Tilting at windmills, sent this to NBC:
After watching the NBC coverage of this weekend’s ALMS race at Laguna Seca, I have to write you to express my disappointment. I believe that was the worst presentation of a major race that I have ever seen. I am well aware that presenting this type of event on television is a significant challenge. The combination of a two hour time slot for a four hour event, multiple car classes (i.e. five simultaneous races), and a road course venue necessitate that what is eventually broadcast will be a compromise. On the other hand, the broadcast was delayed until Sunday, so you had the benefit of knowing exactly what was going to happen when.
That being said, I have two areas to criticize and both are significant. The first is the presentation of multi-class racing. With four car classes there are five races on the track. I can understand ignoring the GT1 Corvettes since that are alone in their class. However, your broadcast focused only on the Acuras, Penske Porsches, and the Audis. All the other cars were virtually ignored. The GT2 racing is just as exciting the prototypes and the fans that take the time to watch the broadcast want to see the best racing on the track at any given time. Spending five minutes to run through the entire field should be a requirement.
The second problem area concerns following the flow of the race. The broadcast was edited so that the viewer was watching a battle on the track, go to commercial break, come back to the safety car leading the field and the green flag is about to wave. The viewer has no idea what caused the full-course caution, the running order is now completely different, and we didn’t see any of the action in the pits. The announcers just keep plugging along as if nothing has changed.
If time constraints force an edited broadcast, I would prefer that you spend the first 15 minutes or so recapping in detail the first portion of the race. Then show the remainder of the race in its entirety.