Thoughts on TORC Chicago "the LIVE round"

[GunnSlinger]

Thought i'd start a thread on what everybody thought of SPEED's live coverage of TORC at Chicago??

How'd you like the coverage?

Announcers?

Track layout?

Did you attend??

Room for improvement(s)?


Ill wait to give my opinion but i'd like to hear what you guys think first!

[SPONSOR]

Membership in the largest desert racing community has its advantages - Participate in Forum Discussions - Send and Receive Private Messages - Maintain Public Photo Albums - Access to Groups - User Profile in our Social Network - Increased Access to more Sub Forums - Reduced Online Advertisements Join our community today

[Volkspower Racing]

1st, not sure how "live" it was since Rob Mac posted he won on Facebook as the pro 2's were going on the track.
thought the track layout was cool, but looked like it was a rutted mess that turned into a dust bowl at the end, to me didn't look like very good racing.
Thought the announcing was lame, guess we are spoiled by Stout and Steele!
I'm sure I'm biased to the west coast thing, but the Torc show didn't excite me.

[Nessy]

I was wondering if they weren't doing track maintenance trying to get everything in in 2 hours.I think if the track was in better shape the racing would have been better.It seemed like every time a good battle was going on some one would catch a rut and roll or lose positions.I stiil enjoyed it though.

[Desert68]

Agree the track was badly rutted, but I don't know how TORC typically preps for tracks like Charlotte and Chicago. If memory serves Charlotte seemed to be the same way? I thought the Pro 2 race was a great race. No big air jumps but I told a friend that, other than the ruts, I bet it'd be a fun track to drive.

[tyler93]

Yeah I agree with the "live" thought. In the buggy race they chose the worst times for commercial. Then the found better times for commercials in the truck races. Then the "live" part came into question for me when they would go to a commercial with 5 laps left and come back with 5 laps left. Which is nice so you see all the laps but it wasn't really live. When they got out from the infield the wide turns looked super rough and sketchy. Didn't like the announcers.

[Aflac]

"Live" means unedited.

[OffroadExit]

"Live" means unedited.

Alot of the times when I have worked on "LIVE" Speed Channel events we begin feeding "LIVE" coverage via satellite to the network which then begins airing that "delayed" coverage 30 minutes to an hour later. This gives them a chance to figure out where they are taking commercial breaks and "speed up" crash delays. I worked a Sprint Car event once that pretty much had the main race rained out and for the first hour we fed in heat races and feature pieces. The race was delayed so much, the network finally caught up to the "live show" and the announcers had to give rain reports for 20 minutes until finally the track officials cancelled the rest of the race. Speed Channel had to throw in coverage of the previous year's event to fill the rest of the time while the annoucers came back on "live" to update every 30 minutes the event was cancelled due to rain and would be run the next day.

[2pound]

British play by play. No bueno. The track was boring. I'd rather see TORC/SPEED show Crandon or Bark River live. But, I know that will never happen due to wanting it on TV primetime, and not having the track lit up at that time. Also, I know that it is wayyyyy easier having a SPEED TV/Camera crew on the same piece of property. I know I have more to say, I just can't think of it now.

[Dirty Harry]

I did not watch in on Speed, I watched in online. Not sure if it was the same feed or not.

Any time I can watch short course racing I am exicted (much less live) so I don't want to dwell on the negative. The announcing and camera angles were OK but I thought that there was room for improvement there, they were always zoomed in at corners and it just looked like the trucks were going through hairpins the whole race. From friends I had at the event they said the track was super high speed, and I did not think that the broadcast captured this. The biggest issue though was the track prep, it totally went away part way through the race. Not sure if there is anything that can be done about that but it seemed worse than I am used to seeing.

[Scott_AZ]

I did not watch in on Speed, I watched in online. Not sure if it was the same feed or not.

Any time I can watch short course racing I am exicted (much less live) so I don't want to dwell on the negative. The announcing and camera angles were OK but I thought that there was room for improvement there, they were always zoomed in at corners and it just looked like the trucks were going through hairpins the whole race. From friends I had at the event they said the track was super high speed, and I did not think that the broadcast captured this. The biggest issue though was the track prep, it totally went away part way through the race. Not sure if there is anything that can be done about that but it seemed worse than I am used to seeing.

Very well said and I completely agree on every point. If the feeds were different e-delivery vs broadcast TV, I watched the TV version. In general, all shortcourse needs zoomed out, ESPECIALLY if it's an HD feed. There seems to be a tendency to want to shoot at low angles to "accentuate" the air but I think they need to focus on the racing. Don't learn these lessons, watch arenacross.