1 AM? ESPN, you have got to be kidding (2 Viewers)

[Wayne]

Have you guys noticed the "live" jinx?
Everytime the network goes live to the track, whoever is running....
gets fluid on the surface? And we end up watching the safari.
Crazy huh?

Me too Paul! LOL

 

[Jay]

Uh, 4 pm PST, 1/2 way thru PS semis.
Baseball starts @ 5 pm

75 min between rounds!!! PSMotorcycles run their final first.
Therfore our finals start well after 5 pm.

The NHRA has shortened the turn-arounds many times before...They certainly could have done that today, as well....They could have had everything in, unless there was an oildown, by 5...

 

[Professor Dave]

And we are being snubbed by a Baseball studio show? What the FU#K! I love baseball, but to NOT show the Final Rounds live so that we can hear two guys guess how many home runs the Mets are going to hit tonight is BULLSH!T...!!!

If the teams have 756 minutes, the final rounds don't start until after 8 EDT. Remember that when they went off the air at 7, the semis were live.

 

[Professor Dave]

would it have killed them to to show the last semi final in pro stock ? it would have delayed the baseball pregame show all of 30 or 40 more seconds . geeeeez !!!!

I'm with you on that one! Of course if a nitro car hadn't oiled down the track, we would have gotten the semis in!

 

[Jay]

If the teams have 756 minutes, the final rounds don't start until after 8 EDT. Remember that when they went off the air at 7, the semis were live.

Well...either way, they could have put the rest of the coverage on ESPN news instead of RE-RUNNING The Blitz...Or something like that...

 

[Wayne]

The NHRA has shortened the turn-arounds many times before...They certainly could have done that today, as well....They could have had everything in, unless there was an oildown, by 5...

That is why right now they're running alcohol @ 8 min til 5pm!!!

Bill Reichert- 5.103 @ 281 MPH Quickest run ever in A/FUEL
And the speed mark @ 282 (earlier today)

WOW

 

[Triple Nickel II]

I am one of the first to cry foul when taped racing starts late due to the "live" ping pong championships but jeeze, some of you guys are just a bunch of crybabies.

Drag racing fans got a full 3 hours of racing (including a very sincere and well executed effort to honor Eric Medlen throughout the coverage) when ESPN could have just as easily pre-empted the entire show due to the rain and aired a 1 hour highlight show at some rediculous time like 3 AM Wednesday.

The rain pushed back Houston's schedule for today. ESPN made lemonade from the lemons and gave us the last 1/2 hour or so of the TV window as a live broadcast.

TNN cut away from live coverage of the Winternationals about a decade and a half ago at their planned time, right after Kenny Bernstein went over the wall backwards in the Top Fuel finals. Steve Evans had just enough time to get a few (obviously bell rung) words from the Bud King to let us know he was going to be ok.

Some of us old-timers remember waiting MONTHS for a single airing of a 1 hour syndicated Diamond P broadcast of SELECT national events in the 1970's and 80's and the occassional (still weeks or months later) event segments on ABC's Wide World of Sports.

I thought Eric's tragedy would help some people to appreciate what they have and make the best of things in life. I guess that only lasted a few days.

 

[Jer]

I am one of the first to cry foul when taped racing starts late due to the "live" ping pong championships but jeeze, some of you guys are just a bunch of crybabies.

Drag racing fans got a full 3 hours of racing (including a very sincere and well executed effort to honor Eric Medlen throughout the coverage) when ESPN could have just as easily pre-empted the entire show due to the rain and aired a 1 hour highlight show at some rediculous time like 3 AM Wednesday.

The rain pushed back Houston's schedule for today. ESPN made lemonade from the lemons and gave us the last 1/2 hour or so of the TV window as a live broadcast.

Some of us old-timers remember waiting MONTHS for a single airing of a 1 hour syndicated Diamond P broadcast of SELECT national events in the 1970's and 80's and the occassional (still weeks or months later) event segments on ABC's Wide World of Sports.

I thought Eric's tragedy would help some people to appreciate what they have and make the best of things in life. I guess that only lasted a few days.

Times have changed and if your going to do it then do it right ESPN

 

[Triple Nickel II]

Times have changed

Yeah...people don't appeciate how good they have it.

 

[Jer]

Yeah...people don't appeciate how good they have it.

Or how good we could have it,lol i mean should

 

[Triple Nickel II]

Or how good we could have it,lol i mean should

If you will foot the bill to launch and maintain an all-live drag racing, all the time TV network, I'll promise to watch.

 

[Wayne]

It must be the name thing but you're 100% right Wayne!!!

ESPN2 DID IT RIGHT TODAY!!!

 

[Ray]

We need a dedicated racing channel!!!!

 

[.]

That is why right now they're running alcohol @ 8 min til 5pm!!!

Bill Reichert- 5.103 @ 281 MPH Quickest run ever in A/FUEL
And the speed mark @ 282 (earlier today)

WOW

That's pretty damn amazing, especially on 97%. What was Mitch Meyers record? It was a 5.10 also, right?

 

[Bobby]

Well, Dave Despain told me who won so I guess I 'll not bother taping.
I guess if you're on the west coast, the timing won't be bad. What can they do?
Espn did a good job today.

I agree with one thing though, that I think is being said: in the era of hundreds of cable channels, certainly we can find one that actually wants to show our favorite sport

 

[Marchboom]

I couldn't care less about watching a show live if it means that I won't get to see the entire thing. And then have to come back 6 hrs later! They should have just started the program later on tonight and presented the entire show. This is one sport where oil downs are going to happen, and, therefore, delays. I think the NHRA is doing too much to cater to this TV thing and it is at the expense of the racers (75 min rule?). They put undue pressure on the teams to "hurry up cuz we're on live TV!". Sooner or later this will lead to an accident.

 

[Kris]

Eh. Blame the rain, not ESPN. You sure you wanted to sit and listen to Paul Page, Mike Dunn, Dave Rieff and Gary Gerould try and fill air during the turnaround?

I know some of you actually go to races sometimes. Last race I went to I spent so much time at the track (and don't get me wrong I loved it) but after my Vegas trip in October I realized the benefits of taped racing.

At first, I was like, naaaaw, just cut five minutes into 'Baseball Tonight' but, yeah, I'm on the West Coast, so I just hung out til the coverage came back at 10 p.m. PST and watched the last half hour. I guess maybe it's still the newb level of addiction I have, but, I want to watch drag racing coverage and will take it when I can get it and how I can get it.

I missed the Gatornationals eliminations entirely, DVRd it, watched a few days later, zipped through the commercials and loved it even though I knew the results.

Before I went to Vegas in the fall I was all up in ESPN2's grill about delays and stuff. But after sitting at the track three hours after the qualifying rounds were supposed to end due to circumstances beyond the NHRA's control, I was all for TV coverage how we get it. 99 percent of the time at least.

 

[Rich]

Until the NHRA is smart enough to do a deal with a Network that WANTS drag racing, it will always be this way....I say they should go to Versus...That is a VERY aggressive network that has done a terrific job with the NHL this year, and they would welcome a property like the NHRA, and actually promote it, as well.....

I, too, am impressed with the job that Versus has done with the NHL. Also, while I am not one who particularly likes bicycle racing, those who do have told me the network does an excellent job with that sport as well. The only problem I see with Versus is that the network isn't as widely available as ESPN 2.

However, if the NHRA were to move to a network that would give it a regular timeslot then I think it would also behoove the powers that be in Glendora to rethink ways to showcase the sport on television. For instance, it would be smart to add a race or two to the schedule in order to eliminate the three week gap that now exists so that there would be no more than two weeks between races. Second, just as NASCAR has the Busch and Craftsman truck series to supplement the Nextel Cup series, the NHRA also needs a series to fill the television gap on those weekends when there are no Powerade series races scheduled. An example of this might be a hypothetical Full Throttle Series that showcased Top Alcohol dragsters, Top Alcohol funny cars and pro mods. Like NASCAR, we would then have drag racing every weekend from February to November.

Finally, since every major sport has an all-star event (including NASCAR) it would probably not be a bad idea to move the Top Fuel Shootout, Skoal Showdown, King Demon Crown, and Ringers Glove Pro Bike Battle to a single weekend - perhaps held with a similar event for the hypothetical "Full Throttle Series" event I mentioned above - and hold it at a different track each year.

That's my two cents. Of course in the end that two cents won't buy too much since the current contract with ESPN still has several years to go.

 

[Jim]

Again, I find myself defending ESPN.
They were running the semi-final rounds live (even ran over a bit, I think). How would you expect them to hold the audience for another 2 hours (minimum). We got our finals at a reasonable hour (at least if you adjusted your TIVO)

Would you have stayed all day at Houston on the CHANCE they might have a round of Saturday qualifying? ESPN did. I was surprised they even DID a show Saturday.

 

[Sully]

ESPN recognized the potential weather problems before Friday's sessions ran and did full video coverage of Fridays qualifying so they were assured of having video for the qualifying show Saturday, even if it rained all day Saturday, which it did. The guy who told me all that was Paul Page, who was watching Friday's action very intently.

Give 'em a break - they have more money invested in and derive more revenue from their baseball coverage than they do from drag racing and yesterday was the opening day of the baseball season.

ESPN website reporter Terry Blount was at the event all weekend. Between Terry and Bill Stevens, you can expect to find a lot of good drag racing-oriented articles in the "Other Racing" category on ESPN.com. Yes, NASCAR will still dominate their motorsports coverage and the major stick-and-ball sports will continue to dominate the weekly on-air coverage, but drag racing is not being thrown under the bus and the people doing drag racing coverage are doing a pretty good job of it.

Just my opinion, of course.