Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I agree. I'm a Port regular and to be honest, when the track slicks off, the racing is REALLY good. The other night it was just too damn fast. I love both tracks because of how different they are. Apparently that moron hasn't seen a race anywhere else other than Port Royal.

Easy there, Hoss. Back 'er down a bit. I doubt it was a dig at Lincoln. I believe he was just pumping his track up a little bit. He works for the track, what else do you expect him to say?

Agreed!  Love Port but something has to be done about the announcer situation.  Shawn is hands down the most annoying announced I've ever heard.  He never ever shuts up.  I'm sure I'll get told to do the job if I think I can do it better by you guys but whatever.  As far as port and Lincoln battle.  Both tracks have pros and cons about them.  Stop bitching out one track or the other, be thankful we have the option to do what we did Saturday.  And the past 3 weeks, and have until October.  Most tracks haven't even started racing yet, and don't till mid April.  

You have your opinion but considering that both announcers are constantly fishing for compliments every time they stick the mic in front of someone's face, I think it was a cheap shot and he wanted to hear the guy say "yes Port Royal is the best" or something along those lines. They do that shit all the time as if they're addicted to getting compliments or something. What they've done with the place is incredible no doubt but they act like the place used to look like Susky and they're the only track that's ever improved anything. It gets really old and I can tell sometimes the drivers get sick and tired of Shawn trying to bait them into telling him how great the track surface was every time they stand on the frontstretch. Regardless, they need to tell that Armstrong guy to take his circus act somewhere else and they need to get a new announcer because literally, everyone I've ever talked to thinks he's a pain in the ass.

Interesting. I guess I've just never taken notice of the "fishing for compliments" stuff, but now that you mention it, I can see it. 

Believe me, the people I sit with are in 100% agreement with you and your opinion of the announcer. I'm of the opinion if we all sounded the same, life would be pretty boring. So, I just roll with it.

In regards to a great announcer, I always thought Dave Hare did an awesome job for the Super Sportsman. He has a smooth delivery as well as a great voice, plus he comes up with some pretty good nicknames too.

Anyway, I just thought that choosing the nuclear option, and telling an announcer to shove the microphone up his ass when he was asking you a question seemed a bit excessive. Haha. 

I am pretty much shocked at the comments about Shawn. To me he is by far one of the best announcers in the area (it could all be related to my age though, I like younger, high energy announcers). I remember a few years back (might have been 2015? or 2014?) they had a night with free admission and double 410 and SLM features. Was my first trip to Port. The lighting broke and we sat for a good hour, hour and a half. He made it not as miserable as it could have been by playing music and just keeping people somewhat entertained. 

Again it all could be related to my age and preferences but I prefer announcers like Shawn, Mike Donald, John Gibson, Shane Andrews and Ben Shelton, over some of the other announcers in the area. 

Thanks,

Jeff.

I tend to agree with you.  I would imagine announcing is not easy, plus you get no do-overs.  Although Shawn may talk alot, it usually is about stats, upcoming events, history, etc.  I believe his victory lane interviews are fine as well.  The PR stuff during the show with give-a-ways, etc., is also a plus in my eyes.  Shane and Shawn do alot to publicize events.  I don't think Shane took a shot at Lincoln, I believe he was just trying to have fun.

If Port Royal could get Dave Hare, I'd consider that the best thing to happen since the fall of the Soviet Union. That guy is damn good and unlike Shawn, he knows when to shut up. 

I'm younger as well and I like Johnny Gibson as well. I think he's one of the greatest voices in the history of sprint car racing. I've been to well on excess of 50 different tracks (not sure the exact number but it's probably around 60?) and I've heard countless announcers and Shawn is by far the worst I've ever heard. I'm not trying to be mean or anything but I just call it like I see it. Shane Armstrong is equally as annoying but we only have to hear him in small doses thankfully. I love everything about Port Royal. I just think the biggest improvement they could make is the guy behind the microphone and other than a couple of comments on this topic, everyone I've ever talked to agrees. He would be tolerable if he didn't insist on talking constantly during every second of downtime and if he'd quit with the excessive boasting about improvements and trying to get compliments all the time for every little thing they've done. Like I said before, he acts as if Port Royal is the only track to ever improve anything or fix shit up. 

What you people don't know about Shawn Brouse is when he first came to Port Royal the place was a dump and Shawn was the driving force to clean the place up and make it what it is today. So I say thank you Shawn Brouse.

That's funny.

So fill us in... what was the car count at each race? How many teams did both?

Lincoln had 21 and Port Royal had 25. Danny Dietrich was the only driver to do the double. The racing at Lincoln was good and at Port, it wasn't too bad considering how fast the track was. It would've been better but attrition took out several of the heavy hitters. Port gets really good when it's slick to a curb. Saturday, they were just flat footing it the whole way around. The speeds were incredible and amazing to watch but I'd much rather see good racing. Even when it's slick, Port is still plenty fast. All in all it was a great day and I hope the schedules work out this way for years to come. Nothing better than 2 races in one day at 2 different tracks. I'm sure by now you probably heard about Mike Erdley's crash at Port. That one was scary. The flip he took alone was pure violence and then the car burst into flames once it came to a rest with the open side of the cockpit laying down against the ground. Doug Esh rushed over and helped Mike get out and luckily, other than a few bumps and bruises, he was uninjured. It definitely could've turned out much worse than it did. I was already a big fan of Esh as it is and I gained that much more respect for him after watching him place himself in harm's way to help a fellow competitor.

props to Esh! I had flashbacks to Doug Wolfgang when i saw that fire....glad everyone is ok. On the subject of the PA tracks,I wish they would make the King's Royal & Knoxville weekends non-points races. Maybe we would get a few more locals at least going to Eldora.

Agree on Brouse for what he has done personally for the track since Steve ONeal was hired.  Looking at the Port Royal schedule this season, they are closed the Saturday of Knoxville.  During the fire, there was a corner worker in there as well who I believe erdley thanked as Ray Bame.  How in the world did Esh get out and unbuckled that quickly.  Kudos to him.

Just to clarify, I appreciate everything that the entire team, including Shawn, has done to revitalize Port Royal and bring it to a level that it should've been years ago. My opinion was strictly about his announcing. I'm not saying they should kick Shawn off the team, I'm just saying they should get someone else to be the announcer or at least turn the damn speakers down.

I've been to just as many if not more tracks and have heard some pretty awful announcers - the kind that are an active part of the decision making process on what track to go to. I would give some examples but I don't want to pick on anyone really as they are probably all very nice people. I'm not entirely sure who Shane Armstrong is (If it was in response to me being a fan of Shane Andrews we may be talking about someone else. Andrews is the announcer for the Super Dirtcar Series). While we disagree on Shawn Brouse's announcing (I still think it is great, very exciting, very informative. His constant plugging of Port can be useful for those of us who have not been there recently - he was pointing out stuff that I didn't notice) I can definitely understand the difference in opinion, as there have been times when I thought someone was awful and others thought they were great. I can say that as a promoter of a racing series in this region there are not many announcers out there looking for work. I was referred to several announcers this off season that previously announced for tracks and series and none of them were looking to come out of retirement no matter how much $$$ was offered. 

Thanks fiXXEr.

I'd like to meet you this summer, at either Speedweek or USAC midgets (not sure about Eastern Storm, maybe Grandview & then I have other stuff to do)

We pretty much agree on sprint cars, maybe not politics....

To hell with politics. I have my opinions but talking about it never did anyone a damn bit of good. All that happens is needless arguing. No one ever wins and no one ever changes their mind. Literally, it's a waste of good oxygen. Sprint cars are a far better topic of discussion. Let me know when you're coming in and we'll see if we can't get a b.s. session going at some point.