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Updated 05.31.09 The Month of MayIt’s hard to believe the month is over! I have just returned home after 3 solid weeks in Indianapolis. When I wasn’t at the track Thursdays through Sundays, I was working on the 500 Festival Parade show, and the 30-minute preview show called Ready to Race. Both aired the Saturday night before race day on VERSUS.
We did 6.5 hours of live coverage on the 4 qualifying days, 5 hours live on Carb Day, and a post race show. Tiring! But well worth it. Some highlights of the month for me:
… and then the #3 went on to win the race as well… making a clean sweep of the month. The crashes were tough to watch – one, for their safety, and two, for the fact they work all month, all year really, and they don’t make it to the end…. in the case of Mario Moraes and Marco Andretti, the race is over right after it starts. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Vitor Meira. He is unfortunately out the remainder of the season. Paul Tracy will drive the car at Milwaukee this weekend.
Updated 04.15.09 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Whew! After months of build up, round one of the 2009 IndyCar Series season is in the books… and the debut of the ICS on the Versus Network was such a thrill. I can’t thank all of you enough for the kind words you’ve sent me about the show. The season opener at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg aired live on Versus Sunday afternoon. The show went nearly 3.5 hours long… something IndyCar fans aren’t used to. When the race went long, Versus kept us on longer, and gave us even more time to talk live to the top finishers once the race was over. That extended coverage is the number one topic I keep hearing about from fans. It was my first time in the IndyCar pits on a race day, and those 3.5 hours flew by! In our prerace show, I talked with Graham Rahal about his historic win in St. Pete in 2008 (made history by becoming the youngest winner in open wheel history) and his historic qualifying day in 2009 (made history by becoming the youngest pole sitter in open wheel history).
During the race, I was up and down pit lane, and talked live with Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and EJ Viso… to name a few. On Saturday, we did a 2-hour qualifying show… something you can count on for every race this season on Versus. I talked with Robert Doornbos, Alex Tagliani, Justin Wilson, and Marco Andretti. The teams and drivers are really embracing the coverage, and have been so welcoming and easy to work with. We want to bring viewers where they can’t go, so a big THANK YOU to the teams for being open and willing to give fans that access in 2009.
It is a big undertaking – a new season, a new network, a new crew – but we all share the same bond – we love IndyCar racing – and that’s made it easy to come together and give it our all… because we all want the ICS to make a big comeback. As you might know, the Grand Prix of St. Pete is a joint event with the American Le Mans Series (ALMS races on Saturday), so it was great for me to get to see all the people I spent the 2008 racing season with. The next race, Long Beach, is also a joint weekend, as is Mid-Ohio later in the year. If you have the chance, these are great weekends to attend.
Each week on Versus, the rest of the announcers and I try to predict who will win, AND which driver who has NEVER won an IndyCar race will have the best finish. Out of Bob Jenkins, Jon Beekhius, Robbie Buhl, Robbie Floyd, Jack Arute, and myself… I am in fifth… having picked Dario Franchitti to win and Vitor Meira as the best finish by a non-winner. It’s a season-long contest… and Action Thackston (as I’m called in the contest) is out to win. I have my Long Beach picks in mind… so keep your fingers crossed… On to the Streets of Long Beach!
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