ABC finally gets its act together

[Chris Paff]

With the additions of Page, Gerald, and Goodyear we will not have anymore boring announsing.. The combo of Jenkins, Rice and Priestley was the worse i have ever heard.. Rice has the most dry boring voice out there and he has had no idea what its like to drive a indycar since the early 1980's.. Priestley is a actor and has no bussiness being a announser.. and Jenkins is a classic but he needs a entertaining sidekick or he is very dry also.. I have been watching Indycar races since 1989 and i grew up with Page and his voice makes me think Indy.. Not Jenkins.. In the perfect world we would have Page and Senva in the booth with Arute, Gerald, and Punch in the Pits.. I know most of you guys disagree but its my opinion.. And don't say Page likes CART more than the IRL remember that he picked the IRL over CART back in 1997 and the only reason why he went back to CART was that Fox Sports Net was doing the IRL races in 1999 and it was his only choice..

[MicroRacer]

I definitely disagree!

[ovals rule]

L just hope the folks at ABC know more than I do.
The good news for me is that the IMS Radio network comes in loud and clear here!

BTW how much time will there be for a "host" if the time window is only 2 hours?

[Mackie]

one man's opinion, to me past tapes of previous Indy 500's that feature Page are tainted. They are less valuable then the ones without him. Because of the way he reacted to percieved excitement at CART races, when he starts doing that at an IRL race at Texas he will "vapor lock!"

[BigFig]

Originally posted by Chris Paff:
<STRONG>With the additions of Page, Gerald, and Goodyear we will not have anymore boring announsing.. The combo of Jenkins, Rice and Priestley was the worse i have ever heard.. Rice has the most dry boring voice out there and he has had no idea what its like to drive a indycar since the early 1980's.. Priestley is a actor and has no bussiness being a announser.. and Jenkins is a classic but he needs a entertaining sidekick or he is very dry also.. I have been watching Indycar races since 1989 and i grew up with Page and his voice makes me think Indy.. Not Jenkins.. In the perfect world we would have Page and Senva in the booth with Arute, Gerald, and Punch in the Pits.. I know most of you guys disagree but its my opinion.. And don't say Page likes CART more than the IRL remember that he picked the IRL over CART back in 1997 and the only reason why he went back to CART was that Fox Sports Net was doing the IRL races in 1999 and it was his only choice..</STRONG>

I guess "boring" is in the appreciation of the listener. Page and Varsha seem to think hype for hype's sake is good (I guess some other people do to) and quite often their hype has nothing to do with what is happening of the track. As to color, I always liked the guy that could provide some insight and factual stuff rather than another "hyper". In any case, I would rather have announcers that have a clue about what is happening on the track than someone that just wants to flap their gums like Page does.

[akh]

Originally posted by Mackie:
<STRONG>one man's opinion, to me past tapes of previous Indy 500's that feature Page are tainted. They are less valuable then the ones without him. Because of the way he reacted to percieved excitement at CART races, when he starts doing that at an IRL race at Texas he will "vapor lock!"</STRONG>

Some of you continue to act as though the IRL has the patent on excitement.
Page and Johnstone managed to survive the broadcasts from MIS, Fontana, and last year's German 500 among others. I think he'll dojust fine with the IRL broadcasts. The real coup is getting Gary Gerould. If he could displace Arute as the lead in the pits it would suit me just fine. BTW, I thought the press release announcing the changes was prime chicken****. It scrupulously avoided mentioning that Page and Gerould had any connection to CART. As if, in some Defenderesque world, saying CART three times will cause the IRL to cease to exist...

akh

[JoeBob]

It scrupulously avoided mentioning that Page and Gerould had any connection to CART. As if, in some Defenderesque world, saying CART three times will cause the IRL to cease to exist...

It also called Bob Jenkins move from Play-by-Play to "Host" was a promotion. That was laughable at best.

Also, here is the photo that goes with the story:


Note that Bob Jenkins got a (significantly) bigger photo than anyone else, and the long-time IRL backers all came before the folks who worked CART races (and Vince Welch). Kind of childish in my book. They're all a team, why do something goofy like that?

From what I've seen, the folks who run the IRL website aren't always in tune with the more PR-saavy folks at IMS.

For example, when Penske announced his plans to run in the IRL, they had "Penske is Coming!" in enormous letters on their home page. Within a few hours, it was toned down significantly. (Probably because someone said, "What does it say our series, and our other teams if Roger Penske's announcement is such a monumental occasion?")

When Helio won the 500, they had the IRL website switched over to "Texas Preview" mode very quickly as well, with almost all references to the 500 removed from the home page.

[IndyIRLman]

I also noticed that they didn't mention CART with Page and Gary's credentials. I thought it was pretty lousy too, and I am an IRL fan. It really doesn't matter who we want because ABC is paying their wages not IMS. If IMS was paying it I am sure the team wouldn't have changed much at all. I am very happy to see Gary come over to the IRL.

[Dizz Fan]

For what it's worth Scott Goodyear has never been a "ball of fire" speaker either.

Preisley was professional if nothing else. Very enthusiastic!

Dizz Fan

[mnkywrch]

What I found interesting was it sounded like Goodyear's back injury had forced a permanent retirement.

Is that sure?

[RaceGuy]

Inded very unprofessional by IRL/IMS. I could always see this attitude in the broadcasts when Jenkins was leading things. In the last 2 years, they would always recap the previous races in the pre-race show and the shortest recap has been the biggest race. Gee, I wonder why? I'm sure if an IRL team would ever win Indy, they would be sure to point out the CART teams they beat. Also, during the USGP, Jenkins and Cheever tried their best to point out that F1 was the "premier road racing circuit."

[IndyIRLman]

Originally posted by RaceGuy:
<STRONG> Also, during the USGP, Jenkins and Cheever tried their best to point out that F1 was the "premier road racing circuit."</STRONG>

Do you think CART is the premier road racing series?

[CamKing]

FYI CART boys, don't blame the IRL for not mentioning CART in the press release. IF you don't like it, you'll need to call ABC, it was their press release.

Here is a copy of it from ABC's web site http://espn.go.com/abcsports/pressre...9/1245571.html


Now go back to sleep and dream up some other reason to be mad at the IRL.

[indyracefan]

.....well in my case anyway, the addition of Page will help the IRL and hurt ABC, here's my reasoning;

Now that Page will be doing the play-by-play it will mean that I will make every attempt possible to attend every IRL race in the midwest, that way I won't have to watch them on TV!!!

[bobolinski]

Originally posted by RaceGuy:
<STRONG>... Also, during the USGP, Jenkins and Cheever tried their best to point out that F1 was the "premier road racing circuit."</STRONG>

RaceGuy: F1 is the premier road racing circuit. Duh.

Other than that, what a worthless, paranoid troll.