As race fans begin to look forward to the season beginning at the end of the month, one of their expectations is that the television coverage will be tip top throughout the whole season. ABC and ESPN officials are looking to fulfill the promise with the plans that they have in mind.
One of the highlights this year will be the fact that this is the 50th year that ABC will televise the Indianapolis 500 as they did their first telecast in 1965. ABC will also carry four other races total this year, including the season opener at St. Petersburg.
“We haven’t been there for a couple years. That event when people have been without racing all winter, they tend to tune in and watch it,” Andy Hall from ESPN commented. “We’ll do both parts of the Detroit doubleheader at Belle Isle. We’re excited to have the new Indianapolis road course as part of our schedule. Of course, the 50th Indy. We’re also back doing Indianapolis 500 time trials, which we haven’t done for a few years either. That’s another good thing looking forward to for this year.”
ABC will once again have Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever as analysts in the booth, with Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Rick DeBruhl as pit reporters. Dr. Jerry Punch will also join the staff as a fourth pit reporter or Indianapolis.
However, they will enter this season with a new anchor in the booth as Allan Bestwick will be in charge in the broadcast.
“I didn’t get into the business to be a race announcer. I wanted to be a broadcaster my whole life,” Bestwick commented. “One of the inspirations was watching that Sunday night broadcast of the Indianapolis 500 and watching Jim McKay, one of my heroes. To have the opportunity to sit in that seat on this occasion, ABC’s 50th anniversary of televising this race, is a little hard to fathom in some ways for a kid from Rhode Island.”
“I was very, very flattered and really, really happy to be part of this. It’s a big change, but it’s an exciting change and a great time for change. I’m really looking forward to this. Especially, like I said, the Indianapolis 500, when I was a kid, I got this book from the book club at school. It was called 30 Days in May. I don’t remember who wrote it. Story of the 1970 Indianapolis 500. I dog-eared that book. I swear I read it 18 times.”
Bestwick has always been a fan of IndyCar racing and says that he feels IndyCar has a good series right now that can be built up bigger throughout the years. He feels that they’ve got the main objective down – good racing – and now it’s his job to document it properly.
“First object of any racing telecast: document the race and document it properly,” he commented. “The hardest thing about auto racing and broadcasting, if you’re covering a football game and you have a camera on the ball, you got 90% of the story covered, right? The rest of it is filling in around the edges.
“Where is the ball in the race? Is it the lead, fifth place, a strategy call? Where is the ball? Making those decisions every second of every lap of the race, Where is the ball? How do you best describe and make what the ball is understandable? That’s how you take it forward.
“Continue to use technology, make sure you always have your eye on the ball. Does that make sense?”
When Bestwick cannot be at an event due to it conflicting with ESPN’s NASCAR coverage, Dave Burns will be filling in his spot to do the play-by-play.
