ALMS Road America Elkhart Lake and other sports observations 8-11-13

I was going to retire saying anything on the subject of Kelli Stavast doing the pit reporting at these races.  Truly, I was.  But there she was at the beginning of the race and looked gorgeous.  Seemed like she had a new perm going.  I can’t explain it.  I’ve seen other attractive women doing race reporting, but somehow I just swoon seeing Kelli.  Unfortunately, that opening bit was all I saw of her.  The unified series next year will be on Fox Sports 1, so I don’t know if I’ll see her again after this year. 

I’m not sure how often Kelli was on camera, since I was flipping around during the race to a ball game and the PGA Championship.  This should have been a great race, but was it marred by several lengthy cautions, including the finish.  It just couldn’t keep my attention. 

Like I said, Kelli’s appearance got the race off to a good start.  Even better, the race itself started about five minutes after the coverage started.  Since this was about a two hour 45 minute road race, there was plenty of time to talk about the teams and such after it started.  The crew calling the race was a full, enthusiastic threesome.  Unfortunately, I only caught Johnny O’Connell’s name.  One of these days, I’ll have pen and paper ready at the start of one these races.  I really liked the Scotsman on the crew.  He bubbled with passion. 

The crew also imparted a good sense of economics during the race, mentioning how some of these vehicles were a half-million dollars apiece, the price of a nice house.  Somehow, that makes the carnage and crashes all the more enjoyable, yet tragic.  As is usual, there were plenty of other educational segments about racing and race technology during the coverage.

The race started in the wet.  After climbing the dramatic elevation before the front stretch, the race went green and huge rooster tails of spray shot out from behind the cars.  Unlike NASCAR, the headlights work on these cars, and they needed them and the windshield wipers.  Unfortunately, the first accident and caution came out soon after.  The track dried out fairly quickly, but other incidents would follow.  Even with the extraordinary length of the course, it took way too long to clean up messes.     

All that said, I did enjoy the racing I saw.  The very pretty and unmistakable, shining silver Delta Wing car was in competition and even held the overall race lead for a while.  (Once again, Indy Car, you people are a bunch of idiots for not adopting the Delta when you had chance, just flat out.)  Amongst the cutthroat competition between the car brands and their tire manufacturers, the Corvette-Viper struggle seemed to take center stage.  The Viper would win this time.  One other thing that I really enjoyed was one of the caution pit stops.  I know that sounds silly.  Basically the entire GT class pitted at the same time late in the race (as opposed to the usual, cars pitting one or two at a time).  It looked like a NASCAR race for a moment, but with cool sports cars instead of spec boxes.  Sigh.  What could be, but only in dreams.

As usual, I also really liked some of the commercials.  I know.  I’ve railed about NASCAR’s constant commercial interruptions.  It’s not like all of the cars, driver uniforms, and most of the track aren’t covered in ads, without having to put up with station breaks every five to ten minutes.  The breaks in ALMS races seem to be a little more reasonable, about every 15 minutes and fairly predictable in timing.  Not to mention, the quality of some of the spots is just way better.  The Porsche “Identity” and SRT “Power” commercials were very stylish and cool.

Speaking of NASCAR (and switching gears here), that does it!  I’m done with watching Nationwide races!  Hold it.  I might have said that at least two other times this year.  Well, this time for sure, mostly because I think the rest of races are on cable this season.  Seriously, they were at Watkins Glen, it was a fairly decent race, but the coverage was unwatchable.  There was some golf and baseball going on concurrently, but I really was trying to just watch the race.  I’ve already mentioned the commercials, but it’s also the broadcaster enthusiasm that just isn’t there.  I’d posit that the constant commercial interruption causes that.  My dad, who I was watching with, was however fascinated by Nicole Briscoe’s chest.  I admit that that was the only worthwhile headlights, err highlights of the pre-race show.  NBC Sports will be taking this over in a couple of years.  Who would have thought that we’d be looking back at NBC’s coverage as the good old days? 

In baseball, the Rangers struggled a bit with the Astros, but still beat them over the weekend.  The Alex Rios acquisition is already paying off in defense and offense.  The Cards beat the Cubs on Sunday in an interminably long game that even had JD complaining.  Excessive game length seems to be wearing on the broadcasters.  I noticed that the ballpark in San Francisco was full, rooting on a last place Giants team.  A-Rod hit a home run off the Verlander.  Mariano Rivera blew his third save in a row. 

But who can deny the biggest sports story of the weekend?  Yes, Evan Longoria and Rays pulling the old hidden ball trick on Juan Uribe and the Dodgers.  What else could it be?  It was so craftily done, even the broadcasters didn’t catch it until several replays later, and Dodger manager Don Mattingly had to get an explanation from an umpire.  Later in game, when Uribe was on third again, he and Evan were laughing about it.  After the game, the Dodgers presented Uribe with a base with a shoe taped to it.  Unfortunately, that was the only highlight for the Rays in their inaugural visit to Dodger Stadium as they self-destructed and rolled over for three games.