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TranSouth 400 Update - CarCam Debate
Darlington Raceway
March 23, 1997
Mike Snow, reporting
DARLINGTON, SC- The whirlwind surrounding NASCAR's latest announcment is
starting to pick up speed. In a Technical Bulletin issued by NASCAR earlier
this week, among other things, it was announced that the use of "roof cams"
would be limited to "approved" items. Since no mention was made of the
housings that were used as recently as the last race at Atlanta, one was
lead to believe that these were "approved" items.
Well that's not the case and the shots that the TV viewers love are not going
to be provided here at Darlington or anyplace until a new design can be
implemented.
The groans of anguish can be heard when asking about the missing lumps in the
car roofs and more than one sponsor is not happy. The group that is hurt the
most is of course the providers of the camera gear. I had a brief conversation
with one of the company reps as he was thrashing about one car trying to find
an alternative "shot" for the home viewer. "Hey, what can I say? They (NASCAR)
just lay this out there and what am I supposed to do. I'm not happy about it
but I don't write the rules," was his take on the development. He continued,
"We'll have to go back to the drawing board and come up with something that
doesn't interfere with the air flow over the car. Hey, what can I say? They're
making this the most expensive spec (specification) racing the the world."
Editor's Note: We at The Auto Channel, being a group of veteran television producers, heartily support the use of cameras in all the usual and unusual places. We've been known to go to extraordinary lengths to provide new angles. We also know that the roof of a race car is not at all the only position to get a good shot given the size and quality of lenses now available. Stay tuned for TACH coverage of this year's Indy 500!
