Till: “This Will Be a Brand New Experience for Me”

Photo: IMSA

With record growth on tap, WC Vision has strengthened its arsenal for the upcoming Pirelli World Challenge season, which has seen the hire of ex-open-wheel/sports car driver and veteran TV broadcaster Brian Till as its new Chief Driving Steward.

Till, who won the 1990 Toyota Atlantic Championship before going on to compete in select CART races, including the 1994 Indianapolis 500, was announced Monday as the latest addition to PWC’s expanding staff.

His opportunity to join the popular sprint race championship came through PWC President and CEO Scott Bove, who was actually one of Till’s students at the Mid-Ohio Driving School a number of years ago.

“We first started talking about the Driver Steward position in December and I think the series just wanted to make sure that they had some ex-drivers in race control,” Till told Sportscar365.

“We’ve seen that in many series over the last couple of years, Formula One, IndyCar, the TUDOR Championship, all utilize ex-drivers to lend their expertise to what they see happening on the race track.

“From a competitor standpoint, you like seeing that too because you feel like there’s a little bit better real-world understanding in race control that’s watching the races.”

While having been out of the cockpit professionally for some time, Till has played a prominent role in the coverage of sports car racing, having served as a play-by-play announcer and pit lane reporter for numerous series and TV networks.

He’ll continue his duties with FOX Sports in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship this year alongside his new PWC commitments, which while being a new experience, takes into account a lot of his past knowledge and expertise in the sport.

“It’s really a position that takes into account the skill set I’ve developed for the last couple of decades, and that’s watching television screens, watching monitors, analyzing what’s happened in terms of on-track race action, but also incorporating that with the teaching I’ve done starting back at Skip Barber in 1988,” he said.

“World Challenge is such a diverse series where there’s so many different classes and guys with tremendous driving experience. There’s guys that I would put up against any sports car driver in the world, all the way down to guys running their first professional races.

“Not only is this a driver steward position but it’s also a bit of a driver coaching position. When you think of a guy who’s never run in a professional race before going to St. Petersburg or Long Beach for the first time. There’s going to be insight I could give them that they may not get from another competitor.”

Till expects to be playing an active role in all of the championship’s classes and said he’s mindful of the task ahead, especially with balancing the priorities of the diverse range of competitors.

“This will be a brand-new experience for me,” Till said. “I absolutely cherish the television work that I do. It’s become such a huge part of my life and I want to continue to do that as long as I possibly can.

“But I also have to look at other opportunities that exist in the world of motorsports that don’t interfere with my television. This just happens to work perfectly.”

The 2015 season will likely be Till’s busiest yet as he juggles a number of jobs in the industry.

In addition to his TUDOR Championship broadcasting commitments with FOX Sports and his new PWC gig, Till will also be working four IndyCar races for NBC Sports and serving as the pre-race host for three of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races on FOX.

“When we counted, it’s 28 weekends of racing,” he said. “My wife may hate me by the time the season’s over but when it is over I will have a new skill set and another check mark on my resume and be able to say I’ve done one more thing in motorsports.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John