Phoenix Trip Report
by Paul Haney
The Indy Racing League race event at Phoenix International
Raceway ran from Friday, March 26 through Sunday March 28. NASCAR
Trucks, Winston West, and Formula 2000 also competed at this
event. I flew to Phoenix on Thursday and returned to Redwood
City Saturday night. I'll post three trip reports: IRL, Trucks,
and F2000.
Truck report page 1: Uploaded
3/30/99. First page of three, lots of photos.
Formula 2000 page 1: Uploaded
3/31/99. Two pages with photos of cars and future stars.
IRL report page 1: Uploaded
4/3/99. Three pages of photos.
The Race on TV
I really enjoy going to a race or test. I learn a lot just
watching and talking to people. For me the race is an anticlimax
and I'd rather watch it on TV. That's why I flew home Saturday
night. Unfortunately this race had so many crashes it got boring.
I was taping it anyway so I left the VCR running and ran some
errands. Later I could fast forward it and watch the interesting
spots.
All the IRL races are survival contests because of all the
crashes and miscues. This time it was Scott Goodyear and the
Kelly Racing team who survived. Maybe there will be an IRL race
this year with so many crashes that Marco Greco might win. NAH!
This was a new TV announce crew and I thought they did OK.
Jack Arute brings a lot of enthusiasm and basic racing knowledge.
Dave Calabro sounds like a talking head but he was OK too. Arie
Luyendyk doesn't speak very clearly but he saw exactly what was
happening on the track when the others were just guessing. I
don't know why you would want to have a race announcer who was
NOT a former race driver. Anybody can learn to do the announcer
job.
Calvin Fish is always good as a pit announcer. He's another
former driver. One of Chris Economaki's pet peeves is pit announcers
showing off by asking long questions. I'd hate to hear what he
has to say about Vince Welch.
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