F1 MERCENARY wrote:
Bob Varsha is an EXCELLENT commentator and has been doing it far longer than most are even aware of. He is highly intelligent in all aspects of life, but he lives for racing, and thus knows so much more than the average commentator. He knows the names of many employees of countless race teams and organizations, it's incredible.
Does he make the occasional mistake? Yes!… but they all do and Bob doesn't make very many. Varsha, Matchette and Hobbo are all excellent together because they balance one another out, and Bob controls the action in the booth with them without any effort. It just flows with those 3.
Having said that, if you heard Will Buxton calling the GP2 Races several years ago, you'd have been treated to arguably the finest race commentary of all time. While Murray Walker is the iconic bar that will never be matched, That is only so because of his very long tenure as the main commentator of the sport. And while his genuine enthusiasm and love for the sport helped make his commentary so awesome, Will Buxton's commentary was spectacular. Mind you, this is coming from someone who could not stand to look at him as he spoke when he first replaced Peter Windsor who was magnificent at his job. One day I realized I was disliking Buxton for no reason other than his bouncing and excessive hand gesturing, and decided to really listen to what he was saying and it was the best thing I ever did.
Then I heard him calling the GP2 races and I was even more impressed with him. I think he's the absolute best person to anchor a commentary team for F1, and I'm a huge fan of Varsha, but a Buxton/Varsha paring might prove to be the Dream Team.
Regarding Paul Page, I totally agree, I think he is the best to ever cover American open wheel racing and his level of enthusiasm and excitement was always in perfect proportion to what was going on.
The day Gregg Moore died I was watching live with my dad and he was right on top of the action and the way his tone and volume shifted from initially announcing the impact and then lowering his tone and volume in realizing the crash was extremely severe was flawless. I knew he was dead as I watched the accident unfold and Paul's commentary served as the perfect score to the incident. Just the best guy for the job during the best eras. The action today feels dull and boring in comparison.
The one guy who I always liked when he was paired with Page was Bobby Unser. Although not the fastest talker, Bobby's pre-race analytics and race commentary was always spot on and he somehow managed to carry the appropriate level of excitement despite his slow talking. Danny Sullivan was pretty good too, but he sometimes lacked the ability to communicate the appropriate amount of excitement, but that's just part of what made him an excellent driver. He was always calm and kept things under control.
Can't argue with your analysis of the various commentators. It is such a shame that they weren't given more opportunities. I truly wish we had some of them on our Western hemisphere broadcasts.
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