By Mike Perry | IHRA Communications

1320tv, an internet broadcasting site devoted to drag racing coverage, made its eMax Drag Racing Series debut at San Antonio Raceway for the Amalie Oil Texas Nationals. Susan Wade, the creator of 1320tv, thinks racing fans will like the unique look and feel of her streaming video network. Though the idea of streaming video for the Internet is not her brainchild, she took the idea and made it a reality for race fans.

“It’s not a new concept. There has been video on other websites, but drag racing hasn’t had anything like this,” Wade said. “CompetitionPlus.com had CompetitionPlusTV, and that idea kind of exploded into this. So this wasn’t my idea, I just kind of took the idea and ran with it.”

Wade has been in the motor media for over a decade. She is a staff writer for National Speed Sport Weekly as well as serving as a CompetitionPlus.com writer/editor during the 2005 racing season. The jump from writer to television producer, host, director and business manager was a challenging one.

“Ignorance, for me, was the biggest challenge,” Wade said. “I’m not a technical person, but I knew if I waited to do this until I knew how to do everything there would be 25 people who did it before me. So I surrounded myself with good people who knew what they were doing and jumped into it with both feet.”

After covering a few NHRA races, Wade and her staff came to San Antonio to check out the eMax Drag Racing Series. She was pleasantly surprised with how things went at the Amalie Oil Texas Nationals.

“San Antonio was awesome,” she said. “A lot of the racers we talked to saw what we did on the NHRA side and knew what we do. Clay Millican, Doug Foley, Gary Densham and some of the others were familiar with our programming, so they were really comfortable talking to us. I also have to give a thanks to Aaron Polburn, Jim Marchyshyn, Travis Reynolds and the entire IHRA Communications staff. They really made life easy for us and it is such a blessing not to have to fight to get our programming. I think some of the people in the NHRA are a little spooked by it.”

Wade and her staff did some driver profiles and features in the pits at San Antonio Raceway. They also did one-on-one interviews with the class champions moments after the race. In fact, when Doug Foley came to be interviewed by 1320tv following his Torco Racing Fuels Pro Nitro Top Fuel victory, he found a surprise waiting for him. Not only did Clay Millican, the man Foley just defeated to win the Ironman, come to take a part in the interview, he actually took over the microphone and conducted the entire 10-minute question and answer session himself. Those light-hearted moments are what Wade wants to bring to her viewers.

“1320tv is an outlet for entertainment programming,” she said. “It is not going to be a bully pulpit for someone to beat up on a sanctioning body or on another person. It is supposed to be uplifting, fun, hopefully educational programming. There are some great stories to tell out there, so we want to look at those stories and not dwell on the negatives.”

To see 1320tv’s complete coverage of the Amalie Oil Texas Nationals, log on to www.1320tv.com.