Speed is Frustrating

Give me a minute here to vent. Today being Sunday, it's the one day of the week where I can count on an immense amount of motorsport action to be happening around the world. With that being said, I watched only one race today. It was the Motogp race from Le Mans, France.

Now, Motogp is the pinnacle of motorcycle racing. And with most large racing events, there are support races. In the case of Motogp, there are the 125cc two-stroke class and the newly formed Moto2 class, which replaced the 250cc two-stroke class. I've definitely seen my fair share of racing. So, I feel I can make a judgment on what is and isn't entertaining, at least from a viewer's perspective. Without a doubt, Moto2 is the best racing to watch right now.

Here's some quick facts to sway you to give this series an hour of your viewing time. The grid is filled with about 40 riders whose bikes are all being powered by a spec motor, a Honda 600cc 4 cylinder with roughly 150hp. The chassis design differs by team and whether they made it in house or had it made. The bikes themselves weigh in just a tick under 300 pounds. This past race had the top 28 qualifiers covered by 1 second!

However, all that data was found online because Speedtv decided it would rather show the Nascar hall of fame induction on repeat today. I don't want to look up who won the race because I still want to be excited during the race, which will be shown at 1 pm Tuesday or 3am Wednesday. Thank you DVR!

This scheduling has me totally confused. It seems to me that Speedtv is really trying to show Motogp as it was meant to be seen...LIVE. Last year, most races were broadcast at 5pm. The two European races have been shown live at 8am EST this season. This tells me that there are fans in America that have demanded this live coverage just like Formula 1 gets. Oddly, the broadcast format has changed to focus on the American riders with interviews and such before the race. Since time was allotted for those interviews, there is no time at the end of the broadcast for the interview session with the podium finishers. It would seem that Speedtv doesn't know its viewers. If there was enough interest to show live races, then these viewers are educated about the sport. They'd rather know about the race from the top finishers, the riders who obviously can push the machine to the absolute limit and hold it there for twenty-something laps. They don't want to hear for the third time about Nicky Hayden being the only rider to tame the Ducati besides Casey Stoner. We can read that on racing websites if we're so interested. If I really wanted to hear a guy with a redneck twang, I'd just watch Nascar on...Speedtv.