Bruton and Marcus Smith should be commended for naming the zMax television broadcast facility after drag racing announcer Steve Evans.
Bruton and Marcus Smith should be commended for naming the zMax broadcast facility after drag racing broadcaster Steve Evans.
Evans passed away at the young age of 58 in a Las Vegas hotel in 2000. He was there covering a race, something he did with great flair throughout his noteworthy professional career.
A former editor of National Dragster magazine, Evans traded in his pen for a microphone in 1966 and honed his incredible skills alongside fellow broadcasting legends Bernie Partridge and Dave McClelland. When a gentleman named Harvey Palash started Diamond P Productions, which handled all NHRA TV shows and videos for years, he tapped Evans as his lead announcer.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Evans became as big a part of drag racing as the superstars he interviewed and he commanded and received the respect of every driver on tour, mainly because he took the time to do an exhaustive amount of research and always kept his personal opinions to himself.
Back then most NHRA broadcasts were aired on The Nashville Network (TNN), which was in dire need of programming in the early days of 24-hour cable channels. Seeing how well received Evans was among its racing audience, TNN co-founder John Mullin designed a show called "American Sports Cavalcade," with Evans headlining the production along with current ESPN announcer Paul Page and Brock Yates, the inventor/writer of the Cannonball Run.
The trio covered all kinds of racing, including NHRA, SCCA, and even swamp buggy stuff. The crew also included current ESPN standouts Gary Gerould, the NHRA's top-notch top-end reporter, and photographer Matt Ilias, who still prowls the pits at every national event.
"Steve was magical with a microphone in his hand," said Page, the driving force in getting the zMax facility named in his colleague and friend's honor. "He could simplify a complex report with such grace and ease. I remember standing beside him at the top end at the U.S. Nationals when a Funny Car caught fire and ran off the end losing very little speed. 'That's a 200-mph oven,' he quipped, without missing a beat. While the circumstance was dire, Steve said it all. He was a broadcast poet.
"As a kid from Southern California, Steve had a passion for drag racing. He always seemed to be the happiest when surrounded by horsepower. I believe his love of the sport came through in his broadcasts and, like Sid Collins, the broadcaster who started the Indianapolis 500 Radio Network, Steve brought millions of fans to our sport.
"My sincerest thanks to the gang at zMax for properly honoring Steve in this way."
Well said, Paul, and let me add, Steve would be very proud of this tribute.
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