IndyCar – ABC and mostly “WHY?!”

If you tuned into ABC’s broadcast of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, you saw a race.  A good race. A case could be made for a great race. Regardless of where it ranks on anyone’s personal excitement scale, the point is that you saw a race. Granted, this was on ABC, which may as well stand for Always Bad Commentating. The delivery and timing of Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever certainly lived down to expectation.  Fortunately, Allen Bestwick and Dr. Jerry Punch were able to elevate the race…

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From the Pocono Pulpit: 2014, Off to a Better Re-Start than the Drivers

HUZZAH FOR BROADCASTING!!! Well, the Verizon IndyCar season is officially underway. (Do you have your fine jars ready for every time you say ‘IZOD IndyCar’)? The race was really nice to have IndyCar back—-but it was not really all that exciting, like most St. Pete races. Still, it did bring about some very, very refreshing changes. First was in the radio booth, the voice of IndyCar radio changed—-for the better. We gained a true fan of the sport and series in the one and only, Paul Page. Since I was…

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Constable’s Corner: 2012 St. Pete picks to watch

Well, we are now just a few days away from the 2012 season opener in St. Petersburg. After a highly publicized pre-season test at Sebring some things are very clear. Most notably, Lotus is light years behind Chevrolet and Honda. While some real fan favorites are with Lotus for 2012; Servia, de Silvestro, Tagliani, Bourdais, and series rookie Katherine Legge—The best time in testing was Servia who was only the 19th fastest out of 27 drivers.   This is the return of Chevrolet to the IndyCar series after many years…

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Indy Hump Day Report: ABC/ESPN future exclusive broadcast home thoughts, and NH picks

So another race weekend at Mid-Ohio; large turnout, loads of anticipation, no passing, no drama, no excitement. Sounds about right for a professional formula type series on a club racing course. Mid-Ohio is too narrow in its current set-up for cars as fast as the IZOD INDYCAR Series. It might produce great passing for a Honda Civic Si in Show Room Stock C, but it’s a cure for insomnia when really fast cars run there. Also it needs upgrades beyond the race course, most notably wooden garages. Did everyone miss…

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It’s About the Content, Not the Medium: The ALMS Gamble

  Readying for Long Beach, the brain trust at ALMS are still wringing their collective hands over the negative fan backlash and media criticism of the ABC-ESPN3.com Sebring coverage. Even some of the teams are questioning the series organizer. After all, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. They, the ALMS, hyped their new ABC-ESPN Network package and world-wide, live coverage of their races via the web as groundbreaking. They were venturing into an exciting new digital medium, with a major network partner and opportunities to tap a fresh audience…

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OP-Ed – The 90 Minutes of Sebring

This past weekend, we here at OpenPaddock were blessed to have the ALMSChicks, Heidi and Brie covering the season opener for the American Le Mans Series and the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup 12 Hours of Sebring, and to have Ken Poe providing additional photos. Had it not been for them, we would have been in the dark when it comes to this most historic American sports car endurance race. This season, the series switched broadcast partners from the conglomeration of SpeedTV, NBC, and others to ABC/ESPN. Unfortunately, the deal doesn’t…

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Indy Hump Day Report: Barber, Streams,and Seats

Normally I leave the sad parts to end my column, but my heart is so heavy this week I have to begin with a few words on Japan first. I was up when the 8.9 hit Japan, being the ultimate Gaijin I tend to read the news from Japan many days after midnight ET. First the footage of the quake broke my heart, but then the Hollywood like aftermath with the Tsunami just made it ache with pain. On behalf of everyone not just at Open Paddock; but the entire…

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Indy Hump Day Report, on the bubble: Double File Re-Starts (AGAIN)

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadLunch with Randy and Simona This past Monday’s trip to Charm City was quite the informational voyage. Aside from the fact HVM had an amazingly tasty lunch spread in the middle of an announcement. They also was plenty of opportunity to talk with Simona de Silvestro, and IZOD INDYCAR Series CEO Randy Bernard. The Baltimore media was the dominant media in attendance, but was more a silent observer aside from a few obvious (and somewhat overused questions for female drivers). Myself; and the local…

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Episode 72 – OpenPaddock.net Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadJoin Shaun, Kristi, and Mike as they run down the State of INDYCAR Address from today’s winter meetings. Lots of small announcements for on and off track stuff. Shaun also discusses the craziness that has turned into the WRC offseason. Lots of movement on Monday and the picture has become clear heading into Sweden. So as always, sit back and enjoy your favorite beverage and the show!

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Le Mans – ALMS Reaches Multi-Year TV, Digital Deal with ESPN and ABC

FROM: American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón announced today a ground-breaking, multi-year broadcast and digital agreement with ESPN that ALMS President/CEO Scott Atherton is calling “a game changer.” The innovative deal involves televising the world’s premier sports car series over several ESPN programming and media platforms, including ABC, ESPN2 and ESPN3.com. Intersport, an award-winning media and marketing agency, represented the Series in the new television and digital agreement with ESPN. The core of the ALMS’ new innovative broadcast and digital package will deliver…

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