I guess it's time for me to chime in here....8<{)
"Mark J. Andy" wrote:
>
> To me, one of the attractions of things like this, lawnmower racing, etc.
> is that its unusual. Those jet boats were freaking incredible.
I think that's exactly what first attracted me to watching the jet
sprints several years ago. The first thing I noticed was that it was
something unusual. Then I noticed that it was like autocrossing on
water except with a navigator. In the early days, they used to feature
a lot of "in-boat" camera shots between the driver and navigator showing
the navigator's directions with his/her left hand. That, in and of
itself, was a hoot to watch.
The "boats" are all flat-hulled, use American V8 engines for power, and
transmit that power via a jet ski type of propulsion system so there's
nothing mechanical sticking out below the boat. It was commonplace in
those early days to see a boat take a turn too wide and slide right up
onto land. When that happened, you'd see 5 or 6 spectators run up and
push it back into the water so the crew could continue on their way.
At the time, I didn't have SpeedVision. But either TNN or ESPN (can't
remember which) re-broadcast the SpeedVision coverage of these events.
And, at the time, they were only doing it in either Australia or New
Zealand. Again, I can't remember which. These weren't World Finals
type of events - they were the equivalent of our Regional autocrosses.
Now, let's shift this discussion back to the AX on TV debate. As
background, I've got nearly 30 years of experience in Radio News.
During that time, I've also dabbled in TV and low-budget movie
production and other forms of AV. I'll try not to repeat anything that
Rich and Matt and the others with TV experience have already said.
However, I would throw this idea out for your consideration.
Drag Racing! I dare say that most of you have watched drag racing on TV
at one time or another. But, what did you see? For the most part, you
didn't see the Stock or Sportsman classes. Nor did you see the
qualifying runs. What you saw was the big boys - Super Stock, Funny
Car, and Pro Fuel. And you saw only their elimination rounds - leading
up to the final shoot-out - colored with a lot of "what's going on in
the paddock to get ready for the next round" features.
Yet, given that as a background, how many people do you know who have
watched drag racing on TV - then gone to watch a drag race in person -
and then decided to get into the sport, themselves, at the grassroots
level?!?!?
So I side with those who say that the best entry point to get autox on
TV would be ProSolo. However, I would go a step further and suggest
that such coverage should only focus on the handicap challenge and that
it be geared, primarily, toward the Prepared and Modified classes.
Those cars, as a general rule, are more "unusual" (going back to the
original theme of this post) in their appearance and their performance
level as well as being more prone to getting out-of-shape while on
course.
Seeing that, I would think, just might cause the casual viewer to seek
out a local autox event to watch the action first-hand. Once there,
he/she just might decide to give it a try. As we all know, once that
person gets behind the wheel, we just might stand a chance of "hooking"
them into doing it again.
But, above all else, I would have to reiterate what so many others have
said about the COST of doing something like this. TV production and TV
time don't come cheap. So we have to keep asking ourselves - "Would it
really be worth the expense?!?" And - "Could we really find a sponsor
who would be willing to put up the necessary bucks?!?" 8<{)
John (Old Fartz & TLS #37) Lieberman
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