SpeedCenter, USA - Three continents in less than 30 days definitely takes its toll. Today is the first day I have had time to even think about the Internet and it's nice to be back home for a couple of days. My family and I did find a few days to get away and spend some time together. Notes To The Fans:
By Paul Page
Nazareth Broadcast Preview
©1996 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
Nazareth will be the first time since Miami that our entire crew has been together and offered full control of the race broadcast.
Director, Debbie Luginbuhl, came down with the "Rio Flu" as did a few of the drivers and ended up spending the entire time in Australia in the hospital. Nice to have you back, Deb!
The Australia broadcast was disappointing to many of the fans (yes, I read my email!) and this was due to the fact that (Australia) Channel 10 has controlled the broadcast since the first race at Surfer's Paradise, but the Indy Car race followed quick on the heels of the Formula One race and Channel 10 simply did not have the equipment available for our broadcast.
So, the race ended up in the control of Channel 9 and they only had three trucks. It was a frustrating weekend for us and we simply did the best job we could with what equipment was available.
Nazareth is the most difficult oval on the Indy Car circuit that we cover. There are six on-track cameras and with the elevation changes there is no one camera that can "see" the entire track.
So, to cover the race and show the fans the maximum coverage possible ends in six camera cuts every 19 seconds! It gets very hectic in the booth at Nazareth, to say the least.
Danny Sullivan will be testing at Le Mans this weekend, so Bobby Unser will be my co-anchor for the race broadcast. Also in the booth will be Scott Goodyear who I will be training for the U.S. 500 broadcast on ESPN.
For you Scott Goodyear fans, he is recovering very well and is looking forward to getting back in the car. He is extremely disappointed in having the miss the Inaugural U.S. 500, but is happy to at least being able to take part in the ESPN broadcast.
It will be a very full weekend for Bobby and I as we also have the IROC race at Talladega this weekend!
On Saturday we will be broadcasting the Indy Car qualifying from Nazareth on ESPN2. Immediately after that I will record a feed for ABC's Wide World Of Sports. Once that has been completed, Bobby and I fly down to Talladega for the IROC coverage and then it's back on the plane to Nazareth to start recording inserts for Sunday's Indy Car race!
A busy weekend it will be..... See you at Nazareth!
Editor's Note - Coming soon to SpeedCenter, from Paul Page: "The Making Of An Indy Car Broadcast."
