Tag Archives: Formula 1

Death of SPEED

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Before SPEED

Death of SPEED?  Say what?  Let’s start with a brief history.  In 1996 a new cable channel called Speedvision was launched to the great happiness and enjoyment of motorsports nuts across the country.  That first year, Speedvision picked up Formula 1 broadcast rights for the US beginning with replays.  By 1998, Speedvision had exclusive Formula 1 broadcast rights in the US.  The network grew its audience rapidly, especially among males, with innovative programming – remember Victory By Design and the SCCA World Challenge Series – and access to live events that just didn’t exist before on broadcast television.  I think of it as a whole channel dedicated to the motorsports programs of the old ABC Wide World of Sports.  Speedvision was awesome.

Along Came Fox

In 2001 News Corp invested in Speedvision and then bought out other investors to have a controlling share.  As Fox Sports had recently acquired NASCAR broadcast rights, Speedvision began including more and more NASCAR programming to complement Fox’s coverage.  During the 2002 Daytona 500, Speedvision was relaunched as Speed Channel, and over the next several years NASCAR and NASCAR-related programming took an even greater share of the broadcasts including the Craftsman Truck Series from 2003 along with NASCAR practice and qualifying sessions.  Throughout the mid to late naughties, SPEED also included plenty of other motorsports coverage including ALMS, Grand-Am, 24 Hours of Daytona, and Le Mans.  2008 brought High Definition broadcasting to Speed, launched as SPEED HD.  So far, so good.

SPEED – The Salad Years

With the launch of HD broadcasting, viewers were treated to some great coverage on SPEED.  NASCAR was still going strong, ALMS had some great years with epic battles in both prototype and GT classes, and in 2011 Formula 1 added HD broadcasting.  The SPEED 24 Hours of Le Mans coverage was truly fantastic, continuing with interesting and innovative programming even when the French feed was down to a bare minimum of cameras during the night.  However, some cracks were starting to show.  ALMS coverage was lost to ESPN.  Reality based programs began replacing true motorsports programming.  UFC showed up.  What’s happening to the neighborhood here?  Then SPEED2 showed up with a glimmer of hope and lots of true motorsports action.  But alas it’s still just a glimmer.  Hopefully it expands and maybe someday becomes a broadcast network of its own.

Death of SPEED

In the Spring, we started to hear that by 2014, SPEED would likely morph into Fox Sports 1, a national general sports channel somewhat similar to ESPN (like we need another one of those to add to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN News, ESPN Classic, and on and on).  NASCAR coverage would probably be reduced.  Things seem to be going in that direction with many of Speed’s broadcasts featuring a Fox logo along with the SPEED logo.  Supposedly much of the motorsports programming would move to Fuel  TV.  Last month, Formula 1 announced that they had secured a four year contract with NBC beginning in 2013.  Wow!  Another kick in the gut.  The team that brought us Formula 1 since the early days of Speedvision would be no more.

To me, the symbolic, emotional death of SPEED as we know it comes this very weekend, with the last Formula 1 broadcast and a week after the end of the NASCAR season.  If rumors/stories are true, and Fox Sports 1 takes the place of Speed in 2014, presumably 2013 will be a transition year, but to me, we already have the death of SPEED – at least in spirit and in its original incarnation – even if the life support machine stays plugged in a little longer.

US Grand Prix – Saturday Update: Qualifying

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US Grand Prix – Qualifying

The US Grand Prix qualifying results were no surprise, at least at the top of the time sheets.    Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton were both very quick throughout the practice sessions, and these two drivers have been consistently battling for the front in the last several races.  Vettel ultimately claimed the pole position by 0.1 seconds.  Somewhat surprising was the poor showing by Ferrari.  Both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Mass struggled to get performance out of their tires and finished qualifying in ninth and seventh respectively.  Fernando will need a tremendous performance in tomorrow’s US Grand Prix to keep Vettel from all but wrapping up the Formula 1 Championship.

US Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas

Even though crowds were much larger today, logistics seem to be holding up quite well at the Circuit of the Americas.  Traffic was heavier, and getting into a specific parking lot took longer, but overall, not too bad.  The weather in Austin was absolutely spectacular, which made it easier to bear with crowds and minor inconveniences.  The highlight of my day was getting to relax in the Turn 20 Hospitality Suite after qualifying with a well-connected great friend.  As the sun was getting low on the horizon, I decided to take the new, 85 MPH limit, Route 130 toll road back toward San Antonio.  Just over an hour track-to-hotel.  Nice.

US Grand Prix

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US Grand Prix

Back in the summertime, I decided to pick up tickets for the US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas and then see what transpired with the season.  Maybe I would go, or maybe I’d put the tickets up on Ebay and just stay home and watch.  Well, with this season so close and with the idea to fly in and out of as well as stay in San Antonio – all much less expensive than Austin – and commute to the race, I’ve decided that Texas, here I come.  Having a business trip to San Antonio recently, which was productive as well as enjoyable also added momentum along with the fact that Texas just opened an 85 MPH toll road between San Antonio and Austin.  I’ll post here throughout the weekend to let you know how my San Antonio decision worked out.  I figure we’ll spend some evenings in downtown Austin, and some at the San Antonio Riverwalk.

US Grand Prix – The Prelude

This season has been something else with seven different winners in the first seven races.  Ferrari, namely Fernando Alonso, was punching well above his weight in the first third of the season.  He was also the first double winner in race eight at Valencia.  Seeing Fernando at the top of the podium in his home country to take the lead in the season points standings once again was surely something special, but did it foretell the rest of the season?  Well that lead was to hold until the sixteenth race, Korea, when he lost it to Sebastian Vettel, who won his third consecutive race.  Vettel took India to make it four in a row before Kimi Raikkonen won at Abu Dhabi to make it eight different winners this season.  So now onto the US Grand Prix in Austin with Vettel bringing a ten point advantage over Alonso.

US Grand Prix – The Game

To get a better sense of what I’d see at the US Grand Prix – the Circuit of the Americas, how my seats should work out, where the passing zones are likely to be – plus to have some diversionary fun, I picked up F1: 2012 for my Xbox 360.  Based on what you can tell on a game, I’d say WOW!  I think we are in for quite an interesting race.  It doesn’t seem to be a typical Tilke track, meaning that there do seem to be alternative lines through some corners, and overtaking should NOT be limited to use of DRS.  I sure hope reality turns out that way.  As a game player, one of the interesting impressions is that the S turns remind me of Suzuka, and the radii seem to tighten noticeably.  I guess we’ll see how my very amateur game experience compares to reality.

US Grand Prix – The Week

Flights, car, and hotel rented, tickets in hand, schedule sorted – I’m ready to head to Austin via San Antonio on Thursday.  Looks like the weather will be very SoCal like – highs in the low 70s and lows in high 50s.  Just right.  Not much going on in the media runup to the event just yet.  Just the notification by FIA spicy language will not be tolerated.  Come on, we’re headed to Texas, with lots of spice!

That’s all for now.  I’ll be posting about the US Grand Prix here and on Twitter throughout the weekend, so stay tuned…