The overnight ratings slipped 2.3 percent for the Talladega Cup race. ABC’s broadcast of that Sunday’s UAW-Ford 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway earned an overnight Nielsen Media Research rating of 4.2, according to Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports.
But, here’s the spin from ABC’s coverage of the Talladega race earned the largest households and viewership numbers of the 11 Nextel Cup events that have been televised so far by ABC and ESPN. With a fast national rating of 4.6, ABC’s coverage was seen by 7,347,000 viewers in 5,156,000 households. The previous season high in both categories for ESPN and ABC was ABC’s live telecast of the Richmond event, which had 6,804,000 viewers in 4,749,000 households. ESPN’s telecast of the Indianapolis event had the highest rating of 4.9. While the household rating was only 5 percent lower than last year’s Talladega race, ABC was up 19 percent in the key Males 18-34 demographic. This from ESPN Communications and the jayski.com webpage.
My, how the racing culture is different on both sides of the pond! From the Valvoline Track Talk Newsletter comes this piece of enlightenment. Yes, He REALLY Said That Scott Speed, on driving an ARCA stock car at Talladega. “In open-wheel racing, you always have someone on the team who buckles you into your seat. I got into my seat waiting for someone to buckle me in and then after a while realized I was supposed to buckle myself in. I’m not used to bringing my own helmet to the car either!… I got harassed by some of the ARCA officials for my shorts — which I wasn’t supposed to be wearing in the garage — and for my hat because it’s what Europe would call high fashion, but I guess it’s not considered that here.”
Guinness World Records verified that Shelby SuperCars’ (SSC) Ultimate Aero is officially the “Fastest Production Car” in the world. This is the first time the production speed record title has been held by a United States auto manufacturer since the Ford GT40 claimed the record in 1967. Guinness’ strict testing procedure required the car to drive down the course, turn around, and make a second pass in the opposite direction within one hour. The vehicle’s official “top speed” was then calculated by averaging the top speeds of each pass in order to negate any favorable road or weather conditions. Driver Chuck Bigelow, 71, drove SSC’s Ultimate Aero on a stretch of highway 221, clocking 414.31 kph (257.45 mph) on the first pass and 410.24 kph (254.92 mph) on the second pass to yield an official record speed of 412.28 kph (256.19 mph). From data presented by Dewetron’s world-renowned data acquisition system, Guinness officials verified the official speed to be .52 kph (.32 mph) faster than SSC had originally noted. This breaks the current official record held by the Koenigsegg CCR at 388 kph by 24.28 kph (15.09 mph) and the Bugatti Veyron’s unofficial speed of 408.47 kph by 5.84 kph (3.63 mph).
Motorcycle legend Scott Russell, who is tied with Miguel Duhamel with a record five Daytona 200 By Honda victories, will return to historic Daytona International Speedway to compete in the 8 Hours At Daytona SunTrust MOTO-ST Series finale on Saturday, Oct. 20.
Russell, who hails from Conyers, Ga. and hasn’t raced professionally since 2001, is on the entry list for the season-ending 8 Hours At Daytona. He is entered to compete aboard the No. 92 Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki 650 in the GST class. Gary Nixon, also a former Daytona 200 By Honda champion, serves as team manager.
Known as “Mr. Daytona”, Russell dominated the Daytona 200 By Honda, America’s prestigious motorcycle race, in the 1990s winning five times (1992, 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998). Russell’s credentials also include an AMA Superbike Championship in 1992, the World Superbike Championship (1993), three AMA 750cc Supersport titles and the Suzuka Eight Hour endurance race. He was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2005. Russell hasn’t raced professionally since suffering injuries in an accident in the 2001 Daytona 200 By Honda.
The 8 Hours At Daytona will boast an international field of top riders from the United States, Europe and Canada in three classes…
The Buell Motorcycle Company SuperSport class (SST) which includes motorcycles producing between 90-118 horsepower, the BMW Grand Sport Twins class (GST) covering motorcycles producing 75-90 horsepower and Sport Twins (ST) for machines under 75 horsepower.
Included in the $100,000 purse is $7,500 to the overall winner of the 8 Hours At Daytona and $7,500 to the Super Sport Twins class winner, $5,000 to the Grand Sport Twins winner and $3,500 to the Sport Twins Bonus.
The 8 Hours At Daytona is scheduled to go green at 1 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 20 and is part of Fall Cycle Scene. Tickets are available online at www.racetickets.com or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP.
Let’s see what’s on TV for motorsports this weekend. Friday starts it all off with a noon practice session for the F1 series in Brazil on Speed. ESPN2 kicks in with Cup Qualifying from Martinsville at 3:30 p.m. Speed returns with the NASCAR All Star Qualifying from Irwindale, CA at 8 p.m.
Saturday’s action begins on Speed at 11 a.m. with Craftsman Truck Qualifying from Martinsville followed by F1 Qualifing from Brazil at noon. CBS offers the US Open MotoX from the MGM Casino in Vegas at 1:30 p.m. Speed comes back with the CTS go from Martinsville at 3 p.m. More on Speed at 5:30 p.m with the ALMS event held at Laguna Seca, CA. Then it’s Final Cup Practice from Martinsville at 7 p.m. on The Duce. Speed returns with the Toyota All Star Showdown at Irwindale, CA at 10 p.m. ESPN Classic offers the Champ Car event from Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast of Australia at 11:30 p.m.
For Sunday Speed starts off the day at 9:30 a.m. with NASCAR Raceday. Then it’s the F1 go from Brazil at 11:30 a.m. on that same cable channel. ABC airs the NASCAR Cup race from Martinsville at 1:30 p.m. For the bikers it’s the FIM250 from Malaysia at 5 p.m. on Speed followed by the FIM MotoGP from that same venue. At 6 p.m. The Duce offers a redux of the Champ Car event from Surfer’s Paradise. That’s it for the weekend which is a lot of racing action on the tube considering that the 2007 racing season is coming down to the wire.(end)
NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES AND NOTES.
If ABC would hire some decent announcing staff both for the race and studio I personally would resume watching the race inlieu of the radio
Why do the ratings have to be an article every week? It’s rediculous. NASCAR tryied to play up the “Biggest Sport in the World” thing, and once Senior (Rest His Soul) passed, ratings have gradually gone down because the drama factor eclipsed too soon.