First of all, I've just spent thy past weekend on a
'Mega Telie' Gorgeathon, watchin' both the German Grand Prix and Toronto
IndyCar action both Saturday & Sunday and thus, I'm a 'Wee bit Knackered...
So I was thinking of doing the cliche-ish'
The Good, Bad and Ugly theme for this post, but really don't have nothing ugly
to divulge, as actually its A-L-L good except for the two parts that
"Peacock-lite" SCREWED UP!
First of all, I have to say that I like
almost the entire current NBCSN IndyCar On-Air talent, with the exceptions of
Wally Dallenbach & Marty Reid, (OOPS! And nobody caught my Freudian slip, eh? As
it was supposed to be Marty Snider...) as they're just a
'lil too much "Country;" Err 'RASSCAR for Mwah; as has anybody
noticed just how hard NBCSN's pushin' its 'RASSCAR programmin' a year before it
arrives...
That said, as I know I just read thee OLD-est
IndyCar Blogger Geo. Phillips recently comment how his perfect IndyCar TV Booth
Boyz' line-up would include Leigh Diffey, "Professor 'B" (Jon Beekhuis)
and thee irrepressible 'PT, the "Thrill from the West Hill," nee Paul Tracy - as that would
suit me fine, as I'm not campaigning for anyone to get the Hook, but; I cannot
say just how much I enjoy hearing Bob Varsha's voice! As he'll always be my
Numero Uno for lead announcer over Diffey or Brian Till...
Thus, it seemed that the Dye was cast early
into Saturday's miserably WET Toronto race
when Derrick Walker Deadpanned to Varsha how astute of him in surmising
it had been deemed officially a "Wet Race;" (start) Hya! As Varsha
just seemingly spent the afternoon playing the "Straight Man," whilst
Ol 'R, aka Robin Miller provided the comic relief on Pit-lane and in the Stands, while Paul Tracy played a very
enjoyable "Straight Guy" for Townsend Bell's unending Quips!
As perhaps I'm wacky? As I was gonna say
"Goofy," which is my 94yr old 'Awntie Harriet's "Tag-line;"
Hooah! But I found myself chuckling for hours whilst watching 'N enjoying
almost the entire Saturday NON-Race TV Broadcast... As two thoughts came to
mind, probably inspired by 'PT's in-car track demo with whom he called 'T-Bell
when he said it wasn't his first rodeo.
That being, that us Fans are extremely lucky
to have such experienced television broadcasters, albeit its Tracy's and Kelli Stavast's
rookie seasons, while not only are we lucky, but IndyCar, and specifically
"Starship HC" (Hulman & Co.) are DAMN FORTUNATE to have hired
such a sage hand as Derrick Walker to run the competition side! Even if
presumably people in the Paddock and elsewhere's disagree, Walker's "Been
There, Done That!" And knows how to NOT panick and do what's best for
everybody, including the Driver's safety...
As Yeah, I think IndyCar totally made the
right call on red-flagging the race repeatedly, although it had a little bit
feel of Sao Paolo's Nightmare to Mwah, which I'm pretty sure I shellacked 'Ol
'Billybob Brazenheartz (Brian Barnhart) over the stupendous choice to go GREEN
during a Monsoon! As HELL! Even the Pace-car had troubles in Toronto; Aye
Karumba!
While I kept thinking of poor 'Ol Alex Zanardi every time a driver
mentioned not being able to see squat and if a car spun out in front of them
and got T-Boned... Although the last part is just what I thought, and don't
think it was ever said?
Although I still remember Justin 'B-I-G UNIT
Wilson noting years ago how when they couldn't see NOTHING during the Champ Car
race upon Il Notre Dam, at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve which is notorious for
its trees dripping mist upon the track when it rains... That you just simply
looked skywards for the banners or anything overhead in order to try 'N get a
bearing upon where you were on the track; YIKES!
Yet at the same time, I have to say how much
PT's growing on Mwah as an announcer, as I really enjoy his "Straight
Shootin'" style, with almost NO BS... As the chemistry just seemed
remarkable between Varsha, Tracy and Townsend Bell, a la Paul Page and Pippa
Mann on the IMS Radio Network side. As my favourite thingy 'bout PT is
that he doesn't do the contrived
"WHOOOOOOOOOOAAAA!!! Screaming BULLSHIT that Steve Matchett and David
Hobbs do when something happens on-track
during an F1 race...
And perhaps it's because I've typically
skipped the Pre-race banter this year, especially since NBCSN's tends to run
way too LONG! That it felt like it was
the first Pit-run I'd seen Miller do this year, which was very entertaining, as
his time with 'Cheep! (Ganassi) got the comedy rolling... While Robin's
interviews with 'SuperTex, nee A.J. Foyt and later on the "Mad
'Rooskie," as I tend to recall that Bill Vukovich was type casted as the
original Mad Russian, as I'm sure that Mikhail Aleshin was thinking the
whole time what in thee HELL is this (OLD) guy talking about! While being interviewed
with Miller who had a really BAD pun 'bout some "Russian Poot-teen"
(protein or Vladimir?) that Aleshin
was gonna eat... Who played along brilliantly
by saying the bacon would add one second per lap time; Hya!
while foyt's quips 'bout just being a
spectator made me immediately think about him being a "JAFO!" A
classic from Blue Thunder; Hooah!
And although I read that Mr. Oil Pressure
thinks KS' (Kelli Stavast) is still a little too bit stiff, which I sort of agree
with, it seemed like she loosened up a little bit the longer the Red flag
periods went on; as I can't remember which driver it was, but it sounded like
she was almost gonna laugh, while I seem to recall her pronouncing her rookie
status during another rain delay this year, perhaps Barber?
As I recall she was interviewing ''HULIO
(Castroneves) who said he'd hook her up with some appropriate foot attire after
she had her camera person do a close-up of her muddy 'N wet shoes, which made
me ponder how she'd faired this time out after they went off the air.
Kevin Lee did his usual, typical, good,
steady reporting, although nothing to get overly excited about, while I definitely missed 'JB, (Jon Beekhuis)
yet I'm guessing he was probably quite ecstatic to be wherever he was in the
Dry!
NBCSN COCK-UPS!
My only two complaints revolve around the
actual network, not the announcers, as I couldn't believe they'd done I-T
again! Having sat down for breakfast pre-race, I tuned into NBCSN's nonstop
Tour de France coverage and as it got towards the bottom of the hour, i.e.;
8:30AM Pacific, I raced over to grab the remote as another U$ Bank Sports
Update began, as I was ready to hit the MUTE button whilst curiously wonderin'
if they'd be so STUPID to reveal the
Hockenheim Qualie' results which were being re-aired at 9AM Pacific on you
guessed I-T! SHUHZAMM! As I quickly punched the mute button as the Talking Head
began blathering 'bout 'Der Hockenheimring; SHEISA! As this is exactly what
"Peacock-lite" did on the morning of their British Grand Prix replay;
CRAP!
KNOCK IT OFF NBCSN!
And the second snafu, albeit not as egregious,
was Bob Varsha telling us they were going to show Motorcross racing and then be back at 4PM Pacific to inform us
what IndyCar and the Toronto promoter had decided to do in regards to trying to
run the race.
Thus I sat there and listened 'N listened for
some 15+ minutes until 4:11PM (Pacific) realizing that there wasn't gonna be
any announcement; WTF! As although perhaps there was some mention on the
teensy-weensy "Crawl?" But guess what
BASTARDOS! Just like being unable to read the qualifying line-ups which
are NO longer read for the entire grid, I CANNOT SEE the "Crawl" and
hence, therefore totally unaware of what had happened to the race until going
to Trackside Online, which immediately informed me that the
race had been postponed, with the article being posted at 6:14PM Eastern, just
a scant five minutes after "Peacock-lite" had switched over to the
two-wheeler action...
And then somewhat surprisingly, Indycar.com
actually had a lead news item upon the reschedule of the twin races being run
on Sunday in;
As A-L-L of this, which will both be shown on
NBCSN, makes me wonder if it'll SCREW UP the slated rebroadcast of the German
Grand Prix I'd originally planned on watching at 9AM Pacific and thus pondered
'bout getting up at Oh DARK 30! instead to watch the live action upon CNBC
instead?
