North American Sportscar Media Thread

[MaskedRacer]

Great to see a cameo from Marshall Pruett in this weeks in sportscars podcast. It is interesting how he really gave the WEC a reality check in that beyond the sportscar fandom world, they are barely a blimp on the radar screen for Motorsports and sports in general. Thankfully did not say that about IMSA. Which should be left out. For any track that has the Weathertech series, that race is either the first or second biggest weekend on their calender each year. Even at a place like Mid Ohio which gets lots of series to come to its playground, Indy car is their biggest race probably. But I'm sure the IMSA series ranks ahead of NASCAR Xfinity as far as their "biggest events" go.

[MaskedRacer]

I think we have gotten articles about Ford for everything. They are doing something, they are doing something different. They might do this. Oh they won't do that. That is the case on both Racer and S365.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

I think we have gotten articles about Ford for everything. They are doing something, they are doing something different. They might do this. Oh they won't do that. That is the case on both Racer and S365.

It's free marketing, their name is always mentioned and the new mantra of as long as someone is mentioning your name it's a good thing. Ignoring completely the fact most people are shaking their head and no real impact on sales from the mentions

[carbsmith]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Great to see a cameo from Marshall Pruett in this weeks in sportscars podcast. It is interesting how he really gave the WEC a reality check in that beyond the sportscar fandom world, they are barely a blimp on the radar screen for Motorsports and sports in general. Thankfully did not say that about IMSA. Which should be left out. For any track that has the Weathertech series, that race is either the first or second biggest weekend on their calender each year. Even at a place like Mid Ohio which gets lots of series to come to its playground, Indy car is their biggest race probably. But I'm sure the IMSA series ranks ahead of NASCAR Xfinity as far as their "biggest events" go.

Only places WEC might not be in the top two at the track is at Spa because of the Blancpain 24 hour, and maybe Silverstone because of MotoGP (which isn't fair in a comparison because motorcycle racing is depressing in America), I really don't understand the point of this post.

[Adam43]

On two levels.
1. It actually is a major race for the series.
2. Sportscar is a minority sport and isn't actually important in the US or the world.

Sorry, three levels
The situation is different in the US anyway. It is a wrong assertion and has no context.

So, to the title of the thread. I know of no good Sportscar Media. Here in NA or world wide.

[Akrapovic]

Pruett in not liking WEC shocker.

Next up, Dagys tells us Ford are looking at DPi. More at 11.

[chernaudi]

Anymore, if it's not coming from Graham Goodwin/DSC, I have a hard time believing that someone's not pushing an agenda/have their own slant to it.

[Adam43]

That is not a good situation.

[Akrapovic]

It would be unwise to blindly take any publication at face value.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

It would be unwise to blindly take any publication at face value.

Exactly that, it seems like media is now suddenly this irrefutable source that most be trusted fully or it's to steal a moron's favorite line, fake news and not at all. Use the brain and intelligence you should be gathering in life to read a source and parse fact from fiction yourself. But I guess that's no longer a thing

[chernaudi]

News providers are supposed to be impartial and give the facts, not inject their own opinions, but that went out the window long ago, just like being allowed for one to form his or her own opinions and thoughts. If John or Marshall want to write opinion pieces, then fine, but make it clear that they're opinion pieces, not masquerade them as "news".

And this is coming from someone who doesn't like the mainstream media, for several reasons, including biases and slants, and that all the media in general above all else seems to like to focus on bad news: tragedies, catastrophes, etc.

I'm trying not to be political or make a statement, just giving my opinion.

[Purist]

They focus on bad news because it makes money, or else they'd go out of business. A local Russian paper a few years back tried to not have bad news for one day, and readership dropped by two thirds; they went back to business as usual the next day.

There's also going to be the increasing issue of, simply put, an article written by an algorithm, not a human, can give you "just the facts" quite capably, so what is the human to do that the machine can't to even keep his job?

Or, to put things in a slightly different light, why is Adam Smith more popular reading than Karl Marx? It's because Adam Smith was a better storyteller, not necessarily a better teller of out-and-out facts.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

News providers are supposed to be impartial and give the facts, not inject their own opinions, but that went out the window long ago, just like being allowed for one to form his or her own opinions and thoughts. If John or Marshall want to write opinion pieces, then fine, but make it clear that they're opinion pieces, not masquerade them as "news".

I agree with this, however, I would not restrict it to John and MP as per the previous post. There is plenty of agenda pushing and ego stroking in all camps. Every one of them.

[chernaudi]

At least Graham from DSC makes it clear that when he's sharing his opinion, it's what he intends to do.

Granted, I do focus on Dagys and Pruett since they're the main guys covering North American road racing and road racing in general who are based in North America, considering that I'm also based in Ohio, basically down the road from Mid-Ohio in fact.

[Akrapovic]

Can't say I agree, but I'll leave it at that.

[chernaudi]

It'd be nice if we had like a North American counterpart to DSC. Not people engaging in rivalries, slagging off on each other, and putting out stuff that's questionable as far as being possible clickbait or with embellished headlines that only partly paint the story being told.

Granted, having John and Marshall are better than having nothing in NA, but things could be better. I'm not for variety for the sake of variety, but more outlets for road racing news would be nice.

It also doesn't help that road racing isn't insanely popular in NA outside of the stereotypical "wine and cheese" crowd. Not saying that everyone here is part of that group, and I'm certainly not, but road racing just isn't as popular in NA as it is in Europe as far as being mainstream.

[Akrapovic]

I'd quite like a European version of S365 at this point to be honest.

[chernaudi]

Looking back on my previous post, outside of the Ford vs Ferrari film, is there a way other than word of mouth to promote road racing in North America?

[Akrapovic]

Social media and youtube clips. Find short high quality clips that show good racing and post them on Facebook. Short clips work better - you won't get new fans to watch Truth in 24 first. But they will watch 30 seconds of side by side craziness.

[seanyb505]

The problem is American fans get side by side "craziness" as the default race mode in circle tracks from Pickens Speedway to Talledega. Porsche v Ferrari at Sebring 2007 is just another day in nascar land. Sportscar racing is about nuances, which masses don't particularly care for.

[chernaudi]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Social media and youtube clips. Find short high quality clips that show good racing and post them on Facebook. Short clips work better - you won't get new fans to watch Truth in 24 first. But they will watch 30 seconds of side by side craziness.

Well, for my part, I've been sharing videos of LM GT and LMP cars testing at Monza and videos related to Le Mans in my FB posts recently, mostly to let my friends know why they won't be hearing from me at all during Saturday

[MaskedRacer]

Would love to see replays of all the races posted with no commentary perhaps a couple weeks after the events. Makes the races re watchable over and over again. But so far it has not happened.

You sort of get this with the onboard footage at these races still. I like "Jarenson" and "Swagger Racing" channels on youtube. Highly recommend it. Does anybody go on these? They have both posted good Nurburging 24 stuff especially.

[Akrapovic]

I listened to a Sportscar365.fm podcast for the first time today. It isn't really for me, but I have to say it was rather well produced. The bitter tone of the other podcasts was not there - there was no attacks on other content providers or journalists. It was just motorsport news and a little bit of opinion.

It's also the first motorsport podcast that I've listened to (qualifier: I've only listened to sportscar ones) where the sound quality is adequate. The compression on the music jingles was poor, but the voice quality was good enough. It isn't the level of a tech podcast, but it's good enough.

It was a pleasant surprise. With Spotify and Apple doubling down on podcasts, they've arrived to the party just-in-time to ride the wave.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I listened to a Sportscar365.fm podcast for the first time today. It isn't really for me, but I have to say it was rather well produced. The bitter tone of the other podcasts was not there - there was no attacks on other content providers or journalists. It was just motorsport news and a little bit of opinion.

It's also the first motorsport podcast that I've listened to (qualifier: I've only listened to sportscar ones) where the sound quality is adequate. The compression on the music jingles was poor, but the voice quality was good enough. It isn't the level of a tech podcast, but it's good enough.

It was a pleasant surprise. With Spotify and Apple doubling down on podcasts, they've arrived to the party just-in-time to ride the wave.

The S365.fm thing is just an audio version of their web site. But there is a lot of professionalism from the S365 crew and they are the younger millennial generation. Its the late baby boomer/early gen x crowd that does exactly what you are talking about. I hate that S365 gets a bad rap on the forum. Racing is better for having them around.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

The S365.fm thing is just an audio version of their web site. But there is a lot of professionalism from the S365 crew and they are the younger millennial generation. Its the late baby boomer/early gen x crowd that does exactly what you are talking about. I hate that S365 gets a bad rap on the forum. Racing is better for having them around.

S365.fm is a bit more than just an audio version of a website. There's discussion on the podcast which doesn't work in article form. Podcasts are getting big now, with Apple and Spotify going into production of them, and podcast apps getting really good. We're approaching the iTunes / Netflix time for podcasts where they're about to become mainstream. The bar is being raised, and the quality is higher than ever. If your audio is broken or your RSS feed is days late then you're going to get left behind.

I don't see what it has to do with generations.

S365 is criticised for partaking in click-bait. However, I think it's worth mentioning that the writing quality (of the site) and audio production quality (of the podcast) far outstrips all of their competitors at the moment. The tone of the podcast is also very different from a lot of the others. There is a lot less entitlement.

I wouldn't say I'm a "fan" of S365, but credit where it is due.