Number of times SPEED announcers (Freddie Spencer, Ralph Sheheen, Greg White) mentioned riders and teams during TV show covering AMA Superstock race at Daytona Background: Starting Grid: 1. Aaron Yates (Jordan Suzuki) 2. Geoff May (Jordan Suzuki) 3. Michael Barnes (Celtic Racing) 4. Blake Young (M4 EMGO Suzuki) 5. Chris Peris (ESP Suzuki) 6. Jeff Wood (Bettencourts/Street & Comp Racing) 7. Ben Thompson (Millenium/KWS Suzuki) 8. Chris Ulrich (Roadracingworld.com Suzuki) 9. Robertino Pietri (Roadracingworld.com Suzuki) 10. Jake Holden (Corona Light Honda Racing) Race results: 1. Aaron Yates (Jordan Suzuki) 2. Blake Young (M4 EMGO Suzuki) 3. Geoff May (Jordan Suzuki) 4. Chris Ulrich (Roadracingworld.com Suzuki) 5. Chris Peris (ESP Suzuki) 6. Michael Barnes (Celtic Racing) 7. Hawk Mazzotta (Halof Racing/Bravo Condoms) 8. Robertino Pietri (Roadracingworld.com Suzuki) 9. Jeff Wood (Bettencourts/Street & Comp Racing) 10. Scott Jensen (Miller Motorsports Park) Fastest Race Lap Blake Young (last lap of 13 laps) Most Race Laps Led Blake Young (6) Most Positions Gained From Starting Position To Top-10 Race Finish TIE, Chris Ulrich/Hawk Mazzotta (4) Pre-race And Grid Interviews Number Of Times Announcers Mentioned Rider Name Geoff May, 6 Aaron Yates, 4 Michael Barnes, 3 Scott Russell, 3 (No other riders mentioned) Pre-race And Grid Interviews Number Of Times Announcers Mentioned Team or Primary/Title Sponsor Name Jordan Suzuki, 2 (No other teams mentioned) Bogus Information Given By Announcers Pre-race Announcer Claim: Suzuki GSX-R1000 is new for this year and had to be sorted out by Yates and May. Actual Fact: 2008 Suzuki GSX-R1000 is identical to 2007 Suzuki GSX-R1000. Race Coverage Number Of Times Announcers Mentioned Rider Name Blake Young, 29 Aaron Yates, 24 Geoff May, 22 Chris Peris, 13 Chris Ulrich, 13 Michael Barnes, 11 Hawk Mazzotta, 4 Scott Russell, 3 Ben Thompson, 1 (No other riders mentioned) Race Coverage Number Of Times Announcers Mentioned Team or Primary/Title Sponsor Name Jordan Suzuki, 9 (No other teams mentioned) Post Race And Winner’s Circle Number Of Times Announcers Mentioned Rider Name Aaron Yates, 9 Blake Young, 8 Geoff May, 3 Michael Barnes, 2 Hawk Mazzotta, 2 Chris Peris, 2 Jake Holden, 1 Scott Russell, 1 Chris Ulrich, 1 (No other riders mentioned) Post Race And Winner’s Circle Number Of Times Announcers Mentioned Team or Primary/Title Sponsor Name Jordan Suzuki, 3 (No other teams mentioned) Total Mentions Of Rider Names By Announcers Aaron Yates, 37 Blake Young, 37 Geoff May, 31 Michael Barnes, 16 Chris Peris, 15 Chris Ulrich, 14 Hawk Mazzotta, 6 Scott Russell, 4 Jake Holden, 1 Ben Thompson, 1 (No other riders mentioned) Total Mentions Of Team or Primary/Title Sponsor Names By Announcers Jordan Suzuki, 14 (No other teams mentioned) Top-10 Finishers In 2008 Daytona AMA Superstock Race Known To Have Attended Freddie Spencer’s High Performance Riding School Geoff May Hawk Mazzotta Chris Peris Chris Ulrich And now, some reader comment: FIRST PERSON/OPINION: Via e-mail: I have always admired your sense of–and commitment to–journalism/honesty/fair play/ and responsibility to the reader. These are the ideals, standards and principles that journalism (TV, Newspaper, Magazines, etc.)should be held but are not. When it would have been easier/made you more friends/been more politically expedient to cut corners, you have always seem to adhere to these positive bed rock traits of journalism. But all you have to do is go to the web sites and the “about” pages of Medill, UNC Chapel Hill, Columbia University and see how quickly and often “marketing” (integrated or otherwise)Public Relations and Advertising are mentioned, you’ll see that journalistic integrity is as dead as Kelsey’s nuts. Forget about struggling small specialized cable channels: PBS, NPR, and all network broadcast journalism is about eyeballs and ad revenue. You are trying to apply basic journalistic principles to Speed’s coverage of the race as if the race were still a public news event and should be covered as such. It ain’t. It’s a TV show like any other TV show. Bang for the Buck story rules. It’s a shame, it’s sad but it’s true. Chris Nugent Crystal Lake, Illinois FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: SPEED TV deserves to be poked and prodded, as in your recent article “It’s Good To Be Michael Jordan: Analysis Of SPEED TV AMA Superstock Race Coverage From Daytona.” Just about every time my buddies and I watch an AMA broadcast, at some point one of us says “I wish these guys would learn from the other guys.” (Meaning the WSBK or MotoGP broadcasters.) Even if Spencer, Sheheen, and White never used the expressions “brilliant”, “cracking”, or “absolutely flying”, they could still pick up a lot by listening to other announcers. I’ll venture to guess that every racer on those international grids gets mentioned at least twice … once at the beginning when the lineup is announced, and once during the race. In the Daytona Superstock race, our local hotshoe Jeff Wood was one of two riders that started AND finished the Top 10 that got NO mentions at all. (Robertino Pietri was the other one.) In fact, fully 2/3rd’s of the riders that finished on the lead lap (16 of 24) were never mentioned at all! How about Johnny “Rock” Page … he was the ONLY Yamaha to finish the race. (Scott Russell DNF’ed early on the Jamie James bike.) Similarly, Jake Holden — a very talented rider — was the only Honda to start, and finished a fairly respectable 13th. It’s not like there’s not plenty of back-stories there; Wood’s long family history in motorcycles and racing, Pietri’s nationality … Nothing, nada, zilch. If the SPEEDTV announcers change nothing else, they should at least make sure everyone gets mentioned. Name recognition breeds familiarity, and familiarity leads to interest … “How did so and so do?” … which leads to increased viewers. Simply mentioning all riders once allows pockets of fans all around the country to let out a “woo-hoo” when their local guy’s name is voiced. (Heck, even if you think the guy’s a jerk in the paddock, you’ll cheer for him because he’s there … he’s doing it.) I know a lot more about the riders in WSBK and MotoGP simply because I hear their names regularly. Granted, the grids change a lot in AMA racing … it’s expensive for riders on smaller privateer teams to traipse all around the country, so there are naturally more locals entered on a “one-off” basis. But if the stats show anything about viewership, it should be that we’re FANS, and that many of us are involved in racing, too: We understand the effort and talent it takes to race in an AMA National, and we pay attention to the backmarkers. Hopefully SPEEDTV’s announcers will start paying attention to them, too … and by extension, to us viewers. B.J. Worsham LRRS #31 Old Westbury, New York FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I loved story about Daytona coverage. I wrote SPEED a letter and e-mail last year about the same thing. Greg White only covers the top teams, maybe four teams. I like coverage and all team and sponsors do, too. Teams from 4th back get no coverage so who would what to spend money on them or with them? Sponsors want coverage. I like to get updates on riders like Chris Ulrich, Chris Peris, Michael Barnes, Josh Day, riders I see time to time. Sponsorships are down and fans to because of it. 60 riders in the 200 at Daytona, 10 (if that) were talked about. They talked about them over and over. Talking about all riders is great coverage. Great coverage makes great sponsors. Great sponsors make great teams. Great teams makes great racing. Great racing makes more fans. I am not a great e-mail writer but I been wanting to air it out to someone. Thank you for putting it out there today! David Vaught Orlando, Florida FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: BRAVO! Doing what you guys do best….smoking out mediocrity, calling them like you see ’em. Maybe when Roger (Edmondson) gets settled in, he’ll get us fans some real announcers and do it like they do in NASCAR: mention everyone, grow the sport. Enough with this amateur-hour crap. Kudos, guys, keep up the great work, good luck with the rest of the season. Jimmy Fassino Farmingdale, New York FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: While I enjoyed seeing the amount of times names and sponsors were mentioned for the Daytona Superstock event on TV, and sad to hear that my outside-industry sponsor’s name (Bravo Condoms) wasn’t mentioned, I noticed a slight mistake in one of your findings. You stated that Most Position Gained From Starting Position To Top-10 Race Finish was Chris Ulrich with four (4) spots. However Chris tied that with our rider Hawk Mazzotta who also gained four (4) spots moving from 11th on the grid to a 7th-place finish. Rodney Rayborne, Owner HALOF Racing/Bravo Condoms West Covina, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Regarding today’s article online about the number of times Jordan Suzuki was mentioned during the AMA Daytona Superstock race, the article states that it’s good to be Michael Jordan because he gets mentioned more than anyone else. You don’t suppose that would have anything to do with the fact that two of the top three bikes on both the starting grid and the podium happened to be from his team, would you? Tom Short White Fish Bay, Wisconsin Editorial Response: The point isn’t, “because he gets mentioned more than anyone else,” the issue is, Jordan Suzuki was the only race team mentioned in the broadcast, giving the team a mention ratio of 14:0 compared to other race teams competing in the event. Media exposure drives sponsorship, and the number of mentions of title sponsors/team names is a primary measure of exposure used by race teams to obtain and keep sponsorship, which allows teams to field bikes, hire riders, mechanics, etc. Using your logic, the only team that should have been mentioned during the broadcast of the 2007 AMA Supersport race at Miller Motorsports Park was M4 EMGO Suzuki, and Monster Kawasaki should not have been mentioned–a ridiculous proposition. If the goal is to have only one team fielding bikes and paying riders in AMA Superstock events, then the broadcast team from Daytona this year did a good job. If that’s not the goal, then the broadcast team from Daytona this year was, at best, ill-informed due to laziness. And don’t even get us started on the top-10 screen listings that included a rider who was not even entered in the race!