chas, I am in the same place. I hate that I am becoming so apathetic. racing was a big part of my life for so long. I feel like I am getting more and more jaded. pcb
I wasn't kidding...I caught about half of a British Superbike race on Velocity, it was pretty cool. maybe I need to switch things up for a while.
^ I watched that today too. It was pretty cool. MotoGP has been alright but WSB has been pretty good. I wish we could get more FIA and WEC races in the US.
F1 is much more exciting on TV than NASCAR is. I've never been to a GP before, but love catching a F1 race. A lot of it, is the advertising environment is completely different. The announcers are supposed to mention the brand of the fuel being put into the car every time they mention fuel being put in the car, and every time they talk about fuel mileage and whether or not his brand name fuel economy will help him win. "Aarons Lucky Dog" "Green Hornet Green Flag"(Or was it lantern?) "Mellow-Yellow Yellow" "Sunoco race Fuel" "Good Year Tires" It gets old getting slammed with soo much advertising during the race, I hit mute on Watkin's Glen. The other thing that bugs me about NASCAR coverage, is American TV loves to throw in "coming up next..blah blah blah", and well, I tuned in for the race, I don't care whats next, or tomorrow night, or etc... F1 has good commentators, and are really good at showing the race. Even though its a huge track with a lot of corners to cover. I also like that they are more complete on their replays, NASCAR shows the contact, F1 takes it from the previous corner, and gives you the setup. ^ This is why I prefer to see a NASCAR race in person over TV. Not many F1 circuits let you see most of the track. A downside to the Gen 6 car, is that they've tried to make tandem drafting more difficult, by making the car's aero downforce get interrupted when another car is close. Sure this spaces people out two of the tracks on the circuit, but it makes it hell on the drivers at the rest. I wish instead of increasing downforce, they'd gone for a more neutral approach. MotoGP is pretty awesome, the drafting make it very fierce compitetion, a mistake, or bad pass, and you loose that draft. Because it doesn't have a big viewership in the US, it also doesn't have the huge advertising that goes with it, which makes for much better TV coverage. Pete, you need to get out to VLK sometime. A cold morning on cold tires is pretty fun, I watched the GP from their, then went out and did some cold tire cold track laps, lots of fun. ^^
That's just it: 50's/60's was much more about the driver that the car, today if an F1 car runs over a sand pebble they park it as 'undriveable'. It seems. In the 70's and 80's, and even into the 90's you had a handful of drivers/chassis dominate, but you didn't have only two cars dominate any one season save for McLaren 1988 was it? You are not alone, I started the club awhile back. You nailed in your last sentence something I have been saying for 20~ years now, and ever since I have been on here. $$$$$ (TV) ruined racing. Sure, it made it so some folks could afford to race, but all it did was make the rich richer. Oh sure, it runs in cycles, not all teams stay on top forever, but the money put in the right place or the right people make it harder to fall off. As for all the ads during a nascar event, I simply have a way of tuning them out, I don't even really hear them, you just have to train yourself to 'not hear' them.
