Postcards from the Paddock - GMR Grand Prix

After a stop-and-start opening to my 2022 racing calendar, I can confirm it now feels like we're in the thick of the motorsports season. Starting with my first Formula E shows in January and continuing through the start of the IndyCar and SRO America seasons in February and March, the first few months of the year were punctuated by as many breaks and pauses as it was with hectic stretches of closely-clumped racing events. That feels like a thing of the past as I look back on a weekend that was the first week in an eight week stretch that will involve broadcasting at least one form of racing or another!

Before I continue, a mea culpa. I intend to write one of these after every signficant event that I cover, as much for my own records as anything else. I've tried and failed, on several occasions, to keep a journal, and in some ways I view this as a method by which I can chronicle my experiences. If I can pull back the curtain and share some insights into what this vagabond lifestyle entails, how our broadcasts come together, or in some other way provide entertainment with these posts, well, that's even better! I clearly slipped up after my weekend in Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, which also included broadcasting the Monaco E Prix remotely from my hotel, and I did not have a post, but I will strive to be more consistent in my blogging in the weeks ahead.

With that out of the way, let's look back on a wild weekend at IMS with the GMR Grand Prix and the double-header Formula E round from Berlin. As I've mentioned before, pulling double duty is only doable with the cooperation of both of my employers and all of my co-workers. The logistics weren't quite as challenging for this weekend as was the case when I was truly on the road for the Long Beach/Rome and Barber/Monaco weekends but it still wasn't easy! For the Saturday Formula E race I was able to use the IndyCar Radio booth that we utilize for races away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Arriving right around 4:00AM to be there in time for Formula E qualifying, I was relieved to learn there is a small couch in the studio! I was able to sneak a short nap in between qualifying and the race, then sprint across the street to the Sid Collins Broadcast Booth at IMS just in time for IndyCar Warmup on Saturday morning.

Saturday started out as a hot day but, as anyone who listened or watched the IndyCar race knows, it ended up being relatively cool and very, very wet. The rain arrived just prior to the start of the race and caused no shortage of havoc on the race strategists trying to keep their drivers on the right tires in mixed conditions. As a pit reporter I try to stay on top of the various strategies but on Saturday that was nearly impossible. The one man who managed to stay one step ahead of everyone else was Bryan Herta who called a masterful strategic race for his son Colton, whose on-track heroics were nothing short of jaw dropping. Colton has rightly been called out for a string of self-inflicted errors in recent races but the performance he put on at IMS served as a reminder of just why the young phenom is as highly thought of as he is.

Ryan Myrehn with John Brunner, photo courtesy of Abel Motorsports

After the race ended I went back to the IMS Productions office to pack up my equipment and tote it back to the home studio for the Sunday leg of the doubleheader Formula E weekend. After taking the gear on the road for the past month I feel fairly adept at tearing it down and putting it back together, each step of which is about a 15-minute process. I reassembled the gear at home Saturday night to be ready for the early wakeup call the next morning.

The Berlin E Prix was a fascinating affair in part because of the unique host site, the former Templehoff Airport, as well as the fact that the races were run in opposite directions from Saturday to Sunday. It didn't seem to shake up the order too much, though, with Edoardo Mortara shining as the brightest star across both days with a pair of poles and finishes of first and second. Credit where credit is due: Nyck de Vries turned in a beautiful drive on Sunday to steal the win away from Mortara and both drivers are now back in the championship hunt after middling performances in recent rounds.

Between IndyCar and Formula E I feel like I'm covering the two most competitive motorsports series on the planet where the level of parity means that predicting performances one week to the next is nearly impossible. That said, with the Formula E season now at the halfway mark and the double-points Indianapolis 500 coming up shortly on the calendar, I think we will soon winnow the list of contenders down significantly in both series in the next few weeks.

This blog post is slightly delayed because there simply hasn't been much down time for reflection! Monday was an off day but Tuesday marked the beginning of Indy 500 practice. It's hard to believe this is now my fifth year covering my favorite race for IndyCar Radio. I spent Tuesday afternoon roaming the pits and chatting with drivers and team principals for our radio coverage of the first day of oval practice. Tuesday night I jetted off to Atlanta for two days of emceeing the next AWS DeepRacer autonomous racing event, and now I'm submitting this post while sitting in the Atlanta airport just prior to boarding a flight to New Orleans for the next round of the SRO America season!

This month has already been a blur and it's not about to slow down any time soon! A sincere thank you to everyone who has watched or listened along the way over the last few weeks, and an extra-special thanks to those who have reached out on social media or stopped me at the track to say hello. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the interactions; it's most certainly a highlight of the job! I'm looking forward to a fun weekend of sports car racing in The Big Easy then returning home to get locked in to Indy 500 mode with the biggest race in the world just around the corner.

—Ryan