Television Broadcasts... Remember it's only a 60 minute broadcast.

I just finished watch the TORC race from Crandon on my DVR. Immediately I went online to see what people were saying on the two forums that I have membership with. There were quite a few compliments and just as many or more detractors of the broadcast. The only comment I have is,"Remember it is only a 60 minute broadcast."

Trying to show 3 classes in that time frame while trying to create the side stories is a herculean effort. A ninety minute slot would probably work perfect, but all that takes is more money. Either eliminate a class, and nobody wants that, or work with what you have.

Paul at one point, during one of the rain delay meetings in Texas, mentioned the were looking at other avenues to broadcast the TORC series. Attempting to do what LOORS has done. Again it takes time, money, and manpower. (and a 27 hour day) Hopefully as the 2010 season approaches "the powers in charge" have additional avenues for the teams to promote to their marketing partners.

The trackinginternational.com coverage is awesome, now it just needs to get promoted to get enough viewers watching it so racer can use it in their proposals. (Heck I was watching it online in the stands at Perris while the race was going on.)

Getting the Steve Naughton film about Crandon completed and in movie theaters is another step in the evolution of short course racing. Look what "Dust to Glory" did with desert racing.... NBC Sports keeps SCORE on the calendar as programming every year since.

Let's give the latest ESPN2 broadcast good marks. The whole feel of the show is different. The pace is quicker, the commentators are quicker with their comments, the race shots are quick, and change all the time to add to the pace and excitement of the event. It really give a much better feel to the speeds of the trucks as compared to earlier broadcasts or even the WSORR broadcasts on SPEED.

Remember Rome wasn't built in a day.
and.....
Short Course racing keeps getting partially built and their torn down to start all over, but there must be a level of patience on everyone's part.

It took Wally Parks and NHRA, and Bill France and NASCAR 50 years to get where they are today.

At one point short off-road racing had Mickey Thompson, but when he was killed our sport stepped back 10-20 years in its growth.

Maybe Ricky Johnson is the man. He was connections, the experience, and the vision.

In my opinion that is what makes the successful forms of motorsports succeed. Putting a name and face to the entity creates trust among all racers, sponsors, and fans.

This all easy for me to say, since I haven't raced a long time.

I seem to spend a ton of time watching and listening to racers, fans, promoters, parts manufacturers, sponsors, and sanctioning bodies for the small part I play in this industry.

Let's look forward not back.

- Mike Reusche, www.philsinc.com - www.mt-graphics.com

The Black Flag Can Make for Better Racing.

The TORC series continues to bring out great racers giving great performances. That's a point sometimes is forgotten. Racing is a competition, but for companies to spend their marketing dollars on race teams, its based upon more that performance on the track. It must be entertaining as well.

When Casey Currie goes out and wins by 10 truck lengths, its a great performance, but the entertainment is back in the pack. That's why the camera sometimes covers that instead of the leaders.

If it's a three way battle for the lead or a crazy story line line like Chad Hord rolling over and still wins, then that gets broadcast, and that instance more trucks will be viewed for due to all the contact that went on.

My point is that there's isn't enough cameras and broadcast time to cover everything that goes on. Sometimes you wonder why a fellow competitor does what he does on the track. Maybe he sees things you don't. maybe it is due to his level of driving ability, or maybe he realizes he needs to get some TV time to keep his sponsor happy.

I'm not saying that "tv time" thing is foremost in a driver's mind, but it may cross their mind after the fact.

Sometimes those kind of things can cause problems for other drivers, that's when the black flag should be thrown. The powers that be that control TORC and the TV production have said thay don't want to bring out the flag because it deters from the TV show. I can go along with that, but it can be applied properly so there isn't massive carnage during race. The prime example was PRO-4x4 Saturday night. the last 10 laps only 3 trucks were running to the flag. Fortunately, they stayed running together to makesome kind of show out of the last half of the race.

In PRO-2WD Dan Baudoux got t-boned so hard it knocked his drysump tank and battery broke off the mountings andthe oil supply side hose to the engine was basically pinched closed. Fortunately the ignition quit before he could run the engine out of oil. The ignition box was also dislodged as well.

If TORC isn't careful, the racing grid will be getting smaller not larger, then you don't have a tv program that's remotely entertaining.

There is a definitely line between good hard racing, and overaggressive driving that creates "in-focus" coverage.

The question is when will be first time TORC/USAC use the black flag.

See you in Crandon.