Motorsport (or the lack thereof) in the mainstream press.
Now, this little rant for the want of a better term has come off of the back of the horrendous accident that Billy Monger suffered on Easter Sunday.
As you follow and read my musings you are no doubt already familiar with the incident and, the fantastic showing of unity of the "Motorsport Family", raising over (at current time of posing) £700,000 for the young guys future. However, it's got me thinking.
"Without incidents like this, would Billy Monger or F4 be in the headlines?"
Now, I'm not trying to detract from the incident, quite the opposite in fact but, that Sunday night, while searching online for updates in conditions etc I was faced with lazily thrown together article after article from the major press all reporting the incident as "news" yet nothing on the WEC race that had happened the same day at Silverstone, nothing of the rest of the BTCC rosta, nothing about Aiden Moffat taking his first BTCC victory, little on anything un -F1 related seems to make it to the forefront of the British press unless it's bad news. lets look back a few years to when 4 time World Superbike Champion Carl Fogarty appeared on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here (which he subsiquently - as I predicted, Won). My wife's Facebook page on the evening of the first episode was that of "who is that Fogarty bloke? What does he do?" Fortunately She listened (!) and was able to advise but, outside of the aforementioned "Motorsports Family" he was still a relative unknown, even when he was racing and winning! The same could probably be said for multiple Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness, Cal Crutchlow in MotoGP or even Nick Tandy following his Le Mans victory in 2015.
Dan Wheldon was another who never got the column inches he deserved over here until his accident, Justin Wilson similarly as Indycar was still ignored by the British sporting press outside the affiliated.
Is it because there is too much to cover? Do we the public only care - even at a local level about only Football, Rugby, Cricket or Tennis? Only by following motor racing in general and, via the power of social media do I know of a few competitors of various disciplines local to me. A British Superbike racer in the same town, a hillclimber in the same county, a BTCC racer from the nearest major city and a Porsche Carerra Cup the racer the next county over the closest to me - not that the local press would let you know! I even had another endurance racer in the county a few years back, racing at the front of the pack in the same team as Mcnish and Herbert but even the local press overlooked it, even when I offered a short piece having attended Le Mans myself!
Is there something taboo about giving motorsports coverage or teams and drivers exposure? If so, why so? Outside of the glitz and glamour of the F1 world most of the drivers I've had the pleasure of meeting have been more than approachable and, willing to talk and share information asked of them be it BTCC, WEC club level or support rosta, that even goes for the crews and staff, many a time I've got my info from a mechanic or team member if the driver is busy, I remember having a 15 min or so conversation with a WSR engineer about the seating position of Sam Tordoff's BMW at a test just because of the access I had to both the car and the team at the time.
Are we, the bloggers and the official and accredited motorsport press now the only voice of Motorsports?
Without us will national level news be forgotten?
I sincerely hope not I guess I'm just angry that it takes an incident such as young Billy's to get the press talking about motor racing on a national level - especially when they choose to ignore most of the international action as well!
As you follow and read my musings you are no doubt already familiar with the incident and, the fantastic showing of unity of the "Motorsport Family", raising over (at current time of posing) £700,000 for the young guys future. However, it's got me thinking.
"Without incidents like this, would Billy Monger or F4 be in the headlines?"
Now, I'm not trying to detract from the incident, quite the opposite in fact but, that Sunday night, while searching online for updates in conditions etc I was faced with lazily thrown together article after article from the major press all reporting the incident as "news" yet nothing on the WEC race that had happened the same day at Silverstone, nothing of the rest of the BTCC rosta, nothing about Aiden Moffat taking his first BTCC victory, little on anything un -F1 related seems to make it to the forefront of the British press unless it's bad news. lets look back a few years to when 4 time World Superbike Champion Carl Fogarty appeared on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here (which he subsiquently - as I predicted, Won). My wife's Facebook page on the evening of the first episode was that of "who is that Fogarty bloke? What does he do?" Fortunately She listened (!) and was able to advise but, outside of the aforementioned "Motorsports Family" he was still a relative unknown, even when he was racing and winning! The same could probably be said for multiple Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness, Cal Crutchlow in MotoGP or even Nick Tandy following his Le Mans victory in 2015.
Dan Wheldon was another who never got the column inches he deserved over here until his accident, Justin Wilson similarly as Indycar was still ignored by the British sporting press outside the affiliated.
Is it because there is too much to cover? Do we the public only care - even at a local level about only Football, Rugby, Cricket or Tennis? Only by following motor racing in general and, via the power of social media do I know of a few competitors of various disciplines local to me. A British Superbike racer in the same town, a hillclimber in the same county, a BTCC racer from the nearest major city and a Porsche Carerra Cup the racer the next county over the closest to me - not that the local press would let you know! I even had another endurance racer in the county a few years back, racing at the front of the pack in the same team as Mcnish and Herbert but even the local press overlooked it, even when I offered a short piece having attended Le Mans myself!
Is there something taboo about giving motorsports coverage or teams and drivers exposure? If so, why so? Outside of the glitz and glamour of the F1 world most of the drivers I've had the pleasure of meeting have been more than approachable and, willing to talk and share information asked of them be it BTCC, WEC club level or support rosta, that even goes for the crews and staff, many a time I've got my info from a mechanic or team member if the driver is busy, I remember having a 15 min or so conversation with a WSR engineer about the seating position of Sam Tordoff's BMW at a test just because of the access I had to both the car and the team at the time.
Are we, the bloggers and the official and accredited motorsport press now the only voice of Motorsports?
Without us will national level news be forgotten?
I sincerely hope not I guess I'm just angry that it takes an incident such as young Billy's to get the press talking about motor racing on a national level - especially when they choose to ignore most of the international action as well!
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