I’m a big fan of Nascar and I’ve been lucky enough to drive at over 160mph around the Daytona track in Florida. Just the other day the Daytona 500 2008 Sprint Cup took place. Although every camera seems to be sponsored in some way I love how the coverage concentrates on creating exciting TV, rather than just monitoring the exact positions of each vehicle.
Here they’ve put a camera in the track itself which I believe they call the “gnome-cam”. It, plus the in-car cameras, make for fantastic TV. Although the picture quality from the US is now fantastic thanks to the high-def pictures, the thunderous V8 engines don’t come across that well because Five (the UK TV channel carrying it) seems to pipe it out in glorious mono sound. Bleugh :(
Anyhow, here’s some of the coverage without any commentators. It still blows me away that I did that – I drove around that track on my own in a Nascar racer. It’s an utterly fantastic experience and the growling V8 engines can be heard and felt through your ankles. If you ever go to Florida, do it. Sign up and do it – not the one at Disney. the real, proper, world-famous Daytona International Raceway
I know I’ve blogged this before, but here’s me doing the same track. Obviously I can’t afford the excellent camera coverage, so here’s Emily going mad and making several references to the excellent “Talladega Nights” featuring Will Ferrell (here’s a clip) :)