I was attempting to watch the TUSCC race at Indianapolis this morning and it made me wonder, what must be going through the minds of the producers of the TV telecast when they are putting it to air. They don’t have a choice when it comes to incidents on track etc, but the amount of Full course yellows, ad breaks, commercial partner promotional segments, pit-lane driver interviews and general commentator dribble is now getting ridiculous, to the point where there is hardly any racing being shown. I tuned out eventually, choosing to background watch the stream, with the volume muted, while typing this report. It’s just all too hard! A lot has been said about the TUSCC (read NASCAR) way of doing things this year, from the driver gradings, the Balance of performance on the Prototype classes and of course their event TV production, but it’s got to be said, that in comparison, the ALMS put together a pretty slick TV/live video stream when they were controlling the reins.

Do the current TV production people not think that the fans are actually wanting to see the racing, rather than the off track non-racing antics they are giving us now? I understand that a commercial backer wants to get coverage for their products or services, but it is now gotten to the stage where it’s a commercial turnoff point. We (the fans), are being shown a race where more ads are being shown than actual racing.

If TUSCC want to destroy their fan base of North American sports car racing, they are going about it the right way. This year was supposed to be a year of integration, learning and ironing out the bugs of partnering the two former series (ALMS and Grand-am), but for every one step forward, they seem to take two steps back.

I am rapidly losing patience with this mob. They probably couldn’t care less about that, but the reality is, if comments on social media are anything to go by, a lot of others feel the same way.

I’ll be tuning in to watch the Spa 24 hour race, later this weekend, where we will hopefully be able to see the actual race instead of an advertising event with a touch of racing thrown in.