"Live From" Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals

[MR DERBY CITY]

Originally Posted by Alan Nyhus

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

He/She was at Pomona ??

[goinbroke2]

Originally Posted by Tom P

Interesting new developments here. Robert Pond with two slushbox TBolts !t looks like he has gotten the hang of that one quickly.

The V6 is interesting, any pictures of the engine? I assume one of the 90's Busch series oval track engines rather than a 3.7 Mustang or 4.0L Explorer version.

I'm guessing the older 3.8, the heads look exactly like aluminum cleveland's. 1.73 rockers and splayed valves and all. Always thought it was an excellent basis for a race motor, just not stock with the little 2bbl. Oh, and same sbf bellhousing.

[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.

[jmcarter]

Thought the Caitlyn Jenner interview went ok, was just kind of unexpected. She mainly talked about the fantastic experience of watching the cars run. At the end the Olympic Decathlon Gold Metal was mentioned, I suppose to tie her in as a sports figure. Guess since they interview all the Hulk Hogan and other big sports/reality TV personalities I suppose they’re just catering to the diverse audience that might tune in.

[4406mopar]

That interview was creepy to see and hear. Did they just find that being wandering around and thought, what a good idea to interview it on TV? Or was that set up ahead of time? Either way, find a real person to talk to.

The motocross guy was cool.

[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

[HR9121]

Originally Posted by 4406mopar

That interview was creepy to see and hear. Did they just find that being wandering around and thought, what a good idea to interview it on TV? Or was that set up ahead of time? Either way, find a real person to talk to.

The motocross guy was cool.

I think I threw up in my mouth a little!

[1matcoman]

Originally Posted by Pinballer

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.

^^^ this ^^^