MikeJim

The year was 1971 and David Letterman was working as a weekend weather guesser at WLWI-13-NBC (now WTHR) in Indianapolis. He was hired to be one of four "corner reporters" for ABC's "Wide World of Sports" same-day (tape edited) coverage of the Indianapolis 500.

When Mario Andretti crashed near Letterman, Dave made his network TV debut...although host Jim McKay incorrectly identified him as Chris Economaki. It was the only time all day the network cut to Letterman.

In 1975, he left the TV station to pursue a career in comedy in Los Angeles. He now owns his own Indycar team

Land Jet

I'm glad that cheap shot ***** is off the air.

MikeJim

Say whaaaa?

Bull_D

x2 a flame requires some explanation...

Matt Lane

Suspect Dave's not a card carrying NRA or Tea Party member. Smart and funny too, long and storied career. Rubs folks the wrong way.

sbelles

Ignore Larry. Everybody else does.

Ritter v4.0

Was so good back in the 80's. Inventive, irreverent and self-deprecating.
Now, typical of the cadre of dime a dozen late night hosts. Lost his edge and should have hung it up long ago.

If that sounds harsh, it's only because regretfully he could not maintain the high standard he set.

analogmike

We need more honest, brave guys like Dave who don't take idiots lightly, and call them on their fallacies.

http://www.alternet.org/media/top-10...rs-look-idiots

MikeJim

The point of the original post had nothing to do with how good or bad any of us happen to think his comedy may or may not have been. And it had everything to do with the fact that his very first network TV hit came 44 years ago as a punk reporter for ABC's "Wide World of Sports" at the Indy 500.

Based on his dumb *** question to Mario Andretti about "traffic," it's clear Letterman didn't know much about what was happening on the track. In fact, in the interview link I included, he talked about standing out there on a distant turn unable to see much and only getting once chance to "report" during the entire broadcast.

But Dave is an Indiana boy, and he had the 500 burned into him from an early age. And it was that love of racing that got him involved with Bobby Rahal and led him to team ownership in the American Le Mans Series and IndyCar.

The team was established in 1991 as Rahal-Hogan Racing, became Team Rahal in 1994, and was known as Rahal Letterman Racing from May 2004 until December 2010. His commitment to sports car racing runs deep.

Last year, in the Tudor United SportsCar Series, the team's Z4 GTE cars had four second-place finishes at Daytona, Laguna Seca, Long Beach, and Road America. Dirk Müller and John Edwards finish seventh in the GTLM Drivers' Championship with Bill Auberlen and teammate Andy Priaulx were eighth.

When Dave retired on Wednesday, he didn't go to Disneyworld. He went straight to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

MikeJim

During a garage interview on Friday, driver Oriol Servia said his Indy 500 car will be decorated in tribute to David Letterman — the newly retired "Late Show" host and co-owner of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team.

"The whole sidepod is going to be Letterman," Servia said of his No. 32 ride. "You'll see Sunday."

Bull_D

a racing fan, and a supporter of the sport. that's gotta get you a couple points anyway…..

Ritter v4.0

Bloomberg aired two Charlie Rose interviews of Letterman Friday after market close. One this week and another from the late 90's I think.

I'm not going to completely recant my earlier statements but I have softened somewhat. He was very generous with his writers and producers for creating the shows that he merely stewarded. Maybe a bit of false modesty, but I think he knows while he brought something to the table he was surrounded by some very creative people.

MikeJim

Here's the story of Letterman's first visit to the Indy 500.

"Prior to that there was no same-day coverage of the Indianapolis 500 on television," said Letterman, whose final show airs Wednesday. "ABC got the contract but it was delayed coverage. I was working at the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis and Chuck Howard and the crew came in with the 'Wide World of Sports' team with Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart. I'm just 22 or 23. They hired me and I got the fourth turn. The day of the race I had to walk all the way down the backstretch and short chute. I had a little microphone and headset and couldn't hear anything so I just stood there and stood there.

"All of sudden, I see Mario Andretti walking toward the pits and I knew there was a yellow. You couldn't see anything from there. So I called Mario over and he comes by only because there is the ABC thing on the microphone. I said, 'I've got Mario Andretti here.' I said it three or four times. Mario had just gotten out of a smoldering, hulk of a race car. He is nice enough to stand there. People are screaming at him and throwing beer on him. They (producers) said, 'Go ahead.'
"I asked, 'Mario, what was it like out there?' And he gave a very polite, gracious answer. Then I remember in a production meeting, will the condition of the track be a problem early on? So I asked him that and he said whatever he said. I said, 'Thanks Mario, better luck next time.'

"So I just stood there late in the race and never heard anything from anybody.

"That was also the year they parked a bunch of cars in the infield and Mike Moseley slaps the outside wall and is standing up trying to get out of the car and the car careens back over and takes out two or three cars parked on the grass apron. It was horrible. The race is over. I don't know what to do. There is the equipment. I took off the headset and microphone, got to my car in the parking lot and drove back home."

http://www.foxsports.com/motor/story...eporter-052015

Coochas

Cool trivia on Letterman! I did not know that.

MikeJim

Crashed out on Lap 113.





http://www.indystar.com/story/entert...dway/27881063/