By Paul Woods

If you haven’t already heard of Joost (pronounced like “juiced”), you might have read the title of this article and figured “Joost” must be the name of a wealthy new ride-buying driver from the Netherlands. Or perhaps that it was the result of a spell-check gone horribly wrong. But neither of those are correct. Joost is the name of a new and exciting internet-based service that could completely revolutionize the way television is distributed and consumed, and the potential impact on motorsports could be even larger than the introduction of broadcast television to the sport many years ago.   read more »

Italian Vincenzo Romano of the Romano Archives recently uploaded this video to YouTube. It’s a 1965 television ad that entices viewers to come watch the 49th running of the Indianapolis 500 on closed circuit TV. The race was run on Monday May 31 that year, and was won by Jim Clark. The ad says things like “…every foot of the 2.5 mile Speedway is covered by 12 TV cameras!” and “Not on home TV!”. Great stuff… but you’ll need to go to YouTube to view it. Here’s the link: 1965 Indy 500 Television Ad

It doesn’t matter what kind of race fan you are… this is very cool! Partizan, a worldwide advertising agency, has released a new television commercial titled “Shell - Circuit”. Produced by award-winning director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, the commercial shows a series of vintage Ferrari race cars speeding through the streets of various cities around the world (really… it’s not just special effects). Here is a direct link to the video:

“Shell - Circuit” at Partizan.com (warning: 16Mb download!)

ESPN2 will preview the upcoming IndyCar Series season with a one-hour special that will air at 7 p.m. (EDT) on March 16, a week before the March 24 season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Marty Reid, ESPN’s IndyCar Series lead announcer, will host the program along with analyst Scott Goodyear. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, driver for Team Penske in the IndyCar Series, will join Reid and Goodyear as co-host.

After enduring another evening of dreck on the channel formerly known as Speedvision, I was feeling a little nostalgic. Look at that logo… doesn’t it just warm your heart? I have to admit, it does look a little “old school” now. But Speedvision was cool… they actually showed racing and stuff.