26 February 2009 – I Watch Too Much Racing

Gotta love the about-face. First Dorna takes the rights from Eurosport to sell them to FTAs, then they do a deal with Eurosport France causing uproar among fans in the UK and beyond.

Autosport.com and others are reporting that Dorna have changed their minds due to pressure from fans (and Toby Moody) and will indeed once again show 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP races during 2009. The support events will be live and the main event will be delayed on British Eurosport. I don’t know the status of the other local Eurosport services so I’m afraid you’ll have to check that yourselves.

2009 MotoGP Coverage (UK)

BBC:
All MotoGP races are live on BBC2. These are followed on the Red Button by MotoGP Extra, an analysis programme. Also on the Red Button are the 125 and 250 races as well as qualifying for all classes. Commentary will be as before: Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish.

British Eurosport:
All MotoGP races are delayed on British Eurosport*. 125 and 250 will be live as will all Friday and Saturday practices. The big news: The Toby & Julian Show will return!

* I expect this to mean the main channel, not Eurosport 2.

Both broadcasters will make the races available online after the event, via BBC iPlayer and Eurosport Player respectively.

This week is a stock car week so if that’s not your thing you may as well move along. I’m not planning to stay long either, I’d rather talk about sportscars and the ACO’s entry list so I’m off to do that now!

* * * *

NASCAR Sprint Cup
– Shelby 427 (3/36)
– Las Vegas Motor Speedway
– Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
– www.nascar.com

427 laps or 427 miles? What sort of distance is that? They either picked it with a random number generator, or I smell a sponsorship tie-in of some kind.

British air time: 9.30pm GMT, Sky Sports 3
American air time: 3.30pm ET, FOX

Now we already know from two weeks ago that 3.30pm ET = 8.30pm GMT so we’re missing an hour. Sky have put it on a tape delay due to live rugby coverage. They’ve got live golf on SS1, live cricket on SS2 and live Spanish footie on Xtra, so they’ve run out of room – a busy Sunday night for Sky! The other thing I just thought of – maybe FOX has an hour of pre-race and Sky is jumping straight from rugby to the green flag.
By the way, The Sum of All Fears is on Film4 at the same time, you should watch that instead, that’s a great film.
It’s quite a friendly time so if I’m about I’ll see if I can jump in.

The Nationwide boys take to the track on Saturday. Americans can see it on ESPN2, I’m fairly sure there has been no late UK deal so no coverage for us for the first time in years.

Speedcar Series
– Dubai (2) (4/6)
– Dubai Autodrome
– Dubai, United Arab Emirates
– www.speedcarseries.com

Speedcar visits Dubai for a second time in their current season but this time it will head the bill, what with GP2 Asia taking a long break before Malaysia.

TV coverage: none but try the website

Other
I’ve decided to shunt smaller things to a little section at the end else things are going to get very crowded as we get to mid-March. Yes I know Speedcar ought to go here, it will next time!

New Zealand V8 Supercars
– Manfield (6/7)

And although I never usually do bikes unless it is MotoGP, the World Superbikes are starting their season this weekend at Philip Island in Australia. There’s live coverage on Eurosport at 4am with repeats at a more sensible time. I’m sure there’s US coverage on Speed or ESPN or some place.