Real Sports Car racing on TV---bye bye

strupgolf · 01-26-2011, 06:35 AM

ALMS announced that all of their races will now be shown on ESPN3.com live. They will not be shown on TV unless they are less than 2 hours long. The upcoming Sebring race will be edited down to a 90 minute special shown the next day. One of the rights of spring for us notherners was to get the coffee on, set the TV to Speed, and sit back and watch almost 12 hours of Sebring. It might not have been the best racing, but just seeing it on a big screen was great. Espn3.com will not automatically be avaiable to everyone with Internet access. This sounds like another money grabbing sceme, but why? Speed TV will not be in the mix of stations broadcasting any races. Any thoughts?

MattKellett · MattKellett's Garage

I really didn't think the Speed channel could get any worse, but I guess it has.

I don't even no why I continue to get it now as I only subscribe to this channel for F1 and ALMS.

I guess the time will be replaced with more NASCAR items and Pinks or what ever other crap shows they show!

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

I saw that the other day. It is just amazing. I just wonder if it was Fox that refused to pay for the rights, or did ALMS just go stupid?

Oh, well. Now I can get some work done in the garage on those race weekends since I won't be watching.

strupgolf · 01-26-2011, 07:08 AM

I think the ALMS is on life support now and for the future, unless something drastic happens with some new cars and teams.

boba · 01-26-2011, 07:42 AM

The market for road racing is not big enough to support competing series, there was not a big enough market for two open wheel series.

This has been the plight of sports car racing for decades. The better question to ask when two competing series start is who changed the laws of physics.

VincentVega · 01-26-2011, 08:11 AM

Thanks for the heads up. I'm not really into ALMS but it's a good background distraction in the least.

Similar topic - what's the best way to get espn3 on the tv? Short of plugging in my PC, will a xbox/PS3/AppleTV or something else simple make this work?

sammyg2 · 01-26-2011, 08:30 AM

Take away the television money and ALMS will die a quick death, prolly won't even last the season.

But hey, we can still watch cleetus and billy joe drive in circles real fast!

Jim Bremner · 01-26-2011, 08:44 AM

My Dad's favorite joke " the differance between Nascar racers and sporty-car racers.....?

The Nascar Race fans know all of the drivers names! ( The sporty car drivers know all of the fans names) sad.

jtfreels · 01-26-2011, 12:13 PM

Just got this info from ALMS, so if you get ESPN3.com then you can see it live via the web.
(my plug for RadioLemans.com.... they will be doing live radio commentary, they are always good in an eccentric British way)

The first race for the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón is the 59th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida on Saturday, March 19. The race, set for 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 19, will be shown in its live and in its entirety on ESPN3.com and americanlemans.com. ABC will provide coverage beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 20. Visit the American Le Mans Series’ schedule page for information on tickets and area

strupgolf · 01-26-2011, 07:04 PM

That's exactly my point, it won't be on TV. Watching a small computer screen is nowhere near as good as a 55 inch bigscreen.

Hugh R · 01-26-2011, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

II just wonder if it was Fox that refused to pay for the rights, or did ALMS just go stupid?

Not a big point but ESPN=Disney. And no, I don't know the rationale.

Wilhelm · 01-26-2011, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strupgolf

I think the ALMS is on life support now and for the future, unless something drastic happens with some new cars and teams.

I beg to differ. I think the ALMS series is the best racing series around. Porsche, Corvette, BMW, Ferrari, etc. Cars we can actually identify with. Kinda reminds me of the old Trans Am days. And then throw in the prototypes for good measure.

ALMS is far more interesting than F1 and Indy Car..or whatever they call themselves these days. Oh, and there is no charge to get into the ALMS paddock area and get a good close look at the cars and meet the drivers. Well at least up til now...I HOPE that continues.

I agree it is really too bad about the TV thing though. Bad move ALMS !

jtfreels · 01-26-2011, 08:34 PM

I've listened to and read the ALMS tale on this, they are saying that they will be reaching a wider audience with espn and abc. Yet the "hardcore fan" will be able to view the full live races via the web. That's what they say. So hook the computer up to that big tv, I have

strupgolf · 08:40 PM

No no no, you can't even start to compare the ALMS to the old Trans-Am series. I know today the ALMS is the best series around, much more advanced than the NASCARiszation of grand-am. I went to many of those old Trans-Am races and they had grids that seemed to stretch for miles. Different day, different times, I know. "Throw in a few prototypes", well maybe, except that there won't be very many of these in LMP1. I go, and many others go to see the many different classes of cars racing; that's what makes this racing so much fun to watch. I just wish Audi, Porsche, Bently, GM, Lotus, Panoz's, et al, would commit to the series in force, then I might go to a race.