The San Jose Smackdown last Sunday between Alex Tagliani and Paul
Tracy in pit lane was some great television.
Too bad the NBC audience didn't get to see it.
Just as this confrontation erupted from pushing and grabbing to
a roundhouse left hook from Tracy and a takedown, the producer/director
of the telecast inexplicably switched back to a pit stop.
And, then, incredibly, the telecast never revisited the fight in
terms of replay. It was like it never happened.
Whoever made those two decisions is in the wrong job.
First off, who cares if the pit stop was for leader Sebastien Bourdais?
That's why we have replay in television. It's just another friggin'
pit stop. Champ Car's TV
genius cut away from the kind of drama that seldom happens anymore
in motorsports at this level to show tires being changed instead
of punches being exchanged.
The Battle of Canada should have been shown in slow motion, stop
action and there should have been interviews with owners, mechanics,
wives and analysis from the pit reporters.
It's the kind of television you can't script but you also can't
buy at any price. It's the raw emotion that drives auto
racing and the kind of action that actually gets you noticed
on a national level.
Think not? I worked on ESPN's RPM 2Nite from 1999-2003 and Sports
Center always gave CART its due until 2004 when ABC signed its
new deal with Tony George. Champ Car can't get a sniff of Sports
Center these days unless it's a spectacular crash or something
like last Sunday.
Last Sunday night, ESPN used TWO minutes from San Jose and even
promoted it off the top of the show because of the Tags/Tracy tangle.
SPEED NEWS and WIND TUNNEL ran it as one of the top stories. It
made CNN and MSNBC. TV stations around the country that never recognize
Champ Car used the fight clip.
Looking online at Monday's sports pages in the USA, several major
newspapers either ran a story or photo, or both.
NASCAR milked Tony
Stewart giving the finger to Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards
threatening to bloody Stewart for two weeks and not one punch was
thrown. If Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison were to ever break
out again, NASCAR understands show biz and would still be replaying
it as they signed off. Heck, we'd probably have a special on SPEED.
And, by your television partner showing a fight between competitors,
you're not condoning their actions, you're simply reporting on
the best thing that's happened to one of your street races in a
decade.
That's why we got such a chuckle out of Champ Car president Steve
Johnson's quote: "We will review this incident thoroughly and determine
what needs to be done to make sure things like this do not happen
in the future."
Prevent it? Champ Car should pray it happens more often.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above
commentator and are not necessarily those of SpeedTV.com, FOX,
NewsCorp, or Speed Channel
Robin Miller covers open wheel racing for SPEEDTV.com,
SPEED News and WIND TUNNEL. A lifelong resident of Indianapolis,
an 18-year-old Miller stooged for his hero Jim Hurtubise at the
Indianapolis 500 in 1968 and began covering motorsports for The
Indianapolis Star in 1969. Besides working on Indy pit crews from
1968-78, Miller also competed on the USAC midget circuit from 1975-83.
During the past 35 years he's also been a contributor for Autoweek,
Autosport, Car & Driver, ESPN The Magazine and several publications
that folded and still owe him money. He is single, a degenerate
gambler and despises the NASCAR phrase, "We
had a Top 20 car today."
Robin Miller is not affiliated with RACER magazine and his views
should not be considered representative of RACER or of Haymarket
Worldwide Inc.
