Racing News Digest

I know, I am probably asking to much. And I know, if networks thought they could make money off a deal, then they would do it.

But I would like to see a lot more racing on TV. Anywhere from ARCA to hometown dirt track racing.

The networks and SPEED TV have NASCAR’s top 3 “elite divisions” covered 100%. Which is fantastic. Those are the top dogs and we should be seeing them week in and week out (if they are racing that week).

But what about keeping our eyes on the up and coming drivers. ARCA this weekend is racing at Toledo Speedway. And there doesn’t seem to be any TV coverage. I only looked briefly, but I would think that if there was coverage I would have noticed pretty quick (although if you as my wife I am not always the most perceptive guy).

I don’t know how far behind I am, but it appears that ARCA races are streamed over the internet. That is really cool and I will have to start checking those out when I can. I don’t know if all races are streamed or not, but that is something that I will keep my eye on.

How about the Camping World East and West race this weekend. You have the East and the West coming together to battle each other in the same race at Iows Speedway. You will have the West battling the West for points positions and the same for the East. But you will also have the West battling the East for bragging rights on which series is the top dog – and vise versa.

That should pan out to be a great race. Will we have T.V. coverage? Nope. And this is Sunday.

Oh, maybe your thinking there is a conflict the Sprint Cup Series, Nationwide Series or Camping World Truck Series. Nope. Saturday night is the Sprint Cup All-Star race. There is on Nationwide race this weekend and the Trucks are running Friday night.

So there is no reason not to cover the races live. Now, SPEED TV is showing a race Sunday in this time slot. At 4 pm they are showing the Rolex Sports Car Series. So SPEED will be showing this race on tape delay on May 28th. I don’t believe the ARCA race is scheduled to be shown at all.

May 28th. A Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern when most Americans are at work. And will anyone care at that point. Granted the East and West Series won’t have another race by that time, but any headlines that are created or anything along those lines will be long behind us in the past.

This is not necessarily SPEED’s or NASCAR’s fault. It’s called a scheduling conflict. What is a shame is that no one else is picking up this race.

SPEED TV does a great job with NASCAR’s top series. So don’t get me wrong there. Sunday we usually at least have the TV tuned to SPEED and at a minimum listen to hours and hours of SPEED TV before a Sprint Cup Race and we love it. They do a great job and they keep it very entertaining.

And it is easy to snap at SPEED TV and blame them for NOT showing races or showing them late. Who knows (I don’t) but maybe there are extenuation circumstances keeping them from bring these races to our living room.

I can not think of the name of the race at the moment, but the one in the middle of winter at Rockingham where a possible 99 cars can line up on the starting grid. 99 cars starting 3 wide, in the middle of the winter when no one has seen any kind of racing in months.

No TV coverage. I could not believe and at first I was cussing SPEED TV. But it’s not really their fault, at least not solely their fault. I would have thought networks would have been trying to grab that race realizing that race fans had been deprived of any kind of live racing in months. We needed something.

HERE IS WHAT I PROPOSE
A “station” by the fans for the fans. Membership fees and all. (uhhmmm low membership fees please). Not a cable TV station or broadcast station that you pick up with rabbit ears and for the most part would probably need to come up with 24 hour programming. But yes, an internet site with live video.

Did you happen to watch ROC this last December. Did you look for it on your TV. Well you probably didn’t find it except that I think it was replayed on tape delay a month or two later (ughh). Nope, it was live on the internet for about 5 or 6 hours I think it was on Freecaster.tv . The video quality was fantastic along with the audio. I have a cable internet but by no means do I have “fast cable internet”. I think at the time I had 1.5 MB (now I am to 3) and I had no problems what so ever.

And http://rpmtvonline.com does the same thing for some other series. I have not visited his (I believe his name is Ron) site enough to know if he does live races or not, I am still checking that out. But he has very good video quality as well that I never hick-up on.

So why not have a site following both Camping World Series around and doing a live internet broadcast of the race? From what I have been hearing there is a pretty good sized group of people that would love to watch these races AS THEY HAPPEN. Not to mention keep up with who is who in the series. Kind of hard to do when you read little weekly press blurbs.

The Camping World developmental series are kind of like the college sports of racing. At least in the NASCAR structure. You can not really say that the Nationwide Series is the college series anymore. If you think that way, I can’t really argue with you but it is still an “elite” series. These guys banging on each other just trying to get to the Truck or Nationwide Series is where the interest is at.

Last year I watched a USAC race on the internet live in Indianapolis (I think it was).

I think and internet site that was willing to bring all these races would eventually make a killing. When there are not bigger named series racing that weekend, why not go and hit some local dirt tracks or some of the other series?

Would you pay $20 or $25 a year for a site where almost every weekend your guaranteed to see some live racing. Maybe even Friday and Saturday night?

I am pretty sure I would be willing to pay more than that.

And I usually think TO BIG. There is no way I would limit it to the Camping World Series. There are a ton of series out there with little or no live coverage.

And to be really honest, I can not believe NASCAR is not exploring this idea for their developmental series. Of course they may be exploring it, I have no idea. But what a great way to get exposure for their developmental series (all of them) with out having to hassle with networks. The only down side about NASCAR actually doing it would be that they would probably charge way to much. But if it is a huge hit like myself and other tend to believe it would, it would then look very nice to the networks.

Yeah, I know, All-Star week and I am all worked up about the Camping World East and West Series. But this has been bugging me for quite awhile.