IMSA coverage moving to NBC Sports in 2019

https://www.imsa.com/news/042018/imsa-nbc-sports-group-announce-six-year-partnership-begin-2019

Hopefully this means less swapping channels so that UFC reruns can run on time.

 

good news. NBC seems to actually care about the quality of their broadcasts.

 

At least I won't have to worry about NOT seeing coverage on FS2, which my provider refuses to add to their channel lineup.

 

great news -- getting mainstream coverage, more exposure for the sport.

 

Probably heard enough complaints about how sports car fans are treated like red-headed
step children from us.

Let's hope NBC makes an improvement but keeps Diffey out of the picture.

BHW

 

NBCs racing broadcasts of Indycar and F1 (until recently) have been the best of any US networks

 

I will be curious to see who they have commentating. Hopefully Varsha is one.

 

IMO they need to move on from Varsha, Diffey and a few others. needs some fresh air/fresh perspective.

 

Diffey drives me nuts. Same with John Hindhaugh on IMSA radio.

I do like Varsha, Fish, and Kendall though.

 

Anyone but O’Connell.

 

Diffey is little more than a fan boy who found his way into the broadcast booth. The constant over pronunciations,
("HondER" instead of Honda, "HeaHAAH" instead of here, etc.) and the endless name dropping, "I was having dinner
with (insert name here) last night...", we're all supposed to be so envious I guess.

Hindbaugh may be just as much criticized for his over pronunciations and playing up his accent, probably wouldn't
be so bad if he just toned it down a bit. What used to really drive me nuts about "Windy Hindy" was he'd be doing Radio
Le Mans and watching the European football matches at the same time. On one such occasion, a team scored
a goal and he went absolutely bats. As I had friends running in the race, I came running into the room expecting
that there had been a horrible shunt but, no, it was just Hindy multitasking live on the air.

Can't criticize Hindy for his enthusiasm and knowledge of sports car racing though. He's always prepared, well
briefed and has an excellent team around him that keep things lively and I guess I've grown used to him over
the years.

Imagine now that Scott Pruett is officially retired, he'll be in the frame as well.

BHW

 

What drives me nuts about Hindbaugh (and yes I had to google how to spell his name) is how frequently he gets things wrong, and Shaw has to correct him. It's like WTF have you been looking at? But I guess you answered that question lol.

Overall though, I prefer over-enthusiasm over dry, dull and boring.

 

Hindbaugh is hyper, no doubt. Besides simultaneously watching football matches and commentating
on live racing, he's also practically running the production. How he can talk the way he does like that
non-stop for hours at a time is really amazing.

His over pronunciations of names such as "DheenDOO KAPeHELLO" for Dindo Capello was really annoying.

He's got a great team around him though. I always loved trying to stump them with trivia questions and
most of the time they had the answers quickly. I did stump them at Le Mans in 1999 when BMW Motorsport
was running the BMW LMR V12s and went to Le Mans after winning Sebring. My question was if the same
car and driver combination had ever won overall at Sebring and Le Mans on the same year?

They fumbled around, hemmed and hawed and started talking about something else while someone was
in the background thumbing through the record books. Finally, Charles Dressing fessed up and said, "We're
not aware of that ever happening so if it happens this year, it may well be a first. We love questions like
that!".

Friends of mine from Denmark who worked for Tom Kristensen were at Le Mans listing to the Radio Le Mans
broadcast and they all cheered over their camp fire that I stumped the RLM crew. Good times!

BHW

 

1. IMSA will still find a way to screw this up.
2. Hindy is super annoying. Simmer down now you obnoxious windbag.
3. Definitely fresh blood is needed.
4. Highly doubt Varsha is on their short list.
5. No Diffey. No. No. No.