Tag:

Motorsport

Well, the next IndyCar broadcast rights deal is set to wrap up soon and it looks like FOX Sports will be taking over for the next couple of years rather than stick around with NBC Sports following its 14-16 year commitment that began with its parent company Comcast’s takeover of the then Versus cable channel back in 2011 (original 10 year deal to air the cable races began from 2009-18). NBC has been great all along when Versus became NBC Sports Network a year later and then NBCSN throughout the 2010s before they were able to get the full rights including the Indianapolis 500 off ESPN on ABC towards the end of the decade and into the early 2020s up until now – even though NBCSN ran its course at the end of the 2021 with USA Network, CNBC and Peacock (streaming only) becoming the network’s main sports subscription content channels since then.

Now IndyCar is expected to swap networks by airing all of the races live on FOX throughout the year and free-to-view as well since the network will only be able to show five free-to-air NASCAR Cup races including the Daytona 500 with the rest (nine races) being on cable via FS1 from next year to at least through 2031. It looks like it’s the beginning of an end from NBC as they will be left with the second-half NASCAR Cup races and Supercross/Motocross racing while they still have IMSA SportsCar Racing at the moment whose existing seven-year deal also expires at the end of the year. With NBC losing a bunch of sports lately such as the MotoGP at the start of the year and the Roland Garros Tennis tournament a few days ago to TNT Sports, we wouldn’t be surprised if IMSA SportsCars ends up on TNT’s hands next year – who also has a great line-up of sportscar racing through Motor Trend – like the World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (this weekend).

Looking at FOX picking up IndyCar, congrats to them on picking up a top-level open-wheel series with the most money offered than NBC which has the historical Indianapolis 500 value alongside some great competition on-track. Things won’t be the same next year when it comes to airing the annual Coca Cola 600 NASCAR event after 24 years (2001-2024) but they can continue airing the biggest day of motorsports by airing the Indianapolis 500 event earlier on at midday rather than late afternoon to night. They’ve also aired the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix race in the past throughout the 2000s and early 2010s but that was through the former Speed Channel cable network as it never was on FOX unlike NBC and now ABC these days.

Who will be commentating the big Indy 500 race and all other races throughout the IndyCar season? We know Mike Joy has been commentating the Daytona 500 for so long but it looks like Adam Alexander will be the favourite to take over – who hails from Indiana and also started his media career there – before he made the step up on Fox Sports for a long period of time, having also just wrapped up co-hosting its flagship weekly show NASCAR Race Hub with Shannon Spake following its final 90-min episode this week. We will also expect to see a few people from NBC coming over like Townsend Bell and Kevin Lee but we can definitely see Jamie Little returning home alongside Adam as the one of leading pit reporters. She used to be around at the 500 when ABC was airing the races until FOX hired her to replace Krista Voda after ESPN/ABC lost the NASCAR rights at the end of 2014 & Jamie’s been great with FOX ever since including calling a couple of Truck & ARCA races now.

On the NBC side post-IndyCar, it seems more and more likely now that Rick Allen is still expected to hand over the main commentary duties to Australia’s own Leigh Diffey after the Olympics while staying on to call all other Xfinity Series races at the end of this season including the last few Playoff events on The CW. While it won’t be the same for Leigh to not call the Indy 500 anymore having been the first overseas caller to do for a few years now, but at the same time, he’s getting the chance to be front and centre for the network’s NASCAR coverage. He’s done Formula 1, Rugby, IMSA SportsCars, Supercross and whole bunch of other sports before including being the network’s leading track and field caller for a few years now that began from the previous Summer Olympics back in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. Calling the Daytona 500 would’ve been great since it’s the greatest race there to kickstart the season every year but it looks like FOX is staying for a bit longer until at least 2031.

And lastly what does it mean for its International coverage including Australia? As it stands, Stan Sport via Nine Entertainment Co. currently holds the exclusive rights there that started back in 2022 with every practice, qualifying and race LIVE, ad-free and on-demand including every hour-long race highlights during the following weekend via free-to-air on 9Go. This could have a huge impact going forward as should IndyCar end up on FOX in the US, we will expect to see IndyCar moving back to Foxtel through Fox Sports and Kayo Sports’s streaming service. It looks like these die-hard motorsports fans who subscribe to watch the Supercars and Formula 1 races will be able to watch IndyCar on the same platform again, which is going to be great news without having to subscribe to another subscription service. You never know including Europe, Asia & Africa but this is going to be a possibility with FOX already having a few International affiliate cable channels in Australia, Mexico & Argentina.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Hope everyone enjoyed the Indianapolis 500 highlights on 9Go this weekend off the back of that last lap battle towards the checkered flag even though it started a bit later than expected due to rain with congratulations to Josef Newgarden on his 2nd straight win for Team Penske Chevy as they will be back broadcasting a bit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race once again on Saturday June 15th 2024 at midnight to 2am like it was last year. Similar to what we’ve saw with the annual UEFA club tournament grand finals during play, there won’t be any ads during those two hours since it’s also an annual event – which is great news for those motorsport and causal sports fans looking to stay up at night for a bit longer by watching one of the greatest endurance motor races in the world including some Aussies & Kiwis in the mix too. Also, the commentary will come straight from the world feed that we normally hear in each and every WEC season rather than picking one off Eurosport.

Should you wish to watch the remaining 20 odd hours after 2am, then you would need a Stan Sport subscription as Stan has the exclusive rights thanks to Nine management to show the full race including every event of the World Endurance Championship live and on-demand with 1 hour highlights being played during the following weekend on 9Go.

I’m sure it will be another great one to watch during the big weekly sports weekend and the last thing we hope to see here that they should bring out the Nine Olympics watermark since it’s an Olympic year going into July-August in Paris. But even with SpeedSeries now back to 7, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went with a 9Go logo with the LIVE wording on it once again rather than a WWOS or Nine Olympics watermark when their motorsport history isn’t that much for a very long time until in recent years compared to FOX Sports, Seven, SBS and even Network 10 until Stan Sport was a year old going into 2022.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Yes, we all know Chris Stubbs is back on Stan Sport at Nine’s Sydney studios alongside Wally Masur and Casey Dellaqua with the next grand slam already underway for nearly a week now over at the Roland Garros in Paris, France. That isn’t going anywhere with Wimbledon coming up in a few week’s time (maybe on-site again like it was last year) since he’s freelance having also done a bit for Network 10 a few months ago at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. Not only that he will be on Stan more often instead of being at Queensland Raceway twice (one in mid-July and another in early August) when the next Summer Olympics will arrive also from the same place come late July to early August. So for SpeedSeries and Australian motorsport fans, they won’t see him for a long while until the penultimate round on the 18-20th October at Sydney Motorsports Park not long before the season usually wraps up at Mount Panorama in Bathurst on the 8th-10th November. He will also be at the next Bathurst 1000 in early October as always to provide the big event action for 7 like he does every year.

I know SpeedSeries is happening right now going into tomorrow at The Bend Motorsports Park in South Australia but it seems they chose to things a bit differently by having a host/commentary team calling from a studio being supplied by SEN while still having a small on-site presence of just a handful of staff and 1-2 pit reporters. As said when Stubbsy is unavailable, just didn’t see that coming when The Bend just came back into life for the first time since 2019 & it would be great if they sent a full group of staff there to celebrate after a difficult last few years on top of COVID. However, I can understand given the shortage of staff and long distance from here – despite the fact that Matt Naulty and Richard Craill are SA based but both had to come over to Melbourne to do the job rather than from the race track. Don’t forget the series has found its progress back on free-to-air/free-to-view all over it following the mixed free and paid content experiment throughout the last two years with most via subscription on Stan and some on Nine when SpeedSeries was really struggling to attract sponsorship back then.

All in all, it’s a tough decision but glad SpeedSeries is experimenting all options in order to keep its free-to-air exposure growing so everyone who is interested can see it – even though doing 1-2 events remotely might be the norm these days like we see with other sports and also other networks given the costs to cover the production side of things & on-air staff as well.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Also this week, ABC Signature has one of their new sitcom pilots being approved to the pilot stage by the Hulu streaming service and it’s Formula 1 related called Downforce with current RB Visa CashApp driver Daniel Ricciardo involved as one of the executive producers alongside Alec Berg, Adam Cortnee, Lionsgate and Temple Hill Entertainment. It will be lead by a female who was suddenly required to oversee the family-run racing team as she will need to make some tough choices whether if she will continue running it or step aside that would impact the future of the organisation and her family’s legacy.

So a it’s bit like Claire Williams taking over her famous dad’s Formula 1 team during the last decade when he needed to take a back seat before it was sold to Doriton Capital back in 2020, which marked a new era for Williams and then Sir Frank sadly passed away a year later. Maybe this might be based on a true story since Formula 1 has grown a lot in America off the back of the seasoned Netflix documentary Drive to Survive over the last 5-6 years. The cast and its format (thinking it’s going to be single-camera) remains to be seen at this stage, having first developed the show when Ricciardo was involved with Hulu a year ago. Yes, he was out of a drive at the time as even though his results this year might not be good any longer after he unexpectedly replaced Nyck De Vries nearly a year ago at Red Bull’s sister team (then Alpha Tauri), he will still have a job within the sport where he’s always been popular with the fans when he raced for Red Bull, Renault and McLaren for many years.

Now let’s see if Downforce can be put into series which isn’t guaranteed but should things go well later this year, we the original airing would be on Hulu sometime in 2025 with the International distribution as per ABC Signature being available via Disney +. Yes, this project also would’ve been perfect for ABC on TV who also airs selected Formula 1 races during the year thanks to Disney property ESPN but they want more new multi-camera sitcoms going forward that isn’t expensive. So best to build a following on Hulu rather than seeing things being unexpectedly axed after a few episodes if they’re really that lucky.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

In April 2023, Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters made his way from Melbourne to the paper clip short track called Martinsville Speedway over in the US – having taken a closer look of Riley Herbst’s No.98 Ford Mustang Xfinity Series race car from Stewart-Haas Racing. Then he came back to America again as a spectator during the 2023 regular season finale at Daytona a few months ago and here he is now ready to expand his love of NASCAR this time as a race car driver where he will be returning to Martinsville next weekend by driving the No.66 Ford F-150 for ThorSport Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series.

It’s so fitting for Waters to begin his NASCAR debut at a place he first came there a year ago & there wouldn’t be any issues at all to begin his oval racing career since he will be racing on a short track/0.5 mile oval. If he wants to run superspeedways at some point, no problem. But he can go take part in the season-opening ARCA Menards Series round at Daytona in February next year (surely that won’t affect his Supercars commitments short-term) in order to pass the rookie orientation test & race on the big tracks as Shane Van Gisbergen (currently at Kaulig Racing in the Xfinity Series while still being tied up under Trackhouse) had to do 1-2 months ago regardless of his race result (an early crash sadly saw him limping down in 29th).

Looking at Waters’s ambitions with NASCAR, he’s almost age 30 with another good 10-15 years left as we also know that he is on RFK Racing’s radar who might as well give him a partial Cup ride later this year in the 3rd No.60 Ford Mustang race car for three races – most likely in the road course events like the Chicago Street Course & maybe one short oval one. He’d be a great long-term replacement there should the co-boss Brad Keselowski eventually calls it a day in the No.6 team or the team can see the potential 3rd charter happening to expand into three full-time Cup cars someday, but Xfinity would be a great start with a good midfield team like RSS & AM Racing who can give him the resources to run upfront and win races from there.

Now looking at his Supercars record, it’s not bad having finished 2nd twice via the Drivers’ Standings in the Supercars championship before back in 2020 and 2022 to both NZ drivers who now ply their trade in the US such as Scott McLaughlin (Dick Johnson Racing, now at Team Penske in IndyCar) and SVG (Triple Eight, now racing NASCARs full-time as above) respectively. Don’t forget he also finished 2nd twice at the Bathurst 1000 back in 2020-21 as well. Yes, he has won a couple of races there before but still has unfinished business though after an up and down start so far this Supercars season despite a good qualifying run last weekend at Albert Park that saw him win the pole award for Race 2. A Bathurst 1000 win would be great while catching up with the drivers’ standings in the hope of at least walking away with one series championship before he can think real big full-time in the US. For now, we wish him good luck as a Top 15-20 run would be a great start on debut.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

We didn’t see that coming but we now have a new Australian Grand Prix winner for 2024 and his name is Carlos Sainz Jr who drives for Scuderia Ferrari off the back of these unexpected early retirements from reigning champion and last year’s winner Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Honda RBPT) as well as Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes whose team-mate George Russell also suffered a late race crash). He too had a great race for the majority unchallenged with team-mate Charles Leclerc rounding off a 1-2 Ferrari finish since the 2022 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Looks like it will be Ferrari v Red Bull for the championship now with Sainz Jr (-11 points) and Leclerc (-4 points) not far behind Verstappen (currently on 51 with back-to-back wins) in the drivers’ standings. Plus, fellow Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has still yet to win this year despite back-to-back 2nd places in the hope of going one better that would help him keep his ride for another couple of years after he just finished 5th (-5 points).

For the Aussies, We also hoped to at least see one on the podium but Oscar Piastri didn’t do bad though just outside the Top 3 places in 4th behind his McLaren-Mercedes team-mate Lando Norris, while Daniel Ricciardo finished not far from the Top 10 in 12th despite being a lap down for Visa CashApp RB-Honda RBPT since he was in a midfield race machine.

Also, shoutout to the two Haas-Ferrari cars just rounding off the Top 10 points in Nico Hulkenberg (9th) and Kevin Magnussen (10th). So does Ricciardo’s team-mate Yuki Tusnoda from Japan after he collected a few points in 8th just behind the Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll (7th) & Fernando Alonso (6th). And although things are still going slow at the moment over at Jack Doohan’s Alpine-Renault squad with Esteban Ocon finishing last on track (16th), but Pierre Gasly did benefit from these early race retirements on what has been an okay 13th placed finish. It remains to be seen if Alpine’s form will turn things around sooner rather than later as a mid-season driver change remains unlikely for now but Doohan hopes his time will come most likely next year depending on the team’s commitment to the sport & if Ocon and/or Gasly leaves for a better race team like Mercedes and Red Bull. F1 will now go from Albert Park in Melbourne to Suzuka in Japan who will now host early rather than later during the season as the next race (Round 4 of 22) will take place after Easter on the weekend of Sunday 7th April 2024.

If you wish to follow all other races after watching this annual Australian race since it’s free-to-air protected, Fox Sports/Kayo will be the only place here to watch live & on-demand with next day race highlights available for free thanks to Kayo Freebies.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

The 2024 Australian Grand Prix Formula 1 Round is not far away beginning next Friday at the streets of Albert Park in Melbourne. It will be the third race of a long 24 event calendar with 3 x reigning champion Max Verstappen who is outstanding so far with back-to-back pole and race wins in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia for Red Bull-Honda RBPT. So this is the man to beat as he’s also the defending winner here, having done so for the first time last year on what has been a caution filled race that led into a late finish around 5.30pm local time. Don’t forget we could see another talented youngster again in Britain’s Oliver Bearman who filled in well for the ill Carlos Sainz last time round (Saudi Arabia) for Ferrari where he finished 7th. What’s even better that we will have two Aussie drivers on the grid again for the first time since 2013 where high-flying youngster Oscar Piastri and the experienced Daniel Ricciardo will be flying the flag for McLaren-Mercedes and Visa CashApp RB-Honda RBPT respectively. There hasn’t been a home winner since Alan Jones back in 1980 during his Championship-winning season for Williams as it’s unlikely we will see Piastri end that long-running drought at this stage but you never know.

But wait there’s more, Alpine’s Test/Reverse driver Jack Doohan and his legendary motorcycle grand prix dad Mick will also be stopping by at the same time where they will do a bit of their own fun event together with Jack driving a Benetton B200 and Mick riding a Honda RCV213 production bike around the track. While it’s a bummer that Jack won’t be given a chance for next Friday’s free practice sessions since he chose not to race anything this year after two good seasons in Formula 2, we will get to see more of him throughout this year – mainly during the European leg races. Considering Alpine’s disastrous start of 2024, hope Jack can be given a chance and get to be on race days if things don’t work out by the middle of the year. But again, it’s a difficult sport to get into considering you would need lots of financial support in order to get your foot into the door out of a 20-car competition. So Alpine should correct the mistake they did with Piastri two years ago regarding the contract dispute/next season’s driver line-up and have Doohan replacing Esteban Ocon if he goes to Mercedes or even Pierre Gasly earlier than expected who is sitting last right now in the drivers’ standings behind American Logan Sargeant from Williams.

And lastly, the broadcast details on where you can tune in if you’re unable to watch the race in-person. Fox Sports with its streaming platform Kayo has the exclusive rights to every round of the season from practice, qualifying, some sprint races and the all-important race days Live and on-demand. They will simulcast the Sky Sports feed all along and if you want to keep up to date with Formula 1 as the season goes on, look out for free-to-view highlights clips sometime on a Monday after each Grand Prix. Also, as part of the current anti-siphoning rule required to have the annual Aus GP event on free-to-air by the Government, Network 10 will be back onboard for this event for the 20th year and the 22nd year covering this sport if you count 2020-21 being COVID related years when the sport was unable to race here at the time. They will once again have their studio coverage as well as their own commentary since 10 had to share the rights with Fox back in 2015 where they will air all three days of the Australian GP event live. This is the second year out of five under the current updated Formula 1 broadcast deal here where 10 & Fox Sports/Kayo are not going anywhere right now with the next rights cycle coming up from 2028.

All in all, it’s going to be an amazing event with the Supercars, Formula 2 and 3 also on show amongst other categories in the lead up towards the main 56-lap race next Sunday afternoon at 3pm AEDT.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

The US will get a new home for MotoGP this season as NBC is now out after four years whose contract has expired at the end of last season and TNT Sports is in with all Saturday Sprint races & Sunday race day live on TruTV’s cable channel, while the rest including the practice, qualifying and the Moto2 & 3 races will be streamed on Max through its B/R Sports add-on package. So it’s been a while since live MotoGP races haven’t been on the air at least on TV except the annual US event & everything else being delayed. Another change we will see is there won’t be any free-to-air presence despite having some delayed races last year unless it’s last minute to someone else for the US event which is unlikely and also a switch of commentary where they will take their British TNT Sports coverage rather than the World Feed & its own studio production.

Other than the UK and Ireland & USA for TNT Sports and even India via Eurosport, another Warner-owned property in New Zealand will also now get to air the races this season where everything will be live online for free on ThreeNow with every race highlights being shown as part as Three’s CRC Motorsports TV line-up on Sunday afternoons. They haven’t said which commentary they will use since Three is part of Warner Bros Discovery that includes TNT Sports, but I guess it will be the world feed in case viewers complain like the Australian audience did when Fox Sports had to change back commentary after the TNT feed didn’t go well at the British Grand Prix race last year. Looks like TNT Sports is going global with MotoGP as long as the UK rights stays for another few years.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Today, another FIA sanctioned championship will make its way to Australia other than Formula 1 at the end of this year thanks to the World Rallycross Championship aka World RX. Although it remains to be seen which location will take place at a later date, but the good news is that the Australian event could make its way into free-to-air for the first time just for this occasion since it will be held at an appropriate time zone & Nine holds the exclusive rights there through Stan Sport. It will be great to see how this looks like with the world feed coverage & if one likes it, they can go try the full suite & subscribing it to Stan.

The last time Nine aired live Motorsport on free-to-air was November last year with SpeedSeries during the Bathurst International at Mount Panorama before the rights were returned to Seven this year under Motorsport Australia. It doesn’t mean that Motorsport will be completely away from Nine though where the following weekend race highlights of IndyCar, Formula E & World Endurance Championship will be shown on most Saturdays throughout this year. So that won’t go anywhere as long as Stan has the exclusive paid live & replay access. Plus, we could see a bit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race over in France this June like it was last year where the first 1-2 hours were live on 9Go before the rest can be viewed on Stan.

Despite the loss of SpeedSeries, Stan will still have the paid live & on-demand Motorcycle Australia content alongside SBS such as the Australian Superbike Championship & Pro MX Motocross Championship this year. Other than that, there’s not much hope to of bringing back both the World Rally Championship and IndyCar coming back here like it used to be nor an Formula E race or World MX event here has been seriously considered at this stage. There’s one thing we can say for sure that whenever Nine airs live a bit of Motorsport next time with the 24 Hours of Le Mans & maybe the Australian World RX Round, I hope they can make the watermark look good with the WWOS logo & not a 9Gem/9Go one whose recent history with Motorsport isn’t that good unlike the other networks. For now, it’s great to see the World RX showcase itself in our shores soon when the TCR World Tour drivers won’t be able to come back again just for this year due to logistics/transport issues.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

The 2024 Bathurst 6 Hour race will be aired on SBS (yes, on the main channel) during the Easter long weekend since this event has been run and sold separately by Australian Racing Group & not Motorsport Australia who looks after SpeedSeries. The last two Bathurst 6 Hour editions in 2022-23 was covered by Nine and Stan Sport where there was a bit of free-to-air access with the following week race highlights as well as live qualifying only last year. However, the race itself was only paywalled via Stan Sport before Motorsport Australia took back media rights control off ARG at the end of last season that saw the end of Nine/Stan covering SpeedSeries on what has been an underwhelming paid and free TV experiment, with Seven now back onboard again for all races being live & free throughout the year. It will basically be a full endurance race that runs for a few hours throughout Sunday from 11.30am to 6pm with qualifying on the day beforehand alongside a couple of other production car support categories into play including the Australian Formula Ford open-wheel series. Like SpeedSeries, I’m sure it will be a great event if you want to tune in for motorsport on the TV throughout the Easter weekend.

Speaking of SBS, they are back for another season of the Australian Superbike Championship where Chris Vermeulen will be replacing Kate Peck as the host/reporter while retaining every race highlights of the World Superbike Championship that will air the following weekend after the race (if you wish to watch the live races, it’s on Fox Sports via Foxtel and Kayo Sports) and of course the main Speedweek show too on Sunday afternoons.

Speaking of Bathurst, the Bathurst International may still go ahead later this November to round off the 2024 SpeedSeries season but unfortunately the best of the TCR drivers from around the world won’t be back here including the Sydney Motorsports Park round now being cancelled despite originally planning to do so. It’s a shame but the ongoing shipping delays worldwide has saw the organisers that run the TCR World Tour skip Australia just for this year. There is hope though of having Australia v the best of the World rivalry back again at our own backyard only at Mount Panorama in Bathurst for 2025.

And last but not least, Matt White has a new motorsports media job coming up and he will now be commentating the Supercars races on radio for SEN starting this weekend with the Bathurst 500 season-opening race alongside experienced Supercars driver James Moffatt as the expert/colour commentator. He has been in this business for a long time when he first started his career at Ten back in the early 90s, then moved to Seven between 2004-14, back to Ten for another few years until mid-2020, later appeared on Nine for the first time over the last two years via Stan Sport for SpeedSeries before the competition moved back to Seven & now he’s back behind the mic again this time for radio in Supercars. Don’t forget he’s done a lot of stuff with SEN since he left Ten again like hosting his own daily sports talk show during weekday mornings including rugby league and cricket commentary. So still plenty to offer, especially when he returned to commentary for a short time filling-in for Richard Craill late last year in the Australian Trans-Am Series. We wish him all the best in his new role.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail