SmileTime Productions

 

Hello, SmileTime Productions is the trading name for myself, Paul Smith.

I'm an esports commentator, streamer and esports competitor for Team MAD.

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Commentary work

 

I’ve been a big fan of motorsport since I was a young child. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in my living room with my dad watching F1, Touring cars or Rallying on the TV. The iconic voice of Murray Walker would convince me that what I was watching was the most exciting race, even if it was anything but.

As I got older I got into others sports, mainly Rugby League. I ended up playing and officiating Rugby League for about 16 years until injuries ended my active participation of the sport. I was also a motorsport volunteer, mainly a rallying marshal, for 10 years.

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Rugby League Commentary

Around the same time as me finishing being involved in Rugby League on the field, came an opportunity off it with, the then Superleague team, Bradford Bulls. I was given my first chance at sports commentary with them for the DVD’s that the club would sell in the shop. Myself and my friend Dominic Burch had a trial in late 2009 and were given the role for the 2010 season.

It was a steep learning curve as we recorded live during the match and there was no editing of our audio afterwards. I used this chance to be able to pick the brains of SkySports commentators Bill Arthur and ex Great Britain international Phil Clarke. I asked lots of questions and gained a good insight into how they do live broadcast commentary.

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After the 2010 season I had a trial with the local radio station BBC Radio Leeds, with a report being broadcast the next day in the sports news that featured my commentary and interviews. This trial was the first time I’d ever conducted interviews with the players and coaches after the match and once again was a huge learning experience. Unfortunately for myself and Dominic the Bulls weren’t selling many DVD’s due to the on field decline of the team, so we weren’t retained for the following season.

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Sim Racing Commentary

In 2015 I got my next commentary role which was also my first sim racing broadcast on Racespot TV. It was the Spirit of VLN championship with myself and Andrew Woodhouse in the broadcast booth. Since that first race I have covered many championships for both Racespot TV and Apex Racing TV.

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In 2018 I was the lead commentator for the Virtual Racing School GT iRacing World Championship Series for the whole of the season. Memorable moments from this year mainly being round 1 where the favourites were shaken up by the speed of Joshua Rogers who, along with his team mate took a win for TTL Esports GT, the incredible finish to round 3 at Monza with Team 33 (who became Williams Esports) taking the victory over the line by 63 thousandths of a second ahead of Inex Racing. Also the final round of the championship where the final 45 minutes were focused on Pure Racing Team trying to hold on to 3rd place to take the championship by 2 points over G2 Esports.

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As well as the iRacing GT World Championship I have also been able to bring other major events, such as the various world tour events that iRacing host. That list including the Daytona 24, iRacing Bathurst 12 hours, the 12 Hours of Sebring, iRacing Le Mans 24 hours and the iRacing Petit Le Mans. I would have to say that Petit Le Mans was my personal favourite this year with 3 different teams fighting it out over the race lead for the first 5 hours that I covered of that race.

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I have also covered a number of private league races this year including the International GT3 Championship, The NEO Endurance Series 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Socks Out Racing V8 Super Truck Championship. The V8 Super Trucks produces some fantastic racing with some of iRacing’s top drivers battling it out on road courses in the NASCAR Trucks.

I also got to travel with Racespot TV to round 1 of the World Endurance Championship, providing social media updates, video content and meeting other sim racers. I also got to travel to Germany to work at the Fanatec 20th Anniversary community event.

Once again producing social media content and also producing a live broadcast from the venue as well.

In December 2018 I worked at the Porsche Simracing Summit acting as a Simracing consultant for Porsche and also working in the race control of the live event.

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2019 has seen me lead the commentary on the first season of the Porsche Esports Supercup. This has seen some of the most exciting and dramatic racing in a world championship series ever. I made my return to the Racespot TV Friday Primetime broadcasts, producing and commentating on the iRacing IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.

I also went to Germany in August to commentate at the ADAC Simracing Expo, covering the Porsche Simracing Trophy, ADAC GT Digital Masters, rFactor 2 track launch & Digital GT500. At this event this was the first time I had worked to a live arena audience.

In December I travelled to Munich to work on the BMW Sim Racing Live event at the BMW Welt. This was the first event that BMW had produced and it was great to work with a new crew.

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2020 saw me team up with Martin Haven on commentary duties for the second season of the Porsche Tag Heuer Esports Supercup. This was the first time I had worked with someone with the wealth of experience that Martin has and it was a true eye opener as to what I need to work on with my commentary style and pacing of commentary. Also in 2020 I made a commentary appearance on Radio Show Limited for 6 hours with the coverage of the iRacing 24 hours of Le Mans. I also produced the English feed of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual edition which was broadcasted on Eurosport player and multiple other tv channels across Europe.

 

In 2021 I went back to being the lead commentator of the Porsche Tag Heuer Esports Supercup, this year sharing the commentary booth with Matt "Sadokist" Trivett. This was a tremendous season which was dominated by Joshua Rogers, clinching his second title in the championship. This wasn't the only series I covered for Porsche, I also was the colour commentator for both the Porsche Esports Carerra Cup GB & Deutschland series.

I also got to work in the commentary booth for the iRacing iRX world championship series for 2021, even debuting the role of live commentary from the drivers seat in 2 of the All Star races. I also teamed up with Peter Mackay for coverage of the World GT Championship on Racespot TV on Monday nights. 2021 was also my debut commentating on RaceRoom with the ADAC GT Masters Esports Series, acting as colour commentator for Connery Maddick.

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2022 once again saw me commentate for the 4th season of the Porsche Tag Heuer Esports Supercup & for the season season running teaming up with Sadokist again. This was the most exciting season of the championship in my opinion and we saw a brand new champion in Diogo Pinto taking the crown in only his second season in the championship. I also was colour commentator for the Porsche Esports Cerarra Cup GB with a tremendously close championship getting decided in the final race of the season. I was again commentating on the ADAC GT Masters Esports Series, again with Connery Maddick. This series also had a close finish with the championship actually being decided in the stewards office after the final race.