Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Surprised and sorry to see this TV show on SPEED has been reduced from 60 minutes to only 30 minutes. It normally had some coverage of "short track, open wheel racing" including driver interviews. Now that its been reduced to only 30 minutes they'll have trouble, in this age of way too much NASCAR coverage, finding time for coverage of sprint car and midget racing. Too bad for our favorite type of motorsports. I've checked SPEED's web site and all Wind Tunnel broadcasts for March are scheduled for only 30 minutes. Bummer !!!!!

What is so hard to understand. It's a NASCAR Channel, almost all of the programing is centered around NASCAR. What isn't NASCAR, is a program that has a vague connection to racing.

DD is a motorcycle man, see how much coverage he will sneak in.

On Sunday after the snooze fest, they had another episode of Larry Pegram Family dealing with Superbikes, and they cut it short to go to Victory Lane. We saw who won, another half hour of rehash.

It was announced earlier that Fox, who owns Speed was going to change it into an all sports channel, not just automotive shows.

So for all our whining about Pinks and the other crap programs, it could get worse.

I guess we are the minority that care about short track racing. Speed only cares about Nascar. I watch less and less of speed everyday. And I hate pinks more than anything and that bald headed douche who thinks he's a tough guy. What happened to sprint cars on TV?

You are spot on.....All you have to know is that FOX is involved...The next Reality Show network....I suspect if all the masses knew who owns FOX they would be blown away....This is huge disappointment......There is no racing close to my home... The Wind Tunnel is source for me..So much for what the viewer wants to watch......!

I won't miss Speed. Yes, it was nice to get the occassional tape-delayed dirt-track race, but obviously that niche, to which I belong, doesn't turn the kind of ratings numbers that float live, prime-time programming. Instead, we've been left with a lot of the pre-produced stuff that does little for me. There's just not enough good programming on there now for me to miss Speed once it's gone. That said, I, too, am disappointed that Wind Tunnel has been reduced to 30 minutes. FOX is launching multiple sports stations, and while I don't hold out much hope for dirt track racing, it will be interesting to see how it unfolds. They have a lot of programmable hours to fill.

"I'd pay $15 to watch a sprint car sit still."

Wow... a great program like Wind Tunnel gets reduced while "Are You Faster Than a Redneck" gets a whole hour???

If you look at TV programming... it is VERY sad state when Honey Boo Boo (don't know name of reality show), Jersey Shore and similar crap are highly rated programs. Someone is watching as the millions of viewers for these programs don't lie. Seems like the less intelligence to watch a program the higher the ratings... maybe that was Dave's downfall... he actually held an intellectual and informative program.

In regards to NASCAR, it is what the masses watch and we in grassroots are a small minority of fans who are split between non-wing open wheel, winged open wheel, Dirt Late Models and modifieds. Even combined we don't make the same numbers that NASCAR has week in and week out. Don't feel bad, Indycar suffers the same fate as dirt racing... face it... in the US their is NASCAR and then their is everyone else.

Rich Olson

Rich Olson
FANS Fund - Founder
www.FANSFund.com

Are there still plans to bring back the Nashville Network?

I love watching Windtunnel but with it being limited now to only 30 minutes where is the point

in using 3 minutes showing highlights of the Daytona 500? I understand its one of the biggest races of

the year but if your a big enough race fan to tune into Windtunnel then chances are you've already seen

(or watched) the Daytona 500 highlights elsewhere. Windtunnel use to be aired Mon-Thurs for an

entire hour then it was down to 1 hour on Sundays and now half hour on Sundays. I'm guessing ratings

have something to do with that.

-Austin Rankin

"that bald headed douche who thinks he's a tough guy"

Which one? Lots of those guys around nowadays.....

Last I read, the revived TNN was a local deal while getting their feet under them and was looking for a March national launch.

I wish someone would re-launch Speedvision... sure miss the early days of the channel.

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

OK, lets look at the future. NBC Sports is an emerging channel, didn't they carry the Chili Bowl? No it wasn't LIVE, but it was worth watching even if I knew who won 3 weeks earlier. And MAVTV seems to be a by-product of Lucas Oil. Lets get behind the one's that show an occaasional race and thank them for doing it, either by email or buying product.

We can get mad all we want, but TV is all about the money. If WindTunnel made money as a daily show, it would still be on as a daily show.

If WindTunnel made more money that PINKs/Faster than a Redneck/etc, it would be on more than those shows. One of the good things about PINKs/etc is that the shows are not time dependent. Speed can show those shows numerous times in re-runs and the show will still stand. WindTunnel has a shelf life of a week. Nobody wants to watch a replay of the Daytona 500 show after they have raced at three different tracks since then.

It is the same conversation that we have about more Sprint Car coverage. The people at Speed care more about the dollar than anything else. If a WOO show or a USAC show made more money than Pinks, Speed would have them on TV.

I agree that Lucas Oil Products and MAVTV may be the answer for the dirt track people. However, Forest Lucas also cares about making money.

The future (and present) of dirt short track racing is not broadcast television, it's streaming internet video. Fortunately we live in a time when there is another option aside from broadcast tv. Most of us folks who remember the pre internet days don't see a problem with what we've got available today. Today we've got streaming live races, results posted in real time within seconds and we can probably find YouTube highlights of just about any race in the country (or down under) posted by the next morning.

Those of us who remember waiting for NSSN to come in the mail back in the 60's and 70's are looking at this post wondering what the problem is. A person can get just about everything they need to know about a race for free nowadays except for mud in our beer.

Stan Meissner

" And MAVTV seems to be a by-product of Lucas Oil"

Whats the story on Lucas Oil anyway? Not only do they sponsor racing,but I've seen them sponsoring lots of other sporting events.... but I've never seen a Lucas gas station or a can of Lucas oil on the shelves. Do they own other companies?

Lucas makes additives ... go to an Autozone or other auto parts store and look near the STP stuff.

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com