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Rookie Diary: ESPN2 Covers Cunningham |
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Friday, April 8. The ESPN2 delayed-broadcast today of the Menards
Infiniti Pro Series Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was great PR for Wade
Cunningham. The fact that the coverage of road races is one hour rather
than the half-hour for oval tracks was a bonus. At the start of the
program most of the viewers probably knew little about Wade. By
the end they new a lot about him!
TV coverage of road races, in particular, tends to keep the majority of
the camera coverage on the lead and second place cars. The second
place car is usually included because it might overtake. Wade’s first
two races earned him minimal visibility on the ESPN2 coverage. At
Homestead he started seventh and finished fourth. In Phoenix Wade
started ninth and ended up third. Knowing that Wade had only been
in second and first during the race, suggested that he might receive
primo coverage. He did.
The media exposure today had even more gravitas because there was a
third super high profile name driver in the race. Andretti was
added to Unser and Luyendyk.
The Pro Series ESPN2 broadcasts have Dr. Jerry Punch doing the
play-by-play and Indy car driver veteran Robbie Buhl as the expert
analyst.
The coverage didn’t exactly start out great for Wade. Road races run
around the track clockwise. The inside row was Marco Andretti –
Wade Cunningham – Jaime Camara – Al Unser – Travis Gregg …..
After the green flag dropped at the middle of the front straight, the
cars headed for turn one, a tight right hander. What happen next
was what everyone hoped wouldn’t happen. An accident. Jaime
Camara went up and over the back of Jeff Simmons’ car, taking both out
of the race and bringing out a local yellow flag. Robbie
announced that Camara had been, “hit from behind. I think that
was a red and black car, either Wade Cunningham or Al Unser that got
into the back of him.”
What viewers saw was Camara, followed by Unser, pull out of the line
and come up the inside. Behind Camara, Unser hit the brakes, unleashing
a cloud of smoke, as he neared the turn. Camara just kept
going. Jaime then cut across behind Marco and in front of Wade,
then up and over Jeff.
Two more views were shown. One was from behind, with Gregg’s in-car
camera. The other from inside the track looking out on turn
one. On both, Wade’s Brian Stewart Racing teammate, Al Unser,
took the hit again from Buhl as having run into Jaime. On both of
those clips we saw clear gaps between Camara and Unser. Al never
appeared closer than a car length in the latter, when he smoked his
brakes (on our slo-mo reruns.) The IRL will do an accident
investigation and analysis. Hopefully everyone will learn what really
happened.
The corner was cleared and the real race was on. In the lead from the
start, Marco had gotten through the first turn without problem.
Wade, on the other hand, in second, had been slowed by the
accident. He had some catch-up to do. Marco had an in-car
camera, which provided great forward and backward views. Between
his car-cam and the other track cameras the coverage focused for the
rest of the race mostly on the two cars of Cunningham and Andretti. By
lap 6 Wade had closed the gap significantly.
The PR for Wade rocketed skyward. Jerry Punch related that Wade
was a New Zealander, a close friend of Scott Dixon, who actually rooms
with Scott in Indianapolis. On lap 7 Wade had cut the interval to
1.09.54 sec. Buhl expanded on Wade’s bio, noting the fantastic
job he had done all weekend, having been at the top of the speed charts
in every session except qualifying. He also informed viewers that
Wade came up through karts and had been the World Kart Champion.
The banner across the top of our TV screens kept viewers apprised of
the running order, and periodically, intervals and speeds for both
drivers. On laps 8, 9 and 10, Wade was faster than Marco. On 11
Marco was fastest, but on 12 it was Wade again. Through out this
drama the cameras were on these two drivers. Buhl remarked that
Wade was starting to get close enough to put some real pressure on
Marco.
During a commercial break we learned that Wade had passed Marco on lap
13. The replays showed, as Buhl told the story, how Marco had locked
his brakes at bit going into turn 10, and gone wide in the turn.
That gave Wade just enough opportunity to come out ahead of
Marco. Another view of Wade’s pass made it look even more
spectacular.
Now the commentary focused even more on Wade’s driving talent. It
was Marco’s turn to put the pressure on, and try to find a way to pass
Wade. The between laps 14 and 28 the cameras and announcers
captured the drama and excitement, as first one and then the other
would turn the faster lap. The interval would decrease and
increase, but always be small. Wade drove like he was used to
leading Pro races. Just as a commercial break was coming up Jerry
Punch remarked that Wade was from Auckland, NZ, the same place that had
brought us the 2003 IndyCar Champion, Scott Dixon. Punch, added
that, “all of New Zealand has to be pretty happy about Wade showing the
way on the streets of St. Petersburg.”
On lap 30 coverage was back and Buhl alerted viewers that, “these guys
are just coming up on lap traffic and this may be a place where Wade
just gets hung up a little bit for Marco to get by.” Buhl noted
that the leaders were now behind Marty Roth. He had just dropped
from 6th to 8th over the last several laps. As they came up on
the next turn Wade moved down inside, but Marco darted even further
down and, according to Buhl, out braked Wade (who had a major brake
problem by then.) Marco was back in the lead on lap 31.
Wade had led his first Pro Series 18 laps.
The cameras stayed on the two for the last 9 laps. Although Wade
turned in the record fastest lap of the race on 37, Marco made no
mistakes and took the checkered flag.
Of Marco’s pass, Mario said, “Well, that’s the only chance he had,
really, with that lapped traffic, and he took it and that was the win
for him.” For Marco it was praise. But it also
sounded like a compliment for the way Wade had led the race.
Viewers heard from Marco, “We just got lucky with lapped traffic
because the front end was going away big time behind him.”
Sometimes toward the end of a very close race, slower cars in the back
will pull over for race leaders, sometimes they don’t. Marco
ended up happy, Wade unhappy. It is sort of like one of Helio
Castroneves’ favorite sayings, “Sometime you’re the bug, and sometimes
you’re the wind shield.” Wade and Marco each had one
opportunity. They each took advantage of that opportunity.
We suspect that they both went away with a lot of respect for each
other’s driving ability. The viewers certainly did.
No doubt a lot of fans will be looking for a rematch between Wade and
Marco at Indianapolis, at both the oval and road races. Remember
May 27 and June 19.
For Wade Cunningham this broadcast was a huge PR success. We know he will have a lot more.
(For Wade’s view of the race see Rookie Diary: The Bitter-Sweet.)
(For more about Wade visit his web site at: www.cunninghammotorsport.com.)
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