What do you like and dislike about local track announcers?

Shout out to Dana Dreiers dad back in the day at Perris Raceway killed it!!! 

Well I'm interested to see the answers here since I am a local track announcer, have been for quite a while now. OP may have even raced where I announce...

I'll tell you what I try to do and what I think the job of being that local guy is in my opinion.

First off....don't yell all the time, have some dynamic control. When racing is good, yeah get excited but if you yell all day people tune it out.

Talk about the racing of course but don't just babble on non-stop, and give a rundown of the top 10-15, and if it's a big class do it multiple times. Little Timmy's grandpa will be happy to hear their name at least a few times over the PA system.

Give people the info they need as far as what is on track, what is in staging and what's coming up, again multiple times, one of the most important things you do is making sure people know what is going on in the race schedule. Don't forget to show the event sponsors some love too.

Don't be too serious, it's a long day....

I appreciate when an announcer at a local track realizes that the most important information he/she can give, is what moto # is on the gate. 

Funny saw this and came to give a shout out to the guy announcing Sunday at Perris. Was loud, clear, on it and kept me entertained. 

I can’t hear anything they say and they seem to enjoy it so I’m for it. 

Shout to Dave Bell up in Ontario Canada.

If you have raced CMA, CMC, CMRC, FMX, Sno-cross, Monster trucks, even go-carts, or any other Sanctioned event in Ontario in the last 30+ years, he has probably called the race. He is a true professional. He gets to know the racers, mentions your sponcers (sp?), keeps up with the action on the track as well as the battles not at the front. Always tells you what class is up next and who's at the gate. I wish he announced SX

Its actually worth going to the races just to hear him announce.

I'm happy when they exist, they don't seem to be the priority they once were. 

To me they are essential to maintain an audience of general public who just want to check out the races. 

Here in the Land 0’ the Redneck, (otherwise known as Oklahoma!) we had a long running local track that anyone from the Midwest will likely remember and probably raced an event there at some point over the years!

Motorcycle Raceway, often referred to as “59th & Douglas” ran for 36 years and had a really great PA announcer most of those years. His name was Larry Snow, and he was a local DJ on a radio station and he was known as “the Snowman” while on the air!

Larry was (is!) a great guy, an avid dirt bike rider/racer and a Cat-1 / Pro MTB racer for many years! Since he was a radio DJ on his day job, he had a great announcing voice and was a natural at public speaking! He always maintained good cadence/flow and sounded completely natural on the mic at all times!

He was REALLY good at keeping the track audience informed about which Moto was up, which group was in the holding pen and what group needed to start gearing up and making their way to the start area.                                                              He also always did an excellent job calling the on-track action during the motos and because he was also a regular rider, he knew most everyone by name/on sight! As a result he did a fabulous job keeping the audience informed and you knew what was going on on the track and who was involved in the race action even if you couldn’t see the track and could only hear Larry over the PA system!

Regrettably, the track closed way back in 2006 and Larry doesn’t call races any longer, but he was the best moto announcer that I ever encountered at a local MX venue! 😎

For local races- just need to let the racers know what class is on the track, what class is on the line, what class is in staging and what class should start getting ready to head to staging…

Give repeated shout outs to the local businesses supporting the track..

Anything beyond that is a bonus. 

Just wanted to mention the late Big Bill Spencer. He was an awesome guy and a Norcal motorcycle racing icon.

Some consistency in how you call up the race numbers so we know how to listen for our race.

Start it the same way or end the same way. Do something so we know to actually listen because a lot of it you have to tune out but knowing what race is on the gate is really important.

It's nice that we have Larry Witmer do most of our local races (and Red Bud). Moto icon for sure in our area. 

I tune out what announcers are saying for the most part unless I’m seeing which race is on the track.