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Rookie Diary: Developing Media Interviewing Skills |
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August 25. When the IRL talks about the Pro Series being a
development series the usual discussion is about driver skills.
For the rookies it’s about the faster Pro cars and the tracks the
Indy cars race on; ovals and road courses, high banked and low banked,
1.0 mile short tracks and up to 2.5 mile long track. And then
there is drafting and wheel-to-wheel racing. These are skills the
drivers need to develop to get to the IndyCar Series.  Wade on IMS Podium Interview Hot Seat
But being a good race car driver is not enough in today’s highly
competitive and high priced market, as the IRL knows. The Pro
rookies in particular need to develop good interviewing skills.
Interviewing is at the interface between a driver and the media, and
the media is the gateway to the world of recognition, fans, sponsors
and fame. To help in this phase of driver development the Pro
Series staff arranges training sessions for the drivers on the subject
of how to do interviews and they give them learning experience
opportunities..
With the Pro Series races this year now being [except for two] on the
same day as the Indy car races there are more media people at the Pro
races, so more opportunity for drivers to get more media experience and
exposure. That’s great!
As a driver you know how Wade is doing by knowing no more than that he
is currently leading the Series points standings after 10 of the season
14 races. In this issue of the Diary, we want to let you know how
we think Wade is doing on his interviewing skills, and let you see how
good he is.
Our first interview with Wade was at Phoenix International Raceway back
in March. We meet with him in the Brian Stewart Racing trailer
after qualifications. We were impressed with his interview skills
right off the bat. In learning more about him that was perhaps
not too surprising, given that he had won an FIA World Championship and
was one of the top recognized sports figures in New Zealand.
Still every country has its own media, and they are all a little bit
different.
After the Pro race, when Wade achieved his first podium finish
[3rd place], we went with Ron Dixon to the post-race podium
finishers press conference at the media center. Wade was there
with Chris Festa and Jon Herb, the winner. We thought Wade
handled the questions quite well, and with good answers and comments.
After that race Wade has gone on to get lots of interview practice with
his Pro record of eight consecutive podium finishes. Along with
that he has been interviewed for the ESPN2 tape delayed Pro race
broadcasts to 88 million homes, and for numerous magazines, newspapers
and on-line publications. And, of course, as the season has
progressed and Wade’s results have become more and more impressive,
along with his driving skills, his media coverage has expanded.
As you might expect, Wade’s interviewing skills have just continued to
get better as the season has gone along. fromthetrack.com has had
the opportunity to talk with Wade after all of his races, either at the
track or by phone, and follow his progress along the way.
With that said, we would like to take you with us to an interview which Wade did this past Tuesday, the 23rd.
The IRL does a weekly teleconferences for the media. Their guests
include Indy car drivers, other notable racing figures, and from time
to time Pro Series drivers. Media members can attend by phoning
in. They can listen to the conference and ask questions. Media
members are introduced to the guests before they ask any questions
Knowing that Wade was going to be a guest at Tuesday’s conference,
along with IndyCar driver Patrick Carpentier and Infineon Raceway
president Steve Page, we made sure that fromthetrack.com was also in
attendance [although Wade did not know in advance that we would be
there.]
The teleconference moderator this week was the ever capable and busy
multi-tasker Tim Harms, Coordinator of Media Relations, Mendards
Infiniti Pro Series. Wade was the first guest interviewed.
You will see that Tim [MOD] asks the first questions to Wade.
Following Tim, fromthetrack.com [FTT] has its turn. Then the next
media interviewer, from another organization, tests Wade with some
wonderful, unexpected questions. You’ll see how Wade handles
those. [We will use OMI– other media individual].
On the track, Wade has shown great reflexes and skill in dealing with
surprises and the unexpected. You may recall that at the Phoenix
race five separate accidents took place right in front of him and he avoided all
of them. On one of the high-banked superspeedways his car broke
loose but he quickly recovered and kept it from going into the wall. Is
Wade that good when it comes to interviews?
[MOD]: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this week’s Indy
Racing League teleconference…….Joining us to start the call is Menards
Infiniti Pro Series driver Wade Cunningham. Hi Wade, how are you
doing?
[WADE]: Good, thanks Tim.
[MOD]: Thanks for joining us. Wade leads the point standings in the
Menards Infiniti Pro Series with a 21-point advantage over Travis Gregg
after 10 of 14 races. He has established a new series record with 10
consecutive top-five finishes, and he's finished second in six of the
10 races, including both of our road course events at St. Petersburg
and Indianapolis.
Wade, let's start with a quick question about the battle for the
championship. This is the closest points race that we've ever had in
the Menards Infiniti Pro Series. As I mentioned, 21-point lead right
now with four races to go. What do you have to do to hang on to that
lead and win the championship?
[WADE]: Well, I think for us now it's a case of extending the points.
We've got to go to Infineon and Watkins Glen to maximize our potential
there, because it is quite high. We definitely are going to be
expecting to run right at the front. We've got to make sure we keep it
on the island and finish both of those races to keep the points high.
And then, you know, you can't really tell what's going to happen at
Chicago and California. Big drafting tracks. I think we need to go
there with a lot of points in hand and then play it so we don't have to
take all the risks that other people might need to at the last race of
the year.
[MOD]: You finished in the top five at every race so far this season.
Obviously, you haven't found the way into victory circle yet. Is that
something that's kind of frustrating to you or is that okay?
[WADE]: Well, there are races that you can win and there are races that
you can't win. You know, out of the races that I've come second, I
could have won St. Pete, we were in a position to win, we didn't.
Similar thing at Indy on the oval with the yellow flag, seven laps to
go. But the other seconds, a little distant.
At Texas, no way anyone
could get around Travis [Gregg] on the bottom. His car was just, you
know, too fast. He had a good straight-line handling at that track. It
was the same thing at Kentucky. It was difficult to pass. We got lucky
with the yellow at the end. That's how I got up to second. Tracks like
that, to get second, that's maximizing what we could achieve. You're
always happy with those kind of results. To not win there wasn't a big
deal. At St. Pete and Indy on the oval, you know, losing the race was
disappointing for sure.
[MOD]: Let's talk a little about this coming weekend, the race at
Infineon. I know you raced there last year. What makes that track
different from some of the other road courses that you've competed on
in the past?
[WADE]: Sonoma is a very aggressive track. It's got fast corners,
flying over crests of hills. The car is completely unloaded while
you're turning over the top of the hill when it drops away on the other
side. It's definitely a handful. You don't have all the kind of grip
that you'd like to have for those kind of corners, so it's definitely a
balancing act.
There's a good combination of fast and slow corners. It's very technical. It's going to be a challenge for everyone.
[MOD]: Of all those different challenges and things that make Infineon
unique, are there things about that track that play to your particular
strengths and might give you an advantage over some of the other folks?
[WADE]: Well, you know, comparing to, say, Travis, who we're battling
for the championship now, I expect to go there, be quicker than him and
perform well. I've raced there before. I think I know what to expect.
So we've just got to go there and maximize our own potential and
everything else should fall into place.
[MOD]: You're racing this year with Brian Stewart and the Brian Stewart
Racing team. Brian obviously has a long history in motorsports, over 30
years of working with a lot of top race car drivers in open-wheel
racing. Tell us about your relationship with Brian, some of the things
you've been able to learn from him so far this year.
[WADE]: Driving for Brian, you know, it's been fun. You know, it's a
great team. No one takes themselves too seriously. Everyone
acknowledges the role they play in a greater team, which is nice. There
are no superstars on our team. We all just each do own our bit to move
forward.
Brian in particular, you know, he's always got a good story of being
there before or done that. So it's a lot of fun hearing about other
stuff, past drivers, whatever he might have done in the past. He's got
a colorful history, so I'm glad to be where I am.
[MOD]: When you're debriefing and stuff between practice sessions, does
he give you a lot of pointers, ‘Looks like you should have done this,’
or is he a little more hands-off?
[WADE]: Brian is definitely a hands-off team owner. He's employed the
right kind of people to work for him. I think that's a good thing. He's
got the right engineers, the right team manager. He always looks for
the right drivers. When everyone comes together, he just steps aside
and let's everyone else do their job. At the end of the day, it's his
name on the side of the car, and that's about it.
But I'm proud to drive for him, and I'm glad we've got such a good team this year.
[MOD]: OK, let’s go ahead and open it up for some questions for Wade.
[FTT]: Good afternoon, Wade.
[WADE]: Hi, Bill.
[FTT]: You were talking about the Infineon track, having raced on it
before. What can you tell us about the ease or difficulty in passing
cars on that circuit?
[WADE]: The circuit I raced and the circuit specified for the IRL race
is slightly different. They've slowed it down before the fast kink on
the back straight and they've also shortened the hairpin distance to
add more runoff at the end of like where you go into the pits. They
have made it a little more difficult to pass. After the long left-hand
downhill carrousel, there is a reasonable long straight into a slow
corner, which is a heavy braking zone, which I imagine will be where
the majority of the passing is done.
[FTT]: How do you go about setting up slower or lapped cars? That was
one of the learning lessons at St. Pete, and I know you learned that
well. What are your thoughts about that?
[WADE]: I think as the year has gone on, I've learned you can't plan
for that kind of thing, you've just got to trust your instincts and
make the last-minute decision before you do it. Once you start to
organize lapped cars in front of you or with teammates that you might
be lapping, more often than not it ends in disaster, so you're better
off going with whatever happens.
[FTT]: In a road course like this, what is your situation with your spotter or spotters? Real different than oval tracks?
[WADE]: I won't run a spotter at Infineon.
[FTT]: You won't have one?
[WADE]: No.
[FTT]: So you're on your own?
[WADE]: Yeah, just the way it should be on most road course racing. I don't think there's much need for one.
[FTT]: OK, well we want to wish you the very best in the upcoming race.
[WADE]: Thanks, Bill.
[Now the teleconfence switches to the next questioner. For your
information, Paul Newman starred in the 1969 movie, “Winning,” about
two rival competitive drivers who made it to the the Indy 500.
Features footage of the ’68 500 and a 17-car pile up. Driving
himself in the movie, Paul also became a race car driver himself, and
still drives SCCA events at age 80. The 2001 movie, “Driven”
starred Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds, as a driver and his car
owner. Some of the filming was done at CART races.]
[OMI]: Paul Newman recently stated he did not know if there had ever
been a movie about racing that was any good. He says the goal is to
present quality racing with an entertaining and realistic story. I
think we can't help but hope for a racing film that would showcase the
thought streams of all racing series such as Champ Car, Indy Racing
League and others. What, in your opinion, do you think of his
assessment?
[WADE]: Well, I think it's pretty accurate. I've been to a few racing
movies. Most of them end up being pretty trashy. I can't say that any
one of them has come off realistic, so they always have to glorify
certain aspects, generally the crashes, which as a racing driver you
don't get much enjoyment from. [laughter]
[OMI]: What do you think is a cinematic bomb as far as racing movies go?
[WADE]: I'd have to say in the movie “Driven” when the cars are on
display at some big function and they just happen to jump in and drive
them into the middle of the street. Anyone that knows how to start a
race car, a car like that, couldn't even run along a normal roadway
because of the bumps in the road and what else. That was kind of like,
‘What's going on there?’
[OMI]: Racing drivers, let's be honest, they're conflicted with a lot
of things: emotional, spiritual, personal problems on the track. How do
you think that plays out into the performance that drivers have on the
track?
[WADE]: Are we talking about movies?
[OMI]: No, in general, in actual racing, how does that behavior affect what you guys do on the track?
[WADE]: I'd say quite a lot. Everything that goes on in your normal
life sets into the kind of mood or frame that you might be in going
into a race. So it's going to affect your judgment. If you've had a
good week training or something good has happened, you're probably
going to be more confident, you might take extra risk during a race
situation, all that kind of thing. Anything positive in life generally
ends up being positive on your racing, and vice versa with negative
things.
[OMI]: If you were directing a racing movie and you could do anything you want, had the biggest budget ever, what would you do?
[WADE]: I'd make the movie about something else. [laughter]
[MOD]: Wade, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. We wish you the best of luck this weekend at Infineon.
[WADE]: Thanks, Tim.
We hope you enjoyed Wade’s part in the teleconference. This was
the second IRL teleconference which Wade was a guest. On May 31
he was a guest along with IndyCar drivers Ed Carpenter, Vitor Meira,
and ABC Sports programming director Tag Garson.
Wade may not be quite ready yet for driving in the IndyCar Series, but
we think he’s already at the IndyCar driver level when it comes to
doing interviews!
Our thanks to Tim Harms and the Indy Racing League for their series of
weekly teleconferences. As you can see, for the Pro drivers this
is a great development series also.
For more on Wade Cunningham go to his official web site: www.cunninghammotorsport.com |
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