Postcards from the Paddock - 2021 Preview
Happy 2021, everyone! Last year was unprecedented in so many ways but as the calendar turns to 2021, the dream of some normalcy reentering our lives, and motorsports, does seem to be inching closer. Already we've had endurance racing in Dubai, we've seen the short track season get underway with the Chili Bowl, and this weekend marks the return to work for me with the Roar Before the 24 and the Rolex 24 at Daytona close behind.
The offseason is a wonderful time to recharge the batteries (and update my hundreds of pages of notes) but it's the chance to get back to work at a race track that has me most energized. Daytona will be different this year with masks and bubbles and limited fan access but above all I'm grateful the race will go on.
Fittingly to start a new year I have lots of goals for the upcoming season, one of which is to use this forum to record my thoughts more regularly. I envisioned Postcards From the Paddock to be a regular occurrence during the 2020 season but instead wrote just a single entry. To be honest, the inescapable specter of COVID lurking around any topic I might choose to write about made it especially hard to find the motivation. While that specter has not disappeared—in many respects it appears worse than ever here in the U.S.—the knowledge that an end is likely in sight gives me more optimism.
So too does my schedule for this year. While not everything has been finalized, I'm happy to say that I'll be back in the SRO America paddock as part of the television broadcast team. I'll also be adding some appearances on the IndyCar Radio Network where schedules permit, including my fourth Indianapolis 500 broadcast and will be joining the joint IMS/PRN crew for the NASCAR/IndyCar doubleheader weekend at IMS in August. And for the sixth year I'll be contributing to Sportscar365.com, primarily with our Double Stint podcast but with some written contributions as well beginning at Daytona this week.
I also plan to do some short videos on YouTube starting this week in Daytona, in large part to try to bring access to those stuck on the outside this year but also to see if that platform might be something worth exploring in greater depth in the future. That, and a few more interesting possibilities, remain to be determined.
It all adds up to an exciting year. I hope you all have had a wonderful offseason and I look forward to seeing many of you at a race track again soon!
—Ryan