"Live From" Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals

[hilton]

Ken , Thanks for posting . I have to ask any buzz about E-Town out there ?

[Ken Miele]

Originally Posted by hilton

Ken , Thanks for posting . I have to ask any buzz about E-Town out there ?

Sure thing, from what I here on the west coast, NHRA was just as shocked as everyone else about etown.

Here are some shots from the staging lanes yesterday and today. Heads up in the Stock final.

[jmcarter]

Originally Posted by hilton

Ken , Thanks for posting . I have to ask any buzz about E-Town out there ?

And now rumors about Maple Grove being sold? Any buzz on that?

Couple of observations about the FS1 broadcasts...pretty much same as last year but big plus for showing the Stock final (way to go Larry!) and putting Bruno in the booth. The fuel show was the usual BS but Bo sure put an exclamation point on his 2017 Championship. Bit disappointed in the little Pro Stock qualifying dustup between Laughlin and Gray...it's a curse to grow up rich I suppose.

[Alan Nyhus]

Originally Posted by jmcarter

Couple of observations about the FS1 broadcasts...pretty much same as last year

Except for the Caitlyn Jenner interview......

[Floyd Staggs]

Originally Posted by Alan Nyhus

Except for the Caitlyn Jenner interview......

That was ridiculous.

[MR DERBY CITY]

Originally Posted by Alan Nyhus

Except for the Caitlyn Jenner interview......

He/She was at Pomona ??

[Pinballer]

I can't figure out what kind of audience they're looking for with these FS1 telecasts. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad something drag racing related is on TV, but the programs are just kind of OK in my book. They don't have bad camera work, lack of picture, or the sound quitting in the middle of the telecast like something else out there available, but the incessant interviews with their psychiatric-like questions of "how did you feel about ___, what were you thinking when ___ happened?" and the long personal bio's gets really old in a hurry. I would imagine the sportscasters get mighty tired of having to do them constantly to create fill-in. You can easily tell that sometimes it's a real intrusion into what the driver or team might be doing at that exact time and they have to force themselves to do their public relations part.

So, I'd have to think from the standpoint of who would tune in to watch these kind of events in the first place, it's most likely to be a gearhead or some kind of racer who already knows what a competition atmosphere is all about, regardless of what motorized sport he participates in, and he has at least heard some of the top drag racing driver names before to identify with. A casual sports observer, who is the exact person you'd want to draw to your presentation, probably knows very little about the insides of drag racing other than somebody gets to the finish line ahead of another guy and wins. This casual observer is looking around on a cold winter Sunday with the remote control on fire, and is way more likely to end up with college basketball on than this stuff, so all the lengthy background information of the professional drivers isn't of much use. The vast majority of viewers already know enough of what they need to know about them.
Just hit the highlights on the drivers and what's new with their lives/teams in short order and move on to the action on the track. That's why we're all tuning in--even the casual observer. We want to see the ACTION.

I will say this to be fair: Kudos to FS1 for showing the Stock final.
You know, it wouldn't hurt to show ALL the Sportsman final rounds. Take out 3 minutes of interviews and we could all see who won in the rest of the categories and even have time to explain what the category is all about.

[Dave Muller]

I agree 100% Pinballer!

[Ken Miele]

A few more photos just before the finals in the staging lanes.

[ALMACK]

Originally Posted by Pinballer

I can't figure out what kind of audience they're looking for with these FS1 telecasts. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad something drag racing related is on TV, but the programs are just kind of OK in my book. They don't have bad camera work, lack of picture, or the sound quitting in the middle of the telecast like something else out there available, but the incessant interviews with their psychiatric-like questions of "how did you feel about ___, what were you thinking when ___ happened?" and the long personal bio's gets really old in a hurry. I would imagine the sportscasters get mighty tired of having to do them constantly to create fill-in. You can easily tell that sometimes it's a real intrusion into what the driver or team might be doing at that exact time and they have to force themselves to do their public relations part.

So, I'd have to think from the standpoint of who would tune in to watch these kind of events in the first place, it's most likely to be a gearhead or some kind of racer who already knows what a competition atmosphere is all about, regardless of what motorized sport he participates in, and he has at least heard some of the top drag racing driver names before to identify with. A casual sports observer, who is the exact person you'd want to draw to your presentation, probably knows very little about the insides of drag racing other than somebody gets to the finish line ahead of another guy and wins. This casual observer is looking around on a cold winter Sunday with the remote control on fire, and is way more likely to end up with college basketball on than this stuff, so all the lengthy background information of the professional drivers isn't of much use. The vast majority of viewers already know enough of what they need to know about them.
Just hit the highlights on the drivers and what's new with their lives/teams in short order and move on to the action on the track. That's why we're all tuning in--even the casual observer. We want to see the ACTION.

I will say this to be fair: Kudos to FS1 for showing the Stock final.
You know, it wouldn't hurt to show ALL the Sportsman final rounds. Take out 3 minutes of interviews and we could all see who won in the rest of the categories and even have time to explain what the category is all about.

I agree. With a 3 hour show it would not be hard to trim a bit in editing to achieve an extra 180 seconds to show the sportsman racers.

Heck, if every Pro pairing was trimmed by only 2 seconds, that would free up 80 seconds easily and still have plenty of time for commercials.


Another idea for NHRA would be fan submitted questions for the production staff to ask the racers