BRUCE FLANDERS DAY AT THE IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY ... JUNE 4 ... THE BIG 6-OH!
Irwindale, Calif. - - He's considered by the movers and shakers at the very highest levels of motorsport as the very best of the best at what he does. He's possessed of a mellow baritone voice and a wicked wit. And he's got a unconditional love of all types, shapes, styles, sizes, and colors of motorized competition which he wears on his sleeve as a badge of honor. He's held sway on the PA mike and looked into the TV cameras for way better than 30 years now and, on Saturday night June 4, Bruce Flanders; son; brother; husband; father; military veteran; double world speed record holder*; Irwindale's official track announcer since day one, and (as anyone who's ever heard his work) the possessor of a set of pipes that most FM jocks would gargle razor blades for; will be feted at the Speedway on his sixtieth birthday. Charles C. Colton (who passed away in 1832, and thus never had the opportunity to enjoy Bruce's mikework) once said: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. And believe you me, Flanders has seen a whole batch of such heart-felt “flattery” coming his way over the years. They make game attempts at copying his deep, smiling voice; his tone; his inflection; even his phrasing. And sometimes they get it, let's say, well, “close”. But what his legions of imitators NEVER get right is that it's not so much the way he sounds, but WHAT he says that makes him a truly great announcer. His imitators never capture his state of mind; his choice of words, his colorful allusions; his knack of bringing in a wide range of current events and little known facts to the conversation; his ability to interview anyone/anytime/anyplace about anything and make sense out of the talk; and the way that he makes the whole deal all sound so damn easy. Flanders' work is so straightforward, so uncomplicated, so unforced, so seamless … That even he seems unimpressed with himself at times. That's not to say that he isn't proud of his work, he surely is, and rightly so. He simply gets it right, first time, every time, and (perhaps his most endearing trait) he knows exactly when to stop talking and let the emotions of the scene sink in on their own terms. He never talks down to his audience, nor does he try to dazzle his listeners with any of his wealth of special insider's (and he IS one, believe it) knowledge. In other words, the man is a PRO and his work is very much like a great movie score, absolutely critical to the overall experience, but transparent … Almost unnoticed. In Bruce Flanders' case the audience IS listening! *141.703 miles per hour on a KZ-1000 Kawasaki motorcycle at Bonneville in 1973 (that record was for the fastest production bike and it stood for seven years!). And 16.742 miles an hour (lap average) aboard a Rose Parade float in 1999 as it rounded the Irwindale oval. (This record is shared with the late Indy 500 double winner Rodger Ward, float driver Frank Deckard, and KFWB air personality Jeff Baugh). ADD: SHORT LIST(S) … Besides regaling the fans a Irwindale Speedway every Saturday night for 32+ weeks a year, Bruce is a hard-working, and very successful voice actor and commercial spot producer/announcer. The exact location of his digital studios, Flanders Unlimited, is a closely-guarded secret with most of his clients dealing with the man by telephone, short-wave radio, teletype, carrier pigeon, bicycle messenger, e-mail and special “drops”. Among his page after page of credits are little things like his twenty-seven years as the chief announcer for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. His twenty-four years as the lead announcer at Laguna Seca Raceway, his thirty-two years (and just last week) as the announcer for the legendary Hangtown Motocross up North. He called his first race (a Speedway motorcycle event) on June 13, 1969 at the Orange County Fairgrounds; and has worked at such diverse venues as: the Caesars Place GP, Watkins Glen, Wembley Stadium (England), Daytona Motor Speedway, Road America, the Astrodome, Ascot, California Speedway, Anaheim Stadium, Lime Rock Park, the GP of Miami, Lion's Drag Strip, OMS, the Rose Bowl, Trojan Speedway, Tustin Thunder, OCIR, the Hoosierdome, and covered races sanctioned by: the AMA, USAC, IMSA, CRA, CMSC, CSCC, VARA, NHRA, MTEG, IKF, CART, SCRA, SCORE, and “Champ Car” among others. As a TV personality Flanders has worked side by side with a “who's who” of prominent members of the motorsports and entertainment communities including such luminaries as: Chris Economaki, Dale Earnhardt, Mickey Thompson, Ralph Shaheen, Paul Newman, Lorenzo Lamas, Sal AND Calvin Fish, Sonny Nutter, Bruce Penhall, Tim Conway, Ivan Stewart, Parnelli Jones, Rick Bestwick, Terry Clanton, Margo King, Hoyt Axton, and Stirling Moss O.B.E.. In 1998 (and most fittingly may we add) Flanders was named as a proud member of the CART/PPG “Most Colorful Character Club”, a few of the other members include such little-know names as: Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, Shav Glick, and Dan Gurney. ADD: A WHOLE SLUG'O'TICKETS TO HIS “BIRTHDAY PARTY” AT THE SPEEDWAY … A month or so ago Bruce was about to do his twenty-seventh Long Beach Grand Prix. Irwindale track GM, Bob DeFazio, mentioned that he thought it might be nice if Bruce were able to pass out a few tickets to his special night on June 4 at Irwindale while he was at the GP. Bubbling with his customary enthusiasm Bruce said, “Hey … Great!” So DeFazio, who is not only known to be a generous person, but a shrewd promoter as well, had a fair-size of them printed and coded with Bruce's initials. The tix were $15.00 face value adult comp. tickets. Thus armed, Flanders proceeded to pass them out at the gala four-day beach party, using wads of them them as prizes in his annual “Ugly Hawaiian Shirt” extravaganza. “I think a lot of my Long Beach GP buddies will be here on Saturday night,” said Flanders. We'll show 'em what NASCAR short track racing looks like for sure!” ADD: A PERSONAL APPRECIATION: By now, and hopefully by your own experience, you must know that we think that Bruce Flanders is an original, un-duplicatable, announcer's announcer. I've had the great pleasure of working with the man in three different “applications”. The first, in the Mickey Thompson Championship Off-Road Grand Prix series of stadium-staged off-road races. Our happy band traversed the country bringing Mickey's famous “Chunk of the Baja” races to far-off and exotic places like the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, the LA Coliseum, the Rose Bowl (Bruce's “GOOD MORNING PASADENA!” at 11 on the PA at about 7 in the AM was the beginning of a fun day!), the Seattle Kingdome, The Hosierdome in Indy, and Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. One night, we were racing at San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium, Bruce got a (very) bad hot dog. When I saw him his skin actually looked green, he was almost doubled over in pain, and gasping for breath. To listen to him over the PA, there was no change in his usual patter, he was as bright and pithy as ever. To look at him was a totally different matter. He honestly looked like living death. Mickey was very concerned (we all were). Mickey was actually concerned enough to call me on the radio and ask me to get ready to go “on mike” when (not IF) Bruce finally collapsed (which he knew was only minutes away). I'm not sure if the idea of me going on mike with 46,281 paying customers in the house jolted Bruce back into health, or what, but I did not go on mike that night. And a new PA star was NOT born. Bruce stayed on post, got the race done, and even gamely hosted the post-race interviews. He then collapsed back to his hotel room, and looked considerably better at 6AM the next morning when we all checked out of the hotel. Ten years ago Bruce got me my job as the PR guy at Perris Auto Speedway; not only recommending me to the Kazarian family; but bringing me along to a meeting that they had scheduled with him at BKK. Of course he was the announcer there. When Irwindale Speedway was only on paper, Bruce's name as the announcer was already well and truly in play … That was some seven years ago. We're both still here, and I KNOW why Bruce is here! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR … YOU ARE AN ORIGINAL … AND A PERSON THAT I AM SO VERY PROUD TO CALL: MY FRIEND.