Paul Page, noted sports personality, walked away from drag racing to pursue even bigger opportunities in the world of television nearly a decade ago.

Page returned to drag racing a couple years ago. The transition back to the booth alongside Mike Dunn has not been easy. Like everything else in the sport of drag racing, technology has brought changes to the booth which confounded Page. While he struggled to catch up, Page found comfort in the familiar faces within the sport.

“A lot of the faces and the people I knew were still around and that was great,” Page said. “The sport was more professional, a lot more showy. Everything about it was a little more glittered up.

Paul Page, noted sports personality, walked away from drag racing to pursue even bigger opportunities in the world of television nearly a decade ago.

Page returned to drag racing a couple years ago. The transition back to the booth alongside Mike Dunn has not been easy. Like everything else in the sport of drag racing, technology has brought changes to the booth which confounded Page. While he struggled to catch up, Page found comfort in the familiar faces within the sport.

“A lot of the faces and the people I knew were still around and that was great,” Page said. “The sport was more professional, a lot more showy. Everything about it was a little more glittered up.

“The basis of what I always considered to be the NHRA … the great friendships, (the) experiences, the great crowds, and the fans … they are just super. They want to talk to you and they are patient. If you’re doing something, they’ll wait. That’s great. I’m glad it kept that. I’ve had a ball ever since [I returned].”

Page, alongside with former drag racer Dunn, serve as ESPN2's conduit between millions of race fans throughout the world and the drag strip. Still, Page, a man who has commentated on everything from the Indianapolis 500 to sumo wrestling, struggled on his return.

“At first I was really frustrated,” Page admits. “I had to relearn drag racing but what really surprised me was I also had to relearn television. I had been doing live shows for so long that I was in that mode.

“What the NHRA television production does is really cutting edge technology for television,” Page explained. “We are putting together a television show on the fly. Believe me when I say we are stressing every bit of equipment we have. Everything is sitting there in solid state memory … we jump forward … we jump back … we grab this and put a narration on something and then we put a period on the end of that sentence. Two hours later we can pick that right up wherever it was. That was actually the hardest part. I had a really tough time in the first six to eight months before I felt like I was halfway in step on it.

“I learned that it’s one thing to do the memory work on a 33-car Indy 500 field but at minimum to do an NHRA event, with the all the names and the crew chiefs, you have about 145 – 150 different elements to memorize and my brain is getting old.”

Page’s learning miscues made him an easy target in the early going from the various drag racing message boards to blogs. He admits the criticism can sometimes add to the frustration of overcoming the learning curve.

“Sometimes it can,” Page agrees. “Sometimes it can be really great too. I’ve gone through a period where I have gotten some really great emails and that’s nice because it drives you ahead but sometimes when a blog is hammering at you … the thing that is frustrating is that they don’t always recognize what you’re working against at the time … why you may have said something stupid or you may bounce a sentence badly … but everybody does that in everyday conversation. The whole time we are doing this, there is a producer talking in one ear just constantly.

“I love to bring people into the booth and let them hear that. When you get the flippant rude stuff … that bothers you … but we also have a rule that we don’t read that stuff. That kind of helps us, too.”

Criticism aside, Page continues to soldier ahead in his quest to bring the best possible program to drag racing's loyal fans.

VIDEO EXTRA ... 

This classic video clip features coverage of the 1981 NHRA World Finals at Orange County International Raceway. Originally broadcast on NBC's Sportsworld, the announcing crew consists of the late Steve Evans and Page.

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