If Mark James is lurking

[4westdan]

Just came across this thread - Mark is actually my business partner, so he's now well aware of the nice things people have been saying about him! Hopefully he'll make an appearance within the next day or two himself.....

After he finished with the WRC in 2002, he got involved with the APRC in 2003, although that project came to a premature end. As someone rightly says, he was the SEAT Sport press officer in the ETCC/WTCC from 2004 until the end of last year, although he's also attended three events this year to help out a colleague when events clashed.

The reason he's cut back on his WTCC activities is where I come in. We set up a company last year to produce videos for the Net and one of our first projects is the website http://www.ukcarnews.com (I hope the mods don't mind the plug). Mark's responsible for producing the videos for the site, which include car roadtests, features and interviews - among the "motorsport" features are interviews with Nicky Grist and Phil Mills, so he keeps his hand in!

As I said, Mark's aware of this thread and is very grateful for the nice things you've been saying. He should be here "in person" within the next few days if you have any questions you'd like him to answer.

[AndyRAC]

Good to see he's being kept busy, it would be interesting to hear his thoughts on the current state of the WRC, and of the coverage or lack of it in UK.

[A.F.F.]

That depends on what coverage you're watching. Since Finnish YLE dropped WRC this year, I've followed Eurosport and as that ends next Saturday with digi-telly jerk-off, I'm forced to switch to MTV (not the music-TV). Out of these three, YLE was by far the best but that's academic since nobody outside Finland watches that.

My point here is that even if MTV has Sebastian Lindholm's co-driver Tomi Tuominen as a commentator, his passion or expertise does not guarantee a classy show. Quite the contrary, he makes relatively stupid questions and talks more himself than allowing his guests to speak (good host makes short question to the point and allows guest to talk, Tomi does it the other way around). Also, the commentary from the stages is mostly yadda-yadda-yadda, repetitive and non-interesting. I admit that it's difficult to make interesting story out from a stage where nothing happens as largely is the case these days.

On top of that, most coverage must use ISC footage which restrains the TV company equally, creative ideas just can't be made to work with the film they get.

Sorry that this a bit beside the original topic.

I completely agree with only one minor mark. Our Estonians firends watch YLE footage.

[PuddleJumper]

As I said, Mark's aware of this thread and is very grateful for the nice things you've been saying. He should be here "in person" within the next few days if you have any questions you'd like him to answer.

I believe Mark would have posted already were it not for the forum software messing up the email notifications. Sorry about that! Please let him know that he should now be able to post.

[Daniel]

In a stroke of luck I found these vids on YT with his masterful commentary.

Rally AU 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsCSUveRl2w


Rally Finland 1996
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ai4w...elated&search=

That is why I've bitched and moaned about the quality of WRR and the fact that the same people do the coverage on the TV. Mark James is a true professional and would wipe the floor with the "commentators" we have these days.

[BDunnell]

I agree. He was a very welcome, enthusiastic, journalistic and knowledgeable presence on TV and radio.

[duff]

is one of these guys the one that commentated on the coverage that we received in Australia in the late '90s?

Yep, I was thinking of Mark James.
As I said fantastic commentary. He was commentating when I got into Rallying and I beleive he was a big part of why I got interested as he made it very entertaining and palatable. He didn't need to give blow-by-blow accounts of each stage (he couldn't anyway in half an hour) but made a memorable story out of each rally.

If you do get on the site, THANKS MARK!

[RallyCat909]

Jeesh what fortune! Mark James is one of my heroes in rallying. Id like to plan a rally party here in Memphis with maybe a MJ conference call.

There was a moment on 2002 Monte Carlo rally where he says "Now for the next few minutes, lets watch some of the world's best drivers on the planet." You could really tell he meant it....I used to rewind that over and over. Its a special memory in my rally passion, however obscure.

[LotusElise]

I miss Mark's subtle and soft-spoken style of commentary, which let the cars do the talking. You always knew what was going on without him having to yell it at you every ten seconds.

Jeremy Hart was good in the Eurosport days as well, although his Channel 4 scripts were sometimes awful and you could tell he was a bit embarrassed by them.

[Daniel]

I miss Mark's subtle and soft-spoken style of commentary, which let the cars do the talking. You always knew what was going on without him having to yell it at you every ten seconds.

Jeremy Hart was good in the Eurosport days as well, although his Channel 4 scripts were sometimes awful and you could tell he was a bit embarrassed by them.

"Oh no!!!!!! It looks like Petter's had a spin. This is going to cost him dearly!"

Is something he'd never be caught saying