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SPEED scored its highest rating in network history, earning a Nielsen Media Research mark of 3.53 (2,480,000 Households) for its inaugural coverage of the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge on Saturday.

The event, in its first of eight seasons on SPEED, peaked at 4.37 (3,064,000 Households) and held a 4-plus rating for final 90 minutes of the telecast. The Nielsen rating marks a 7 percent increase over last year’s All-Star broadcast on FX, which earned a 3.30 Nielsen rating. With the effort, SPEED was the No. 1 cable network on television from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET that Saturday night among total households and the Men 18-49 audience. Behind the strength of the popular NASCAR RaceDay and a record-setting post-race performance by NASCAR Victory Lane, SPEED delivered its highest-rated total day in network history. Prior to the 2007 Nextel All-Star Challenge, the highest-rated program ever on SPEED was the 2005 season-opening Craftsman Truck Series race from Daytona with a 2.1. This report came from the Speed PR office and the jayski.com webpage.

Former Auto Racing Promoter of the Year Tom Curley is scheduled to appear on the popular SPEED TV talk show “Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain” this Sunday, June 3 at 9 p.m. Curley is the manager and promoter of Barre, VT’s Thunder Road International Speedbowl, a highly successful short track stock car oval nestled in the Green Mountains, and the President of the American-Canadian Tour (ACT) sanctioning body with touring series in the northeastern United States and Canada.

“‘Wind Tunnel’ is the best racing show on television, bar none,” said Curley. “I have never heard anyone say that they did not enjoy the balanced and unbiased motorsports journalism that Dave Despain brings to his show. It is a real honor to be asked to chat him about Thunder Road and racing in general. I worked with Dave about 20 years ago, and I look forward to being his guest on June 3.”

Known for his fiery personality, Curley was named the Racing Promotion Monthly (RPM) Auto Racing Promoter of the Year, the short track promotion industry’s highest honor, for his efforts with Thunder Road in 2004. He is widely credited with the creation of many short track racing innovations, including the “spec” engine concept of the 2000s and the regional touring series boom of the 1970s and 1980s.

Dave Despain has been a popular - and, not unlike Curley, sometimes controversial - television and print auto racing journalist for nearly three decades. “Wind Tunnel” covers every facet of the motorsports spectrum,from stock cars to open wheel, from motorcycles to off-road rally racing.

We caught the Memorial Day Weekend Speed broadcast of the GP of Monaco. It’s still a very scenic race course but not very conducive to passing. It was no surprise that the two top qualifiers, and Mercedes/McLaren teammates, Alanzo and Hamilton finished one-two in front of the jet set. The race also had a healthy crowd in one of the nicest tourist/gambling spots in all of southern Europe. Even without making major track and infrastructure improvements the Monaco GP has pretty much run the same street course since the 50’s when F1 started to make a comeback after WWII. It’s pretty much a traditional and historical stop on the F1 schedule every Spring.

In another matter, the F1 movers-and-shakers are pushing very hard to force race organizers in the Pacific Rim to switch to night races so that those events will be in prime time in the rest of the world. It seems Bernie Eccelstone is taking a page from Brian Frances’ NASCAR playbook to improve TV ratings for the Asian and Australian F1 events. Brian should feel real good about this because imitation is the greatest form of flattery. NASCAR, though, is still struggling with TV ratings which have been off since the Spring of ‘06.

On the IRL and the Indy Cars, Tony George continues to get a bad rap for ruining the North American Open Wheel Championship. But, those doing the most complaining about it have bad or selective memories and can’t remember back to the early 90’s. Every time the CART crowd came to the once USAC sanctioned Indianapolis Speedway there was lots of complaining, fighting and disputes. Some of the major flaps also went to court and it’s no wonder that George decided to go his own way with the IRL. It was akin of the “inmates trying to run the asylum”. Tony got sick of the bickering and wanted to control the Indy 500 and the future of Indy Car racing. Not to mention the big legal bills during those disputes with the now defunct CART organization which ended up going bankrupt and was replaced by the Champ Car World Series in a reorganization. Because of that the stockholders took major hit for that blunder.

Things have fallen short of his(George’s) vision. What has gone well for his Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the diverse schedule for that venue. First George added the Brickyard 400 NASCAR event and then the F1 GP of the US. Next up will be a major motorcycle event. With all of that said, IMS is a still pretty healthy company and every event that is held at that track is a marquee race. On the downside, the Indy 500 Qualifying is no longer a major spectator draw during the qualifying rounds. But, over 300,000 did turnout for the rain/crash plagued 91st Edition of the Indy 500 last weekend to see Dario Franchitti take his first Indy 500.

Also, most of the top teams and drivers that fled the Indy 500 when George formed the IRL are back racing at Indy and the rest of the series. Roger Penske, Mario Andretti and Chip Ganassi, still the major players in Indy Car racing, led the exodus from IMS back in 1997. All three then realized that even with the lack of an agreement on power sharing with the race teams by George, they would still be better off returning to the Indy 500 and the IRL fold because the split resulted in an inability, for them, to get major sponsorship money. Also, Penske and Ganassi, like George, looked to NASCAR to shore up their business model. Penske and Ganassi formed NASCAR teams to attract major corporate sponsors.

Some day things might get resolved between Champ Car and the IRL. But, it will probably be too late for that open wheel racing segment to ever recover. Because it’s been a such a long war nobody will emerge as a winner. One exception is NASCAR which had unparallel growth for ten years at the expense of the CCWS and the IRL.

Casey Mears was the surprise winner in last Sunday’s Coca Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte. Like the Indy 500, NASCAR’s longest event had it’s exciting moments. Racing on Memorial Day weekend in this country is a big tradition and last weekend wasn’t a disappointment for fans who caught all of the action on TV.

Big O Tires stores in Colorado and Wyoming have entered into a three-year sponsorship package at Bandimere Speedway (in Morrison, CO). Wil Esh, Regional Business Manager for Big O Tires said, “The goal is to use the raceway events for a combination of employee awards, and for Big O Tires fleet and retail customers. Season-long, the track attracts about 450,000 attendees, so this provides many opportunities for race patrons to become more familiar with Big O Tires. We are pleased to expand our business relationships with Colorado based companies such as Bandimere.” Big O Tires, Inc. serves over 550 franchised stores, primarily in the Western and Midwestern states, and also distributes tires and other automotive service products to Associated Dealers in Western Canada.

Now let’s check to see what’s happening in terms of TV coverage going into the first weekend in June. It begins on Friday with NASCAR Cup Practice on Speed at 11 a.m. followed by CTS Qualifying from that same track then Final Busch Practice with Cup Qualifying at 3 p.m. Speed comes back at 8:30 p.m. with NASCAR CTS race from Dover, SDD. Saturday starts off at 10 a.m. with Cup Practice from Dover on Speed. ESPN2 kicks in with Busch Qualifying at 11 a.m. ESPN2 returns with the Busch go from Dover at 3 p.m. then NHRA Qualifying from Topeka, KS at 5:30 p.m. Speed comes back at 9 p.m. with the ARCA/REMAX race from Newton, IA at 9 p.m. Sunday starts off with the Dover Cup race on Fox at 1 p.m. Speed returns with the AMA Superbikes at 2 p.m. ABC offers the IRL Indy Cars from Milwaukee at 4 p.m. At the same time ESPN2 airs SDD NHRA Eliminations from Topeka. At 5 p.m. it’s the FIM Motorcycle race from Italy on Speed.(end)

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES AND NOTES.