IHRA Races in St. Pete
 

I just want to give props to the IHRA for the TV coverage of the races yesterday and I'm sure today will be great also. Im along time fan of offshore racing
I do go to a few races in person. I have friends who race. But mostly I like to watch the coverage on TV. I was really surprised at the quality of the TV coverage . I was really skeptical with all the drama going on. But they pulled it off. The announcers were knowledgeable and gave alot of info, so you understood what was going on. Im looking forward to a great season! It's definitely off to a good start!

Who was carrying it?

You can find it on YouTube. You do not need to buy a subscription.

I went to you tube and asked for speed sport 1. It came up. This morning when I went to you tube it came up as IHRA OFFSHORE POWERBOAT SERIES. The jet skis are on now. It's pretty rough out there compared to yesterday!

Pretty big wave action out there.

I agree, this broadcast is a huge step in the right direction, it's actually a watchable production. Good amount of cameras and angles, cameras aren't constantly freezing and cutting out. Drones and helicopters in the air. Announcing is good, and the program is tight, not hours of dead air. A lot of effort was out into pre producing interviews with the teams. I would like to see more in cockpit and boat cameras, but that's my only gripe 🤷🏼‍♂️

I tried the facebook feed 1st. It was slow and kinda froze up at times. Then I tried the youtube feed from suggestion (i linked it after) earlier in this thread and wallah !!!!
Thanks !!!!
I agree….pretty good ! I’ll tune in for others. :thumbs

Watching it on YouTube live has been awesome. Great job to IHRA!!

Great job IHRA not perfect but way better than anything in many years a great start thank you!

Was Mcon running the same boat as last year? The one they changed from shaft drives to #6? The announcers said it was a 23 year old boat.

The youtube live stream definitely has potential and many positives compared to previous offshore race live streams! BUT I still fell asleep and felt like I wasted my entire weekend trying to watch it. So there's definitely A LOT of room for improvement. But the potential is there.

Some recommendations are

More engine noise, we shouldn't be hearing jet skis in the background and not supercat or class one.

The camera angles just didnt tell the story on who was doing what during the race. Nothing made sense, very confusing.

Announcers need to talk about whats on the screen. They need to be ahead of the game not behind. They need to explain to us what's happening but unfortunately we knew more then them most of the time. It was pathetic. And no one cares about the weather, or Bucees. I could go on and on. I'm sure it's not easy and people complain about supercross announcers also but after watching this supercross is amazing lol!

I look forward to seeing lots of improvements throughout the season I do believe its possible and like I said they have the potential there.

Ralph does SX the same haha.

NO 100% sure, but there is a slight delay between what is going on , on the course and what they are showing and talking about . IE they would say one lap left, when the first place finisher was crossing the finish line. And the cost not sure but isn't cheap, and to make it all work was impressive.

I say "hats off to IHRA". This was their first full offshore promotion, the announcers are new to offshore & the teams involved, and it was still the best we have ever seen with great (uninterrupted) streaming. The mistake of Tyler's boat being 23 years old Vs. a 2023 was an honest mistake that most of us recognized immediately. Excellent racing and looking forward to the continued growth and improvements as they march forward.

Joe

Speaking of announcers, don't do a drinking game based on when the one announcer says, "I tell you whaaat". You'd die of alcohol poisoning! He must have said it over 100 times.

Ralph and Ken Stout will do a great job with the races. I’ve seen behind the scenes in their off road racing production and there’s a LOT going on. There’s even more going on behind the scenes in the offshore world. Broadcasting will get better and better.

i never caught Steve’s last name. Who was the other announcer in St Pete?

If you're wondering where some of the footage came from, the Powerquest on the course had a Gimble mounted camera, and was relaying to production crew on the pier.

https://i.imgur.com/NsqAPTK.jpeg

Multiple boats had them including ours and it was controlled out of the UK actually by the same people that deal with thr large sailing races.

The kid setting it all up on the boat we were with was super cool