COPPER HILL, VA :: Debuting this weekend at South Boston Speedway’s season opener is a new and improved interactive live product from RACE22.com. The rebranding of Five Star Bodies Interactive Race Coverage emphasizes reader interaction and multimedia coverage.
“In the past, we’ve engaged with our readers on our live coverage and that’s what separates us from everyone else,” RACE22.com webmaster Langley Austin said. “Readers are more inclined to stay tuned and follow along with there’s interaction and that makes it more entertaining for everybody.”
Coverage of the races has often included reader interaction. At times, especially during practice sessions, the coverage has read like a live chat room keeping readers engaged during downtime.
“We do things totally different here at RACE22.com,” Austin explained. “When I go on other sites and follow their coverage, it’s boring. The updates are too politically correct. They don’t touch certain subjects. There’s no interaction with the readers and it’s hard to keep the readers’ attention when you go minutes and even hours at a time without any interaction or updates of any kind.”
Along with fans following at home, the interaction gives fans in the stands to chime in with commentary about the race in real-time on smartphones and tablets as well as for teams in the pits to chime in with real-time commentary about their race weekend.
“One thing to keep in mind, a lot of people reading the coverage are doing so from the stands,” Austin continued. “Sometimes they see something we don’t see because they’re following a certain driver and they might happen to see how an incident started while everyone else was focused on a battle elsewhere. Crew members also often chime in with commentary about their cars or in response to questions and comments other fans have.”
Along with the interaction, the coverage will continue to focus on photos and videos from the pits whenever possible to give fans visuals of what’s happening on the track. Multimedia during the race also gives RACE22.com reporters a chance to throw up immediate reaction from drivers, similar to how coverage of the first two Pro All Stars Series (PASS) races have been covered.
“During our PASS coverage we’ve had so far this season, we had interviews with the drivers up on the coverage while the race was still under caution or under the red flag for the incident they were involved in,” Austin remarked. “You can do a lot more than just make phone calls and take photos on a smartphone and we do just that. “
RACE22.com’s Exclusive Live Coverage of the PASS Super Late Model Series will be untouched and remain the same as it has been. Five Star Bodies Interactive Race Coverage will launch Saturday, March 15th at South Boston Speedway.
