Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Those of us that live here in the US, and trust me I love to live here, have to suffer through the worst race coverage thanks to SPEED and now NBC. SPEED, aka "The NASCAR Channel and those things owned by NASCAR, "showed the Sebring 8 Hour yesterday. Yes I know it is a 12 hour race, but it seems they did not. Despite Bob Varsha promising we will not miss any of the action they promptly signed off and went to NASCAR practice, not a race, for an hour. They then came back for an afternoon of the usual "infomercials" for other shows on Fox stations, Michelin, Chevrolet, Mazda etc, broken up by the inane commentary. I say commentary, but it is actually huckstering for the series as the station has a vested interest in telling us this is the best racing on earth. How about some honest reporting, and oh yes, some silence so we can hear the cars?

I watched the F1 race via live streaming of Sky, and was delighted when their pit reporter just held his microphone out during a Ferrari pit stop so we could hear it, without the necessary female telling us they were putting on Pirelli tires. SPEED meanwhile left the 12 hour race at 7:30 PM, with three hours to go, and crossed to watch AMA Supercross. That tells me how sports car racing rates! They were to come back at 10:30 pm, and as the race started at 10:45 am we were to be treated to the last couple of laps and the podiums, or a taped delayed version once the result was known by anyone with a computer. Needless to say I did not bother. An endurance race is complex, and it is impossible to follow who is where in each class and on what strategy when the broadcast is so broken up and commentators so stupid. For some reason Radio Le Mans was not working.

Over at NBC, who are covering the F1 races this year, things are very similar. Practice and qualifying sessions were scheduled about an hour or so after the actual times they are going on. Do they think we are stupid? Don't answer that. They obviously think the average viewer is by what they show on Network TV. I cannot complain about their commentators as I did not watch NBC, but knowing Leigh Diffey is one of them is enough. Makes me cringe as an Aussie.