Marty Reid | |
|---|---|
 Reid at the2008 Indianapolis 500 Qualifying Day | |
| Born | Martin Reid Klinegman (1953-02-03)February 3, 1953 (age 72) Darby, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Marietta College |
| Occupation | Sportscaster |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Karla (m. 1996) |
Martin Reid Klingeman (born February 3, 1953) is an American television sportscaster who worked forESPN from 1982 to 2013, coveringmotorsports for the network. Reid served as the network's leadIndyCar Series andIndianapolis 500 announcer from 2006 until that year, and did lap-by-lap for ESPN'sNASCAR Sprint Cup Series telecasts in 2010.
Reid first dabbled in radio when his older brother, a disc jockey, needed another voice for a radio ad.[1] In the following years, Reid worked on his sportscasting by callingHershey Bears games into a tape recorder.[1]
As Reid developed, he gained the opportunity to callMarietta College athletics while a student there.[1] Upon graduation, he joinedWCMH-TV inColumbus, Ohio in 1975.[1] Among his duties were announcingOhio State University hockey andColumbus Clippers telecasts. After turning down an opportunity to leave Columbus and callCharleston Charlies games,[1] Reid—a former drag racing mechanic—had the opportunity to substitute on anNHRA telecast for ESPN.[1]
In 1988, he started Marty Reid Enterprises, a video production company that worked closely with ESPN.[1] He founded the short courseoff-road racing seriesChampionship Off-Road Racing (CORR) in 1997 and sold it to Jim Baldwin in 2005.[2]
Concurrently, Reid commentated off-road racing, the24 Hours of Le Mans, andIMSA for ESPN, while also making appearances as a pit reporter onFormula One, CART, and lower divisionNASCAR broadcasts. Despite a hectic schedule, Reid did call one NHL game for ESPN in 1993, Los Angeles vs. Ottawa. Reid also found the time to serve as aspotter forFermín Vélez andTeam Scandia in the1997 Indianapolis 500.
In 1998, the utility player Reid was rewarded with the play-by-play role for ESPN's coverage of theNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.[3] Reid held this role through 2000, working alongsideBenny Parsons,Jeremy Dale,Larry Rice, and others. As needed, Reid would also fill-in onNASCAR Busch Series telecasts with the cable network, where he was partnered withNed Jarrett and again with Dale.
Reid then returned to his drag racing roots as the lead TV announcer for theNHRA on ESPN from 2001 to 2006.[3] Also in 2001, Reid debuted at theIndianapolis Motor Speedway, calling time trials as a fill-in forBob Jenkins during ESPN's extensive coverage.
After Reid's work with the NHRA, ESPN andABC Sports moved Reid to the IndyCar Series,[3] where he succeededTodd Harris as the television voice of the Indianapolis 500. Reid remained on the coverage in 2007, when ABC Sports dissolved into ESPN, and held his position through the 2013 season. Always partnered withScott Goodyear, who became a personal friend,[1] Reid also shared the booth withRusty Wallace andEddie Cheever.
WhenNASCAR returned to ESPN's family of networks in 2007, Reid joined the rotation of announcers for the Nationwide Series telecasts, relieving lead announcerJerry Punch as needed. In 2010, Reid replaced Punch altogether as ESPN's voice forSprint Cup Series[3] and Nationwide Series broadcasts. Reid's role did not last long, however, withAllen Bestwick succeeding him by the end of July 2011. In his new position, Reid called the Nationwide races during ESPN's portion of the Cup schedule, while Bestwick handled both the first part of the Nationwide schedule and all the Cup broadcasts. While on play-by-play duty for ESPN, Reid worked withAndy Petree,Dale Jarrett,Ricky Craven,Randy LaJoie, Brad Daugherty, and Wallace, among others.
On September 29, 2013, Reid called his final race for ESPN, accidentally giving the win of theKentucky 300 to eventual victorRyan Blaney one lap early. Though the mistake was never confirmed to be the reason of Reid's departure from ESPN, he was nevertheless replaced by Bestwick in his NASCAR job for 2013 forward, and in the IndyCar position from 2014.[4]
After a thirty-one-year career with ESPN and its related networks, Reid did not return to television or radio.
When Reid was a teenager, his older brother died in a motorcycle crash in Roanoke, VA. Reid's father, Robert Klingeman, passed in 1998,[1] the year Reid took over as play-by-play announcer for NASCAR's Truck Series. In 2006, Reid's mother, Anne Klingeman, died just one day before Reid was asked to take over the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar coverage for ABC and ESPN.[1]
Reid and his wife, Karla, reside in Brownsburg, IN.
After years out of the spotlight, Reid would announce that he was running as a Democrat for county council in Hendricks County for the 2020 election.[5] Reid would lose, scoring only 11 percent of the vote. All three Democratic challengers lost.
| Preceded by | Television voice of the Indianapolis 500 2006-2013 | Succeeded by |