by A.D.I just returned home to Southern California having attended the World Superbike races at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. I have to say that the facility and the racing were fantastic and the group I was with had a great three days entertainment.
However it was all spoiled by one thing, and that was the commentary team addressing the crowd during the races. This is a very large race facility, and after the bikes stream by, there is a quiet lull before they re-appear leaving only the announcers to keep us informed of the race progress. Dennis Noyes was great, he knows his stuff, he's been in the business for years, but the other two presenters completely ruined the experience with desperately inaccurate information announcing wrong or drastically mispronounced names, wrong or non existent models of motorcycles, and just complete rubbish statements that had no meaning to the crowd of obvious motorcycle enthusiasts who know better.
The people at the grandstand I was in were all looking at each other with complete amazement and initial amusement at the comments coming from these guys, but it soon turned into angry frustration for us all when we realized they have never slung a leg over a motorcycle in their lives let alone read any publications or done any homework on the subject. Even Dennis was obviously embarrassed by his part time colleagues apologizing for them after the second WSB race, saying that they were car race commentators!
I left with a sense of disappointment that the organizers of this World Class event went on the cheap with their commentary team and I will definitely seek to determine who would be commenting any World Class races before planning to attend in future. Larry Miller - shame on you and your team for allowing this to happen.
It was a complete joke and very unprofessional.
We are all used to the fantastic teams of commentators that Speed provide for their TV broadcasts. In fact I just watched one of the races since returning and really enjoyed listening to Ralph Shaheen, Freddy Spencer and Gregg White describing the on screen action. For God's sake they were there at the races, why not pipe them into the system?
You will have to do better than that next year to attract me as a spectator.
Source: Bikeland.org