When the SPEED Channel first came about, I was so excited. The very idea of an entire channel devoted to cars, racing, and car related programming was heady stuff. I had been reading about it for some time in AutoWeek. I was waiting with baited breath. Then I found out that it wasn’t going to be available on my cable even as an upgrade. That was a part, but not the only part, in my decision to change to satellite.
It quickly became my “go to” channel. Not the only thing I watched, by any means, but it got first crack at my attention. I’m not the norm in my demographic. I follow no team sports of any kind. Couldn’t even venture a guess at the last time I watched more than 2 minutes of a football game. If you wanted to torture some secret out of me, just force me to sit through
a baseball game. All you’d have to do would be to tell me that it was a double header. I’d spill my guts before the 3rd inning.
Racing is my thing. I like some forms of it better than others, but as they say, “Variety is the spice of life.” If it burns gas and makes noise, I’m in.
When I first started watching SPEED, they had wonderful array of racing. The Super Modifieds, the USAC, non-wing
Sprints, and Midgets were probably my favorite. I love dirt, and the Winged Sprinters race more like pavement cars.
They are way more sensitive to set up. The non-wing cars are more driver oriented. Get the set up in the ball park, and a good driver can carry the car. They carried some good local shows from places I never would get to see.
I was a confirmed “Thunder Head.” If I couldn’t see it live, I’d have the VCR set. The Winter Heat series was a no brainer. It sort of took the place of the time when all the best Sprints and Midgets were in Florida for the winter racing.
I’m not saying that Winter Heat was why Jeff Gordon, and all the other dirt trackers who followed him are in NASCAR today. Jeff was carefully groomed to get where he is, but I think the exposure certainly helped ease the
transition. Plus they could have been a factor in getting him hooked up with Hendrick, Sleepy Tripp, & Kevin Olsen in their prime were every bit as good as Jeff. They never made the move. Could have been lots of reasons, but the timing
of Jeff’s Winter Heat exposure was perfect.
Another special favorite was the occasional AMA Flat track races they carried. Hill climbs are fun. I just never seemed to connect with the Super Bike racing.
Then SPEED was bought by FOX. It seemed like it became All NASCAR, all the time. If they weren’t showing NASCAR, they were talking about it. The only non-racing, but racing related show that I watch now is Wind Tunnel. One thing I think could be hurting NASCAR, is over exposure. It’s gotten so bad for me that I check to see when the scheduled start time
is, give it a couple of minutes before I tune in. When I switch to the broadcast, I want to see cars rolling on the track. Not people talking about the same things that other people have been talking about for the last 3-4 hours. Granted my reaction may a little extreme, but I doubt if I’m the only one who feels this way to some degree.
I understand that they still carry some World of Outlaws, both Sprint, and Late Model, (the late models remind me of Slot Cars) and I do watch, but most of the stuff I used to enjoy is gone. No Bellville Nationals, the Chili Bowl, long delayed.
I do enjoy the F1 parade, but I watch it more for Bob Varsha and David Hobbs than for the racing. I will have to admit that I found Pinks mildly entertaining…..for the first couple of times I watched. Then I got tired of seeing people
sandbagged out of their cars. Wrecked, Pimp My Ride, Pinks, Pass Time, come on guys you can do better.
I know, because you have!
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Absolutely correct! I wasn introduced to SO many new and unusual forms of motorsport through TNN’s “Motorsports Sunday”, and Speedvision (at that time) appeared ready to fill the gap.
However, when SpeedTV started showing really good WRC Rally Coverage, most of my less-than-diehard NASCAR fans chose WRC over roundy-round. (I’ll confess – I watched both, and still wanted more!).
So when NASCAR got involved in the channel, that was it. The downside – in their shortsightedness, those one-time that used to watch both now only follow WRC. Which means they aren’t watching Speed Channel, either…
SPEED has become a complete joke. It is basically the MTV of racing. It started off playing a vast array of different kinds of racing and has now become NASCAR and a bunch of stupid ass reality shows that are just absolutely horrible. I can’t believe anyone could actually watch an episode of Unique Whimps and not want to kick their TV.
Some of the show on Speed (Fox) are nothing but glorified (un)reality shows. Pinks is the phoniest, over-esposed show on tv. I love racing, but there’s too many non-racing shows on Speed. Wake up and smell the roses, Speed. Most of the races not tied to nas$car are tape delayed.
BULLS EYE and not Targets!I think this one, the best article written about racing on television, should go to the front of the line on columns written here.I miss alot of things about racing on television,the biggest is Benny Parsons and Bob Jenkins,Bill Weber, and then,Thursday night Thunder it was awesome.You can take that simple assed “Pinks” and pass time and now we have a Nascar talent(idol) show then that quiz show with Kyle and the GOOF with glasses and he is typical N.C. Goofy,all the negative B.S. that I just named to file 13.Pinks and Rich are the most useless show ever put on t.v. period with -ass time a close second.I would never wring my car out on pass after pass just to be on t.v.But, thursday night thunder was the real deal brother it was great..you can’t rig good racing especially in Indiana..again great article.
I know it is aggravating to see all the unnecessary shows on Speed which really mean nothing of any importance but I will say this is still better than the days when I couldn’t even watch all of the races live on TV. I used to have to see the taped version of a Sunday race on Tuesday night (after I already knew the outcome) on a syndicated network called SETN. So, even though three or four hours or pre-race might be overkill, it definitely beats UNDERKILL!
A perfect example of this is this particular weekend with no NASCAR racing at all. This is killing me!
I understand alot of what they HAVE to do..the prerace shows and postraces shows….but I think SPEED/FOX would better serve itself and the viewers if they would get rid of some of the junk….game shows, reality shows, shows about shows…and fill their “non NASCAR” time with some grassroots racing…I love any type auto racing..and would watch more Speed if they could alter their programming. Best I can do this weekend..F1 or Indy…well at least its racing!! AHHH .. guess what..there’s a Danica interview….AHHH guess what ..the first question they asked her was about her NASCAR racing!
John, I want to agree with your sentiments exactly. Speed used to be a great racing channel. What could be better then watching ” Winter Heat” on a cold winter night in New England.
Sadly, it appears that by trying to increase their audience to people who don’t appreciate grass roots racing, they have ruined a perfectly good thing. “Bigger is not always better,” and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” They forgot these two things in their quest to build their audience.
Like you, the only thing left that I watch is “Wind Tunnel.”
You make excellent points. It has gotten so bad that I recently removed all of the Speed shows off of my DVR. I used to really love seeing USAR Pro Cup racing, but it’s nowhere to be found. I would also love to see midget and sprint car races regularly, but it isn’t in the cards. It’s a shame, because Speed could really fill the need for all the fans, but they have become a corporate puppet for Fox, and that’s a shame.
I agree. There is way too much good racing out there (auto, moto, etc.) to have to show reality-type tv shows. I’m glad to see that they are starting to show Supercross live on Saturday nights (or at least with only a slight delay), but where’s the rally racing, Dakkar (it belongs on Speed, not Versus), Indycar. Unfortunately, it comes down to the dollar, but if they throw this programming onto Speed, more would watch, more $ from advertising.
I also turn on the TV about 10 minutes before the start time. I like to watch the fly overs. I do want to see driver intros this week to see who gets booed. Don’t watch anything else on speed, except sometimes Monster Jam, but I do tape Madhouse for my husband.As long as Fox is doing the commentating, I watch with the sound turned off. Watch my driver with Raceview and listen to his scanner and the radio for the play by play.
Couldn’t agree more with all of you…..
FOX, please listen to those with a voice of reason, we like SPEED for speed, not drama.
Get some more knock down, drag out racing on TV.
thanks.
Gee, Dawg- I think you struck a nerve. I will chime in and agree. More racing, even if its shows of old races, and les fluff.
Great article, I used to live for Speed. Then there was Fox and Speed died. I really miss Sprints and Midgets, Thursday night Thunder etc…anytime a race is replaced by a ” show” it is a loss. Now I watch Speed a lot less than I used to. Thanks for a little attention to this problem.
@DanR, “However, when SpeedTV started showing really good WRC Rally Coverage, most of my less-than-diehard NASCAR fans chose WRC over roundy-round.” I would like to see more WRC coverage. Marybeth
Second time today: I agree an older race would be a good filler show.How about Dale’s final at Talladega, I could watch that everyday anytime loved that race..great race great drivers, great finish.BRAVO!
I, too, feel your pain. When Speedvision (now, Speed), came on the scene, it was with anticipation that I watched the channel each day. British Touring Car Championship, Australian Super Cars (what NASCAR should look like!!!), World Rally Cars ripping through the countryside over all types of terrain, World of Outlaws, etc……these are what gave the channel its charm. But, alas, it’s become All-NASCAR, All the Time, and I find it easy to ignore, exept on those RARE occasions when one of these other series makes an appearance.
We’ve “dumbed-down” the content with all this NASCAR content, and how many more shows do we have to endure until we know ALL about what makes the Car of Tomorrow THE greatest racing machine that has been invented (even though they bear NO visible relationship to the cars we drive?
Have to cancel A T & T U-Verse because of increase in cost to subscribe. No more SPEED.
Oh well. Didn’t like Rutledge Wood anyway, and if John ?Roberts said …” and much much more” one more time, I was going to puke.
Once Speed got away from the basic formula of showing racing and started filling in with fluff and passing that off as news, it started going downhill. I’ll catch the Aussie Super cars, the German Touring Cars, and the ARCA and Truck Series races but as to the rest of their programming, they can forget me watching.
They had a great opportunity today to cover the Legends Helping Legends event in Mooresville and could’ve gotten a ton of interviews with the racing greats of the past, a few current folks, and gotten some fan feedback on today’s racing. But they blew it.
Great piece Dawg. One of the best if not the best I’ve seen written addressing the issues of Speed TV.
Speed, the Danica Channel……
If they want to stick with the Nascar theme on their programming, how about showing the Camping World (or whatever its called now) East and West Series or the Modifieds, instead of these stupid shows like Pinks, Unique Whips, etc. There is plenty of grassroots racing across the country that could fill this time better than these shows. Nascar usually takes up the weekend, but how about some grassroots racing tape delayed in the evenings during the week.
People have been saying this about Speed for several years. They don’t care. Everything they learned about pleasing the customer, they learned from Brian France.
The early days of Speedvision/SpeedTV/Speed had way too much boat and plane racing for my taste. Those went by the wayside when it was bought out, and I was very pleased. Like the author, I haven’t watched a foot/base/basketball game since I discovered auto racing in 1967. I recently lost my job and had to cut back to basic cable. I don’t miss Speed at all except for Despain.
In my opinion, the greatest evidence of Fox Speed’s suckitude is when they cut away from live LeMans coverage to show QUALIFYING for the NASCAR truck race.
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