FIRST PERSON/OPINION:

From e-mails:

I would just like to say that everyone knows that Edwards would never be happy that Troy got hurt from a crash. Nobody would wish that on any other rider. I think what White was trying to say was that he was happy that Troy was maybe shook up from the crash and he might not ride up to par in the following race. Come on now. I think you might be looking too far into it. Anyways, the coverage was great except for all the commercials.

Tom Puckett
CCS #82

I understand the concerns of Henry Madsen and Matt Powell, but they both apparently watched the races re-broadcast on Tuesday evening. I watched all of the racing live on the Speed Channel starting Friday with the AMA 600SS race. They even showed WSBK Superpole on Saturday evening. They stayed with live coverage of the 600 SS and AMA Superbike races through several red flag situation, showing the races to their completion, even when they ran into other scheduled programs. They even showed the 750 Superstock race Tuesday nite (and what a race!).

Speed Channel is not perfect, but I believe their motorcycle coveraage is better than ever. I am no fan of Brian Drebber and the constant commentary errors he makes, such as saying Jamie Hacking earned the #2 on his bike, but man, we have it pretty good, and it seems to be getting better.

So, remember, Tuesday nites races were edited rebroadcasts. The live coverage over the weekend was excellent, and the racing was better on TV than being at the WSBK races at Misano, which I attended in person.

Mike Wheeler
Mid Atlantic Ducati Owners Club, President
DOCC regional representative

The programming recently isn’t as good as it was before SPEED/NASCARvision took over!

Other countries don’t have the problems we have and in fact enjoy thorough coverage of all motorcycle racing. I’m not gonna gripe and complain, I’ve already went to their website www.speed.com and made my feelings known!

Coverage isn’t as good as it has been and in fact we don’t see as much racing as we used to! The FX races air two weeks later if we’re lucky!

The only thing we can do is e-mail them and let our opinions be known! If other channels air what we like to see, let them know that we appreciate it and or let them know we would like them to cover what we want to see!

Mitch Adams
Glendora, California

I think the reader who complained about commercials running over the beginning of the race was experiencing a local problem. I work for a regional television network that does lots of local sports coverage and used to own the local cable company. The guys in the truck are in constant communication with the guys running the commercials back at SPEED. But most cable companies (and the satellite providers) have systems which automatically insert their own commercials OVER the ones aired by SPEED and other cable/sat channels. This is the system that is typically responsible for such a snafu, especially if the commercial format in a show is altered on the fly (due to an unexpected red flag situation, for instance).

I didn’t notice anything cutting over the coverage this weekend, even the notorious Bowflex ad that tends to stomp on satellite channels. More than likely it was the reader’s cable provider. That or I wasn’t paying close enough attention!

Hope this helps.

Clint Fleckenstein

I e-mailed Speed on Fri right after viewing the 18 minutes of coverage for the 600 race Friday. The race started as soon as the program started and seemed very rushed. Just as soon as the checkered flag flew they cut to delayed qualifying for the Joliet NASCAR event.The Busch qualifying wasn’t even halfway thru and they were still cleaning the track.

The programming showed 600 SS for 1 hour and they cut away after 1/2-hour. I guess track cleanup for Busch qualifying is more important than a national championship motorcycle race.

I live less than 5 miles from the Joliet track and refuse to submit to the NASCAR frenzy even when offered free tickets.

My trendy friends who knew nothing about any form of racing up till 2 years ago can’t understand.

Remember Disco, it went away, and there used to be a waiting list for Harleys!

Randy DeGraaf
Joliet, Illinois

Why would anybody grump about the coverage on the races this weekend? We are getting live, same day, and Two Wheel Tuesday bike coverage. I guess
some people don’t remember the only bike coverage we could get was 6 months later on Wide World of Sports.

SPEED, keep up the good work! I will be a
loyal watcher every week.
Michael Jay