IndyCar announcer Bob Jenkins to call final auto race this weekend

So long Bob.

 

The sad thing is he was probably the best of the bunch. Jan Beekhus drives me crazy he is such a geek, and Wally has been fired from the last two series' he has announced so it is only a matter of time.

I would go back and get some of the guys who are respected in the series like Mears, or maybe Paul Tracy. Get some guys who are enthused about the sport who are not like watching paint dry. Get Miller off the grid running around like a 5 year old and have him so two or three stories on drivers each week during prerace, and shorten prerace down to 30 minutes.

More to follow.

By Bob.

On a final note, I do wish him the very best taking care of his wife and wish her a win against cancer!

 

Can we put Paul Page back in the both also?

 

Mears probably isn't the guy, neither is Paul Tracy.
Most 'racers' are crap in the booth (I said 'most, not 'all', and besides, these are 'color' guys, not 'lead announcer' types.

I remember when ESPN started, it was Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber.

He was great, I miss him.

'Announcing' is a difficult gig - just look at all the guys doing NFL football - and only a few are REALLY good - Al Michaels, Mike Tirico are hands-down the best, Rich Eisen is great but he's not a lead guy, and lots of players are good color guys, but for a great lead, there are few. I don't even consider Bob Costas that great anymore, something about him changed, I get the feeling he thinks he is bigger than his britches, that he thinks people have to watch him simply because of his name. He was great - 15+ years ago. For motorsports, I really don't know who would be a great LEAD guy, Bestwick may be the closest.

And let's not get into retired guys, that's not for this discussion.

If you want to see a great TV show host - not game coverage but a TV host - NFL Network's Rich Eisen and the Golf Channel's Dave Feherty are the best in the business bar none, and it ain't even close.

 

Gonna miss him for sure.

 

+1, he's one of my favorites. sorry to hear of the circumstances as well, best wishes to him and his wife.

 

Aww!!

I was at this race!!!

 

You know things are bad when people are
nostalgic for Paul Page.

During CART's heydays, Page sleepwalked through
their broadcasts as if it was his birthright. Here
was a guy who knew each driver personally, had
breakfast and lunch in each team's hospitality at
every race but still couldn't (or wouldn't) get their
names right during the broadcasts.

A guy who would marginalize foreign driver's
names to suit him, Stefan Johansson was "Stevie
Johnson", Patrick Carpentier was "Pat Carpenter", etc.
This, I may relate, didn't go down well with the
drivers, team owners or sponsors. It wasn't cute,
it wasn't folksy, it was flat out stupid.

A guy who, during the broadcast of the Michigan 500
in 1997 was filling his plate on the buffet line while
calling the race from monitors across the room.

Agreed, they need new blood in the broadcast
booth. Townsend Bell does a good job and there are
likely a dozen more with better credentials than
Dallenbach or Beechus but turning the clock back
to the 80's and 90's is the wrong direction.

BHW

 

Paul Page has a distinctive voice but unfortunately a distinctive personality too

I agree on Townsend, I think he's done a great job as a pit lane reporter and interviewer, I think he'd be a great color commentary guy (maybe replacing Jon Beekius) but I don't think he's a lead guy.

would be nice to get Jeremy Shaw or Greg Creamer over from ALMS.

 

Townsend Bell has done a great job whenever he's
sat in on the Speed F-1 broadcasts for David Hobbs
or Steve Machett.

BHW

 

While I admire him as a person and devoted husband, I was never a fan of his announcing skills or style. He typically seemed to be a half a beat behind either the track action or the other announcers. Remember his paring with Benny Parsons for several NASCAR seasons? That was painful.

His qualities seemed better suited for being a local TV weather guy or calling a golf tournament. But now we'll never know! Though kudos for putting family first!

KevFla

 

As usual, you got part of it right.

There are very few people capable of being a lead front man, and he is still one of them.

Folks need to understand the difference between a lead announcer and a color guy - and there are a crapload of color guys, but lead guys we can count on one hand - or less.

And if you want to pick on Paul Page for his, shall we say, 'habits', I can tell you he's not the only one, and it isn't just in motorsports. Do you think the guys calling a golf tournament are watching it live, themselves? They may be on ONE hole - and that's it - but even at that they are as far away from the action as the motorsports guys are in the booth or pitlane 'Hollywood Hotel' or whatever they call it.

Maybe Chris Myers?

 

The major reason Page was in the booth during the CART days
was that he was part owner of the production company that
had the TV contract to cover the series.

It's one thing to cover golf from monitors from one
hole on the far reaches of a golf course where literally nothing
happens for ten minutes at a time. It's quite another
to be filling a plate in a buffet line of a media room covering
a race where average lap speeds were 240+MPH and action
was happening in nano seconds. Apples and oceans.

Page's constant mis-identifying drivers and intentionally Americanizing
foreign driver's names was the height of disrespect.

In any case, we may only suspect Page's production company
has the contract to cover NHRA for ESPN now so we may
take heart he won't be coming back to Indy Car any time
soon.

BHW

 

I agree, Chris Myers would be a good lead supported by the guys in the ALMS pit lane and Townsend Bell is a good choice as well.

 

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

His voice is synonymous too motorsports for me personally and my prayers go out to him and his family, I hope I hear his voice atleast a few more times.

 

Myers? Your kidding right? Lets try someone with a little more potential!

 

Anywho Mr.Jenkins will be missed. I looked for info but came up short from when he was commentating F1 races. The video that was shared almost got me misty, a true gentleman he is.

 

Ok, we get it - you hate Paul Page, but from what I read here, you are the only one.
Who gives a crap if he owns a production company - I got news for you - a lot of people own production companies AND do the announcing, broadcasting, producing, directing, etc. especially for shows airing on ESPN. How do you think some of the crap they show even makes it to the air?

And again, for the folks that aren't listening, there is a big difference between a lead announcer and anyone else, meaning supporting announcer (aka 'second banana') and the color guys, and the roving reporters in the stands and in the pits.

 

I thought we were paying homage to Bob Jenkins?

 

Fchat "other racing" subforum's version of Godwin's Law: all threads end in the same 3 guys *****ing about how great CART was back in the day, and/or some other antiquated argument.

 

It's only antiquated if the arguement doesn't have merit. In Indy Cars case, it does.