FIRST PERSON/OPINION: Via e-mail: Well the jury is back and the verdict is in. I’ve been holding out while the manufacturers, the teams, and the AMA “discuss” the upcoming season; who will or will not be participating, at what level the support will be, and which parts can or can’t be used. Having just read the press release from AMA Pro Racing regarding the TV package, I see the jury found the defendant guilty of taking valuable TV time from the four wheeled superstar named NASCAR. In retrospect I don’t suppose we could should have expected much more considering the fact that NASCAR owns AMA Pro Racing now. What better way to make sure your “competition” get the shaft than to control them yourself. “Will air within a week or two of the actual events”. I thought over the last few years progress had been made by getting the races on SPEEDTV somewhere between a few hours and a day after the event, but I now see the true definition of progress; Run off as many of the OEMS as possible, make the rest as disgruntled and jaded as possible, and to hell with the fans, who do they think they are anyway? Two wheeled scum! Maybe the new rules package should require that each bike carry two spare tires on board, maybe then motorcycle road racing could get some air time on SPEED, I mean NASCARTV! Kyle Ray Canton, Georgia FIRST PERSON/OPINION: Via e-mail: Below is a copy of what I submitted to SpeedTV via their Feedback page. “Why does SpeedTV hate motorcycle racing so much? Does the moving of Live and/or Same Day Delay broadcasts of the AMA Road Races to this “innovative” Saturday night show mean that I’ll be able to watch the three World Superbike/World Supersport races all on the Sunday afternoon of whatever weekend they’re running? To be honest, I could live with the stupidity of the decision to not show the AMA races Live or SDD if it means being able to see the FIM races on their race date instead of 2 days or sometimes weeks afterward. If not, I’m afraid SpeedTV will be losing another viewer that’s been watching since and misses Speedvision. I’d rather pay the fees to watch the MotoGP races online, get up at the crack of dawn to watch the WSBK races live online and not see the AMA races at all instead of supporting such an idiotic decision. Please don’t blow smoke up my ass and tell me this is innovative. Innovative would be actually showing racing all day on Sundays and not repeats of Pinks or other mind numbing “reality” crap!” I hope others are standing up and tying to get Speed to listen to reason. In this age of online news (this site being one of the best and certainly the most proactive) I can not believe that the people at Speed who made this decision to delay the race broadcasts an entire week have any common sense at all. Chris Mulford Schenectady, New York FIRST PERSON/OPINION: Via e-mail: Way back in the day, my only access to road racing was whatever Cycle and Motorcyclist published in the back of their magazines. From there I “participated” from afar in the oversea battles among Lawson, Rainey and Schwantz. Of course, back then, due to lead times, the news was 2-3 months old. But, it was what I had, and it was good enough. 20 years on, things have changed, and as a “consumer” of AMA racing content, the weekly show will be blessing and a curse. I applaud the idea of a weekly show, particularly with their attempts (I hope) to cover the other AMA events beyond road racing (flat track, hill climb, etc.). But, waiting TWO WEEKS to see the Daytona Superbike opener? In Internet time, that’s an eternity. In the past, with typical same day coverage by SPEED, while not live, we could watch the premier races on Sunday, and hit the message boards that evening with the other fan base. On Tuesday, we’d catch the rest of the schedule. As a rule, I would avoid the racing new sites because they inevitably post some “spoiler”, even just glancing at the headline can be tall tale on the results. (RRW used to be terrible about this. While you have got better over time, there still needs improvement. I’d be content with “Daytona Superbike final results” as a headline.) That meant, the news sites were dead to me from Sunday through Tuesday, as I want to experience the race, THEN the analysis — not the other way around. But now, we’re going to always be at LEAST a week behind with the AMA. I may as well go back to reading Cycle and Motorcyclist, or simply blot the entire season out and just TIVO all of the shows and experience it all at once fast forward in October. This kind of delay is really disruptive to the community and fan base I think. And, of course, it further buries the AMA in to the realm of Informercials on SPEED. I appreciate the weekly format. I hope that it frees SPEED from time blocking every race in to an hour slot and realize that they have editors in those video vans, and perhaps they can get better interviews with the riders and, perhaps, even the ENTIRE podium instead of “10 seconds with Mat” because the race ran late. But the delay in racing coverage is really hurtful to the dedicated fan base. Regards, Will Hartung Tustin California FIRST PERSON/OPINION: Via e-mail: Sooo…..This now means there will be no more Live (other than Daytona) broadcasts of Sunday Races? If so , what good is that? Race fans won’t wait a week or two for the race…we want to see it now , or at most by Tuesday night. Nothing worse than knowing the results of a race before you’ve seen it…I won’t bother watching it if know the outcome already!…Please “SPEED” get the film editors together Sunday , edit the race , plug in your canned program materials ,show it Sunday night and then you’ll have good viewership….otherwise….old news is just that! Eric Barrows Fullerton, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION: Via e-mail: I could not be more disappointed in reviewing the press release sent out yesterday regarding the TV deal for the upcoming AMA season. To broadcast tape-delayed shows late at night (in my time zone) on Saturdays, one to two weeks after the event, will not be, in my opinion “…the best of both worlds for our dedicated fans”. I am a long-time motorcycle road racing fan – the dedicated fan to which this refers – and other like-minded individuals with whom I have spoken agree that we are not in the least interested in watching a show one to two weeks after we know the results of the event. In the past it was tough enough to avoid the results until later the same day. To bury my head in the sand for a week or two, ignoring the results of races so that the televised broadcast would be at least marginally interesting, is simply not possible. I must also assume, based on the length of the shows, that we will be watching edited races rather than races in their entirety – which is totally unacceptable. I am aware that Daytona will be broadcast live, so we do have the opportunity to watch what is typically a rather dull race (now on even slower bikes) live – at a track on which racing motorcycles do not belong. The speed at which the DMG takeover is alienating many long-term road racing fans from the AMA program has been astounding – fortunately we still have international racing to follow. For a couple of decades I felt that the US road racing program was poorly handled. I am sorry to say that I now look back fondly on those days. For the first time in years there will be a national at a track within a reasonable driving distance of my home (NJ Motorsports Park), and unfortunately I cannot imagine attending it. Sincerely, Gary Hilliard Dover, Delaware