2011 Indianapolis 500

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Originally Posted by gm99

My understanding of the IndyCar rule bookis that this is actually an unprotestable issue:



I wonder if this particular rule was introduced after the 2002 Indy 500...

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Yes, that's the Brian "my reaction time is measured in calender days and no one can protest my race calls" Barnhart rule.


While I'm gutted for JR, he was far from the first car to essentially do the same thing in sunday's race. He just had REALLY lousy timing. How many drivers have said to themself "This is mine, this is mine, just don't crash" ;) Far more exerienced drivers put it into the wall passing a slower car. If anything, I think maybe JR was too cautious passing Conway and gave himeslf a little too much room which got him into the gray. He drove a great race for 799 corners. Yet another arguement for bringing back more of an apron at IMS. An overtaking driver should have the skill to pass a slower car successfully, however in situation where the slow driver really does need to get off the racing line and stay low at Indy, a driver can't just jump down onto the acceleration lanes in the corner with the grass down there. They are able to enforce the inside line at other tracks with a wide apron, there's no reason that can't be enforced at Indy. Well, let me take that back. They SHOULD be able to anyway......It does make for a pretty race track though.

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

It doesn't mean to suddenly swerve out of the way and to screw up your race. It means that a faster car is coming up and to let them by when it can be done safely.

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I do agree, Kimball's spotter had plenty of time to radio in when JR was on the backstretch heading into 3 to move to the runoff, Kimball was going extremely slow and should not have compromised the race like that.

Great race...unbelievably crappy coverage. Pulleeese get some new announcers next year...pullleeese!

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Originally Posted by beachgirl

What would it take to make a race beyond average for you? Constant excitement every foot of the way? Not going to happen, regardless of series, type of race, or participants. That's just a pipedream.

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I guess you never watch F1 or WRC. Every moment in either series is pure excitement.

The race was owned by Target Chip Ganassi Racing and the only reason they lost was because of a bad fuel calculations. Not driver skill, Not a better setup and definatly not because of a better car but because somebody who couldn't do basic math.

This race will be remembered of one of the All Time Greatest Chokes in racing History.

That's total BS

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Originally Posted by booger

Great race...unbelievably crappy coverage. Pulleeese get some new announcers next year...pullleeese!

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Yeah, get a new director, too.

I don't want to rant about that because this was such a great race, and the pre-race stuff was good (the intro was lightyears ahead of what they had been doing because they just kept it straight, for example), but...it has to be said.

Having a team of guys where this isn't their dedicated job or their first passion makes for a broadcast team that comes across as lacking knowledge and lacking enthusiasm.

They missed a lot of good racing, too. And I'm not talking about ad breaks...I'm talking about showing nothing when something was happening. Every pass is critical because you never know what it will mean at the end of 500 miles. Hildebrand's on Franchitti's was an example of that, and they even knew it would be as Baguette's strategy was well-documented. Tony, Dan, Tomas, etc. all had some good ones we missed.

The lack of interviews when drivers retired from the race was concerning, too. The lack of information on what happened to certain drivers who had gained/lost positions was also a disappointment. A lot less investigating in the pits and a lot more "four Firestone tires and Sunoco fuel, back to you" kind of stuff. Telling you what's right in front of you.

My biggest letdown, though, was the lack of storylines. Please do some research. Please please please! All 33 drivers/teams had a backstory, and many of us here could have told plenty of them with ease. Most people with an Internet connection could at least come up with something, anything. And yet ABC failed to do this. They had the big ones, the obvious ones...Simona, Alex/Sam, etc., but many good ones were buried unnecessarily. When someone not in their script took the lead (like Baguette or Servià), they gave us a "he's from Belgium, he's from Spain" and ended it there. They didn't know these guys, and to the casual viewer, it makes the humans seem unimportant...and when you get that disconnect, you can say goodbye to those viewers. America will fall back in love with this event and this sport when they can feel the human drama that defines it, and I'm glad the finish allowed for that, because up until then, the broadcast missed many chances (by not doing interviews and not doing research). Every driver and every event can be sold in an appealing way with the right knowledge and the right command of English. Sadly, it wasn't to be in that regard.

Anyone else aware of the grids from the early 90s, where Paul Page would tell a backstory set to music and footage (both on-track stuff and B-roll) on each and every driver? I know there is not enough time devoted to the race to do that, and I understand why, but if they could do the research as if they were going to do that, they would be prepared for any driver making his/her way onto the broadcast, and able to get the viewer involved through that information. It's critical to make sure the fan knows all of them are stars, all of them are important, all of them are human. When you don't do that, you have (as I said) disconnect, and you risk losing viewers when Simona and Tagliani and Danica are out of it and you have no way to persuade them that the other thirty are just as special.

Fortunately, we had a great, safe race. No complaints there.

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

I guess you never watch F1 or WRC. Every moment in either series is pure excitement.

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Different people have different tastes. Luckily, we have an F1 and a rally section here. If that's your thing, well, those are your forums. :)

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Originally Posted by NickFalzone

I agree completely. Every year I have high hopes for Indy, but this is the first year, honestly that I can remember, that the race actually lived up to all the possible hype. ABC also did a great job with the pre-race Centennial videos.. I particularly liked this one:

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And there it is! Had just referenced it in my last post. Thanks for sharing; nice to see it again. We were certainly treated with Delta Force on Pole Day and this on race day; much better than the over-produced, over-dramatized, and largely over-the-top treatment recent years' introductions have received. I'm glad they're turning the corner, and now it's time to see how they can address their other inadequacies.

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

I guess you never watch F1 or WRC. Every moment in either series is pure excitement.

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I have slept through many a boring F1 race. Not in the past year or so, I will admit, but in many years previously. Pure excitement? I think not.

As far as WRC is concerned, yes, every moment THAT IS TELEVISED is usually pure excitement. That's because we don't see every car in every section in every rally. We see the highlights, the great bits, and only the exciting parts in the broadcast coverage. Unless you, of course, get a special raw feed of every moment of any given WRC event that the rest of us don't?

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

I guess you never watch F1 or WRC. Every moment in either series is pure excitement.

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Absolute rubbish. We've been lucky with F1 in the last few seasons, but it was tedious for many, may years before that. A great deal of the current excitement is all artificial anyway. Take away the DRS, KERS and short-lived tyres and see what sort of races you get. WRC is so exciting that I had no idea Rally GB even took place last year, as it had zero media coverage. None. I'm guessing Loeb won. As for the Ganassi comment, haven't you complained bitterly about people winning races on fuel mileage in the past? Are you seriously telling me you'd have preferred Dario to win it by cruising round 20mph off the pace for 10 laps? You'd have been the first one moaning about it not being a valid victory.

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Originally Posted by beachgirl

What would it take to make a race beyond average for you? Constant excitement every foot of the way? Not going to happen, regardless of series, type of race, or participants. That's just a pipedream.

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That's easy. If you've read his post for a while, the only thing that would make it worth his time is if it wasn't held in Indianapolis, wasn't 500 miles, had nothing to do with the Hulman/George family, didn't have Indy in the name, was held on a road course, and it probably shouldn't be held on Memorial Day weekend. That would be anthonyvop's all time favorite Indy 500. Just go back through his posts, I'm not really stretching the truth too much. I honestly have no idea why he posts here.

But from an actual fan's perspective. I have to say that was a d@mn good race. Sure parts of it got a bit boring, but I sort of blame the TV guys more than anything for that. I listened to it on radio live (in the car), and it was great. Then I watched the replay at 7 here in the Indy area, and it was only so-so until the last few laps. At this point I'm not sure I can blame the announcers anymore (except that they do suck). But the producers and directors are more to blame. They are the one's choosing the story lines, usually they map some out days before, but it looked like they showed up the morning of the race to me. And the announcers are only supposed to talk about what is being shown. So if the directors don't pick the right cars/stories to follow, the announcers can't talk about the "good" stories. My hope is that NBC takes an even more active roll in VS, sees the potential and then takes over from ABC. Anyone know when that contract is up?