*Editor’s Commentary*
Remember when instant replay in sports was just that? It was just there to see the play over again. There were no reviews; it was just for pure entertainment purposes. But with time, and newer technology, sports like football, hockey, basketball, and baseball decided to utilize the instant replay to review tough, potentially controversial situations.
Overall, most fans appreciate officials looking to make sure the call is correct. However, there are still some that think replay just slows the game down and doesn’t really add that much value to the sport. Let’s face it, sometimes the officials still get the call wrong.
I’ve been hearing more and more rumblings from some race tracks and series that now the cost of the technology is down to the point where perhaps short tracks should consider bringing in video review. In my opinion, much of the chatter about this is due to the fact almost every race is now filmed or videos from someone in the pits/stands show up on social media. It seems simple; have a sponsor put up some money for equipment or hire a videographer and have those particular technologies available to whomever is making the calls.
The issue was pushed further toward me by a friend of mine who is into iRacing. He suggested that race tracks and series could start incident reviews or – do what his iRacing series does – formulate a penalty system for drivers who might be rough or may have caused an incident. Again, this is all based on video review (which is a lot easier with iRacing, by the way).
When we discussed it, I turned aside the suggestion without hesitation. Short track racing as a whole does not need video review. Do officials miss calls? Yes. Do you see videos on social media the day after the race showing the call was wrong? Yes. So then wouldn’t video review help put everything on a level playing field? No.
My opinion/theory on this particular subject is based on two different principles: cost and consistency. When breaking down these principles, the cons of video replay grossly start to outweigh the pros. Here is the thinking behind those issues.
Cost
As I said before, some tracks believe they can simply pay a videographer (I’ll get to why this is an issue when I get to consistency) or set up a closed-circuit system with instant replay for reviews.
When considering the closed-circuit system, you have to consider the overall cost of the system. Some of the numbers I’ve heard ranged anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 dollars. To me, that sounds like it would be better served as advertising dollars or thrown into the purse, but let’s also note that’s just the cost of the equipment. That doesn’t account for any upgrade to the track’s wireless or electrical system that may be necessary. It also doesn’t account for the install or the cost of having someone teach the officials how to use the equipment.
The other aspect of this principle is the cost of time. Remember when football had to cut its replay time down to no more than 60 seconds? Bear in mind they also have top-of-the-line equipment and multiple people conducting the review. Let’s say for the sake of argument that a short track review would take just about double that time at two minutes (I’m guessing it would actually take longer). If a race had five incidents, that’s an additional 10 minutes of caution time. Don’t forget this is also extra time where the fans have nothing to watch but caution laps. Unlike the major sports, they won’t see the review too. What happens if you run multiple divisions? Yes, fans want to see the right call made. But I highly doubt they want to watch an additional 10-15 minutes of caution laps per race. What if rain is coming and you’re trying to push the show along?
Also, who decides to call for the review? Is it just the officials or is it the driver? Does that mean that we have to wait for the driver to park on the front stretch, or have a crew member alert the officials? That easily could add another minute or two to each review. Where I’m from we line cars back up and go back to green as quickly as possible. Adding two, three, four, or five minutes of extra caution time onto every caution wouldn’t fly.
Consistency
As someone who was once so frustrated with drivers complaining about calls (or non-calls) based on videos they later saw, I considered bringing in video review. That was, until I carefully considered this particular principle.
My idea was to have a videographer show up to every race, then check the tape if something seemed controversial. Seems fair right? It could help you make a call you might otherwise miss. I look back on that thinking now and realize it is flawed because there a serious risk for lack of consistency.
Let’s say you’re in a Championship race. One week your main rival seemingly makes contact with another car and they are going to send him to the back. However, video review shows that he didn’t make contact with that car and he gets to keep his spot. The next week the same thing happens to you…except the videographer missed the incident. Or, even worse, the videographer wasn’t at that particular race.
No video, no review, you go to the back. Does this sort of thing happen without video review? Absolutely. But if video review wouldn’t fix every call in a consistent manner…what is the point of having it?
Then there is the consistency of who is calling for the review and who is making the call. If the tower makes the call for the review each time, the race director has to be 100% certain on every call he makes that doesn’t go to review. Whether or not that is consistent also will be heavily debated. Bear in mind also, the person who is doing the reviewing is probably going to be the one that made the call in the first place. There can be an issue with that person not wanting to overturn their own calls.
One thing that makes short track racing great is that it isn’t football, basketball, baseball, or hockey (although I do love hockey too). There will always be controversy. There is always going to be that level of imperfection. But there isn’t a need to seek perfect calls through a system that would still be imperfect.
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