- 26,911
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
This thread is inspired by a race I didn't see all of- the Champ Car Grand Prix of San Jose. A complaint made on tonight's edition of "WindTunnel with Dave Despain" was about if TV producers should rather air the fight other than the race. It was a fight between Canadians Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani. Tracy went off-course on the tight confines of San Jose. He tried to thread the needle to try to go back out on the track when his right-rear tire clipped Alex Tagliani's left-front. The event went to a lot of arguing, which then led to a brief fight. Then I guess some ratings rats wanted to see the fight get developed better. Some people were like, "I'd cover the fight." And as of 8:15 PM CDT (the beginning of my typing of this thread), not one person mentioned that he/she would rather air a fight over the race. This is a topic in which I've shared many feelings about. I just want to know if people actually care about racing more than off-the-side stuff or senseless dramatics. Have times changed? Have people not been as tolerant about actual racing?
Allow me to go first.
The way I feel about it, some of us care about racing, but to a certain extent. I'm not really fond of the San Jose Grand Prix course, but I'd still care about the race. We don't go to races or see races just to hopefully see a fight somewhere. I don't watch the Daytona 500 just to see crashes and p-o'ed drivers who get knocked out of the race. You can change one letter in the word "racing" to have a brand-new meaning. Replace the "C" with a "T", and you get ratings. It's something that determines whether or not a show will stay on the air or not. Look back about five years ago. The long-defunct XFL had some problems with ratings. So what did they do? The networks decided to show locker room action as well as some cheerleaders. Did it work? Not at all. There was a non-American show called "On the Limit" which featured action from the JGTC (now Super GT) in 2002 and 2003. I liked watching the Japanese action unfold. It was even a dramatic racing series where you see hopes and dreams shattered. I could recall the 2003 Autopolis race where there were plenty of Toyota vs. Nissan action taking form around the track, even leading to some spinouts. That show never aired after 2003, but the only other bit of JGTC was not part of the actual season with GT Live 2004. But other than that, let's take a look at racing-related issues which matter and didn't really matter. The recent Pocono race was described as a "no passing" deal by Speed reporter Bob Dillner. Did people care that Denny Hamlin won the race? No. That's because most of the attention was turned to the rough driving by Tony Stewart, knocking into #7(?), who then knocked into Carl Edwards (someone who I admire in NASCAR). Some race earlier this year focused on two ladies (one is someone's wife (or girlfriend) while another was engaged at the time) arguing. It leads me to believe that some people care about racing... then some don't. Take that Pistons/Pacers brawl a few years ago in the NBA. I didn't see the game, but it was pretty rough to witness most of the arena losing complete control. One of the announcers said during the arena brawl, "this is a disgrace." And rightfully so. It just leads me to believe that not a lot of people care about racing as a "love of the game" issue. Like when I watch pro or college American football, I like seeing teams move the chains and score memorable touchdowns. The 2006 Rose Bowl was one of the greatest games I have ever seen since I've been a fan of football (2002), pro or college.
So where am I getting on this? It's simple. I love racing to see cars compete even if the race ends up in a blowout win. I do get pretty interested in some off-track comments, but I never lose track (no pun inteended) of racing. Racing is always on my mind before anything motorsports-related. I don't care about on-track aggression as much as I care about the race for a win. It's the same reason why I care more about racing in racing games rather than throwing a hissy fit just because I can't have horribly-realistic damage to my racing machine. People get excited over little things that don't amount much to the actual quality of racing. I don't consider myself Mr. Saturday Night "Short" Track Racing, so I don't know very much about watcihng two guys slam into the other like raging hockey players. I even think the British Touring Car Championship and now-defunct Trans-Am championships make for great racing. The BTCC has its dramatic moments, but doesn't bank on silly crashes or money-making ploys. Trans-Am had those wonderful V8 sounds and cool-looking cars. I even like the super-slow-motion camera shots the Europeans use when breaking away from the race because the race is still going on and just want to provide a nice slo-mo shot of the cars. The Bathurst 1000 is an exciting race in the Australian V8 Supercar Series, even with that unfortante whacking of that kangaroo a year or two ago. I just think that most of us Americans are only interested in racing incidents that remind people of NASCAR or a night at the dirt track. WindTunnel's "Eye Candy" segment shown some brief hints of a recent DTM race which featured one car lightly tagging the rear wheels of another car. This kind of stuff just isn't me. When I say I love racing, I don't include crashes and b*tchy moments by certain drivers to my reasoning. Is rubbing racing? Sometimes, it can be. But it isn't racing when you have some Daytona 1979 moments. I want to see a race, not a fight. I want to remember a race for the right reasons and not something silly. And to all who wanted to see a fight as opposed to an actual race, boo-hoo. We can't have it all. Fans still want to see a race even if not a good one. Think about people trying to win races and championships rather than those just looking for trouble. It's part of the reason why I've grown less tolerant over such people who primarily think that all racing is boring and that something like the off-track fight in San Jose just brightens everyone's day. I don't even call it different or out of the ordinary. Out of the ordinary for me is a certain driver or manufacturer winning a race after some other team or driver dominated the race or season. Out of the ordinary would be something like freezing rain on a course with unusual weather conditions. I'm also not Mr. Character in things. I don't share a tough guy image with racing or cars. That is also why I'm more tolerant of racing than most others.
I've said a lot more than I actually wanted to for this introduction. But do you think people care about racing, or only care about racing when a certain non-racing incident arises? Has being involved in racing drive to the garage while Hollywood dramatics are more satisfying? Sound off, people!
Allow me to go first.
The way I feel about it, some of us care about racing, but to a certain extent. I'm not really fond of the San Jose Grand Prix course, but I'd still care about the race. We don't go to races or see races just to hopefully see a fight somewhere. I don't watch the Daytona 500 just to see crashes and p-o'ed drivers who get knocked out of the race. You can change one letter in the word "racing" to have a brand-new meaning. Replace the "C" with a "T", and you get ratings. It's something that determines whether or not a show will stay on the air or not. Look back about five years ago. The long-defunct XFL had some problems with ratings. So what did they do? The networks decided to show locker room action as well as some cheerleaders. Did it work? Not at all. There was a non-American show called "On the Limit" which featured action from the JGTC (now Super GT) in 2002 and 2003. I liked watching the Japanese action unfold. It was even a dramatic racing series where you see hopes and dreams shattered. I could recall the 2003 Autopolis race where there were plenty of Toyota vs. Nissan action taking form around the track, even leading to some spinouts. That show never aired after 2003, but the only other bit of JGTC was not part of the actual season with GT Live 2004. But other than that, let's take a look at racing-related issues which matter and didn't really matter. The recent Pocono race was described as a "no passing" deal by Speed reporter Bob Dillner. Did people care that Denny Hamlin won the race? No. That's because most of the attention was turned to the rough driving by Tony Stewart, knocking into #7(?), who then knocked into Carl Edwards (someone who I admire in NASCAR). Some race earlier this year focused on two ladies (one is someone's wife (or girlfriend) while another was engaged at the time) arguing. It leads me to believe that some people care about racing... then some don't. Take that Pistons/Pacers brawl a few years ago in the NBA. I didn't see the game, but it was pretty rough to witness most of the arena losing complete control. One of the announcers said during the arena brawl, "this is a disgrace." And rightfully so. It just leads me to believe that not a lot of people care about racing as a "love of the game" issue. Like when I watch pro or college American football, I like seeing teams move the chains and score memorable touchdowns. The 2006 Rose Bowl was one of the greatest games I have ever seen since I've been a fan of football (2002), pro or college.
So where am I getting on this? It's simple. I love racing to see cars compete even if the race ends up in a blowout win. I do get pretty interested in some off-track comments, but I never lose track (no pun inteended) of racing. Racing is always on my mind before anything motorsports-related. I don't care about on-track aggression as much as I care about the race for a win. It's the same reason why I care more about racing in racing games rather than throwing a hissy fit just because I can't have horribly-realistic damage to my racing machine. People get excited over little things that don't amount much to the actual quality of racing. I don't consider myself Mr. Saturday Night "Short" Track Racing, so I don't know very much about watcihng two guys slam into the other like raging hockey players. I even think the British Touring Car Championship and now-defunct Trans-Am championships make for great racing. The BTCC has its dramatic moments, but doesn't bank on silly crashes or money-making ploys. Trans-Am had those wonderful V8 sounds and cool-looking cars. I even like the super-slow-motion camera shots the Europeans use when breaking away from the race because the race is still going on and just want to provide a nice slo-mo shot of the cars. The Bathurst 1000 is an exciting race in the Australian V8 Supercar Series, even with that unfortante whacking of that kangaroo a year or two ago. I just think that most of us Americans are only interested in racing incidents that remind people of NASCAR or a night at the dirt track. WindTunnel's "Eye Candy" segment shown some brief hints of a recent DTM race which featured one car lightly tagging the rear wheels of another car. This kind of stuff just isn't me. When I say I love racing, I don't include crashes and b*tchy moments by certain drivers to my reasoning. Is rubbing racing? Sometimes, it can be. But it isn't racing when you have some Daytona 1979 moments. I want to see a race, not a fight. I want to remember a race for the right reasons and not something silly. And to all who wanted to see a fight as opposed to an actual race, boo-hoo. We can't have it all. Fans still want to see a race even if not a good one. Think about people trying to win races and championships rather than those just looking for trouble. It's part of the reason why I've grown less tolerant over such people who primarily think that all racing is boring and that something like the off-track fight in San Jose just brightens everyone's day. I don't even call it different or out of the ordinary. Out of the ordinary for me is a certain driver or manufacturer winning a race after some other team or driver dominated the race or season. Out of the ordinary would be something like freezing rain on a course with unusual weather conditions. I'm also not Mr. Character in things. I don't share a tough guy image with racing or cars. That is also why I'm more tolerant of racing than most others.
I've said a lot more than I actually wanted to for this introduction. But do you think people care about racing, or only care about racing when a certain non-racing incident arises? Has being involved in racing drive to the garage while Hollywood dramatics are more satisfying? Sound off, people!
