I don't know if anyone else remembers this, but around '97 there was one or two races done on Pay-Per-View that were 8 hours of live, race day coverage. They advertised that you would see every single car that went down the track on Sunday, and they kept to their word. I was recovering from a motocross injury so I HAD to lay in bed and thought it would be great to see that. I was wrong. It was the most boring, lifeless display of drag racing I had ever saw. Having been to many national events, I never knew how many time I apparently get out of my seat to wander the pits or get a coke or T-shirt during the less thrilling classes, but it must be plenty because I never could sit through 8 hours of that crap. It got so bad during oil downs (which seem fast while at the track) Steve Evans and Brock Yates would sift through viewers comments letters and answer them on air because they had absolutely ran out of things to talk about. I suspect it was a huge failure because they only did it once or twice and I only saw the one show and wanted to ask for my $5 fee back it was so bad. Be careful what you ask for in wanting live coverage, because you just might get it.Ok my only question is, why not just run the entire race live?
And yes I mean from 11 am to 4:30 pm like Nascar or F1 or Indy does.
With all the popularity of Pinks and Pinks Allout it has been proven TV veiwers love the Stockers and Super Classes.
What about ESPN3 its on live for the entire event Sundays, its great. That is what needs to be done, not a taped show with live final round.
If the event were live they could have planned comercial breaks and use any down time for pre-taped segments or fill with live interveiws.
11 to 4:30 is a show that would be shorter than an NFL or Baseball game.
If they do a live final and something does go wrong, and something will, No one will give it a second chance ever again.
They need to run the race live on Sunday from first round to the finals, all classes, or stick to what we have now.
Really if you watch ESPN3 you will see that is allready what they are doing, the entire race is live.
All the comentary is live as it happens, in fact if you watch the E3 broadcast and listen to the NHRA audiocast,you find the NHRA.com audiocast is delayed buy several seconds behind the E3 live video broadcast.
Go Live or Go home!