Chance & Broadcasters

I was on grandprix.com tonight doing some research for something (I've already forgot what it was, to be quite honest) and after I found out whatever information I originally went searching their archives for I got curious about what race it was that I first saw as an adult that got me obsessed with F1.

Once I pinpointed the race in question (French GP, Magny-Cours, July 21, 2002) I started thinking about the few people that really enjoy this blog all over the world and how the reason they come here is for my silly take on things. I'm not a news source. I'm not terribly technical. I am an opinionated American that some folks find amusing due to my semi-skewed take on Formula 1.

Once upon a time I was supposed to be an up and coming young F1 journalist years ago but apparently I was too old even at the time to win the Red Bull journalism prize (by 1 year) that I felt I needed to help get my career kick-started and at the same time I have yet to fulfill my Journalism/Mass Communications degree at the ripe old age of 28... So as you can see life got in the way and as of late I have forgot to update this blog as much as I should be doing. But in the end I sure do love to write about Formula 1 racing and the things that captivate and amuse me about the sport both new and old.

That is why this blog exists. That is the same reason there are only a handful of the many web pages devoted to F1 that are worth reading that DO serve as a news source. This blog exists to amuse, provoke some though and possibly educate. I don't break news. I'm not going to be able to explain very well why some teams were soiling themselves at the beginning of this past season over the double diffusers some other teams had. There are plenty of people who can do that well and plenty more people who aspire to.

Formula 1 at times can be kind of cold and soulless. I like to latch on to that bit of warmth that the sport does emit and discuss that aspect. With that said, I shall try to get back to my "roots" and tell more stories of how F1 has touched me as well as parody and lampoon the other aspects that I find absurd for the enjoyment of the few fine loyal readers I do have... starting this entry!

I learned 10 years ago as a young intern at Alternative Press magazine here in Cleveland that publishers don't get too excited over creative writing exercises involving humor concerning whatever subject it is that their publication "seriously" covers, but many readers can be and ARE entertained by such bits of nonsense. Who doesn't like entertainment?

With that said, I shall tell my eye-opening Formula 1 experience and elaborate on it a bit. I would greatly enjoy reading what your F1 eye-opener was.

The Tale:

It was early August in 2002. I had just arrived home from a 3 day trip to Peoria, Illinois and was kind of pissed off as a whole due to the person I was traveling with and the fact that we hit massive traffic delays about 50 miles south of arriving home which added an extra hour to an already long enough road trip. It was around midnight when I finally arrived home. My father was watching TV and drinking a glass of scotch as he often does. The old man was real excited because he'd found a channel that showed F1 races regularly.

Now, my dad has been a pretty devout follower of Formula 1 since the late 1960's when a buddy of his in college took him up to Watkins Glen for some racing action and evenings of drinking. He went to all the US GP's at The Glen from 1973 to 1980. In 1976 he first won tickets to the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix from Formula Magazine. He had his father who worked at the local General Electric in Erie, PA make him up some "official" looking credentials that stated he was a Team Lotus photographer and was able to get into the paddock and on to the starting grid to take some amazing pictures of drivers and famous folk, on top of being able to get some great Super 8 film by hanging off of the barriers manned by a track marshal for drivers to enter through should they need to get past the catch-fencing and concrete barriers in the event of a failure or crash. Later that year he and my mother went to the race at Mosport In Canada. Then, in 1981 I was born. My birth caused him to have to give up wandering around the USA & Canada to watch F1 races. It also sadly caused him to have to quit racing in the SCCA's Formula Vee series. To make matters worse, my need for Pampers was so fierce that he had to sell his beautiful 1969 Lotus Europa which had aided him in the procurement of 3 SCCA Autocross championships in the mid-1970's. With my bottom covered in diapers with money received from selling relics of his youth he was still able to make it to two more GP's due to his employment with Phillip Morris. In 1982 and 1983 he scored some great tickets to the Grand Prix of Detroit, which sadly were the last races he has attended.

Since then he had always kept up with F1 via magazines and any races shown on TV. He named me after Niki Lauda and as a small child would try to educate me in the ways of F1. While I was too young to really understand I was always well aware of the names Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Emerson Fittipaldi, and of course Niki Lauda. I would play with his expensive small scale F1 replica cars and that was about it. I always had an appreciation and respect for the sport but due to it being hard to see in the states, never really started following it... until that fateful night in August of 2002 when the Speed Channel was replaying a recent race in the wee hours of the morning.

I remember just arriving back home and during a commercial my pops telling me how he was pretty sure a Michael Schumacher was about to surpass Juan Manuel Fangio's record of world championships that Schumi & Fangio up to that race currently shared. While my dad was familiar with the Schumacher name, I sure was not but this information was enough for me to at least sit down and watch the last half of the race. I found it interesting because at that point in time I had become very consumed with the art and science of driving so it was finally fascinating to me to watch these fine men driving the best cars to the limit.

From there on out my love of the sport only became more and more vicious. I spent the off season(s) reading tons of my dad's many books on F1 from the 60's and 70's and discovered the F1 web pages I still check first thing in the morning to this day. I started my own F1 book collection as I love the old school as much as the new school. I would poach my pops' books, buy new ones when I could find them at my local book shop, and buy ones online that while expensive, I felt I must have.

On top of raiding my dad's files and growing my own collection of books, and hours of internet reading I would watch the previous seasons races during the winter months because in 2003 I started recording EVERY race weekend and Formula 1 Decade and ANY other bit of F1 related material that came on TV.

From watching the previous seasons races during the winter I grew to love the American F1 commentators immensely. I remember when a Steve Matchett one day appeared on the broadcasts along with Mr. Hobbs & company. Matchett was so technical and business oriented that it threw me because he was so well informed and had so much insight. I was used to the other guys being efficient and lighthearted but this fellow just presented the facts and knew what he was talking about so intricately. It took a few races for me to warm to the man but now I don't know what I would do should he not call the races. Between Matchett, the wonderfully colorful and amusing David Hobbs & good old Bob Varsha I can no longer fully enjoy a race with out them. At times I have had to watch European coverage due to VCR malfunctions and it was just not the same. Those three men make F1 that much more interesting for me and are honestly the only reason I am so adamant about catching the Friday practices. We all know that not a whole hell of a lot happens during those practice sessions some times, but I derive a great amount of enjoyment hearing Hobbs, Matchett, Varsha, and Windsor just shooting the shit that Friday practice is an event for me. While I do enjoy qualifying the only reason I make sure to tune in at the top of the sessions is to hear them, as we all know the real action happens in the last 2 minutes of Q3 any how.

It is funny how the fellows who call your races can make such an impact on the overall viewing experience. The first time I realized this strongly was when Speed Channel would lose races to CBS and my three guys wouldn't be calling the races. I remember watching the last 15 laps or so of a thrilling San Marino GP in 2005 muted because the guys calling the race were angering me so much. You couldn't listen to them. They were atrocious. If "my guys" had been calling the race those last laps would have been just amazing. I was so pissed that I wrote a letter to CBS voicing my distaste. I appreciated that they were trying to bring a bigger American audience to Formula 1 (and more fine American dollars to Mr. Ecclestone's bulging bank account) but at the same time explained that if they had had Hobbs, Matchett & Varsha that people would be even more receptive. Eventually the races stopped being on CBS and instead on Fox, when not on Speed and thankfully we got our announcers back. I like to think my letter helped. It didn't. But I still like to think it did...


But that wasn't the first time I realized how much "your guys" meant to the overall viewing experience. It all originally clicked with me and made sense one day when some really good racing was going on and that new Matchett guy was getting excited. When he gets excited the man gets an aggressive, very British tone about him when truly stirred and that in turn made me even more excited about what was transpiring since I knew that if Matchett was really excited that it was the real deal. From that point onward I realized why people were so sad when Murray Walker retired. As a newbie AND an American I never really heard him call races but after spending a lot of money on bootleg DVD's of vintage seasons and hearing him I realized that he was the voice of British F1 viewers and to many, his voice was all they knew. He was a part of the family. Like a cousin or uncle.

The guys who call the races that you watch make up such an important part of the show. You figure on average, if you watch all the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday events that you are hearing "your guys" talk for almost 80 hours a year.

Think about that.

So in the end I would like to thank my father, that shitty trip to Illinois back in 2002, Niki Lauda, Michael Schumacher and the announcers on Speed's F1 broadcasts for all helping me discover my love of Formula 1 Racing.

Thanks guys!