I thought they were great. Especially David Hobbs. He really cracked me up with some of his saying and terms he used for racing things.

The current Sky crew is good for the most part. The one thing that really irritates me though is Paul Di Resta constantly referring to Ricciardo as "Danny Ric". I don't know why but it makes my skin crawl every time he says it.
 
But like @MatskiMonk said, Martin Haven is my least favorite of them.

Martin Haven is just one of my least favourite people in motorsport who happens to be a commentator. Twice I've stood or sat near him at events and in both cases I just wanted to tell him to shut up.

+1 for Bob Varsha also.

Keith Huewen

I remember Keith Huewen and John Mickel hosting NASCAR for UK broadcasts, Keith didn't seem too bad.

Speaking of NASCAR commentators, he didn't really register with me as a commentator when I was watching NASCAR regularly, but I met Andy Petree at Goodwood in 2019 and he was a really funny bloke.
 
Murray Walker was simultaneously the best and worst motorsport commentator around in his day, particularly as he seemed to have an inherent gift to summon the 'commentators curse' on a regular basis.



He also had an excellent line in getting it wrong, or as he described it:

"But Murray was quick to defend himself by saying, “I don’t make mistakes. I make prophecies that immediately turn out to be wrong.”"

More Murrayisms:
  • “Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin. Unless this is the action, which it is.”
  • “This is an interesting circuit, because it has inclines. And not just up, but down as well.”
  • “And he’s lost both right front tires.”
  • “And there’s no damage to the car. Except to the car itself.”
  • “The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it, which is identical.”
  • “I know it’s an old cliché, but you can cut the atmosphere with a cricket stump.”
More here...

https://frontofthegridf1.wordpress.com/tag/murray-walker/

...along with my favorite “There’s nothing wrong with the car except it’s on fire”!
 
Murray Walker...There’s nothing wrong with the car except it’s on fire”!

I sometimes think he knew what he was doing, words were his trade after all. "Go to work on an egg" was one of his, iirc.

Anyway, worst... Jonathan Legarde. Terrible voice, zero pace, no powers of description. By the time he'd finished asking "is that...? Is that...?" everybody had already figured out what was going on.
 
Murray Walker was simultaneously the best and worst motorsport commentator around in his day, particularly as he seemed to have an inherent gift to summon the 'commentators curse' on a regular basis.



He also had an excellent line in getting it wrong, or as he described it:

"But Murray was quick to defend himself by saying, “I don’t make mistakes. I make prophecies that immediately turn out to be wrong.”"

More Murrayisms:
  • “Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin. Unless this is the action, which it is.”
  • “This is an interesting circuit, because it has inclines. And not just up, but down as well.”
  • “And he’s lost both right front tires.”
  • “And there’s no damage to the car. Except to the car itself.”
  • “The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it, which is identical.”
  • “I know it’s an old cliché, but you can cut the atmosphere with a cricket stump.”
More here...

https://frontofthegridf1.wordpress.com/tag/murray-walker/

...along with my favorite “There’s nothing wrong with the car except it’s on fire”!


Legend. Personally I loved him, all those mistakes made him. I saw him at Goodwood Festival of Speed many years ago signing his book, beaming away chatting to fans in the sun, he looked really happy. Despite wanting to say something I suddenly felt nervous and couldn't muster anything. I just stood watching and listening to him for a while, feeling happy.
 
Legend. Personally I loved him, all those mistakes made him. I saw him at Goodwood Festival of Speed many years ago signing his book, beaming away chatting to fans in the sun, he looked really happy. Despite wanting to say something I suddenly felt nervous and couldn't muster anything. I just stood watching and listening to him for a while, feeling happy.

If you didn't buy a copy of his book he probably wouldn't have spoken to you anyway. I "met" him under similar circumstances at the Silverstone Classic, hoping for nothing more than for him to sign my ~10 year old god son's cap (a Team RAC BTCC cap he'd collected a few driver signatures on), he said we'd have to buy a copy of the book and then basically blanked us. There wasn't even queue. Miserable old git.
 
If you didn't buy a copy of his book he probably wouldn't have spoken to you anyway. I "met" him under similar circumstances at the Silverstone Classic, hoping for nothing more than for him to sign my ~10 year old god son's cap (a Team RAC BTCC cap he'd collected a few driver signatures on), he said we'd have to buy a copy of the book and then basically blanked us. There wasn't even queue. Miserable old git.

That's really disappointing to hear.
 
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If you didn't buy a copy of his book he probably wouldn't have spoken to you anyway. I "met" him under similar circumstances at the Silverstone Classic, hoping for nothing more than for him to sign my ~10 year old god son's cap (a Team RAC BTCC cap he'd collected a few driver signatures on), he said we'd have to buy a copy of the book and then basically blanked us. There wasn't even queue. Miserable old git.

I'm amazed, this is the worst "never meet your heroes" (by proxy) moment I've ever had. I'm genuinely devastated!
 
I'm amazed, this is the worst "never meet your heroes" (by proxy) moment I've ever had. I'm genuinely devastated!
Me too. I almost can't believe it but I'm not calling @MatskiMonk a liar. Lose your illusions indeed.

Though I've never been a particular Murray fan myself I was very put off by it at the time, as was the boy's father - and that is my over riding impression now of him... but at the end of the day, it's just one data point, I'm sure there's many experiences to the contrary out there.
 
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