You Asked For It! ~ Why The Races Are "Boring."
3/19/2014
PattyKay Lilley
I bid
you welcome gentle readers, and welcome to you as well, our assigned reader,
somewhere in the beautiful Queen's City of Charlotte, NC. It's
Sunday afternoon as I begin this effort, and my plan for the day called for
watching the race up in Bristol TN/VA. (It lies half
in one state and half in the other, in case that bit of total trivia eluded you
thus far.) At this moment, it appears that plan is on hold and will probably be
cancelled altogether soon, so... deprived of watching a race, being me, I might
as well write about racing.
Lately...
well, OK, for several years now... my mailbox, comments and many of my Twitter Tweeps all have presented this question in many different
ways, but all amounting to the same question, "Why are the races so dang
boring now, when they used to be so exciting?"
Well,
gentle readers; there are probably as many answers for that as there are folks
asking the question. For openers, perhaps too many are starting with a false
premise, that being that all the races in the good ol' days were excitement
filled barn-burners that held one's attention from green to checkers. It didn't
happen that way race fans. Sometimes... most times in fact, tales told by the
elderly tend to exaggerate the good and almost totally eliminate the bad. We've
talked of this before. It is our mind's way of dealing with past events; seeing
them in a good light, probably in an effort to make our life seem worthwhile to
each of us. It's why I never trust my memory anymore. It's been caught lying to
me more than once, so I almost always take the time to research first and write
second.
When the
good ol' boys from the hot stove league describe the racing prowess of this or
that legend of the sport, they're being quite honest because that is the way
they remember him. It is however, not necessarily the way things were. Some
would have you believe the racing itself was so much better 40 or 50 years ago
than it is today. Define "better." In the 1960s and 1970s, cars did
not "fly" as readily as they do today. Point for the old-timers; they
did hit walls that were either solid concrete or no more than a single Armco
rail. In either case, many died as a result of too little restraint or too hard
a crash in a car that offered little or no protection for the driver, who is
always the weakest part of the car... always. How many points for a single
driver's life?
This
scribe has long questioned just how exciting a race can be when the second,
third and fourth place cars are all a different number of laps down to the
winner. If you don't believe that, please go to http://racing-reference.info/
and click on any race at any track from the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s and check the
results. Yes, they were flinging dirt as they zipped by you in the grandstands,
and they were flinging each other on many occasions as well. It was fun to
watch, but dangerous at the same time. Perhaps that was the biggest draw of
older times... the ever-present threat of death, as though the Grim Reaper sat
among the spectators... and he well might have done so, as he was there far too
often for my liking. Quite frankly, if death is what it takes to make a race
exciting, this fan is more than happy to settle for boring!
One fact
has and always will ring true. There is no substitute for being there. In the
past, which grows more distant as I type, most of the tracks were located in
the Southeastern US, with a "Northern Swing" in the summer to break
the monotony and to Big Bill's mind, prove that racing was not just a southern
sport. For those that went to races, either to participate or watch, the tracks
were plentiful and nearby for the most part. Today, NASCAR hosts Cup races in
all parts of the country and those beautiful spacious new grandstands they
built in the last 20 years hold fewer and fewer fans with each year that
passes.
Attendance
does not necessarily denote better or worse as far as the racing itself. It may
have more to do with location, travel distance at almost record-high fuel
prices or perhaps misconception. What's that about, you say? Today's youth, and
the not so young as well, live in an information filled, almost instant world.
The race tracks are not in their back yards, so first exposure is almost always
from television. Hold on now... we're getting to the point of this entire
dissertation... what do they see on TV? For darn sure, it's not what they would
see at the track! Those of you that have been to live races will know instantly
this is correct. Those who have not, you have no idea
what you're missing.
Granted,
this is only a part of the problem, but it's a large part of it indeed. Fans at
the track have a panoramic view of the race in most cases. (I do not include
seats such as those in the Brasington Grandstand at
Darlington in that category) When something happens anywhere on the track, the
action in the stands is probably where the concept of the Wave began, as
everyone pokes his neighbor and points at the spinner, crash or whatever the
action might be.
Everyone
reading this knows all too well what TV coverage of a race has degraded to, and
it's not pretty. FAR too much time wasted with talking about what this fan
would rather be watching, and it's true with every network that does the races.
Who in his right mind wants to be looking at Darrell Waltrip, his goofy
brother, Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, Larry Mac, Dale Jarrett and on and on
ad nauseum, when there are racecars on the race track? If you are a new fan in
the past 15 years, here is your homework assignment. Go to YouTube and watch
just a bit of any race covered by ESPN in the late 1990s. There will be
hundreds of them there... maybe thousands. The man I want you to listen to is
Bob Jenkins. Just settle in, watch the race on the screen and let his voice
take you there to the track. The two gentlemen with him will be Ned Jarrett and
Benny Parsons. (RIP my friend)
Please,
do nothing different than you would do on any given Sunday; just sit back and
watch the race unfold. Before you know it, the calm and professional voice of
the man there to enhance your viewing will blend in with the race you're
watching, and you will literally forget he is there until some sort of action
on track pulls you back. Bob is so unobtrusive that he actually seems to become
a part of the race, and you are no longer in your living room but at the track
because along with Bob's soothing but knowledgeable voice, one other thing is
very different. It's subtle, and it takes some time to identify it, but you'll
slowly come to realize that it is not Bob, Ned and Benny that are controlling
what you're watching. It is that unseen person... or persons... behind the
cameras that is calling the shots.
Just as
happens when at a live race, the cameramen of that day panned the track as you
would with your eyes, so as not to miss anything. The instant something of
merit occurs, the correct camera and angle pick it up and it is up to the
gentlemen with the microphones to do likewise and explain what they... and
we... are seeing. Nothing like that happens today, regardless of network. Even
the one that was so good 20 years ago has forsaken the essence of showing the
real race for the sake of becoming part of the "show."
And
that, gentle readers, is what our young fans of today see first, unless they
are incredibly lucky enough to live nearby a track and have parents that care
enough to initiate them to racing in the right and proper way... live and at
the track. If their only exposure to racing is to listen to the Sunday drivel
served up by today's "trained broadcast professionals" (Their words,
not mine), why would they ever want to go to a live race?
Please,
don't just take my word for it; try my suggestion, and I think you'll be amazed
at what you see and hear. Sadly, it seems that FOX has found the secret to
survival in NASCAR, and it's spelled m-o-n-e-y. They
are with us for another eleven years, like it or not. ESPN has no reason to
care. At the end of this season, they are once more history, and will once more
be sorely missed. Turner Sports, be it TBS or TNT, has never contributed more
than a pittance and can't be gone soon enough... and please take your KFC ads
with you. NBC... what can I say? They were here once, and NASCAR gave 'em the
boot. Now it appears that they too have learned that magic word, and we'll have
10 years to regret it.
Mike,
Robin, Steve, Brian... if anyone is reading this missive beyond the low-paid
entry-level reader, please take a moment to reflect on what I've said. You can
try to appeal to any demographic you care to reach, but when reached, it's most
important that you show your product in a good and true light..
not as some farcical imitation of the real thing. All
of us that have been to racetracks know the difference, and that difference is vast!
There is absolutely no substitute for being at the track! None! But with that
said, it is critically important to present the racing on TV to resemble, as
closely as possible, the at-the-track experience. My bet is that if you asked
Mike Joy, who truly IS a trained broadcast professional, he would agree with my
thoughts here, and probably enlarge upon them. Why not give that a try? Who
knows, it might just help, and it surely cannot hurt.
Gentle
readers, the TV portrayal of racing as some sort of second class sport
liberally mixed with rock music and stupid humorless jokes does not do it
justice, nor is it a realistic image to place before our young folks. If they
think racing is what they see... or more importantly do not see on TV, will
they ever be moved to go to a track, be it near or far away? I don't think so! Would
you? No, this is not the only reason why the races today are constantly
described as "Boring", but it's a big one, and it's one that can be
remedied without tweaking those poor cars over and over and over again. I have
a feeling we'll be talking more about this subject in days to come, and believe
me when I say there is much left to discuss... but at least we have a start, and
it's that first step, which is the beginning of any journey. (Finished Monday at 12:35 PM. Cousin Carl won
the long and much interrupted Bristol race)
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay