Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Evening With A Legend: Bob Varsha

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Evening With A Legend: Bob Varsha · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Evening With a Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to
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legends of the famous 24 hours of Le Mans giving us an opportunity
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to bring a piece of Le Mans to you.
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By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance
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to become part of the Legend of Le Mans with guests from different
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eras of over 100 years of racing.
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Tonight we have an opportunity to bring a piece of Le Mans to you sharing in the
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Legend of Le Mans with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing.
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And as your host, I'm delighted to introduce Bob Varsha, one of America's
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most recognizable voices in Motorsport broadcasting, bringing his signature
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depth, clarity, and enthusiasm to coverage of the 24 hours Le Mans for us audiences.
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Over the years, Bob served as lead commentator for networks like Speed
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Channel and ESPN guiding viewers through the complexities of the
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race with a rare blend of technical knowledge and storytelling, his
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ability to balance real-time analysis and historical context made Le Mans's
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broadcast, both engaging for seasoned fans and accessible for newcomers.
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Whether calling the drama of late night stints, dissecting strategy, or
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capturing the emotion of the finish, Bob's commentary helped elevate Le Mans into a
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must watch event for American Motorsport.
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Enthusiasts cementing his reputation as one of the sport's premier narrators.
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And with that, I'm your host crew chief Eric from the Motoring
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Podcast Network, welcoming everyone to this evening with a legend.
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So Bob, welcome to the show.
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Thank you very much, Eric.
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Pleasure to be here.
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Bob, you started your broadcasting career in 1980, and your first LA
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mob broadcast was in 1986, still in the days of quote unquote the old
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Le Mans before all of the renovations.
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So let's talk about your unique.
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Road to Le Mans story and take us through the events that led you to get that
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first call to come announce the 24.
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My entire career, all 41 years of it, I guess, has been total happenstance.
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I trained as a lawyer at Emory Law School here in Atlanta.
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Figured that was gonna be my career.
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I was gonna be an attorney and I was for about four years, but I was also
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a distance runner of some note Olympic trials in 1976 for the Montreal Games.
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I did very well.
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Finished six there.
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So I was kind of a part of the running community here in Atlanta.
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And Atlanta is a big running town, so, um.
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By Hooker, by Crook.
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I wound up as the executive director of the Atlanta Track Club, and our biggest
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event of the year was and is the Peachtree Road Race, 65,000 people running a 10
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K through Atlanta on the 4th of July.
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And I got an invitation from a local TV broadcaster to come and help comment on
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the race because I knew it inside and out.
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So I did that, didn't think much about it.
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And then I got a call from Turner Broadcasting, which
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is based here in Atlanta.
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They said, would you like to come and do that for our national broadcast?
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And I said, okay, great.
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So I did it.
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A few weeks after that, I got a phone call offering me a part-time
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job, which wound up being 22nd news reports in the commercial
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breaks of the late night movies.
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But one thing led to another and I moved to CNN Sports and CNN
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radio and on and on and on because those opportunities were there.
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To be honest, I was the only guy in the very small CNN radio sports
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department eventually got fired in Word.
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We had a great news department on the CNN side with great people.
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Kathleen Sullivan, Dan Patrick, Keith Berman.
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These folks were all at CNN when I was, but for whatever reason,
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oh, well I know the reason.
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It was after the 84 Olympics in, uh, Los Angeles.
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They wanted to slim down the department, so I was let go.
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But I knew that out in the parking lot at Turner Broadcasting, there
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was a construction trailer, which housed the first ever motor sports
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production company I'd ever heard about called World Sports Enterprises.
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So I went over there and said, Hey, is there a job here?
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And they said, yep, come on.
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So I became a Motorsports reporter at that point, having no knowledge
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whatsoever about Motorsports.
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They sent me off to do the uh, camel GT program and the great days of
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the Porsche nine 60 twos and the Nissans and Toyotas and what have you.
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I went there, learned a lot, met some ESPN people.
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Who asked, will you come and host some of our stuff?
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So, you know, that was sort of the theme of my career.
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I was inundated with opportunities, picked and chose and, and
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wound up 10 years at ESPN.
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And it was during those 10 years that I became a Le Mansr host, a
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Formula one host, plus motorcycles, motor gp, and all sorts of things.
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Or whenever there was an opportunity at ESPN, I put my hand in the air
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because I love telling stories and I love researching new things.
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Loved the people I worked with.
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And so, you know, it all really worked out.
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And then it became Speed, vision, outdoor Life, and uh, Fox
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Sports and so on and so forth.
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And now I'm a freelancer just looking for work here, there, and everywhere.
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You ask how I got to Le Mans, it was a phone call from our coordinating
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motor sports producer, a guy named Terry Langner, who also stuck
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me into the Formula One seat.
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As I said, I love telling stories.
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The internet was alive and growing, so there was plenty of
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opportunity to learn various nuances.
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I also knew who I was working with.
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We had a great crew, David Hobbs, Brian Till, Calvin Fish, and
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the group kind of changed over the years, but we had basically.
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10 solid announcers, some of which knew vastly more than I did, like
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HaBO and others, who, this isn't gonna sound right, but needed a little
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guidance, a little, um, mentoring.
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Yeah, mentoring.
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There you go.
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But I also had tremendous respect for Le Mansr.
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You know, I used to do my search by reading everything
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I could get my hands on.
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I had a shelf of books just like that one behind you.
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And dug through them working with a producer to find out what
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we're likely to be talking about.
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Fully aware that our pictures and television is a picture
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medium, not a words medium.
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We're coming from the French who create the world feed, as we call it, that
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everybody uses supplementing with a camera or two, which is what we did.
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So you get to Le Mans 86, the first time you're on hallowed ground.
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Absolutely.
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The first time I went to Le Mans.
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We had a, a skeleton crew for ESPN and we stayed in people's houses.
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We rented space.
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I was in a house with a small crew of Japanese television people.
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Nobody spoke any English.
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We go out on the, uh, the first day and Le Mansr is really all about sounds.
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The daily traffic stops, it goes away.
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And then the trucks come and bolt on the armco and then the sweeper trucks
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come through and, and clear the road.
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And then you hear off in the distance miles away.
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The car's starting up, run, run, run, run, run.
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And then they, they go,
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which means they've left the pit lane and they're going up over the Dunlop
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curve and down through, uh, church Rouge and onto the straightaway.
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And that's when the engine note goes Rain.
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And it never comes down because they're coming down the mosan and there's
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no other chicanes there or anything.
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And uh, so my Japanese pals and I are standing up by the Armco.
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I let my ego get the best of me.
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So I'm gonna show these Japanese guys what's going on.
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And we watch a car go by Porsche and the Japanese guys look at me and say, ah, I,
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there goes a Jaguar about the fourth or fifth car that comes by, gets to within.
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50 yards of us and he goes, ring
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blows a tire.
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It was one of the Mercedes, the Salberg Heim Mercedes was introducing
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Michelin's new long distance racing tire.
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This thing went off with a bang that would deafen you and for about
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the next 30 seconds, little bits of race car came raining down on us.
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So we all got a a little souvenir of the body work of the Mercedes.
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But part of the magic of LA Mall is it's different every quarter of a mile.
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You're either you're in the Bugatti circuit or you're out
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going down through Terra Rouge.
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Uh, you go through an industrial park and there's a stadium there, and then
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you're off into the trees until they come out down at Mosan Corner and that's
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like farmland and then back down through Indianapolis and Arage and Porsche.
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So it's like a different racetrack every quarter of a mile.
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The scenery is different.
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The, uh, pavement is different.
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You can get as deep into Le Mans as you like.
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You know, and then you've been to many tracks around the
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world and around the country.
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Mm-hmm.
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What was the experience of calling the 24 like compared to other events like the
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Indy 500 or Daytona or anything like that?
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So, you know, it, it was a big, kind of fraternal kind of thing.
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A big adventure.
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We all got on, fly over to Charles Leal airport, go down to the TVG platform,
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get on the, the rocket train and, and be in Le Mans in an hour or so.
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Having said that, there was an awful lot to get used to.
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The French do things their own way as everybody does credentialing and parking.
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And where are we staying?
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Where we eating and you know, all that kind of nitty gritty
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stuff had to be sought out.
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But again, having HaBO there, having raced in the 24 hours, 20 times, it
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was pretty easy to find our way around.
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And just about any time you approached one of the old hands that was directing
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traffic and they spotted David, they would recognize him and suddenly
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they couldn't do enough for us.
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So it was kind of a, um, golden road we had because we had David there
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as our credential, if you like.
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You mentioned HaBO a couple of times already.
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Yep.
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More than just coworkers, but friends I've seen you guys present before
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together in, in other, uh, instances.
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And he was just here on evening with a legend, as a matter of fact.
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So any good stories, some good gossips, some good dirt on behind the
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scenes with HaBO in the LeMans box.
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Oh God.
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David and I traveled together for 25 years or so doing Formula One, but at
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Le Mansr, obviously he was working with this huge backlog of experiences.
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Not a lot of those stories can be told on a family show.
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We kind of hooked up with the British television contingent, as you might
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expect, and just had some great times and sort of helped each other out
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when somebody was short of a body or some information or some video
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or whatever it might happen to be.
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But David could tell so many stories about Le Mansr.
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It's one of the great regrets of his life, I can tell you as it
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is with Mario Andretti, that they didn't win the overall at Le Mansr.
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The great driver, Bob Wallach once won a GT category and someone was
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congratulating him on the podium and he said, oh, it's just a class win.
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As if it didn't count.
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Everybody wants to win the overall, David did win things.
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He won the index of performance one year driving a spitfire.
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He won some GT things.
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He was third in the overall once He accomplished a lot there,
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but he didn't have that one big.
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Win.
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We had lots of fun dealing with that in various way, shape, or
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form during, uh, the broadcasts.
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How do you prepare for such a long race?
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It's a complex race.
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It's a fairly compact racetrack.
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You know, the Bugatti circuit is the purpose built racetrack within the
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big eight mile loop of public roads that constitutes Le Mansr race course.
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And there's not a lot of room in there when you get 60 racing
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teams and all of their stuff.
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And, and since that first race, way back when in the old LA Mall, teams like
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Porsche and Audi and so on have erected these giant garages behind the pit lane.
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People everywhere.
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It can get pretty chaotic there, but you know, but it's still fun because
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you know, you're still there, you're at LA Mall, you've got a job to do
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and you're going to, uh, to do it.
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We would rotate responsibilities.
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So I actually put in some time as a pit reporter during the, uh, nighttime
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hours and uh, I would remember walking down the pit lane and above.
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On top of the building were hundreds of people sitting with their legs
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dangling over the edge of the roof.
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And I would hear people yelling, oh, ESPN, Hey Faria, what are you doing?
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And of course, a lot of 'em were drunk as hell, but that was okay.
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Nobody fell off.
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But if you've seen the movie Le Mans, you get little glimpses of what
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it was actually like back then.
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The characters, you know, stomping around in these dusty concrete
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hallways behind the garages.
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It was pretty rustic, I have to say.
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And in fact, after one of their appearances in the race without a
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result, the Jaguar team might have been that first year in 1986, spray painted
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on the inside walls of their garage.
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We will be back.
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They are putting so much ego into coming back, having not won the
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race since 1957 with a D type.
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Tom Walkinshaw was selling a bill of goods about what they could
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accomplish, which they finally did.
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Yeah, that was uh, the crazy old days at Le Mansr.
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Now it's all clean and shiny and that's a good thing.
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'cause it desperately needed it.
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It was all part of a general.
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Wake up period.
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In international motor sport, you cannot just be an athletic endeavor or contest.
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You have to be entertaining.
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You have to follow up your stories.
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You have to honor your past greats, you know, all of these things.
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You had to have good facilities, clean bathrooms, and all that sort of thing.
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But they left some touches there that I appreciate and point out
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to people from time to time.
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It's a magical place.
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It really is.
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On evening with a legend.
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We happen to have a lot of pro drivers come on here.
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And obviously we know what their job description is, drive
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car fast, win races, right?
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But there's so many other jobs that are going on at the same time in this
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microcosm that is the 24 hours of Le Manss.
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So I wanna hone in a little bit more on what happens in the box.
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Let's talk about some of the challenges of commentating a 24 hour race.
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There's only a few in the world.
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Le Mans, Rolex, Bergrin and Spa being the big four on the list, but how
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does that compare to commentating action packed races that are more
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condensed, like IndyCar and Formula One?
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Well, it's an entirely different exercise.
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You know, short races are a bit more intense.
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It's more important that you stay on top of everything as it's happening.
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Long races.
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I actually prefer, because you can speak more, you can bring
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up stories, you can do things.
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And that's more interesting to me.
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'cause as I said, I got into it to tell stories and, uh,
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there's so many great stories.
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I've met so many wonderful people over the years that, yeah, I
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just prefer those long races.
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I like that.
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Have a subject that I can really tear big chunks out of and chew 'em up.
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So like the drivers do the broadcasters have minimum air times or maximum air
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times that you can be behind the mic?
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Not by rule, we do.
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Just for the sake of maintaining energy and that sort of thing.
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Typically we would have two teams of announcers, two or three
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up top may be supplemented by.
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Someone we bumped into and invited up to the booth, and then two groups
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of probably three pit reporters each.
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'cause uh, that's a long pit lane at Le Mansr.
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You gotta be very careful.
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You can't walk down the pit lane as such because the pit marshals or commissars
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as, uh, Derek Bell likes to call them.
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Are out there telling you to get outta the way and the cars are coming up
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from behind you, yada, yada, yada.
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So yeah, it takes manpower, no doubt about it.
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And then you have the technical side, and those folks are supplemented, of
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course, by the World Feed and what you get, your audio and video all worked out.
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You have.
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Two to three cameras of your own, and there's a story behind that.
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You'd have a high camera looking down on the pit complex, you would have
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two pit cameras walking up and down, especially during the night because
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that first year we went to LA Mall with ESPN, nobody seemed to know until our
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production manager found out that the French World feed does not play all night.
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We're there to do the 24 hours.
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We had this big six hour hole in the middle of the night
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with the French all go home.
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So we had to quickly rig up a system, which amounted to me in front of a
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green screen type of arrangement.
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It was actually a tarp hung over.
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A two by four nailed to the wall and they would play headlights running around in
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the dark while I was sitting on a stool and basically talking about anything
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I could think of for, for six hours.
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We, we did have one guy over in the pits, so he would interrupt from time to time
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with something happening down there.
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But yeah, I mean, we almost got caught with our pants down in terms of.
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Having pictures to show the folks at home.
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Then, fortunately, within a few years, they had a 24 hour French feed.
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It's spectacular.
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They do a great job, including the um, Le Mans Air Force, we call it.
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It was like six helicopters in a relay type race.
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They would land at the airstrip, which is right across the country road from
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the racetrack, where teams would go to warm engines and check repairs and
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adjustments and go up and down the runway.
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But these helicopters.
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Pass the baton and just go and go and go for the whole
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24 hours, which is great fun.
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Well, you mentioned earlier you have a very, very long tenure at
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the 24 hours Le Mans from 86 all the way up through 2016 with three
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different broadcasting companies, ESPN, speed, vision, and then Fox.
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You kind of described a memorable moment there, but.
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Are there some from the races themselves that stick out to you?
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One of them, for me growing up, watching the race every year was
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when Audi stage, the three cars crossing the line together and you
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guys are like, can you believe this?
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We haven't seen this since, you know, the 1960s or whatever.
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Like those moments captured with your voice and with HaBO and everybody else.
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Are there others that really stuck with you?
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Were important.
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Oh gosh, yes.
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One of the E early ESPN years.
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Well, we didn't have a booth and I was sitting in the back seat of a van
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with, it was Larry Newberg from ESPN.
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As I mentioned earlier, Jaguar had said, we will return.
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We wanna win this race.
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So they started coming back and failing until 1988.
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They came with a fleet of cars, five and all, including all of their factory guys,
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plus Danny Sullivan, who I was doing.
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Champ Car with at that time Derek Daley, who I did Champ Car and Formula
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One with, you know Davey Jones.
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A lot of very, very good drivers.
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Race goes on.
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Big dramatic moment was when Porsche factory driver plus Ludwig ran the
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car outta gas on the back stretch.
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Now this is the mall.
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You only get about seven laps on a tank of gas and you've got
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to be careful to get in clouds.
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Kind of forgot and had to grind.
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About four miles around the track on the starter motor to get it back to
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the pit lane where they could fix it.
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At that point, they lost the race lead.
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Jaguar took over and believe it or not, the Porsches almost came back and
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caught Jaguar, but they weren't able to.
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And the car with Andy Wallace and John Lamers and the Earl of Butte, Johnny
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Re, a British nobleman, good guy.
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They hung on.
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Won the race and then two of the original five Jaguars that were still
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in the race joined up with the race leaders and came across in that three
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wide echelon style that always thrills.
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Now everybody knows, or everybody likes to say, they know that Le Mansr
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is a British race on French soil.
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So after, um, years of domination by the Germans with their Porsches.
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A lot of the Brits stopped coming, but during the race, as it became
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more and more clear that Jaguar had a legitimate shot at winning
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for the first time since 1957.
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This is 1988, the ports at Kle, the ferries.
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Became jammed as British fans crossed the channel to come to Le Mans so they
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could say they were there to witness Jaguar's comeback win at Le Mans.
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And I remember those laps of honor after the finish.
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Confetti flying everywhere.
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Jaguar flags, British Union Jacks singing the national anthem.
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I mean, it was this thundering grandstand of people and it was about as emotional
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as I've ever gotten on the air.
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I was just so impressed with the, uh, national support for the Jaguar
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victory in 88, and that actually kicked off from, I would say 87
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when Porsche won as usual, and then Jaguar won, and then Mercedes won.
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With the, uh, C nine, and then somebody else won, and then Mazda won with
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their 7 87 B four rotor car that made an absolutely eye watering noise.
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And then years after that, it was a different brand or a different model car
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from a different brand every single year.
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I mean, there was something new every year, which we weren't used
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to because we had spent seventies and eighties watching Porsches.
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Sweep the table.
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That's one moment that will stick with me forever was the year the
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Toyota Hybrid came around and died at the start of the last lap.
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That one I'll always remember.
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So that was fun going back, knowing there was a a chance we were gonna
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see something different and new.
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So you talked about pit reporting, which gives you an opportunity
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to talk to the drivers.
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You know, they're fatigued, let's say they just jumped out of the car.
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You gotta get that instant report.
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But the question that always comes up, everybody wants to
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know who's the best interview.
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Some say it's andretti, others say it's HaBO, whatever.
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Is there a best interview and were there some tough interviews and why?
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Well, that comes naturally, you know, is there a prettiest girl?
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No.
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It just depends on your taste.
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Now you mentioned Mario Andretti, I assume.
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Yes, Mario is a wonderful interview.
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He remains just a darling of the media rooms overseas.
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People just love to know that Mario's gonna be there that weekend and
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every journalist wants an interview with him as far as the worst go.
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Well, you went there.
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I said tough.
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Oh, I'm sure there is, but I tend to stick with the good guys.
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One thing that Le Mans taught me right away is that drivers
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who are from foreign countries.
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For whom English is not a first language, and drivers who have not
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been exposed to the pretty prudish American broadcast standards.
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When it comes to expressing yourself, you can get some really
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crazy comments from drivers.
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I remember one Jamal Delmondo son of the famous actor, Alba Mondo.
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Was driving a GT car, I think, and there was an OnTrack Contra to, and
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he got out of the car and I wasn't doing the interview, but one of my
22:56
colleagues was this guy got so worked up, he was dropping F-bombs left, right
23:02
and center, and I was working in the booth for that race with Alan McNich.
23:06
And of course Alan being a first time broadcaster, hadn't been
23:09
through this before himself.
23:10
So I looked over at Alan and he had an expression on his face, something
23:14
like this, and I just gave him the, the hand signal to calm down, count
23:19
down, you apologize, you explain.
23:21
People don't understand.
23:22
I mean, I heard Sena didn't understand that an F-bomb was not
23:27
appreciated on, on American broadcast.
23:29
And the Brits have come around to that as well.
23:31
So.
23:32
You have to watch out for that.
23:33
As far as the toughest interview and full credit to these drivers
23:37
who may have just gotten out of the car and been through life changing
23:40
experiences, gosh, who would I pick on?
23:44
My toughest interview was my first year at Le Mansr.
23:48
David Hobbs was not going on air with us.
23:51
He was driving with Damon Hill.
23:54
I know.
23:54
And I knew David.
23:56
I knew we're gonna work together and so on, and he had just gotten out of the car.
24:00
He was driving a Richard Lloyd Porsche.
24:02
And, you know, I walked up to him, little hail fellow, well met, how's it going?
24:06
And he looked right through me.
24:08
It was like he had no idea who I was.
24:11
And you know, I got a couple of monosyllabic comments out of him and
24:15
I thought, this is not gonna work.
24:17
He's got some explaining to do later on.
24:19
Does David, but no, I, I can't think of anybody who gave bad interviews unless
24:24
they were just afraid of their English.
24:25
Course.
24:26
Remember too, at Le Mansr, there's an army of journalists there.
24:29
Everybody I think, is somewhat reconciled to the idea that you're gonna have to
24:34
talk because you're just gonna be waves beating on the shore, people asking you to
24:39
comment on this or that, the other thing.
24:41
So I don't recall a bad experience with anybody in that context.
24:46
Speaking a little bit more to your broadcasting style.
24:49
You talked about the amount of research you do, trying to keep up learning new
24:53
things, all the new cars that are coming.
24:55
So how did you approach balancing all that technical information with storytelling
25:00
to keep both us hardcore fans engaged, but also casual newcomers that might
25:05
be turning on Le Mans for the first time?
25:07
That touches on a subject that I've always felt pretty strongly about.
25:10
Making a broadcast, you wanna throw your net as far as you can, because every
25:16
viewer is a potentially new viewer.
25:18
They may know all about the sport, they may know nothing about the sport.
25:22
So you really have to include those people in your commentary narrative to
25:28
provide the greatest opportunity for them to be entertained, to be appreciated.
25:32
During my early formula one days, we used to go through the qualifying
25:36
system every Saturday in our broadcast.
25:39
And I used to get occasional emails from people saying, why do you keep
25:43
talking about the qualifying format?
25:46
Every time there's a qualifying show, we know what it is, just get on with it.
25:50
And I thought, no, you really don't.
25:52
Because there's a lot of people out there who may not understand that it's a
25:56
three session deal and we drop five cars and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
26:00
So I've always tried to uh, one, stay away from very technical
26:05
topics 'cause I'm not a technician.
26:08
Stay away from trying to explain what a driver did wrong.
26:12
That came up badly for him because I'm not a driver.
26:15
That's why our booth at Speed Vision with me, David Hobbs, Steve Matchett,
26:20
and Sam Posey, it worked because we each knew what our role was.
26:26
I'm getting us in and outta breaks and setting the scene and all that.
26:29
David, as the driver takes over when there's a replay that calls for
26:34
driver expertise, same thing when we have a dramatic event in the garage.
26:38
Steve was a mechanic, he can explain that.
26:41
And Sam was just the poet laureate.
26:42
So we each played our role and I think, uh, it really led to the best,
26:47
most economical in terms of words broadcast in American broadcasting.
26:52
We don't talk constantly.
26:54
We talk a lot.
26:55
Well listen to Sky TV with the Formula One shows constant words, words, words, words.
27:00
They never stopped to take a breath.
27:02
I call that the Murray Walker syndrome.
27:05
Murray worked alone in the booth before he hooked up with James Hunt and would
27:10
just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and he became famous for his screw ups.
27:15
There are whole books full of what they call mems, you know,
27:18
hilarious things like that.
27:20
Formula One car is absolutely one of a kind.
27:24
There's nothing quite like it except the car behind it, which
27:27
is identical, that kind of stuff.
27:29
Unless I am terribly wrong and it appears I am, you know, that's
27:33
just the way he would do things.
27:34
But he would talk constantly and everybody since that I've worked
27:38
with on international broadcasts.
27:40
Does that, and I never quite understood why.
27:42
Because to me, you want the squeal of tires, you want the roar of the
27:46
engines, you want the sound of motor sports not, uh, filtered through some
27:51
constant chatter from a guy like me.
27:54
And I feel that the broadcasting style that you and your team brought to the
27:58
table is actually similar to the way radio IMSA and Radio Le Mansn work, because
28:02
John Hind Hoff does the same thing.
28:04
There's all these pauses.
28:05
And you just hear the background sounds of the cars going for a while, and
28:08
then they kind of regain their steam and peter off and things like that.
28:12
And so I've always appreciated that because like you just said,
28:15
it's a lot for the audience to take in, but you're just this constant
28:18
waterfall of words all the time.
28:20
It makes me wonder as announcers, do you get to decide what the TV
28:25
coverage should focus on, or are you constantly being reactive to
28:29
what you see generally speaking?
28:31
It depends what country you're in.
28:33
I did a lot of Formula E stuff with British television and they
28:36
think announcers are light bulbs.
28:39
Unscrew one screw in another one, shut up until we tell you to talk.
28:43
It was quite different here in America, the producer and director and so on.
28:46
We'll sit with the announcers and we agree on what the key themes are coming into the
28:52
race weekend, which I really appreciated.
28:54
I was kind of put out when I did my first show overseas.
28:58
They don't want to hear what you think.
28:59
So yeah, it's a very different style of broadcasting that you have to know your
29:04
audience, know who you're working with.
29:06
Well, and the reason I bring it up is because I feel like one of the
29:09
most underappreciated classes Yep.
29:11
At Le Mans every year is LMP two.
29:14
They just never seem to get any airtime.
29:16
Right.
29:16
And I always wonder.
29:17
Is that a decision of the folks behind the cameras, or is it the announcers
29:20
that are like, it's really not that interesting, we're just gonna follow the
29:23
leaders around for the next three hours.
29:25
Where it would be nice to, you know, switch gears a little bit.
29:28
Yes.
29:28
Look at what else is going on in the race.
29:30
So do you play a part in influencing what we see on the
29:33
television in a very casual way?
29:36
Yeah, we'll talk and the producers, you know, they're not dubbing,
29:39
they've done their homework.
29:40
They know what the key.
29:42
Elements of this race bring out, whether it's the points championship
29:46
or the mechanical reliability of certain cars, it's a group function.
29:51
You talk amongst yourself, you learn what you think is important.
29:54
And then you talked about being reactive.
29:57
You absolutely have to do that.
29:59
The pit reporters.
30:00
Play a big role in that because they find out all the information before we do.
30:04
And sometimes you'll be just totally surprised by something like one of the
30:08
first years the, uh, Audi R eight was racing somebody's car broke gearbox
30:14
problem, swing it back into the garage.
30:17
And David Hobbes's son guy was being a pit reporter.
30:21
And so he disappears behind the car into the garage and we're
30:24
talking about something else.
30:25
All of a sudden he says, oh my God, I can't believe this.
30:28
And we thought, oh, oh, what terrible thing happened.
30:30
The Audi guys had built their car in a modular fashion so they
30:35
could take off the rear body work.
30:38
And the gearbox and unplug it and plug it.
30:41
Not they came.
30:42
So, you know, we got a camera down there and watched all this
30:45
happen and somebody put a stopwatch on it in like seven minutes.
30:49
That car came back out with a new rear end on it, you know, away they went.
30:53
So you learn a lot just by watching the teams, manufacturers keep
30:57
their latest innovations under a cover until they really need it.
31:01
And you mentioned the other classes.
31:03
That's mainly a factor that all of the big recognizable driver names.
31:08
And the fastest cars in class are gonna be in prototype and
31:13
well, what is now GT three Pro?
31:16
So yeah, they're just naturally going to attract more attention.
31:19
They're gonna have the bigger accidents, the more drama, the
31:22
fantastic numbers in terms of terminal velocity and all that kind of thing.
31:26
So I agree with you.
31:27
I think LMP too deserves a little more attention and everyone, I mean, if you're
31:32
at lab ball, you're spending money, you're risking your life, you're doing something.
31:36
Huge in your own life, you deserve a little attention, I think.
31:40
But that's not always possible when you're working in the
31:42
international format that we are.
31:44
You know, we can't go say, anybody, speak enough French
31:47
to tell the director in there.
31:48
We want to go see something else on track.
31:50
Yeah.
31:51
We just react to the pictures we see.
31:53
So for those of us at home, perception is reality.
31:56
Mm-hmm.
31:57
That's why I'm asking this question about how the broadcasters
31:59
and how the announcers kind of shape the way we see things.
32:02
Right.
32:03
And one of the biggest things, doesn't matter the discipline of
32:06
racing, but especially at Le Mans, there's always the rivalries.
32:10
Yeah.
32:10
Famously, Porsche versus Corvette.
32:12
Corvette versus Viper, and maybe more realistically Porsche versus Ferrari.
32:16
Mm-hmm.
32:16
How much of that is real?
32:18
Because if you ask the drivers, they're sort of like, well,
32:20
eh, maybe sort of, kind of.
32:22
Yeah, in the booth, it's all this energy and this excitement
32:26
around these rivalries.
32:27
Are they contrived or are they real to the guys in the booth?
32:30
This is a war pure and simple.
32:33
There is, you know, no quarter asked or taken, you know, to the drivers, to
32:37
the mechanics, to the team personnel.
32:39
They are professionals.
32:40
This is what they do for a living.
32:42
And that other garage down there may be where you're working next year.
32:46
You may get hired, you switch teams.
32:48
You, you know, you wanna do a good job, which is why the drivers
32:51
are so friendly out of the car.
32:52
You know, you don't want to close off any potential pathway for your career.
32:56
I mean, there's a certain amount of huge pride in what they do.
33:00
Corvette racing is a great example.
33:02
You go there and win nine championships in 12 years or whatever it was.
33:08
The Corvettes were huge favorites at Le Mansr, a lot of American flags
33:11
waving, all that sort of thing.
33:13
But there was a lot of pride in being a part of the Corvette team.
33:17
T-shirts everywhere.
33:18
On and on and on.
33:19
Yeah.
33:19
I mean, the rivalries are there, you know, back in the board rooms of Porsche
33:23
and Audi and, you know, general Motors or whomever that win means a lot.
33:28
Look what Ford went through before they finally got, you know, the
33:31
66 victory and then the, the All American AJ and Dan Gurney win in 67.
33:37
That means a lot.
33:38
The marketers want fresh meat all the time.
33:41
You know, the drivers know it's racing, it's sport, it's fun, and
33:44
they do it for nothing, but they don't want you to spread that around.
33:49
You've mentioned throughout, there's a lot of unpredictability, especially on a
33:53
very long race, like the 24 hours of Le Mans.
33:56
You talked about some of the things you did to react in
34:00
creative ways, the makeshift green screen and things like that.
34:03
Then you touched on, especially the downtimes, nighttime
34:06
has to be really hard.
34:08
The drivers talk about how hard it is for them because they feel like
34:10
they're just driving on the highway.
34:12
Cars are spread out.
34:13
Lots of cars have retired.
34:15
I don't wanna say it gets boring, but it, it does kind of get boring.
34:18
Sure.
34:18
How do you keep your energy up?
34:20
How does your team.
34:21
Are you guys slamming Red Bulls?
34:22
I mean, how do you keep talking through the night to continue coverage?
34:26
Well, we each kind of have our own way, our own schedule, our own diet and so on.
34:31
I drink a lot of coffee and we, we lean on our poor pit reporters
34:35
to find something because, uh, as you say, it can get boring.
34:39
I mean, there are boring races and I've always said the hardest
34:43
race to call is a bad race.
34:46
A boring race because then your mind starts to wander.
34:49
You're thinking of silly things and you start saying silly
34:52
things, and that's no fun.
34:54
The easiest races to call are the exciting ones because that's where
34:58
you know the action speaks for itself.
35:01
And you're calling the Kentucky Derby, you know, here's who they
35:04
are and here's what they're doing.
35:06
And there's much more energy g just naturally in the
35:09
way you talk about things.
35:11
So Bob, with a couple extra minutes here, we're gonna go to some audience
35:15
questions and I'm gonna try to interpret this one from David Schmidt.
35:19
He wants to know about the gentleman drivers at Le Mans.
35:22
Le Mans is an anomaly in racing 'cause it's one of the few races in the world where,
35:27
I hate to say it, you can pay to play.
35:30
What's your take on the whole gentleman driver situation at Le Mans?
35:33
Well, you know, at Seabring and Daytona, and you know, the long races
35:37
are by and large, not necessarily all of them are, uh, exactly like that.
35:42
You can buy your way into the race naturally.
35:45
You have to have resources and licenses and all that sort of thing.
35:49
I think.
35:50
Berg Ring 24 is the only one that has very specific.
35:54
You gotta show that you can handle a few laps by yourself before you can get into a
35:59
field of 120 cars going around and around.
36:03
I, I always admired that fact that a race like Le Mansr is a race you could get into.
36:09
As I say, a minimum of experience and so on, and I used to
36:12
think that was a great thing.
36:14
I'm not so sure anymore, especially given the power and speed of current
36:20
race cars and the potential to spoil a great experience for race fans all
36:25
over the world by doing something stupid and getting in the way.
36:29
And we've seen that a lot of times in these enduros, if
36:32
you like, around the world.
36:34
You need some way of assuring yourself that guys are gonna be able
36:39
to handle themselves at that first Le Mansr I went to do for ESPN, the
36:43
guy who put me in the chair, Terry Langner was driving in the race.
36:48
He paid his money and rented a seat.
36:51
The thing that makes me think twice about my opinion is that these teams,
36:55
unless you're a big manufacturer, gm, Porsche, Ferrari, whatever,
37:00
the smaller teams that provide the bulk of the field in a race are.
37:04
Businesses.
37:04
They are people earning a living by building and tuning and perfecting
37:08
race cars and renting seats to hopefully qualified people.
37:13
There's that business aspect to it that I think the race would
37:16
suffer from if it weren't there.
37:18
Well, I'm gonna ask a fan favorite, and based upon what you said earlier,
37:22
spoke very fondly of the Jaguar team and their memorable win in 88.
37:26
If you could have driven a car at Le Mans, is there one in particular you would've
37:30
liked to have gotten behind the wheel of?
37:31
Oh gosh, I, I mean, there's so many favorites out there.
37:35
I would probably go with the 12 centimeter jag, whether it's a nine or the 12.
37:40
I just love it.
37:40
I mean, Jaguar is the true spirit of Le Mans, I think.
37:43
Of course now I could drive a dark horse Mustang, you know, something like that.
37:48
The cars that are coming to Le Mans.
37:50
Coming to the sports car racing generally are of a quality we've never seen before.
37:55
At least not in my experience going back to 1980.
37:58
The focus on efficiency and safety and all of these sorts of things,
38:04
it just keeps calling me back.
38:06
It's just so much fun to try to describe to people what's going on out there.
38:12
Who these people are.
38:13
Ken Squire, one of my mentors told me many years ago, he said, if people don't
38:17
care about what happens to the drivers, you know, if the human element is not
38:22
there, they're just gonna switch off.
38:24
So it's part of my job as the, uh, as a host or a play about play
38:28
guy, is to talk about the drivers.
38:30
Talk about the history of the brand, talk about where you are and what's at
38:35
stake and all those sorts of things.
38:37
'cause every racetrack in the world looks the same from curb to curb.
38:40
And as I said earlier, I'm not gonna try to reverse engineer an
38:44
accident or something like that.
38:46
I should have people with me to do that.
38:48
There's a, that element of romance to it.
38:51
One more crowd question and they're gonna test my French here.
38:55
Okay.
38:55
John Quist asks, please describe your experience at Albe de on Andre.
39:01
You're sitting alongside the Molson Straight for lunch.
39:04
Seems like a great place to experience the speed.
39:06
Were you there with me, pal?
39:08
Yeah.
39:09
So Bear, there's more than one of them.
39:10
You'd literally sit, you can sit by the Trackside wall.
39:14
A couple of feet away, other side of that, couple of feet beyond you get
39:19
to the pavement and cars come by.
39:22
The time I was most impressed with it was we'd had a brief rain shower.
39:26
So we're sitting there heating our kds in way or whatever it was,
39:29
the cars, and you can hear them all the way around the racetrack.
39:32
So here comes a car from, you know, let's say four miles away
39:35
and you can hear it coming.
39:37
They get into top gear and top revs and don't shift,
39:39
which is a really weird sound.
39:42
And then they go flashing by and if you stood up, you could
39:45
hit 'em with your crumpet.
39:46
They are literally three to four feet away.
39:50
It's noisy and uh, in the rain it's messy, but it is really fun.
39:54
Bob, as we transition into our final segment, we often ask our pro drivers
40:00
this on evening with the legend.
40:02
The question is, what did Le Manss teach you or what did you
40:05
bring home from the experience?
40:07
So how does that apply to your career as a broadcaster?
40:10
Did Le Mans teach you anything?
40:11
Oh yeah.
40:12
Every race teaches me something, whether it's an exciting one or a
40:15
boring one or what have you, Le Mansr.
40:18
Teaches me more about broadcasting in terms of the dynamics of time,
40:23
how much is available, you know, what else do you have to be thinking about
40:26
while you're talking about the action that's happening in front of you?
40:30
Working with fellow commentators in the booth, radios if we have them.
40:34
But Le Mansr, as much as anything taught me about racing history.
40:38
The racing business because the business is a huge part of what happens on a
40:44
racing weekend, as big as Le Ba, and as far as I'm concerned, it's the
40:48
biggest and best race in the world.
40:50
Do you have any advice for aspiring broadcasters, any words of wisdom
40:54
for folks that might step up and one day commentate at a race like the 24?
40:58
You know, as I explained off the top.
41:00
I never intended to be a broadcaster.
41:03
I was a lawyer, fell into the business, met a lot of very helpful people to
41:07
help me hone my craft, if you will.
41:10
Awful lot of learning about racing, about, you know, the mechanicals,
41:14
about the people who do it, about how they get to do it and so on.
41:18
So I never trained, I never took a, a film and television course at any university.
41:24
I'm living proof that you don't have to do that to embark
41:27
on a career in broadcasting.
41:29
Now times are constantly changing.
41:31
AI and new electronic gizmos are changing the nature of the
41:35
business very, very quickly, but the racing is still out there.
41:39
So what I recommend to young people is not so much sure.
41:42
You know, take a a university level course that'll help you with
41:46
a lot of the history and whatnot.
41:48
But get out there and do it right.
41:51
Even if you have to sweep up in the newspaper hallways or, or
41:55
submit reports to websites and the constantly diminishing print media
42:02
out there, magazines, newspapers.
42:05
If you hope to be on the air someday, then find a way to get involved at
42:11
your local racetrack and do whatever you have to do to get to that point.
42:15
If I. Clean the grants stands afterwards.
42:18
I'm serious.
42:19
I mean, you may have some, what you might consider otherwise demeaning work
42:22
to do, but that's how you get started.
42:24
Chip Robinson, who won a bazillion races in imsa, raced for Bob Tulio, the Jaguar
42:30
team, Al Holbert, Porsche, even on and on on, he started sweeping out the shops.
42:34
You know, any way you can get your foot in the door, do it.
42:38
Then keep your eyes and ears open, probably your mouth
42:41
shut and just soak it all in.
42:43
But you know, the most important thing is to get that first gig to get in the door.
42:47
And unless I'm mistaken, college homework isn't gonna help you get there.
42:51
There may be some way through a university level course, but nothing beats.
42:56
On the job training doing it.
42:58
So Bob, when you look back and you reflect on your very long and prestigious
43:04
career in broadcasting, part of what we do on this show is very similar
43:08
to what you did in the booth, which is bringing the Le Mans experience to
43:12
those that may never get the chance.
43:14
Mm-hmm.
43:15
To be there themselves.
43:16
So when you think about that and you, and you reflect on it,
43:18
how does that make you feel?
43:20
I'm proud of my career and what I've done.
43:23
I still have unfinished business.
43:25
Like any career, I suppose.
43:27
It's not always fair, but you then make a decision about whether it's really
43:31
what you want to do, and this is all I really want to do, and if people come away
43:37
from what we've talked about tonight and think, I didn't know it was like that.
43:41
But I'll find a way.
43:42
Well, since we're speaking about advice and you speak so fondly of
43:45
your many trips to Le Mans, any advice for people going for the first time?
43:49
And I do recommend that you go to Le Mans.
43:51
Absolutely.
43:52
Go.
43:53
I would hook up with a regarded tour company, and there are lots of them
43:57
out there that will arrange your tickets, your seats, if you have
44:00
any hotels, all that kind of stuff.
44:02
Stuff.
44:03
And if not that go with someone, A person you know who's been there
44:07
before, knows the ins and outs.
44:09
'cause it's a pretty crowded, complicated place on the race weekend.
44:13
And the race is just so diverse.
44:15
There is so much to see and do at Le Mansr.
44:17
The fan zone areas have all kinds of crazy stuff you can buy in
44:22
addition to the usual books and model cars and all that kind of stuff.
44:26
The museum that the, uh, a CO has is, uh.
44:29
Good, good fun.
44:30
They get great cars in there, so there's so much to see and do.
44:34
It really can be a family event.
44:36
You can go down the road to, uh, wonderful old hotels like Lahar or you
44:41
can go camp out in some open field.
44:45
So you can, you can drive around, you see camps, and
44:48
these are commercial operations.
44:49
You'll see like a hundred.
44:52
Identical little red tents with a stake in the ground and a number
44:56
on it like your mailbox at home.
44:58
People will camp there.
44:59
You know, you rent one for the weekend, and so you'll see a beautiful little red
45:03
tent with this monster Bentley parked next to it, or a Ferrari parked next
45:09
to it, or you know you no right away.
45:12
That, uh, you're in a place that's very special to car guys.
45:15
Well, Bob, you said you had some unfinished business, so what's next?
45:19
Spoilers, surprises, things that we should be looking out for you on?
45:22
I'm a freelancer now.
45:24
I had prostate cancer that took me off the stage, if you will, for a couple of years.
45:28
And I came back to try to reinvent myself, thinking I was just gonna
45:33
slide right into where I left.
45:35
But that wasn't happening.
45:36
And people have short memories by and large.
45:40
Hey, I'm 74 years old.
45:41
Not as old as Hobbes, but a lot older than a lot of the people who do the hiring.
45:47
And nothing's more frustrating to be than to walk up to a fan or a, or a
45:51
fellow professional and have 'em say, Hey, I didn't know you were still alive.
45:55
What's going on?
45:56
You know, I mean, they're genuinely happy to see me, but they're
45:59
not thinking of me top of mind.
46:02
When they want somebody with the, uh, experience and the, uh,
46:07
the talent, who's the baggage?
46:09
You know, I've done so many forms of motor sports, so many sports generally
46:13
over the years that, um, I'm pretty firm in the belief that I can do just
46:17
about anything that comes up out there.
46:19
Preferably bleeding motorsports, but if it doesn't happen, I could
46:22
be happy with what I've had.
46:23
That begs the question, will we see you commentating at
46:26
Le Mans Classic in the future?
46:28
Boy, I would love to do that, but again, the international
46:32
chauvinism kind of pops up.
46:34
You know, there's a, a lot of companies and a lot of individuals in Europe
46:38
who want to do that, and so they do.
46:40
Now over here, of course, we have vintage racing programs.
46:43
They get great cars.
46:45
It's always fun to go to, uh, California.
46:48
To, uh, Monterey or, uh, or any of the HSR events or what have you
46:53
here, but no, nobody has, uh, dialed me up about the Le Mans historics.
46:58
That would be fun.
46:59
Before we sign off, I wanna pass the mic to our A-C-O-U-S-A representative
47:04
David Lowe for some parting thoughts.
47:06
Bob, on behalf of the a CO and endurance racing fans around the world, thank
47:11
you so much for incredible evening taking your time out to share with us.
47:15
Very informative.
47:15
Thank you.
47:16
Thank you, David.
47:17
It's a pleasure.
47:18
Well, folks, that brings us to the end of this evening with
47:21
a legend where we explored the voice behind so many unforgettable
47:25
moments at the 24 hours of Le Mans.
47:27
For decades, Bob CIA's insight, passion, and storytelling helped bring
47:31
the magic of Le Mans to living rooms across America guiding fans through
47:35
the drama of night stints, last minute heartbreaks and historic victories.
47:39
His commentary not only explained the race, but elevated it, making
47:43
the spectacle of an endurance racing accessible to all.
47:47
So if you'd like to keep up with Bob, you can follow him on Twitter
47:49
at Bob Varsha for latest insights on racing, or check out his ongoing
47:53
appearances across motor sports media.
47:55
With that.
47:56
We hope you enjoyed this presentation and look forward to more evening with
47:59
the legends throughout the season.
48:01
On behalf of everyone here and those listening at home, thank you Bob
48:05
for sharing your stories with us.
48:06
Thank you.
48:19
This episode has been brought to you by the Automobile Club of the West and
48:22
the A-C-O-U-S-A from the awe-inspiring speed demons that have graced the
48:27
track to the courageous drivers who have pushed the limits of endurance.
48:30
The 24 hours of the Le Mans is an automotive spectacle like no other.
48:33
For over a century the 24 hours Le Mans has urged manufacturers to
48:37
innovate for the benefit of future motorists, and it's a celebration of
48:41
the relentless pursuit of speed and excellence in the world of motorsports.
48:44
To learn more about or to become a member of the ACO USA, look no further than
48:49
www.Le Mansn.org, click on English in the upper right corner and then click on
48:55
the a CO members tab for club offers.
48:58
Once you've become a member, you can follow all the action on the Facebook
49:01
group, A-C-O-U-S-A Members Club, and become part of the Legend with Future
49:06
Evening with the legend meetups.
49:17
This episode has been brought to you by Grand Touring Motorsports as part
49:21
of our Motoring Podcast network.
49:23
For more episodes like this, tune in each week for more exciting and educational
49:27
content from organizations like The Exotic Car Marketplace, the Motoring
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49:44
Please note that the content, opinions and materials presented and
49:47
expressed in this episode are those of its creator, and this episode has
49:50
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49:52
If you have any inquiries about this program, please contact the creators
49:55
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