[CrustyOldFart]

Just a few points ....

Uh, first of all -- where've you been? Yamaha DID get rid of Jamie Hacking. He was on a Suzuki.

Secondly, Scott Russell did not "swerve left" -- his engine died and he was trying to get off the track to the rider's RIGHT, which was the closest edge to the track.

Thirdly, I don't know what Okie racing organization you learned in, but I was taught to get out of the racing line and get my hand up. The starting grid is ALL racing line. Because he was close to the edge of the track anyway, it made sense to me. Dean Mizdal is a veteran racer (in fact I used to race against him back in the late 80's on RZ350s in the AFM)and I have to believe his vision was simply obscured in some way in order for him to tag Russell like that.

I am on record as being of the opinion that Russell is a loudmouth egomaniac whose time has passed. Even so, I wouldn't wish that incident (I shudder remembering Bubba Shobert's career-ending collision with Kevin McGhee) on anyone. I sincerely hope his injuries are not severe.

 

[CrustyOldFart]

Give ESPN a break ....

I originally thought the same thing about the race coverage from ESPN2.

Then I realized that this race was set up to be televised 4 hours after it's start time -- roughly 2 hours after the end of the race. In reality, the race start was delayed 45 minutes to begin with, and because of all of the restarts and carnage, the race was actually still running when ESPN begain it's "taped" coveage. I'm not a television producer, and I'm sure they're paid well enough to need to be able to handle this situation, but I don't imagine it was a whole lot of fun to have to deal with. You've got a crew who expects to be editing a complete race and have two hours to do it, then they're faced with a situation of editing an event that is still unfolding, with no time cushion whatsoever.

I agree it wasn't the best sports broadcast I've ever witnessed. As for your tirade against Daytona, well, it IS the single biggest motorcycle race in the world, like it or not, and it's not going away. And while I am not a big NASCAR fan, there is real skill and strategy involved, far more than most people realize.