I was planing on writing an Indy 500 blog and decided I’m only commenting on other non-NASCAR races if I saw something worth writing about. When I sit down for a NASCAR race, I’m always worried that nothing comment-worthy is going to happen. Somehow, plenty of stuff always comes up. The day it doesn’t, I guess I should stop.
This ALMS race was entertaining. There were only two significant passes, and while I rail at NASCAR for boat racing (few passes for the lead on track), I go into a sports car race with entirely different expectations. Forgive me for not naming names and teams, but again I don’t watch American Le Mans for the personalities, so much as for the cars. Where else can you see Ferraris banging fenders with Porsches? The series best selling point, the cool cars, tends to overshadow the drivers, completely backward from NASCAR marketing.
Still, there was stuff missing from what I had seen from previous broadcasts. Teams: Penske and AGR. The Aston Martins (privateer and factory). The factory corvettes. The entire GT1 class (such as it was to begin with). The P1 Audi’s. Hopefully, some of these cars will return after Le Mans in France runs. There was still plenty of variety with BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Dodge Viper, Ford Mark VII, Panoz, and a privateer Corvette. The field was a bit thin, especially in the Prototypes. Anyone watching on TV or in person, likely got what they were looking for anyway.
The coverage was entirely functional. Considering this was an ESPN production, that’s a compliment. The pre-race was no nonsense setup and the commentary was lively and involved throughout the race. Forgive me for not naming names. I know who these people are, but forgot to write their names down. One person I will name is Kelli Stavast. I am familiar with her CORR (off road racing) coverage, and she is totally crush-worthy. In this venue, she seemed a little shaky at times, but I’m sure she’ll grow into it.
The bright, sunny camera views were perfect for this oceanfront race. There were even happy crowd shots. The on-board cameras, especially the rooftop views, were great at bringing the speed and claustrophobia of street racing home. I was disappointed with their video blog racer, Chad Cody (hope I got that name right), because it was interesting, but there wasn’t enough of it.
Will ALMS ever live down ruining Dale Earnhardt Jr’s racing career with that fiery, spinout a couple of years ago? Who knows? In the meantime, they’ve found their niche. Even with some subtractions, the series delivers on what it promotes.
Geek out: Gotta love the mostly classy, upscale commercials during ALMS broadcasts. The slow motion, bullet through the bottle spot for Acura, was my fav.
J.
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