IndyCar: 100 Days to Indy Premiere
The NTT INDYCAR Series has been filming segments for the much-anticipated TV series, 100 Days to Indy, produced by CW Sports and Vice. A special premiere screening was scheduled at the Long Beach Convention Center Terrace Theater.
The event was quite the production, with most of the series drivers arriving and walking the Red Carpet before the screening, with fans cheering for them. None of the drivers had seen any footage from the episodes before this screening.
AR1 spoke with Marcus Ericsson, the defending Indy 500 winner, about his expectations.
“It is going to be fun to see how the series turns out. I think it is great for the sport.”
“I hope this will increase the fans. The IndyCar series, in my opinion, obviously I am biased, but it is such a good product. From my point of view, there is no better racing in the world at the moment.”
” If we could get more people to watch it and see it. And then start to follow the races. I think a lot of people are going to fall in love with it.”
“Hopefully, this documentary will bring more eyes to the series, and then we will have more fans come to the races and more fans watch the races on TV.”
AR1 talked with Will Power, driver of the no 12 Verizon Chevrolet, to get his feelings on this new marketing tool.
“I am so happy. I really hope it is received well. I think the people doing it know what they are doing. It all comes down to capturing the audience. ”
“They have not really done much filming of me yet. I have been pretty serious lately. But I look forward to my turn.”
The screening was approximately 45 minutes long, and this episode started with some Indy 500 crashes. As the show progressed, it took you into Josef Newgarden’s kitchen with his son and wife and his home gym, with him working out shirtless.
Then the show had some of the Bus Bros episodes highlights, showing the 4th of July costumes the drivers wore and other crazy topics they had on their shows.
The episode continued with scenes of Scott McLaughlin, his wife, and his in-laws at the 2023 St Petersburg race.
And the episode concluded with the big lap one crash from the St Petersburg race, McLaughlin and Romain Grosjean taking each other out of that race and the engine mishap for Pato O’Ward, which gave Marcus Ericsson the win.
I liked how the episode had conversations with the drivers and filmed personal moments with them and their families. And we would hope there would be more drivers cameos in each episode.
But to bring in more fans, we need to explain how things work during a race weekend. Explain to someone that has never seen a race about practice and qualifying. How important is qualifying and how close the times are between the drivers. How hard it is to win the pole. What the team does to prepare for each race weekend.
Show the competitiveness of the drivers and teams and what the drivers think when they get into their race cars and go 180 – 220 MPH for two hours.
The NTT INDYCAR Series has a great product and we need to show new fans what it takes to qualify on pole, to win a race, and to fight for the win every race.
The first episode will be shown on the CW on Thursday, April 27th.
Lucille Dust reporting for AR1