NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

[CubersWrist]

First episode is Saturday!

[Fence Sence]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

Sweet! Thanks for the heads up.

[CubersWrist]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

So watching the show jogged my memory of unlimited 1A. The Yak took the escape route out of the valley of speed reentered the course around pylon 3 and passed a bunch of mustangs on the next lap. But that seems to all have been caused by the messy start. Mike Brown is changing lanes way before the guide pylon and Mark Watt is seen turning right at the guide pylon. Mike Brown passed inside and that was how he got into second for as long as he did. Did anyone hear additional info about what all happened? Graeme posted on Facebook the day after that he had a mustang too close to his face.

[Fence Sence]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

Ya, I had forgotten about that. Never did hear anything about it though. Somebody somewhere knows something.

[Lon Moer]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

Saw part 1, now watching part 2.

[CubersWrist]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

Fun fact, we didn't get the camera installed into the plane until 2A on Friday. Obviously on Friday we had our ADI issue and on Sunday we started from the pole. So For the 1A race the in-cockpit footage was actually all from Saturday. Makes for some good TV though

I've also noticed I enjoy the interviews and stories more with these episodes knowing I can always go back and watch the livestream for the actual racing. Kind of like having your cake and eating it too.

[Fence Sence]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

^^^Ahhhh, the magic of television.

Overall, compared to last year, much better. I still hate a backstory in the middle of a race though. Or a post race interview side by side with the race he’s still running? WTF? Minus those two annoyances, pretty well done so far.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

So watching the show jogged my memory of unlimited 1A. The Yak took the escape route out of the valley of speed reentered the course around pylon 3 and passed a bunch of mustangs on the next lap. But that seems to all have been caused by the messy start. Mike Brown is changing lanes way before the guide pylon and Mark Watt is seen turning right at the guide pylon. Mike Brown passed inside and that was how he got into second for as long as he did. Did anyone hear additional info about what all happened? Graeme posted on Facebook the day after that he had a mustang too close to his face.

Graeme and MB were having disputes all week. Graeme would hold his line and MB would cross it at the start, then complain that Graeme wasn't holding his line on the start. The escape route incident was in fact due to Graeme not being able to see where MB was. He knew they were close, but couldn't see him so he took the escape and reentered as he was instructed to do in the pilots briefing. I saw a little in cockpit video from some of the starts and every time MB would cross and vanish under Graeme about a second after the race started. (I got a couple pics of this unfolding from the hillside on Saturday.) It was really making him uneasy. I'll try and get him in here to post his thoughts.

Will

[CubersWrist]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

All three episodes are now on RARA's youtube channel.

I loved seeing Jackie and Scott Findlay celebrating (I was farther down the crowd line so I never got to see that). No one deserves this more than them. Justin in F1 is a great story and a really humble guy.

And I really liked the emphasis on the racing in Sport. We've been hearing the same old "sport is the future of air racing" for years. Well based on the racing and crowd reactions of "I normally don't care about sport but that was cool" I say the future is here. Really excited to see where this goes in growing the event and I hope (probably in vain) that we get the Sport class on this year's poster.

[chrs3590]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

I certainly enjoyed watching all 3 episodes!

I must say though ... there was already discussion in this thread about Mike Brown cutting off Graeme Frew in Heat 1A, but after seeing the last episode and watching Mike Brown fly across Sherman Smoot's face at the start of the race (which I believe Smoot was two planes over in the formation) ... I would genuinely love to hear an explanation from someone as to why Mike Brown wasn't DQ-ed for that "maneuver"?

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

I only managed to see two of the three episodes but from what I just saw with the final episode last week, the show is brilliantly done!

If you are the die hard fan who knows a lot about air racing, it may leave you wanting more inside detail... That said, we, that lover of air racing already know those details and frankly, to the average person, it's probably TMI...

To the point: the shows both make air racing something that someone might want to see, or learn more about, and it promotes the wonderful Reno Tahoe area in a very uplifting way that would appeal to a new generation of potential fans.

Somehow, they made the Sport racing even more exciting than the Unlimiteds! The overboosted totally optimized maxed out prop sound that the top Sports are putting out easily rivals that of an Unlimited Silver or Bronze airplane. Face it, we may never see the day of super Unlimited's as in the past, we WILL see more and more development in the area of engine prop development in that of the Sport Division.


Well done RARA, well done RENO!!!!!!!!

[GRNDP51]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

\
Somehow, they made the Sport racing even more exciting than the Unlimiteds! The overboosted totally optimized maxed out prop sound that the top Sports are putting out easily rivals that of an Unlimited Silver or Bronze airplane. Face it, we may never see the day of super Unlimited's as in the past, we WILL see more and more development in the area of engine prop development in that of the Sport Division.

This is something I wholeheartedly agree with, Sport class Gold has an incredible sound that is up there with the Unlimiteds. I'm really looking forward to progression with 8 cylinders and the Falconer too, aside from the already cool TT-6's the top dogs run.

One of the draws of Reno has been the sound of Unlimiteds is something that makes you come back year after year, and I really do believe that the Sport class sound could, and has been, filling the gap pretty nicely!

In my opinion, the Thunder Mustangs sound better than stock Mustangs, not as good as a race Merlin, but I still love that sound!!

On a side note, I enjoyed the episodes. The only part I feel like could've been represented a little better was Sunday's Gold with Miss America and Sawbones. For Doc coming back and racing he did a hell of a job and I would've liked a little bit more of that!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

I think something wonderful has happened at RARA with the addition of Fred Telling as the driving force! I've only spoken to him briefly (last year at PRS) but his attitude is VERY MODERN and open to the growth of not only RENO proper but to the entire venture of air racing, anywhere! Something that the previous RARA was very dead set against... if it didn't have the RARA stamp on it, it was a bad thing as far as they were concerned. I get that they were worried that if someone really had a bad air race somewhere, particularly with a fatality or worse... that it would end air racing and, that was their reasoning.. (as told to me by RARA at the time)

Fred was adamant that he supported Air Racing in other venues... he is not new to the sport, and perhaps uniquely, he's not only the CEO of RARA, HE IS AN AIR RACER himself!

The reality of this sport is, in the foreseeable future, barring MAJOR influx of sponsor dollars, we're not going to see super unlimited air racing any longer... Super Stocker, yes, but full blown, race it till it blows super modified unlimited racers, the big bux guys who can make it happen already have and have moved on... I understand Rod Lewis is now into off road racing and I doubt we'll ever see him at RENO again, at least as he was previously, Mike Brown has also done his time. As we have it right now, if not for the Sanders, we'd be in trouble LARGE!


I believe we have a brighter future at this time than in a long time!

PS... if you see Fred at RENO, give the guy a hug or at least a shout out of thanks!!! Remember, he works for FREE!

[CRJpilot]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

Of course as in previous years, all 3 episodes are available on YouTube.

NBC Videos

Don

[Leo]

Re: NBC Broadcast of 2018 races

All I know is that we DVR'd them and my wife sat through the WHOLE thing, even getting excited for the winners and asking questions. And she is a die-hard anti-racer!
Her only interest usually being in the area of getting me out of the house for a week...