From 2001: “He brings a credibility to the sport of Sprint Car racing,” stated Brad Doty authoritatively when asked about the addition of long time veteran broadcaster Eli Gold to the TNN productions of Pennzoil World of Outlaws television broadcasts. Gold is in his first season as the play by play man of TNN?s WoO events, a move necessitated by NASCAR’s move to FOX and NBC/TNN.
And from all signs the move by Eli Gold into somewhat unfamiliar territory of Sprint Car racing has been an unqualified success, especially when one measures it by the resounding positive response by race fans and viewers.
Indeed, Eli Gold helps make the sport of Sprint Car racing in particular, and dirt track racing in general, look good. Darn good.
For if nothing else, Eli Gold is the consummate professional. The epitome of professional broadcasting with taste, flair and knowledge. He brings a hefty amount of class and authority to his broadcasts.
Gold has been in the broadcasting game since 1972 when he started as a weekend reporter for the Mutual Broadcasting System. For nearly 28 years now Gold has handled a sundry of play-by-play duties including nine years as a professional hockey announcer in four professional leagues as well as the World Hockey Association.
Then there is Gold?s work in football. In 1988 he became the play-by-play ‘voice’ of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football and basketball teams, a job he continues to this day in addition to hosting the weekly football and basketball coach?s radio programs.
Then there is the matter of Eli Gold’s love affair with auto racing.
For almost 25 years Gold had been an announcer and a reporter for MRN Radio. MRN Radio broadcasts NASCAR events on a 400- station radio network. Last year Gold celebrated his 18th year as the host of the popular NASCAR LIVE weekly radio show on MRN.
Gold’s tenure at TNN began in 1996. His first TNN Sports gig was the February 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup race held in Rockingham, NC. A year later Gold signed with CBS for selected NASCAR and basketball broadcasts. In 1999 NHRA Winston Drag Racing was added to his ever-growing list of broadcast duties and was the one to broadcast the history making first time 330 MPH pass in NHRA competition.
If anyone has any doubts as to whether or not Eli Gold has the chops one might consider that Gold is a three-time Alabama Sportscaster of the Year recipient as voted by his peers in the National Sportscasters Association. In addition, he has twice been named Alabama Sportscaster of the Year by the Associated Press, an honor he has also earned from United Press International.
Pretty impressive credentials one must admit.
But the best part of it is, Eli Gold has a true, passionate love for auto racing. Having spent nearly three decades around NASCAR Winston Cup racing, that is where Gold’s roots lie, but his interest in motorsports extends far beyond the gates of NASCAR. Gold just loves racing and his passion and interest comes through loud and clear.
On screen Eli Gold comes across as a personable, warm, enthusiastic and well informed gentleman, with an emphasis on gentleman. In ‘real life’, he is all that and more. In speaking with Gold recently it was clearly obvious he was a man who, despite being an earnest professional, displayed a variety of positive characteristics that ranged from an honest humility to a sincere interest and passion for the sport of auto racing. Another trait that came through was his unwavering honesty.
What you see on the screen is what you get in ‘real life’.
With several Pennzoil World of Outlaw events under his belt now, I was curious as to what his perceptions of the sport were, especially due to the fact that, while Gold was familiar with the sport, he was the first to acknowledge that he needed to ’study up’ on the history and become familiar with the current, inner workings of Sprint Car racing.
If nothing else, Eli Gold is a quick study.
“I am not a total neophyte to what the World of Outlaws was all about,” stated Gold. “So I did have some semblance of a working knowledge. And it’s like everybody has told me, no matter who I talk to, and I keep in close touch with my Winston Cup buddies who I work with. I’ll tell them I’ll be in Charlotte or wherever for a World of Outlaws show and they’ll say, ‘That’s great racing!’ Everybody says the same thing, that it is great racing. And it is.”
“It’s been very good racing and it?s been exciting. And the thing I find very different about it is the length of the races, obviously. That was the biggest adjustment for me. After two hours of the telecast we?re going off the air and I’m just warming up (laughs)! Especially when you compare it to being on the air for five hours at Dover or the (Coca Cola) 600 race at Charlotte or whatever.”
“An eight lap, or 12 lap event or even a 30 lap event, you turn around and your night is done. So all this great action is being crammed into two and two and a half hours. But it?s been good. I enjoy it. And I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have to learn.”
Gold was quick to distinguish between the various forms of motorsports he has been involved in.
“Other than the fact they have four wheels and a steering wheel there is no similarity to what I have lived for the last 26 or 27 years. So I have been working hard and doing my studying and dealing with Brad and dealing with our historian in the booth, Kevin Eckert. He is invaluable in his help.”
“It’s coming along. I’ve got a long way to go yet. I’ve only done a couple, three races and my ‘comfort’ factor is still not where it needs to be. But it’s coming along and the racing is fine. It’s great! It’s just my comfort level with all that has gone on and the history of the sport, that’s where I am automatically kind of on edge when I walk into the booth. My history bank in NASCAR is fairly extensive where my history bank with dirt track racing of any sort is really very limited.”
“So, it’s a lot of work. A lot of work!”
But Gold isn’t complaining. He genuinely sounds like he is having fun and appreciates where the sport has been and where it is going. He is also genuinely grateful for the help and support he has gotten from his fellow TNN staffers.
“Oh, yeah!” confirmed Gold. “Brad has been a wonderful help. I bet he wishes he had a dollar for every question I’ve asked him! And even when he is not formally giving me answers to questions he is still such a big help. Just by listening to him talk about something. We can be sitting around and such and such might have happened, whatever it might be, and he’ll say, ‘you know, we had the same thing at Sharon Speedway back in 1978 and yadda-yadda-yadda.’ Whereas I could have said, well, we had a deal like that back at North Wilkesboro back in 1976.”
“He has that kind of encyclopedic memory and knowledge about Sprint Car racing. Even when we’re just talking in general I’m jotting down notes because you never know when something might come up. And he’s just been a wonderful, wonderful friend to work with. He really has. There is nothing that you can ask, regardless of how elementary, that he won’t give a complete answer to. He’s really trying to help me learn and that’s great.”
The conversation soon turned to the fans and viewers. Gold is well aware of how Sprint Car fans take their sport seriously. They love it, are extremely protective of it, and most feel a stewardship to it. Sprint Car fans are among some of the most knowledgeable and critical of any fans or any form of motorsports. So I was curious to what Gold’s reaction was to the mostly overwhelming favorable response to his addition to the TNN/WoO broadcast booth.
“The response has been nice and it feels good, it really does,” offered Gold. “I’m not much of one to go on these internet bulletin boards and chat rooms but I have. I don’t do it in NASCAR. I just don’t do it. But I have after our first three World of Outlaws telecasts just to get the temperature of the viewers. And you’re right, the response has been good.”
“And of course there will always be some people who don’t like your work and that’s true in anything. But I think the fans and viewers respect the fact that I am not coming in trying to play the part of the expert. Fans see through that. I could not bluster my way through. And I think they respect the fact that I am doing a ton of homework.”
“I don’t this, that or the other, but I?ll be a son of a gun if by the time the red light goes on the camera that I don’t have it written down in front of me. And if I don?t have a complete answer I can lean on Kevin Eckert, our historian in the booth who has gobs and gobs of information.”
“I am not one of these guys who is afraid to take input from other people and give them credit on the air, which I have done with Kevin. I did the same thing in NASCAR and again, I have done 26 years of NASCAR between radio and television and had a gentleman named Bill Svoboda who traveled with us in NASCAR. Again, not everybody knows everything. And so if I used a guy in NASCAR after being there for 26years, I sure as heck am going to try and find the best available person for the World of Outlaws after only being there for three races. So we?’e working at it.”
“We’re not just showing up, sitting down, and fluffing our way through a fairly easy two hour telecast. Brad is doing his work, I am doing my work and we’re trying to give the viewer as complete and as extensive coverage that they can get. We respect the World of Outlaws. No, I haven’t been a Sprint Car man my whole life, but that doesn’t mean I can’t respect Drag racing, or IMSA, or CART, or IRL or the World of Outlaws. I respect them all. And if I am on the air they will get my very best effort possible.”
And the respect Gold has shown has been mutual.
“Like I said before, Doc, it’s been great and I think it will just get better,” declared Brad Doty when asked about his working relationship with Gold. “He obviously didn’t know a lot about Sprint Car racing at first but he is definitely a quick learner and I?m surprised at how fast he has caught on. But I guess racing is racing. He brings a real credibility to the sport of Sprint Car racing. He is very well known in racing and NASCAR and has done nothing but help Sprint Car racing as far as I?m concerned.”
Doty also senses the abundance of positive response since Gold?s inclusion into the TNN broadcast booth of WoO events.
“I get that sense, too,” stated Doty. “Sprint Car fans are pretty critical and they love this sport and they’re the most knowledgeable fans of any sport, I think. And I think they might have been somewhat concerned with how he would portray the sport, and that’s OK. I think he has proven he is a true professional and has brought that credibility and deserves to be there. I think he does an outstanding job and I?m not just saying that. It’s been great. It really has.”
Gold, who among all his many duties has a family with wife, Claudette, and daughter, Elise, and who calls Birmingham, AL home (he was born in Brooklyn, NY!!!), seems to feel at ease with the sport of Sprint Car racing and his enthusiasm is genuine. He just loves racing, although, like all of us, different forms of motorsports excite him more than others.
“I am a fan of Sprint Car racing,” proclaimed Gold. “But I won’t lie. If there are two races going on the same night, one was NASCAR Winston Cup and one was Sprint Cars, I would probably still go to the Winston Cup race because that is what I grew up on. The same way Dave Argabright would go to an open wheel race, because that is what he grew up on.”
“But, was I disappointed that I was not in town when the World of Outlaws ran at the Talledega Short Track? Yes! As a matter of fact I tried to rearrange my travel schedule around. I was going out of town to do an arena football game and I tried to change my travel schedule around so I could see the World of Outlaws at the Talledega Short Track and, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to.”
“So yes, I am a fan. I’ve known (Steve) Kinser for years. I got to know him when he ran with us a number of seasons ago. I know Sammy Swindell from his NASCAR days. I know a number of drivers I have met over the years. Just like I know a bunch of Drag racing guys. But, yes, I am a fan of the sport, there is no doubt.”
And no doubt about the contribution Gold is making to the sport of Sprint Car racing.
(c)2001-2008 DOC LEHMAN/Dirt America
Tags: Brad Doty, Eli Gold, Kevin Eckert, Sprint Cars, Sprint Cars on television, Steve Kinser, The Nashville Network, TNN, World of Outlaws
May 27, 2009 at 2:54 am |
I have missed Eli Gold on the radio and TV for the 2008 & 09 year in Nascar -Sprint. He is a Good announcer and comentator.