Dakar Fan Feedback

[DarrenSkilton]

As some of you know I work with ASO as their North American rep. I am always looking for ways to improve the interaction with the rally for everyone back home. Just wanted to hear from those of you here who followed the rally on the TV and internet how we might make the experience better. If anyone has constructive comments, suggestions or things they would like to see that would improve the flow of information, tracking, video and TV please let me know. I will be meeting with ASO and your feedback is an important part of the conversation.

Thanks for all of you that supported and followed us on the rally. It makes a big difference to us to hear from you all while we are on the Dakar!

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[randy s]

us coverage on nbc sports was the best it's ever been..just too short. needs to be an hour. nbc or whoever gets the dakar coverage assignment for north america need to focus on north american teams exclusively. that's how you create more interest for dakar here at home. more input from the smaller teams like the guys on bikes. we wanna hear from them. interviews with crew guys. you also need to stand on your hind legs and let the aso know that they're the ones that need to be on the ball over issues at tech. the incident regarding gordon with only a few stages to go was bs. if they heard there was a problem, they could deal with it but not talk about what they know til after the rally. then make it public. that incident was handled badly by everyone involved. they shouldn't have publicly called anyone a stone cold cheater before a complete review of the evidence or lack of. if they want more competitors from north america i think they're blowing it with these past actions against gordon. it just seems like they're piling on. they also need to acknowledge the fact that the french aren't the only guys in the race. not penalizing peterhansel for running into the bike was a joke and coma got burned too. it's great that there's a north american rep but you have to get in their face more if you want them to listen. they're french and they don't give a chit what anyone who isn't french think and i'm convinced of that having traveled abroad. thanks for coming on here and good luck to you in the future. viva dakar and gas on.

[bufeo]

First of all, Darren, congratulations on your past successes (including this last one) and your efforts in the Dakar Rally. I believe it was an article by you that rekindled my interest in the Rally about ten years ago, more or less.

For me, the main criticism I have is not with ASO but the lack of good, consistent, and in-depth coverage here in the U.S. in all media, TV being the easiest to pick on. While I applaud NBCSports for having coverage at all, it is certainly just the bare minimum. I think it was what was Outdoor Live Network for the 2005 (or was it the 2006?) Rally that at least had an hour of coverage and were able to give viewers a bit more in each of the categories, i.e. motos, cars, and trucks. That was nice and I thought a harbinger of what we might expect in the future.

I've written producers at Speed, VS-TV, and now NBCSports but have yet to even get a reply of any kind. Not even a "Thank you for watching our pitiful coverage of that strange motor sport event".

That won't stop me from writing more. I just think I'll start earlier. Sort of like voting in some political princincts: vote early and vote often.

As far as internet coverage goes, I use that more than any of the other mediums. The Aussies provide some fair coverage and I found a French site that was quite good.

Thanks again, and bonne chance.

Allen R

PS In regards to a couple of the points 'randy s' makes, I'm not sure that we could see both sides of the story (stories?) here. Open communication might have gone a long way to clarification of perceptions.

[wheeli]

I'am a big fan of the race, here in canada we have zero coverage of the event,other than following it on RDC. In previous years we have had a one hour show on the outdoor network of the previous days action,but nothing the last two years.The event dosent even get mentioned on the speed chanel but no surprize there they hate anything offroad.But if this is the biggest race in the world you guys might wanna spread the word

[stevef]

I think the tV coverage is good, of course i would like more though. Would be real nice if the tv coverage was same day. Race gets a little confusing folling the race online then watching yesterdays coverage on TV.

the Dakar website needs to have more info. the info seems so sparse. the news reports they do have are very short. shouldnt the dakar website be the go-to place for up to date info? would be neat to get some info during the year as well, what teams are up to kind of thing.

[Desert Dog]

Actually, the most useful thing for me would be the return to the actual real time tracking like they used to have. The one where you see the competitor markers on the screen. It gives a real overview of the event.

[dfmcse]

Thank you Darren for asking for feedback.

I agree with what Randy S and the others have mentioned about TV coverage. However, when watching the coverage on NBC (which was OK . . .) I'm not sure I see them changing it much. The reason I say that is the ASO obviously packages the video and provides a script for the media to add their own audio; I don't think NBC had much if any creative license at all. If they did, they certainly didn't take advantage of it. Much of what was available on the Internet had the same script different voice. So it doesn't look like the changes we'd like to see could be implemented based on their current process.

Having said the above, if the ASO allowed each participating nation to have representation with the freedom to add their own story I think they would see significant growth in some markets (USA). I would think the ASO would want to fuel the national pride and competition.

As for the French protecting their brethren . . . if some of that was happening I'm not sure that a complaint from you will fix that.

Tracking, Tracking, Tracking, Tracking, did I say Tracking? Live video streaming from the bivouac and at the stage finish.

Thanks again! Doug

[DarrenSkilton]

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

How the TV works:

All the participating (TV contracted) markets are supplied a 30 minute world feed from ASO. ASO reserves an 8 minute segment that they can edit there own content into. This usually requires an on site producer from the channel. If they don't do their own, ASO provides the segment. For several years I have been asking Versus (now NBC Sports) to use this segment to focus on the US riders and teams that are not often featured to have more stories for the US fans to follow. Every year they send a new producer, every year they do there own thing. I don't see major changes in the format unless NBC sends a bigger crew and uses more airtime.

Other countries (like Holland) take it a step further. They have an hour show with features, interviews and stories on all the Dutch teams to build more national pride the event. The Dakar is really like the Olympics for Off Road Racing and all the teams, even the small ones, wear their flags on the uniforms and wave them on the podium.

For me the internet is where we can perhaps create something that will give be more interactive and give more updates on all US teams.

As for comments about rules, I have worked with ASO since 2002. They would like nothing more than for a US team to win. I worked closely with them to bring US cars into their rules, even giving us some advantages over the competition. FIA is in charge of tech inspection and rule enforcement, not ASO. They have officials walking around the bivi every night checking all the cars. We were checked for our restrictor 4-5 days in. So comments about them targeting US team over others is not valid in my opinion. They are always asking how we can get more US teams to come and compete.

Other racers, on the other hand, do have a history of pointing fingers, both there and here in the US. If an official is tipped off they will follow up. This happened to me in 2001 with the prototype Kia's we raced. We were running in the top 10-15 cars every day, then 6 days in we were suddenly informed that our front fenders were not legal and we were going to be kicked out of the race. We had a bad day and nothing happened. Lesson: if you show up to win you better have all your ducks in a row. Other teams may seem friendly but everyone is watching each other. This has led me to stand up to and debate with more French racers/ teams that I care to know, both at FIA meetings and at the race track.

[randy s]

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

How the TV works:

All the participating (TV contracted) markets are supplied a 30 minute world feed from ASO. ASO reserves an 8 minute segment that they can edit there own content into. This usually requires an on site producer from the channel. If they don't do their own, ASO provides the segment. For several years I have been asking Versus (now NBC Sports) to use this segment to focus on the US riders and teams that are not often featured to have more stories for the US fans to follow. Every year they send a new producer, every year they do there own thing. I don't see major changes in the format unless NBC sends a bigger crew and uses more airtime.

Other countries (like Holland) take it a step further. They have an hour show with features, interviews and stories on all the Dutch teams to build more national pride the event. The Dakar is really like the Olympics for Off Road Racing and all the teams, even the small ones, wear their flags on the uniforms and wave them on the podium.

For me the internet is where we can perhaps create something that will give be more interactive and give more updates on all US teams.

As for comments about rules, I have worked with ASO since 2002. They would like nothing more than for a US team to win. I worked closely with them to bring US cars into their rules, even giving us some advantages over the competition. FIA is in charge of tech inspection and rule enforcement, not ASO. They have officials walking around the bivi every night checking all the cars. We were checked for our restrictor 4-5 days in. So comments about them targeting US team over others is not valid in my opinion. They are always asking how we can get more US teams to come and compete.

Other racers, on the other hand, do have a history of pointing fingers, both there and here in the US. If an official is tipped off they will follow up. This happened to me in 2001 with the prototype Kia's we raced. We were running in the top 10-15 cars every day, then 6 days in we were suddenly informed that our front fenders were not legal and we were going to be kicked out of the race. We had a bad day and nothing happened. Lesson: if you show up to win you better have all your ducks in a row. Other teams may seem friendly but everyone is watching each other. This has led me to stand up to and debate with more French racers/ teams that I care to know, both at FIA meetings and at the race track.

re:your last statement. so all you have to do is act friendly and wait til the right moment and then go snitch off another racer on some questionable issue,call him an outright cheater publicly and throw him off his game worrying about getting thrown out..that's true racer spirit. wafj.

[arqangel67]

Darren, thanks for the insight. I would like to see an english translated Dakar site that is translated directly from french. I know a little bit of french and caught the french reporting differently than what was posted in the english translation.. And of coures tracking, there is nothing better than tracking to follow your teams progress and root for them.

As for comments about rules, I have worked with ASO since 2002. They would like nothing more than for a US team to win. I worked closely with them to bring US cars into their rules, even giving us some advantages over the competition. FIA is in charge of tech inspection and rule enforcement, not ASO. They have officials walking around the bivi every night checking all the cars. We were checked for our restrictor 4-5 days in. So comments about them targeting US team over others is not valid in my opinion. They are always asking how we can get more US teams to come and compete.

I respect your opinion and point of view but this years Dakar proved otherwise. While I do not know the full scope of the situation ,in regards to RG, We do know that the ASO are the ones that DQ'ed RG and they also knew about the deflation device before hand so I am inclined to believe that the ASO is not as wanting of a US team to win as you would think.

US teams will only want to participate if they think they can legimately win without 2 separate organizations harassing them. The ASO proved this year that not only do the competitors have to overcome the race but also the race officials. What team would want to spent so much money to enter just so the ASO can give a win to someone of their choosing?