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Monday, April 6, 2009

VERSUS Coverage Review

I don't know about the rest of you, but I thought the VERSUS coverage was absolutely tremendous. First off the two hour qualifying show was great, of course it's not like we had anything to compare it to considering ESPN has never done a qual show. Then they went the extra mile extending the race day coverage another 20 minutes because the race ran over the scheduled 3 hour time slot. If it was last season, as soon as Briscoe took the checkered and jumped out of his Dallara after taking a cool down lap, viewers would of been whisked away to see the gut wrenching Alaskan High School woman's Nordic skiing state quarter-final pre match show.

I will admit that I was a little weary of how well Robbie Buhl would work in the booth, but I was pleasantly surprised. Jenkins and Buhl worked well together doing the Indy Lights races last season, but I wasn't quite sure how well Robbie would do once he had a horse in the race. But Buhl was tested in the first corner of the first lap when his D&R driver Mike Conway go hit breaking his suspension, and he passed with flying colors, as did the pit road threesome of Jack Arute, Lindycar Thackston, and Robbie Floyd. Who said Floyd and Thackston weren't ready?

One huge aspect that I was looking for out of VERSUS was cameras on the cars. I for one love the unique shots from the cockpit facing the drivers helmet, or the shots at the driver's feat showing the footwork needed on road and street courses. Although neither of those were implemented, they did have a camera on the front nose cone of Tony Kanaans AGR ride, at least before it had to be replaced after the first lap. As well as a camera on the rear end of Dan Wheldon's new Panther Racing Dallara.

The one thing that I would like to see improved on VERSUS' side of things is some kind of table or desk for Jenkins, Buhl, and Beekhuis to sit at on the pre-race and qualification shows. The trio looked rather uncomfortable standing on the set with just a little podium in front of Bob. But it's not to big of a deal and I'm splitting hairs.

If you feel so inclined, you can either send VERSUS a message on there site or shoot them an E-mail at feedback@versus.com.

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