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Does television do the true speed of racing justice?
I spent quite a few years before I was able to get to a really big race track...
Covy Moore
Edited: Nov 11, 2014, 3:06 AM
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But when I did ... I quickly realized that the smooth zooms and pans of television simply do not do the speed and violence of racing justice.
Let me explain ... Visually.
Think of the first time you saw a big pack at Talladega on TV. You thought, wow, those cars are very close. Now, yes, the proximity of the cars is a feat within itself, but the speed at which they are that close is the truly staggering part of plate racing.
The big Talladega pan, the low to high angle pass that make the cars seem like toy cars in a stop animation. This is the biggest offender of ruining the sheer speed of racing for viewers.
But! Every once in a while, television does a great job in showing the viewers the speed of racing.
The first time I got to a truly massive track was Indianapolis. And the first time you see a car going 225 miles per hour from a stationary (and live) position, you are completely blown away.
So, in ode to the hours of slow zooms and speed-destroying pans that we are stuck with (but ultimately make racing east to watch and track from your couch, here are some pretty fast moments in amatuer racing videography.
Some spectators were injured in this scary wreck, when Kyle Larson found himself flying into the fence. This is a pretty new angle to be released, but simply shows the incredibly speed at which these blowover wrecks happen.
Joey Coulter does it too.
And to finish it off on an incredibly high, here is almost five minutes of beautiful, stationary footage from the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans. (The sound is wonderful, too)
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