Analysis : ABC, Speedway Officials Recreate ‘Who’s on First’

In one of the most bizarre days in the history of communication, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway gave new meaning to the term double talk here Monday.

With a day-long rain falling, only a few scattered die-hards in the stands and no real chance for a break in the weather, Speedway management waited until 3:10 p.m. to announce that the race had been postponed for the second straight day, then waited until 7 o’clock to announce that it had been rescheduled to Saturday.

That was the only plain talk heard here all day. Everything else was as clear as the mud bogs that stretched as far as the eye could see in the vast infield of the 2 1/2-mile track.

What was happening here, in this bastion of tradition, had to be dispensed with, preferably without any of the rubes being any the wiser.

At the root of all this was television, although in this development, it is hard to call TV the culprit.

The ABC television network, after 15 years of delaying its telecasts of the race, finally persuaded the Speedway that this year’s race should be shown live.

When the race was rained out Sunday, and it became apparent that no race would be run Monday, it left the network with the obvious choice of showing the race live on the next nice day--Tuesday, maybe; Wednesday, maybe--or talking the Speedway into delaying the race until live coverage would mean something in terms of viewership, the weekend.

ABC could have shown the race live during the week, risking the ire of the soap opera fans and probably drawing a scant audience in the bargain, or it could have shown it delayed in prime time, preempting its regularly scheduled shows. Obviously, neither of those choices is desirable in the world of big-bucks TV.

Obviously, too, if the network doesn’t stand to make as much as it had figured on, the Speedway isn’t going to get the chunk it had figured on.

The problem was, it has been a Speedway tradition to run postponed races as quickly as possible after rainouts. Tom Binford, chief steward of the race, was quoted in Monday’s Indianapolis Star as saying: “The next clear day has always been the Speedway’s policy as far as I know.”

Binford ought to know. He lives here, he has been the chief steward of this race for 13 years, and was president of the sanctioning United States Auto Club before that. He is certainly no rookie at Indy.

Somehow, then, people had to be convinced that Saturday was probably going to be next clear day. Time also was needed to work out problems with postponing another Indy car race scheduled at Milwaukee next Sunday.

The Speedway chose to explain none of this, choosing vagueness instead.

Said the second paragraph of its announcement on the postponement: “With an unfavorable weather forecast for tomorrow, we have decided to delay the announcement of the rescheduling of the race until the Indianapolis area has a more positive weather forecast.”

The assembled reporters were told a little later that they and fans would be advised of any rescheduling at least 12 hours before the start of the race.

Asked when he might know when the rescheduling would happen, Binford said: “I don’t have the answer to that. I don’t know.” He did, however, have one ready answer. Asked how the media and fans would be advised of a rescheduling at least 12 hours ahead of the start of the race, Binford said: “You’ll be advised through the media.”

In the meantime, not a peep was heard out of ABC, other than an early morning bulletin board announcement saying that the network would not cover the race live beyond Monday but would stay to tape it for delayed showing, the exact time and date of that showing depending on a number of factors to be determined later in the week.

Late in the day, Bill York, who runs the pressroom, stepped out of his office and announced: “It is our intent and our hope that we will have a final announcement by 7:30.”

Asked who would be making the decision, he said that Speedway management would be. He also advised, however: “The people who will be making the announcement will not be here to make it. That is a positive negative.”

Finally, just before 7 p.m., Al Bloemker, Speedway vice president, read from a prepared statement: “Joe Cloutier, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, announced tonight at 6:45 p.m. that the 70th annual 500-mile race has been rescheduled for 11 a.m., Saturday, May 31. . .”

The next paragraph dealt with the rescheduling of the Milwaukee race, and finally, in the last paragraph, almost as an afterthought, the statement said: “Irv Brodsky, public relations director for ABC, has requested that we also announce that ABC will carry the Indianapolis race ‘live’ beginning at 10 a.m. EST.”

Asked if the decision to reschedule had been made to accommodate ABC, Bloemker said: “I don’t think so. That was a Speedway decision. We’ve got bad weather scheduled for the next few days and we just wanted better weather for the race.”

And so, right to the end, the rubes were played along.

There was no need for any of it. The weather is supposed to be bad here for the next few days. The Speedway did have some obligation to ABC, and there is a good chance that more of the fans who bought tickets to see the race will be able to return Saturday than on any weekday. A simple announcement to that effect would have sufficed. Instead, the Speedway chose to look ridiculous in only the way it can. That, too, is a Speedway tradition.