Streaming of Old Races

[skaven]

I'm glad to see this community is still around even though I haven't posted here since 2012 apparently. I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy and safe.

I was thinking it would be fun to watch old races on YouTube and wanted to solicit opinions from "the experts" as to where I should start. For context, I went to my first Indy as a kid in 1980, but really hit my stride in the mid to late 90s while living in Chicago. I'm most interested in races from that era. I seem to recall a Cleveland with Robbie Gordon going after it with someone that had me on the edge of my seat. Not sure if the Tracy/ Mansell duel at Louden still holds up, but that one was rather famous. Road America became my favorite track and I wonder if there are any particular years I should prioritize from that venue?

Fontana '99 was the beginning of the end for me as a fan. It was great being at qualifications as a kid when Tom Sneva broke the 200 mph barrier, etc., but over time the "manufactured entertainment" aspect of the sport caused me to lose interest. And of course the constant politics and bickering that literally drove families apart. I assume TG is still a :tony: ?


Mods - feel free to delete and point me to an existing thread (if one exists... I did try the search feature).

[devilmaster]

I suppose the question is do you want to be surprised by the races and results?

One way would be to research wiki and look at the seasons before hand. Watch all the indys once they broadcast live to 95. If you're reading wikis you would be able to see which ones were interesting and on a list to watch.

Or honestly if you want to go back and see them research free, I have picked and watched some races and I found things I didn't remember, or drivers who became 'famous' later on.

If 90s is what you're thinking, I would probably start with Nigel Mansell's 93 season. He was the current F1 world champion and that season brought alot of buzz to CART.

and btw, its good to see your name again. :thumbup: Its quiet, but we still get into good discussions now and again.

[datachicane]

I've been watching entire seasons in order rather than individual races, and it's been hugely enjoyable. I arbitrarily started with 1984, since decent video is out there for nearly every race, and plan on watching through at least 1993 (which is when I went from casual fan to die-hard).

[skaven]

Thanks guys! This is great. This was about as much "research" as I was willing to do... and absolutely what I was looking for.

I like the idea of watching entire seasons (I'm a bit of a "completionist"). Each season seamed to have its own arc and that might be more fun than trying to cherry pick a handful of races here and there. I think '93 is the place to start for sure. I recall the buzz around Mansell coming across the pond. At the time, I thought CART was poised to take over the world.

Anyway, thanks again fellas.

[skaven]

Wow! That Mansell pass of Fittipaldi during the first fuel run in the 1993 Australian season opener. Amazing!

[nrc]

I don't know how many races from the '80s are available but it would be cool to start from the early '80s and see the progression from Andretti, Unser, etc, to the next generation. But the '90s were probably golden age as far as the racing product.

[opinionated ow]

Indycar have themselves put up heaps of races as they own the original broadcasts so the quality has been pretty good too.

[datachicane]

I don't know how many races from the '80s are available but it would be cool to start from the early '80s and see the progression from Andretti, Unser, etc, to the next generation. But the '90s were probably golden age as far as the racing product.

That's pretty much what I've been doing, and I've learned a bunch. '84 and '85 are missing a race or so each, apparently not broadcast back in the day (Michigan 500 tire disaster reschedule, rainout at Elkhart lake, etc., with no rescheduled broadcast slot). Asopher and Asopher2 are/is the man, and has amazingly good (for the day and technology) video rips. The official NTT Indycar videos are hit and miss- usually a race or two in a season, with the exception of '87 where they've released all but 2-3, but their videos are usually heavily edited (start just as the flag drops, the grid is none of your business thank you very much) and often are missing things like onscreen graphics for some reason. Even where they're available, you may want to check the run time and supplement with some of the other sources as appropriate. Quality is gorgeous, though, since I'm assuming they're taken from the master rather than some guy's 35-year old VHS.

The jump in professionalism just between '87 and '88 is remarkable. '88 seems like the beginning of the series I fell in love with in '92-93. Still, reliability is non-existent, even for top teams, the broadcast team rarely if ever mentions the team name, there's like three cameras at each track so there's an excellent chance whatever action takes place will be missed, anyone not running in the top five may as well have not shown up for all the attention they get in the broadcast (which, given the lack or reliability, includes a lot of top drivers), and the announcers vary from awful to just bad (Larry Nuber and Bob Jenkins, aaargh), bad enough that Paul Page's first one-off appearance felt like a breath of fresh air by comparison. It is cool when Sir Jackie's in the booth, but even he makes some huge mistakes, surprisingly.

'85's championship run is a great story, I won't spoil it for those who (like me) didn't remember.

[skaven]

'85's championship run is a great story, I won't spoil it for those who (like me) didn't remember.

I'm only getting started, but it was fun not remembering how the Australia season opener would finish. Looking forward to Phoenix (next week as I'll be off the grid in the mountains this weekend). Cheers.