The Speed Channel

[Bror Jace]

There must be a ton of fans of the Speed Channel here, eh?

Anybody else noticing it steadily going downhill?

I know that question depends largely on when you starting watching Speed. If you were a Speedvision fan (2001 and earlier), the changes over the past 3-4 years are usually anything but welcome. Some of the 'niche' motorsports which used to get coverage either get very little nowadays .. or none at all. Someone who only started watching Speed a year or two ago might not notice anything drastic because the change has been incremental.

Speed failed to carry the Dakar this year. SCCA Pro-Rally is gone and WRC coverage is greatly diminished ... and on very late at night (11:00PM EST). The SCCA Run-Offs got reduced airtime last fall/winter and I'm sure others can cite additional examples ... especially the fans of motorcycle racing.

In the place of the racing we are not watching, we've gotten a bunch of flashy, gimmicky reality-type programs such as "Barrett Jackson Car Search," "I want to Date a Race Car Driver," "Build or Bust" and more recently, the wretched "Pinks" which falsely purports to be 'old school racing.' Search around the 'net on car forums and you'll find stories/testimony claiming that this show is a bunch of B.S. These people are not giving up their cars when they lose ... and the show as a whole is pure reality-TV garbage. It's all about fake arguing, empty attitude and posing, NOT real drag racing.

And the latest offering from Speed is easily the worst ... Texas Hardtales. Oh my gawd, low brow has hit a new low. It's a sitcom that is shot as thought it were a reality show ... not unlike American Chopper. Most of us think that this trashy show might be better off on Spike TV ... or possible Comedy Central (except that it isn't funny). Making things worse, they run ads for it constantly. If you watch a 2-hour race, you'll see the same Texas Hardtales commercial at least 5 or 6 times. You just can't get away from it

Meanwhile, there are periods where they've seemed to totally give up on promoting their racing programs ... the lastest WRC ads for the Rally of Finland are a noticeable exception.

If it weren't for the F1 coverage (which remains pretty strong) ... and Speed World Challenge, I'd cancel the extra sports package I pay for in order to recieve Speed. Most of the programming simply isn't worth paying $0.02 for and if the current trend continues, they will be 100% out of the autoracing business in 3-4 years time.

--- Bror Jace

 

[jsharp]

They didn't cover the Australian V8 Supercar races this year either. Or if they did, I missed every one. Now *thats* stock car racing.

I expected Pinks to be a lot better. It's total BS. A few of us have wondered if we threw together a cheap beater as a really consistent bracket car if they'd let us race...

 

[tom slick]

I agree.
It should just be called nascar channel. I don't mind that they cover nascar, but does it have to be on all the time? doesn't it get enough coverage on the other channels too? I don't think I have seen any super motard motorcycle racing on speed and it is the hottest up an coming form of mc racing.

IMO they should focus on the motorsports that are not covered by the mainstream.

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:


I expected Pinks to be a lot better. It's total BS. A few of us have wondered if we threw together a cheap beater as a really consistent bracket car if they'd let us race...

---

My formative years were in the late 50s, early 60s. People talked about racing for pinks then, but I never actually saw it happen. For one thing, money was a lot harder to come by for most people then.

Then and later a lot of varisou local circle track racing had claiming races where any car that one could be claimed for x dollars, like about $500 to $1000 if someone wanted it. Rumor had it that you would have a serious accident the next day if you claimed any of the big boys cars

Sometimes the claim was just for the engine.

 

[slugsgomoo]

yeah, my understanding was that nascar was on every broadcast channel we don't care about anyway.

Who gives a crap about tube framed cars with three bolts from their stock counterparts turning left?

Give me the Neufoundland/NewZealand Targa, pikes peak, WRC, SCCA Pro-Rally, JGTC, V8 supercar, etc.

I want to see real racing- you know the interesting stuff that is starting to become popular here in america, if only we can help it grow.

It's time that we grow out of circle tracks, and into the big time.

 

[nicrfe1370]

I'm with you guys, though I'm surprised we haven't heard from a NASCAR fan praising the new format. Not having the Dakar rally was a slap in the face, V8 Supercars were fun to watch and listen to, and the series' I like to watch (Speed GT, World Rally) have become so uniformly the same from race to race as to suck out all the fun. They will likely almost entirely lose me as a viewer in the near future.

 

[kenw]

cars going round in a circle, with 100,000 beergut bubbas and bleachblonde bubbettes waiting for the first wreck.....

sounds like fun to me...

 

[obbop]

Mmmmmmmmmm......

Bleachblonde bubbettes..... yummy....

makes my bountiful beergut bubba blubber bounce with joy and desire!!!!!!

Boy howdy!!!!

Yep

 

[tom slick]

I usually watch more motorsports on OLN than I do speed. they carry Dakar, super moto, etc at least once in awhile.

 

[mechtech]

I thought it IS the Nascar Channel.
Enough, already!

 

[jsharp]

quote:

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Originally posted by XS650:

quote:

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Originally posted by jsharp:

The small circle tracks still heve some claimimg classes as far as I know.

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Is claiming a winners car still hazardous to your health?

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I don't know any of the guys who run those races personally, but from their reputations I would give that a big YES...

 

[CovertRacing]

In I.M.C.A sanctioned races you can claim an engine. These are dirt track stock car races.

 

[Bror Jace]

Wow, when I started this thread, I really figured people here would more or less agree with me, and jump on my bandwagon that the current problem with the Speed Channel was that they were replacing actual racing with cr@ppy 'reality' programming like "Unique Whips" and other such shallow, faddish nonsense.

This trend really irks me on so many levels, I barely know where to begin. Autoracing, like all sports, is real reality programming. It's not scripted at all. And this programming's air time is being compromised to make way for the fake junk. "Pinks," for example, is about arguing and posturing, NOT racing ... and the participants get their cars back after the show (according to one disgruntled racer who appeared on an early episode and has been ranting on various car forums).

When did fake become more desirable than genuine?

However, it looks like my complaint of a couple years ago ("too much NASCAR!") is alive and well.

So, I went to their on-line TV listings and looked through this week's line-up. Yep, sure enough, it's still NASCAR that dominates.

There has been some talk of a "Speed 2" channel which would show all the racing Speed used to show. As for me, that can't come fast enough.

--- Bror Jace

 

[XS650]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bror Jace:

When did fake become more desirable than genuine?

--- Bror Jace

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When the suits at the networks figured out they could get large audiances with very cheap to produce programs.

 

[jsharp]

quote:

---

Originally posted by XS650:

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsharp:


I expected Pinks to be a lot better. It's total BS. A few of us have wondered if we threw together a cheap beater as a really consistent bracket car if they'd let us race...

---

My formative years were in the late 50s, early 60s. People talked about racing for pinks then, but I never actually saw it happen. For one thing, money was a lot harder to come by for most people then.

Then and later a lot of varisou local circle track racing had claiming races where any car that one could be claimed for x dollars, like about $500 to $1000 if someone wanted it. Rumor had it that you would have a serious accident the next day if you claimed any of the big boys cars

Sometimes the claim was just for the engine.

---

My experience was similar to yours, if a decade or so later. None of my friends even raced for money. Nobody had any and they couldn't have raced for titles if they wanted to on cars that the bank owned.

Bragging rights were the whole payoff.

The small circle tracks still heve some claimimg classes as far as I know.

 

[XS650]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsharp:

The small circle tracks still heve some claimimg classes as far as I know.

---

Is claiming a winners car still hazardous to your health?

 

[Tosh]

It would cost us about $60/month to get a cable package which included Speed TV. Not worth it just to watch a little bit of WRC, F1, and ChampCar. Speed Vision sold out a few years ago, hence became Speed Channel and then Speed TV, and found out that NASCAR has a pretty big following....

 

[Ignatz]

I agree with all above and also liked watching the BMC and Triumph clips from the 50's, 60's and 70's. There for a while it was like the History channel for sports cars. I loved the music and graphic's during the Dakar, and that announcer's voice!

 

[CMT]

Actually, I think when FOX first bought Speedvision a while back (shortly after they got the broadcast rights for NASCAR), they planned to make it officialy an all NASCAR channel. Apparently enough people protested that they just renamed it Speed and at first kept the programming more or less as it was, though with a bit more NASCAR. Now it appears that they might just be getting what they wanted in the first place (an all-NASCAR network) through the back door....

 

[jsharp]

All of the Nascar drivers becoming "celebrities" has made the whole problem even worse. It's not just less shows about other forms of racing, there are even less shows about Nascar that cover actual events or details of the sport. Replaced with the alternate reality versions or some show where they follow a little known Nascar driver around while he waters his bushes.

I have a lot of interest in how the cars are built, any racing car. Or what the details are of how racing teams do things. I couldn't care less what Dale Jr. does in his spare time.