You’ve got to love – or frankly, be appalled by – the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing’s (NASCAR for short) attitude to the on and off-track ‘biff ‘n bashery’ that happens at pretty much every round.
Yes I know that as Robert Duvall’s classic crew chief character Harry Hogge told Tom Cruise’s Cole Trickle in the definitive NASCAR movie Days of Thunder, “…he didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you…he ’rubbed’ you. And rubbin,’ son, is racin.’
Which might be all very well in the fantasy world of movies and movie making. But let’s get totally real here. Any sort of ‘rubbin’ in the ‘someone’s got to pay for that’ world the majority of us inhabit, is inevitably going to lead to someone, somewhere ‘losing out,’ ‘coming off second best,’ etc, etc.
And when that happens tempers flare, blood pressure rises and, well, you know the rest don’t you?
The last time I watched a NASCAR event ‘wrap’ on local motorsport TV show SkySpeed, one driver was actually quoted as saying that he ‘should ‘a wrecked so-and-so’ while another was only restrained by crew members after he got in at least one ‘lairy’ hay-maker of a punch into the side of the head of – I’m guessing here – the bloke who had tapped and turned him around during the race.
If – as I suspect – this is part of a ‘warts ‘n all’ attempt to ‘sell’ the ‘authenticity’ of the sport I suppose I can – sort of – see the point.
To a lifelong fan and, indeed, student of the sport, like me though, it’s all a bit – I think the words I’m looking for here are – ‘contrived’ and ‘unnecessary.’
It’s as if NASCAR went looking for a new PR company and after inviting pitches from the best in the racing business, decided they liked the ‘rip it up and start again’ mantra espoused by the company responsible for the WWF’s (World Wrestling Federation) media and publicity.
The funny/silly/sad thing about the subject of ‘biff ‘n bash closer to home is that it would appear that the producers of the Virgin Australia Supercars Series coverage (who work for Aussie broadcaster Fox Sports) have decided to follow NASCAR’s lead.
In fact, at the most recent Ipswich round of what I think is one of the best, not to mention most entertaining motor racing series in the world at present, Fox Sports commentators Jess Yates, Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes spent a decent enough slice of the Saturday show I watched ‘talking up’ the supposed ‘bad blood’ between runaway championship leader Scott McLaughlin and top Aussie David Reynolds.
To support their supposed hypothesis that the sport needs more ‘niggle’ the commentators were given some vision from past events covering what I will call ‘heated moments’ between drivers, two of the three involving two of the very members of the current Fox commentary team, Mark Skaife and our own Greg Murphy.
None of the three reflect very well on the drivers involved, though to be fair rather than me tell you what I think, watch them and decide for yourself.
The first footage of a ‘ good driver gone bad’ involves Queenslander Tony Longhurst and (yes it’s true) his teammate Paul Morris after a wheel-clash at the Winton round of the fledgling Aussie 2 Litre Touring Car Championship back in 1994 saw both cars spear off the track.
A fired up Longhurst literally jumps out of his 318i, runs around to the driver’s window of Morris’ similar car and lands a solid right and a pair of fairly handy left hooks into the hapless – not to mention helpless – driver’s helmeted head.
Whether Arai ever intended its helmets to absorb the impact of a human fist is a mood point, but Morris appears out of his own car not long after looking a little dazed but otherwise none the worse for wear.
The second clip Fox dug up to titillate viewers ‘starred’ current commentary team leader Mark Skiafe and former commentating cohort Russell Ingall in an ugly ‘stoush’ at a round of the V8 Supercar championship in 2003.
Never mind what you are told (these days anyway) about staying in your car unless it is on fire and waiting for the recovery crew if you end up off the track, Skaife not only gets out of his prone car (after a steering arm-breaking clash with Ingall at what is now Sydney Motorsport Park) while the race is still on, he walked right up to the track’s edge and waited for Ingall to come around again.
What then happened has gone into local racing folklore because as Skaife stepped on to the track to wag a finger at Ingall, the latter dived from the normal racing line on the outside of the circuit to the inside (where the Skaifester was standing).
That he didn’t get close enough to pose any real risk of hitting his nemesis is obvious. But still, what would you do if someone driving on one side of a road saw you on the other and swerved at you at what was probably close to 160km/h?
You’d think the worst, wouldn’t you? That the person in the car was trying to kill you. Yet the show’s producers were happy to haul the footage out of the vault (or as I have, off YouTube) to support their contention that the sport needs more, rather than less of this type of behaviour.
Again, don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing what a little bit of ‘psychology’ (read intimidation) can do when you are racing for position, be it in a club kart race at your local kart track, or up against anyone this side of the current crop of Supercar stars.
As someone quick to ‘spark up’ myself, when confronted by any sort of threat real or perceived, I can also sympathise with four-time Bathurst winner and now one of three Fox pit reporters on the current Virgin Australia Supercars coverage (on Sky), Greg Murphy and his, again, well-publicised, ‘altercation’ with a similarly fired up Marcus Ambrose after the pair clashed at Bathurst in 2005.
I can’t remember how or even whether blame was ever attributed. What I will say, however, is that the initial then subsequent contact and Ambrose’s wild wall ride must have cost each team (in Ambrose’s case Stone Brothers Racing, in Murphy’s PWR) a pretty penny, not just in accident damage either.
Being able to sympathise with someone is very different to condoning their actions, however. I also believe that times have moved on, and gratuitous shows of violence – particularly male on male – are simply not ‘cool’ anymore.
Yes, I know that the National Rugby League across the Tasman is still struggling to reign in the baser desires of some of its players. But from what I see as a casual TV sports news viewer and newspaper reader the number of sickening head high lunges and bone-jarring pick-up-and-dump tackles that used to be so commonplace (and which the Neanderthals who still seem to have jobs commentating used to celebrate with barely disguised glee) appear to be way down, if not completely out.
Concussion is still a bit of an ‘elephant in the room’ both for League and Rugby Union, but again, the incidence of those sudden testosterone-fuelled flare-ups that used to blight the game, appear to be down as well.
What isn’t, unfortunately, is the incidence of referee abuse, not just from players either. These days it is a parent, sibling or plain old game/team supporter who is just as likely to take his or her anger at a decision out on the ref…usually only verbally but also, occasionally, physically.
Which is why I think the current efforts by NASCAR to actively seek out and broadcast post-race ‘run-in’s between drivers, and Fox Sports’ efforts to try and ‘manufacture’ some sort of old-skool ‘ill-feeling’ between Supercars drivers is so fundamentally wrong.
If for no other reason that there is a new-generation of fan coming through the ranks who not only find this sort of overt display of ‘bad blood’ distasteful, but also wholly unnecessary in their ‘brave new world’ of socially and politically-correct sport.
Laugh at the last tag if you must but if my son Andrew and his experience as a basketball coach is anything to go by then all I can say is that sport – his, mine, yours – is in way better hands than it was when I was at school.
And I’ve got the perfect example to illustrate the gulf that now exists between people of my generation and those of Andrew’s.
After disciplining – with a time out – one particularly disruptive youngster at a school coaching session last year, the kid’s Dad burst into the gym, onto the court and amongst a tirade of foul-mouthed and spittle-flecked abuse invited Andrew to ‘a fight.’ Or at least that was the gist of what Andrew says he thinks the bloke was saying.
Had that been me I would have eye-balled the short little ginga prick (because when Andrew casually pointed him out one day as he blasted past us on the motorway in his work ute that’s exactly what he was) and thrown the first punch.
Instead, Andrew politely outlined the rules by which all the kids he coaches must accept before they can don the uniform and play for any of the teams he coaches. And asked the Angry Dad to do the same.
The number one rule? Show respect at all times. Respect to your team, your mates, the game, the court, the coach…. but most of all, to yourself.
This, of course, is only my point of view. I could well be flagrantly wrong and so out of step with the way the rest of the motorsport world thinks I should pack up my laptop and start teaching Tai-Chi.
So if you have an opinion on the subject, as always, we’d love to hear – and share – it. Whether you agree with my one or not!
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