The end of Speed TV

   What do I have to say about the departure of the once great motorsport/car enthusiast channel? : Goodbye and good riddance to you!

   From about December 2002 till up to a few years ago, Speed was my go to place for motorsports events. They had at one point an eclectic span of race coverage from F1 to NASCAR to WRC and even things in between! But as of a few years ago when FOX took over, the programming went right down the crapper. It became one of the most disappointing channels on TV. Let me elaborate

    There was a time were Speed had amazing F1 coverage (as good as it was going to get in North America). From the age of 12 or 13 every race weekend I would come down to the basement of my parents place. flip the TV on to 48 to watch and listen to the voices of Bob Varsha, Steve Machett and the very funny David Hobbs call and analyse the Grand Prix. It was great. Varsha had been reporting at races for many years with ESPN before hand. Steve Machett used to be a mechanic at Benetton back in the Schumacher days and Mr. Hobbs was a genuine racer himself! So among the 3 of them , the experience and knowledge was bountiful. The on air chemistry was great. Hobbs and Machett would always play off each other in good fun. David's reaction to near accidents or offs would be "wowoowowowooooooo" or a variety of vocal reactions that would get a giggle. Steve has such a great way of explaining to the viewer about how formula 1 cars work despite his years being out of the sport directly. I learned a lot from listening to him and his now gone but popular "Chalk Talk" sessions on speedtv.com. As for Bob Varsha, his calm but commanding description made the experience that much better. 

  Although my area of viewing had been subject to black out conditions, and they usually were for the past 3 years, I would always try to watch the replay at a later date. Now Steve and David have moved on to NBC Sports with another SpeedTV alumni  Leigh Diffey.
  For Canadians, Speed is still around. We will not get Fox Sports 1 due to the CRTC regulations regarding sports broadcasting. Speed however is just now a waste bin of crap shows that will never get better due to constant replays of Pimp My Ride, My Ride Rules and Pass Time. We do still get NASCAR practice and Grand-Am races (thank God). But it is now just full of useless time fillers waiting for the weekend of racing events which Fox owns the rights to broadcast.
  All in all, it is a sad state of affairs for North American motorsports fans. We have no full time home for motorsports and general car programming. Oh well...at least we have the internet.