NBC is *supposed* to air the 2009 Baja 1000 today at 2:00 pm eastern. My directory has it listed as "World of Adventure Sports".
I personally thought it was pretty weak. They only focused on two motorcycle teams (JCR Honda and Kawasaki) and three or so truck teams. No buggies, etc. I'm transferring the HD version from my Tivo right now. I'll strip commercials, convert and post it up for others to see if you want.
Ya, all shows on the networks about Baja are usually pretty weak. They never cover all the aspects of the race. All in all I think it was a decent summation of the race for the bikes and TT's but didn't cover much else. -Blake
I just watched a show on HDTV about the Baha 500. Pretty decent, not sure if it was from last year or not?
yeah, it was pretty much exactly as I expect from a network one hour show. But still, better than nothing.. especially here in CT and 0 - 20 degrees out right now..
Thats probally the one on HDTV that they show ALL the time. From 07 I believe. Anyone else ever check out the "Bajaflo" video series?? I first heard about them when the director/producer took a school at Skip Barber I was instructing. He gave us all free copies of his first one. I guess there's 3 of them now. I bought the second one. Pretty cool. Again, mostly deal with the bigger names, but at least they tell some cool stories, and they get the spirit of the place/event and have GREAT shots. Again, anything like that is welcome here in Ct. during the winter. Just last night some parts of the state got a foot of snow , we only got a dusting here. I think my GF has had about enough of the "braaaap braapppp" sounds as I walk around the house.. I need a new rear tire and some 40 degree weather so I can do some snow riding.. http://bajaflo.com/
Thanks for the heads up. Im sure they will show it again. Thats a fast turn around. Usually NBC takes months to edit it, then show it. Ever since Dust to Glory the formats for these Baja race 'episodes' has been the same. Focus on a small number of teams, few splics of local color, helicopter shots with weatherman piped in. Smiling Sal Fish. Its all good. Another movie could be made: All the hundreds of hours of race prep (we had 120+ hours into the bike). The last minute hiccups that have to be overcome (one of our racers out with a broken collar bone 72 hours before the race). Each teams tension and the occasional bickering. (one year i had a guy freak out DURING the race, and just park the bike in the desert!) The joy that comes from a good finish, and the agony and deflation that comes from a DNF. Plus the really hard stuff never gets filmed. Its just to remote and hard to get to. Like going down 'the Summit' or what its like 'inside' a mile long silt bed. There is a lot more to the Baja 1000 than 4-5 teams who get payed to put on a good show. Still, its very cool NBC does this.
My thoughts exactly...so much more to the story. There are far more teams that make the Baja 1000, the Baja 1000 than the usual three or so teams from each class. I'd love to see a quality show about the Baja that featured some underdog teams. IMO, who cares if they DNF or come in last, I think there is some really amazing stories just waiting to be told. Props to NBC for showing this though, I always love to see this kind of stuff on national TV. For anyone that is interested, you can download this from my site here (right-click save-as).
Thanks supergper for the download. I must say this coverage probably is their best so far, they got deeper into areas of the course than before. Better bike coverage for sure, only 2 teams and 1 ironman mentioned but overall it was pretty good.
