As part of another writing project I’ve recently been rewatching the Disney-Pixar classic animated movie CARS. Watching the accompanying 16 minute documentary on the DVD abut the inspiration for, and making of, the movie, I was struck by one sentence.

The movie makers remarked that the essence of racing on the screen (be it the large cinema one, or the smaller TV one), is best projected by having not only great camera shots, but a knowledgeable and enthusiastic commentary team with great personalities. For this reason they enrolled FOX TV NASCAR commentator and ex-driver Darrell Waltrip to call their animated race sequences. Whatever you say or think about DW, no-one can argue that he simply loves racing and is one of the most enthusiastic broadcasters there is.

The more I thought about what the movie makers had said, the more I had to agree.

For me growing up Formula One was defined by what consider to be the best commentary team the sport has ever known, Murray Walker and James Hunt. Now I watch F1 coverage here in the US, I get as much entertainment from the banter, wit and sheer fun of Bob Varsha, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.

What of NASCAR? Looking back I realized that I watch far more races in the half of the season when FOX is covering the races. DW, Jeff Hammond, Mike Joy and crew make the whole experience a fun four hour show – without them the races drag.

Then there’s IndyCar. A series I watch purely for the racing, in spite of the commentary team. Now that CART and IRL are back as one series, the racing is better and the series is poised to return to the glory days of American open wheel racing. But a keystone of that is a network that understands the sport (i.e. doesn’t move it around from channel to channel, often seemingly on a whim), knows how to build entertaining programming around it and has an enthusiastic, knowledgeable commentary team with personality. Would it be too much to suggest that ABC bring back Paul Page from covering NHRA drag racing to where he belongs, with IndyCars, and have Jerry Punch and a opinionated ex-driver (Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta?) in the box alongside? – Seems like sense to me.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.