Czarniak Tapped To Lead 2013 Indy 500 Broadcast

Courtesy: ESPN

ESPN’s Lindsay Czarniak will host this year’s Indy 500.  The SportsCenter co-host’s appointment to the broadcast marks the first time ever that the race broadcast has ever been helmed by a female broadcaster.  Czarniak co-hosts ESPN’s SportsCenter alongside John Anderson.  Before taking on co-hosting duties with Anderson was a pit reporter and feature reporter for broadcasts of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on TNT and NBC.  She also hosted ESPN’s NASCAR Now previously. 

Lindsay got her start in broadcasting at WRC-TV (NBC 4) in Washington, D.C.  She worked at WRC-TV from 2005 – 2011.  During her time there, she covered the 2006 Winter and 2008 Summer Olympic Games as well as NASCAR broadcasts. 

Courtesy: ESPN/ABC

The Indy 500 pre-race show is scheduled to run from 11am – 12pm on Sunday, May 26^th.  Czarniak will head the pre-race broadcast from the IMS’ famed Pagoda.  She will also help contribute to the race broadcast itself.  Former Indy 500 winner Eddie Cheever will also take part in calling the race.  He will serve as an in-race analyst in the broadcast booth for the race, and for the remaining five races that ABC will carry.

Cheever is a former Formula One racer who won the Indy 500 in 1998.  He made 132 starts in Formula One from 1978 to 1989.  That is the most by any American driver in the history of Formula One racing.  He returned to the U.S. and joined the former CART Series in 1990 and then the IndyCar Series in 1996.  He claimed five wins in his time in the IRL, including his win in 1998.  Cheever last raced in the IndyCar series in 2006.   He will be joined by lap-by-lap announcer Marty Reid and fellow analyst Scott Goodyear to call all six Izod IndyCar Series races broadcast on ABC this season.  Also on hand for the broadcasts will be pit reporters: Rick DeBruhl, Jamie Little, and Vince Welch.  Dr. Jerry Punch will join the broadcast team in the pits for the Indy 500. 

The Indy 500 is the first of six races that will be broadcast on ABC this year.  Each race will be produced by ESPN and broadcast on ABC.  ABC’s other races include: a doubleheader from Detroit’s Belle Island on June 1^st and 2^nd, a primetime broadcast from Texas Motor Speedway on June 8^th, the series’ race from Iowa Speedway on June 23^rd, and its return to the hills of Pocono, PA on July 7^th at Pocono Raceway. 

To get all the latest news from the Izod Indycar Series on ABC and ESPN, viewers can “Like” the ESPN Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ESPN and the ABC Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ABCNetwork.

To keep up with all the latest news from the Izod Indycar Series, fans can “Like” the official Izod Indycar Series Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/IZOD-IndyCar-Series/181178948587654.

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The Other Dream Team Scores Big Points Among Documentaries

Courtesy: Lionsgate

The Other Dream Team, the new basketball based documentary from Lionsgate, is a surprisingly interesting work.  It’s a story that will interest both basketball fans, history buffs, and even anyone who has any interest in political science.  While the story itself is based against a backdrop of basketball, it’s less about the sport in question and more about politics and a people’s struggle to escape the crushing hand of communism.  Together with its bonus Q&A session with Writer/Director Marius A. Markevicius and Writer/Producer Jon Weinbach, The Other Dream Team proves to be a surprise contender for one of the year’s best documentaries.

The Other Dream Team’s run time comes in at just over an hour and a half.  In that time, audiences are introduced to a work that’s not just another underdog story.  Rather, it’s a story of a group of men who represented an entire country in its struggle to break free from the bonds of communism.  It centers on a group of four Lithuanians who originally were forced to play for the Russian national basketball team, but then managed to break free and form a Lithuanian basketball team.  Even in their freedom from the Russian national team, the men still faced challenges, including one member of the team—Arvydas Sarbonis–being prevented from joining the NBA by the government of the then Communist Russia.  Even on this side of the Atlantic, Sarbonis was called Russian by NBA Commissioner David Stern when he was drafted by the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers, which he wasn’t.  And NBA fans here were none too pleased with the announcement, effectively making Sarbonis a man without a country so to speak.  Players on both sides of the ball explain in interviews how the game of basketball became less about playing a game and more of a political statement, and just how important that statement was.  Audiences who perhaps have never delved very deep into the political history of Communist and post Communist Russia will be amazed by just how important a single game could be to a whole nation.  That importance is highlighted even more through interviews with a number of people close to the game including former NBA great Bill Walton, ESPN’s Chad Ford, Fran Fraschilla and a host of others.  The program also features original footage of the conflict between Lithuania and Russia both on and off the court highlighting just how tense things were between the two nations in Lithuania’s struggle for independence.  It all comes together to make a documentary that anyone with a love of history, sports, or even politics will thoroughly enjoy.

The documentary itself is quite interesting to watch.  After watching it, viewers will also want to check out the feature’s bonus Q&A session with Writer/Director Marius A. Markevicius and Writer/Producer Jon Weinbach.  Viewers learn from the session’s opening moments that Markevicius’ interest in crafting this story came from his own Lithuanian roots.  He explains about growing up, watching the Lithuanian basketball team, trying to follow them, despite the general lack of information released about them when he was a child.  The session is highlighted by questions posted and followed by some very in depth answers from both men.  Sometimes those answers will move audiences.  Others, it will have them laughing.  It serves as a very good companion to the bonus audio commentary included with the film.  Along with the commentary in question, the vintage footage, interviews and every element that went into bringing this film to life, The Other Dream Team proves to be an unexpectedly impressive documentary, and one that proves to be one of the year’s best in the documentary category.  It’s available now in stores and online and can be ordered direct via the Lionsgate online store at http://www.lionsgateshop.com/product.asp?Id=27844&TitleParentId=8032. 

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