Is paved with good intentions... As I have just finished listening to the Indy Lights season opener in St. Pete via le internets and found it to be a somewhat frustrating experience... I warmed-up le Confuzer at 9:38AM, (Pacific) which is 12:38PM New York time... And opened up my bookmarked IndyCar.com (IMS) Radio Broadcast page, scrolled down to the March 28th link and clicked the tiny YES button... And, wait for it... NOTHING! Otay, may be I’m too early, eh?
Ok, it’s now 9:44AM – which is 1min prior to the advertised race start time so it should work now... right? NOPE! NOTHING as I click YES again... So I jumped out of the page entirely and started over again, and you guessed it... Still nothing... SHEISA! But the top of the page in GIANT letters says Login on TWITTER... And at the top of the page’s right-hand side it says that the Firestone Indy Lights is Now Playing. NO IT ISN’T!
And A) I do NOT have a Twitter account and B) I DON’T wanna sign-up for ‘Juan... I just want to listen to the FREAKIN’ Indy Lights race on le internets...
So after repeating this a few more times, I logged off completely and simply went to IndyCar.com which is the MOST Painful website for a visually impaired ‘Vurd Botcherer to navigate; I mean can you put a little bit more colour, splash ‘N pizzazz on the site?
So I decided I’d try goggling 2010 St Pete Indy Lights Radio Broadcast instead which of course sent me back to the IndyCar.com website which I PAINFULLY navigated my way to the Radio Broadcast section and clicked upon the Learn More tab... And Wallah! I was back at my same bookmarked IMS Radio page, but this time when I clicked upon the YES link suddenly Mark James voice could be heard and the first two laps had occurred with ‘HINGE, nee James Hinchcliffe being outta the fray, as it was now 10:04AM Pacific and I’d missed the beginning of the race... Which turned out to be a most chaotic event, a la Sao Paolo...
So why did I decide to Scribble ‘bout this? Whale, you see... I’m one of those 40 Somme-thun year olds with a Confuzer – AHEM, Mr. Barnes and I may be wrong but I’m guessing that the vaunted 18-35yr old Demographic that’s so coveted would simply have NOT bothered to persevere for nearly a half hour of trying to find a “Quote” Feeder Series race, which is the final rung before the Big Boyz, a.k.a. the IZOD Indy Car Series; as I’d like to see a simple LISTEN LIVE BUTTON Option on the Top Left Hand corner of IndyCar.com available for those of us who are visually challenged...
As I’m fairly certain that I’m not alone in this weekend’s experience... As I listened to the entire IndyCar and Indy Lights Qualifying via le internets and had to refresh my internets link three times during the IndyCar broadcast and a fourth time during the Indy Lights coverage... While Stephanie of Planet IRL who’s doing a great job of providing “Live” coverage noted that this had also occurred in St. Pete, as you can check out her reports here;
St. Pete – Saturday Thoughts
So I missed out upon Phillip Major “Tom” making a Greg Moore bonsai pass from P9 – collecting the leader, WTF? Not to mention about half of the field it seemed like, as the competitor’s came in under a Red flag to allow for switching over to the dreaded Rain tyres, for what became a pretty entertaining race.
And while its easy for me to sit here behind “The Curtain” and critique the HELL outta the nuances of listening to the various events via le internets... I thoroughly appreciate the ability to do so via IndyCar.com and realize I’m fortunate to have the luxury to do so... While sitting here inside warm “N DRY as suddenly Mark James & Kevin Lee reiterated the Public Address announcement of a SEVERE Weather Advisory having been issued and pleading for ALL Spectators to leave the Grandstands in a Safe & Orderly procession and go to other various locales they were announcing... As the Indy Lights race was cut short in order to facilitate this...
As Mark James pleaded with how much they enjoyed the “Heartiness” of the Spectators but PLEASE EVACUATE NOW!
As the only Emergency location which didn’t make sense to me was the Baseball Stadium... Unless it’s a Dome? Since wouldn’t it be just as dangerous as it sounded like they were trying to get everyone inside somewhere as Thunder ‘N Lightning began to overtake the Temporary Street Circuit as the chequered flag was unfurled and there was NO victory celebrations... With one inch of rain predicted to fall from 2-8PM ET, if the IndyCar race indeed is run today? So stay Dry ‘N Safe ‘Steph...
Now for humour, lets see if things are any better in St. Pete as I sit inside on a soggy Sunday afternoon as the IMS Radio link now declares;
Now Playing: IZOD IndyCar Series - Honda Grand Prix of St.Petersburg with IMS Radio Network
LIVE coverage from St.Petersburg
NO IT ISN’T! OH SHEISA! Here we go again... As guess what AIN’T working at 3:01PM New York time, eh? As I’ve spent another 26min trying to open the page and thus... In a New York minute I’m outta here! Although I really did NOT wanna have to watch the ABC program which I’m certain will be another DannaCar Slobberfest! And oh lookee ‘dare, it’s probably gonna get bumped by Women’s Golf since they’re in a RAIn delay...
As 45 minutes after broadcast time and NOT wanting to watch that syrupy HULIO ‘N RYAN Singing’ in the Rain comedy, and having shut down le confuzer and re-logging on... TUH DUH! I’ve now got a really snappy musak only IndyCar Nation LIVE Streaming connection... As perhaps you should break-in and explain the situation? And now at 1:02PM Pacific they have very shakily tried re-running the Indy Lights show that I’ve already listened too! And now the site has gone DARK once again, CRIKEYS!
PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN AND STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER...
