12 replies to this topic

[Barry Boor]

I switched across to BBC2 at 4.50, which was the stated start time of the BBC coverage of the Rockingham race. Not only were they a day behind of course, but at 4.50 the race was 90 laps old.

They then managed to compress the remaining 121 laps into about 20 minutes.

Quite why they bothered at all I am at a loss to understand.

Thank heavens for digital!!!!

[Cypher]

Yeah, you only missed 5 minutes of race coverage too as it started at 4.45pm.

90 laps in the first 5 minutes.

[Dudley]

My report from http://forum.grantur...&threadid=71707

Worst Sport Coverage ever. BBC / Rockingham
The BBC coverage of Rockingham today was possibly the worst attempt at sport broadcasting it's ever been my misfortune to sit through.

First they only allocated 45mins to the whole CART program. Then wasted the first 10minutes with a long and very, very dull chat with Dario pre-race and ignoring Team St.George totally. (thus leading anyone who didn't already know to suspect Dario won). In the end only 26mins of the actual race was shown.

They spent 5mins "comparing" an F1 car and a CART car, using a 5 year old road course CART car sitting on wet tyres and last years F2001. Thus neatly knackering the vast majority of the comparison, especially for an oval race. (The car incidentally appears to have been a 1997 or maybe 98 Reynard in Bryan Herta's old Shell-Rahal colours).

The commentary was from Charlie "I was a BTCC driver and somehow appear to have retained my BBC job despite knowing nothing when they lost the BTCC rights" Cox and Johnny "Christian DaMatta" Herbert. Neither made any allowences for us having a sliced up race and made no attempt to explain anything we missed.

And we missed a lot. We saw Paul Tracey's faliure at length inlcuding a full minute taken up staring at the helmet cam as he wondered along the back straight.

We didn't see Nakano crash (I assume he crashed it just says contact)

We didn't see any reason AT ALL for the 2nd yellow, nor was any reason explained to us. Since Tony Kanaan was listed as "contact" I can only presume he crashed and probably dropped some oil.

They cut straight from a shot of Darren Manning in 9th to one of him leading 20 laps later. No attempt was made to explain precisely what the living hell happened or that Manning was out of sync pit stop wise. They didn't explain him going backwards towards the end either. Indeed during the race they pretty much ignored the one guy the audience might identify with.

Johnny Herbert referred to the mysterious "Christian DaMatta" on 2 occasions (and a further one of referring to a Christian when daMatta was in shot and Fittipaldi was long out of the race, not that we saw that either)

They cut straight from a shot of Adrian Fernandez running at full speed in 14th to one of him getting very, very angry with someone for some reason or another. They spent well over 30secs laughing at him being angry. At no point was any explanation even attempted as the what the living hell went on (I still don't know) apart from a vague reference to a stop-go penalty, the reason for which is apparently not important.

We saw Franchitti's first and last pitstops. Then suddenly it emergered as we watched lap 190ish that he'd done 6. No explanation was given by the commentators for this having already drilled into us the plan was for 4 pit stops. I still don't know why he had to make 6. Franchitti in a post race interview mentioned a clutch problem, that was literally the first we'd heard about it.

No explanation or even acklowledgement was given of the retirements of Tagliani, Nakano, Fittipaldi or Kannan apart from the "FedEx" running order telling us "Contact" or "Mechanical"

Apparently Adrian Fernandez drives "A Fernandez machine with Lola Power"

They skipped entirely almost entirely laps 108 - 180, apart from a tiny bit on the 2nd caution pitstops. I STILL have no idea when the 2nd caution actually was or how the hell franchitti somehow came out in the lead after them but Manning was nowhere to be seen. It was incidentally just after that Cox said "6 pitstops and still your race leader". My reaction "WHAT? WHEN?"

Reviewing my copy just found another gem. "Chris-t-o Da Matta" (pheonetically spelled brilliance by Johnny there)

No less than 3 times they postage stamped the coverage screen to inform us of upcoming boxing coverage between "Vargas (who?) and LaHoya(who?) A further time they compressed the CART image into almost non-existence to invite us to phone a premium phone line to vote for which of 3 clips we wanted to see again. None were remotely racing related.

Laps 16-91 got 4 mins
Laps 111 - 180 got 5mins

At no point were we given a track map. Or any description of the circuit beyond it's being an oval. No-one told us the length, or the banking "bankedness"

Or indeed the length of the race. Johnny Herbert claimed it was 500 miles and neither Charlie Cox nor anyone else corrected him. It was of course 500km, although why the hell they're measuring in KM in a miles country I don't know.

Despite what appeared to be a forward facing camera on Franchitti's car we were treated to endless shots of A)the rear wing and b) blurred greyness behind.

Not quite as justifed this one, Charlie Cox referred to Servia being in the "Visteon" car. An Americanism I REALLY hate. It's Patrick racing. He wasn't even consistent. (See the "Fernandez machine, Lola power) incident above.

--

And finally some general CART niggles.

They raised a Scottish flag for Franchitti and played the British national anthem. At least do the minimum of research guys. If Manning had won we'd have probably been treated to the Union flag and Land of hope and Glory.

Why the hell do they come all this way to race on an oval? No-one cares. The place was empty, it was pruned to a 45min slot in the death ground of BBC2 Sundays between Showjumping and obscure boxing and Rockingham is a crappy place anyway.

And finally the ticket prices. £110 for anything remotely decent. You can book an F1 race ticket for that now that while leaving you on a grass bank rather than a seat would give you a great view. The ABSOLUTE cheapest just track entry ticket was £40. For that you get to stand behind a fence on some concrete. British GP vs obscure american series on a track no-one likes. Hmm.

In April I went to Brands Hatch. I had a free ticket from VeeDub16v but my friend paid £10. For that we got 2 BTCC races, British Formula 3, Porsche Cup, British GT championship and a historic sportscar race as well as freedom to roam the circuit and some very nice grass banks to sit on. We got a place on the starting line virtually and could see about a mile of circuit.

While that option exists, at that price Rockingham is doomed. Now if CART came to Brands Hatch I'd be there with £40 before you could say "Christian DaMatta".

It appears people agree. From the TV pictures and the crowd cover at the Luton v Notts County match I went to instead I'd say that Rockingham was 1/3rd full. TOPS. 2/3rds full looks pretty full, this looked like a Pig Roast in Jerusalem.

CART in Europe is doomed. I'd be astounded if the BBC got the viewing figures to bother. I was very close to turning off. I like CART and I had no idea where the hell everyone was half the time. y dad is a big motor-racing fan, if the ticket prices had been sensible we were planning to go and he knows a lot of the drivers. He gave up about lap 10. I can't imagine what a casual motor-racing fan would have said and a simply curious person could have been turned off for life.

They need to go to a road course, they need to get Murray or Ben Edwards to commentate (or even the eurosport guys the BBC used last year) and they need to price the tickets so it doesn't seem like they're pretending to be F1.

[Jackie]

I had to laugh at the American coverage. The accouncer said something like "And in England there's a racetrack with an American name - Rockingham".

Now my history is appalling but didn't we have a prime minister in the UK called Rockingham before America was even invented???

[FredF1]

Thanks for that guys.
I was wondering what the hell was going on.
I wandered off after watching the Italian GP - came back in at 4.50 to watch the coverage of Rockingham and couldn't figure out what was happenning on track at all. Charlie Cox was making a comment about something Johnny Herbert had said - yet, as far as I could tell, I hadn't heard Herbert say anything!
And I thought Eurosport's truncated/delayed coverage was bad?

[condor]

I was dissapointed that there was no live coverage on TV - listened to the race via a radio feed on cart.com - whose commentary was very good.

Some race comments are on this thread

http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=47863

Very poor highlights show by the BBC....they should have used the tapes from Rockingham TV and their radio commentary as well.

[ensign14]

Originally posted by Jackie
Now my history is appalling but didn't we have a prime minister in the UK called Rockingham before America was even invented???

And we had Lord Rockingham's XI in the 50s. Hoots mon, there's a moose loose aboot thes hoose.

[Breadmaster]

It was terrible, sliced and cut soooooooo badly. I could have edited it better.

90 laps disappeared in the middle ..... and they are trying to promote this?

[Garagiste]

Agreed it was pathetic.
Dudley - damned right on the ticket prices - and it was cheaper this year than last. Well not cheap enough, I went last year and felt ripped off so (apparently like many others) stayed away this year.

[BRG]

Dudley

I agree completely with you. But don't blame the commentators too much for the discontinuity - I imagine that most of their work was left on the cutting room floor. Whoever edited the "coverage" needs shooting - or at least deserves to be given an opportunity to explore other career paths. Yet another pathetic effort by the Beeb who seem to be incapable of any new ideas when it comes to sports coverage.

I popped into Rockingham a few weeks ago for a look around. Very impressive facility, but I decided not to bother going to the race when I saw how good the "view" is (or rather isn't). A view of the top of a couple of dozen rollhoops whizzing past, obstructed by a huge debris fence, isn't worth what Rockingham were asking for tickets. Also I watched a few ASCAR cars testing, and got bored in about 3 minutes, whereas testing on a road course would hold my attention for quite a lot longer than that.

[VAR1016]

The BBC would have been better advised to have provided live coverage of the Goodwood Revival Weekend.

PdeRL

[Dudley]

Does anyone know what it costs for one of the ASCAR only weekends?

[condor]

ASCAR Sunday 6th October
BOGOF on advanced bookings
call advance tickethotline before 30/09/02 with CCdetails and quote ref ASCAR03

Advance ticket price £12 Children go free (max of 2 per adult)