Well here we are in 2014 in the brave new world of internet-only coverage of the Daytona 200. Because nobody could figure out how to televise this year’s six-round AMA Superbike series profitably, and since few people actually go to Daytona International Speedway for the race, there was a troubling chance that the 73rd running of the event could be the race that fell in the woods and didn’t make a sound.
The solution was www.fanschoice.tv, which showed all the races from Daytona online this year, with no commercial interruptions except that awkward Cortech thing that popped up in the middle of the broadcast like someone’s junior high school audio-visual editing project. So now that the top level of professional motorcycle roadracing has fallen so low that even cable won’t touch it, how was the coverage in this new age? As usual, there was the good, the bad, and the fistful of dollars. Oh wait, I’m mixing my old movie references again.
Let’s start with the good.
Good
The most obvious good thing about the internet-only era of Daytona 200 coverage is that it’s better than nothing, which is what we had on cable television this year. Plus, the internet is available just about anywhere, so desperate motorcycle racing fans could see the action, even if they’re stuck in some frozen-in Norwegian fjord or some really remote place, like say, Michigan.
Even when we did have television coverage of the Daytona 200, that did not always mean I could actually watch it. Because the race usually overlaps with the spring break at the college where my wife works, more than once we’ve been traveling that weekend and I’ve missed the broadcast of the race. Just try to convince the bartender in a sports bar in Boston to switch a TV away from the Celtics game to a motorcycle race taking place in front of hundreds of thousands of empty seats.
Other positives: Though I’ve not been a big fan of listening to Scott Russell in the past, I have to admit he’s gotten a little better. Also, it’s free.
Bad
There were a few vertigo-inducing camera movements as the leader swept past and the camera operator began swinging wildly in search of the next pack of riders. At least the director was quick to cut away. Barry Boone had a couple of “should have known better” moments. “Mold release” is not a concern for Dunlop racing tires and flat track is not the oldest form of motorcycle racing in the United States. City-to-city runs, hillclimb and board-track racing all preceded flat-track and were huge in their time.
Where the effort to cover the story fell apart, however, was in the pits. There was a camera there to show us Danielle Teal, so why not show us the pit stops that inevitably screw up the racing add drama at Daytona? It doesn’t take much depth of knowledge or planning to position the camera near the leaders’ pit boxes around lap 18 or 20.
Plus, I would happily trade a cute face for some smart questioning and quick thinking in the pits, though too many sports producers apparently still think we’re all troglodyte male mouth-breathers who can’t pay attention to a pit or sideline reporter who isn’t female and attractive. I promise you, I can pay attention to anyone who’s telling me what I want to know.
There were two stories that determined the outcome of the 73rd Daytona 200 and they could not be told from the booth. Those stories were: What happened with Dane Westby’s turn-one crash that also took out Jason DiSalvo and turned a four-way battle for the lead into a two-man show? And second, what happened after Jake Gagne’s second pit stop that turned the two-man show into a Danny Eslick showboat cruise? During the live broadcast, those questions only could have been answered in the pits, but we never got a word from any of the riders involved or their crews.
The fistful of dollars part
That’s apparently about what the AMA Superbike series is worth these days, after Daytona Motorsports Group has spent several years running it into the ground. So the fact that we’re talking about web-only coverage is probably inevitable today, considering the diminished profile of the Daytona 200. If you stopped 100 people on street and asked them what the Daytona 200 is, 55 would assume you meant to say Daytona 500, 31 would have no clue, nine would assume it’s a Thursday-night truck race ahead of the real stuff, two would correctly identify it as a motorcycle race and three would think it’s a 1970s Chrysler their great aunt used to own.
And speaking of Daytonas, as the owner of a Daytona 675, I guess I should be pleased Triumph won a race at Daytona for the first time in more than four decades. It was Triumph’s last chance, since 1,000cc Superbikes return to the Daytona 200 in 2015. Will the return of Superbikes help revive this show? We can hope. That would be this fan’s choice.
