State of United States Stage Rally for February 2015

So it was a busy month for developments in North American Rally now comprising four separate organizing entries in the US alone...

On the ugly and disappointing side of things is the USRA.  Formed only in '14 and coming out with a number of announcements and expectations early in '15, it has fairly well thrown in the towel for the year.  First off, as stated in last month's report you had the Waste Management Winter Rally which "should" have been one of the USRA's first events with organizers of the event also being party to the new Rally organization but was foiled in this attempt by supposed contractual obligations and remained with Rally America.  Then there was the Matthew Noble-Mark Memorial RallySprint which also should have been an USRA event.  For whatever reason (not disclosed to public by organizer) this event was cancelled outright.  Lastly you then have Denise McMahon (a listed board member of the USRA) out in the Southwest announcing that "The USRA at this time is not ready to put on a rally program but should be able to take over in 2016 of what the Organizers HP RallyGroup has already in place since last year" seeming to indicate that we will not be seeing ANY events put on by the USRA in '15. Denise did announce that her own group, HP Rallygroup LLC, will be putting on the Bilstein Southwest RallyCup series that includes:


Desert Storm Rally - April 11th in Blythe, CA (coefficient 3)
Mendocino Rally - July 18/19th, in Ukiah, CA (status TBD) (coefficient 2/3)
Rally Utah - August 7/8th, in Cedar City, UT (coefficient 2/3)
Arizona Extreme Rally - September 12th, in Kingman, AZ (coeff3)
Seed 9 Rally - November 7th in Jean, NV

This is pretty darn impressive for a small (one woman?) organizing effort, many people struggle to put on a single event, let alone five, and without a National organizing/sanctioning body behind her? Going forward we will replace the USRA with updates on the HP Rallygroup events unless the USRA has anything of note to mention.

USRA grade for the month: F


Then you have the reentry to US Stage Rally of the behemoth that is the SCCA. Exiting stage rally in the early 'oughts for numerous reasons while continuing autocross on dirt for the past decade or so, the SCCA is now officially dipping its toe back in the stage rally waters. Rumored to be happening on a "test" basis for a while, the very first SCCA RallySprint was announced in late February and is to take place at the Team O'Neil facility in New Hampshire. Documents show this to be a two stage (each of some 2.5 miles in length), run multiple times event. Supposed top speeds will reach 70 mph and there will be no cones...this is a real stage rally event presenting all the risks seen at a non-sprint length event, just shortened up a tad. It will be interesting to see just how much mileage is done in the event. The entry cost is under $200 and the # of competitors is to be capped. Additionally, the individuals actually running the event are long time SCCA Rallycross and NEFR Stage Rally contributors who know how to run events pretty well. I have entered the event as is very close to me and at the price its hard to go wrong...as long as we aren't sitting around trying to tech the vehicles all morning it should be OK. I encourage the organizers to not take a real "lunch" break and just build in a brief "service period" as a normal stage rally would have. The absolute minimum amount of down time possible should be built in. I know of no other official SCCA RallySprint events that have been announced yet though I'm sure there will be soon. The SCCA has stated that it will be running RallySprints only in '15 though given most national Rally America events have deep roots in the SCCA, if the USRA isn't pressuring events to move to them in '16, I wouldn't be surprised if the SCCA was...All that said the SCCA doesn't seem to be putting much effort into promoting the RallySprint efforts with no info on it on their site, nothing broken out separately from their RallyCross or RoadRally programs, nothing in their forums...if you weren't keyed into watching websites like Jalopnik or in close contact with SCCA Rallycross staff in the New England, you might not have any idea that such a series of events is coming to fruition.


SCCA grade for the month: B



Rally America saw two events in February. First up was the aforementioned WMWR in Pennsylvania. Though the primary Rally America site provides little to no info on the event, the stand alone web page for the race reveals 14 entries (double the 7 entries seen in '14) with three Open Light Impreza's on the podium, led by Jon Kramer taking the win by a bit over five minutes and a time of 1:15. The event even generated a 7+ minute long video and interview on a Wellsboro, PA news website to be seen here:



Continuing with the "winter theme" after Sno Drift and WMWR Rally America is usually done with the snow but not so this year.  With the deep freeze the US has seen this year, 100 Acre Wood was more a snow/ice rally than the very high speed gravel/dirt it typically is.  The 2014 version of the event included nationally known (even outside the Rally community) racers like Pastrana and Block as well as National level competitors like L'Estage, ACP and Matt Johnson and 25 National entries.  The 2015 version saw growth in the overall number of racers from 50 (25 National, 25 Regional) in '14 to 58 this year, it saw a substantial drop in National entries (from 25 to 17) and an exit of all of the aforementioned names except ACP.  David Sterckx provided David Higgins only competition and finished 5:42 back of the winner.  In equal vehicles and tires a Sterckx/Higgins contest would be a great thing to watch.  Jim Beaver again provided nearly live radio coverage of the event, much as he did at SnoDrift.  Rally-America posted "full" video coverage of SnoDrift about 10 days after the event and had posted very nice daily recaps of the event just after the finish of action each day.  Rally America completed the same nice recaps for 100 Acre Wood as well.  Rally America did generate a bit of negative press for itself when it reversed an earlier decision to grant Bill Caswell's "Build Race Party" photographers media access to the event, likely as a result of comments and articles from BRP asking where the National level competitors have gone and if Rally America is really being run properly--questions anyone with a brain would contemplate.  Because of this action, Caswell revealed that his group had gone unpaid for an extended period of time in '14 after being hired for photo coverage of an event.  Eventually he was paid he stated but not after months of collection efforts and pressure from a third party.  Not exactly the way a racing organization should be run but it continues a long established pattern with Rally America.

Views on YouTube for SnoDrift Rally--17,200
Views on YouTube for 100 Acre Wood--10,600

Facebook Likes--30,556 (up from 29,748 last month)
YouTube Subscribers--10,334 (up from 10,033 last month)
Twitter Subscribers--20,000 (up from 19,700 last month)
Instagram Followers--5,296 (up from 4,246 last month)
Alexa rating of Rally-America.com--146,292 (down from 139,632 last month)

Rally America rating for the month: B



NASA Stage Rally saw one small event happen and picked up a second event as it was announced to be the sanctioning body for the RallySprint test day that was organized in the place of the failed USRA Matthew Noble Marker event.

The California Rally Series Rally School event saw 53 participants looking to learn more about the sport and get some tips from organizers and current drivers/codrivers.

The Washington Test Day #1 was put together in very short order to help accommodate the plans that a number of racers had made but were in danger of going unfulfilled due to the cancellation of the USRA event.  A small turnout was expected in early March as entries are capped for the NASA test day program that was introduced this year.

NASA also released their updated version of their Android Rally Clock app to run on your phone or tablet just as NASA uses on their NOOKs.  Additional NOOK developments included some online training/education on how to use their NOOK timing system via their YouTube channel where they posted a series of videos such as the one below:



NASA Stage Rally staff also attended the North American Motorsports Expo in Charlotte, NC as an outreach to educate/promote the NASA Stage Rally Program and showing off some Stage Rally vehicles to boot.

Facebook Likes--3,031 (up from 2,615 last month)
YouTube Subscribers--238 (up from 232 last month)
Twitter Subscribers--319 (up from 301 last month)
Instagram Followers--458 (up from 378 last month)
Alexa rating of 290,220 (up from 526,968 last month)

NASA Stage Rally rating for the Month: B+


As always, comments are welcome as would be a recap of events/developments of Stage Rally either North or South of the border...

TV Show Review: Attack on Titan

Finished up watching this series last night.  Its certainly not for everyone.  Its Japanese, its a cartoon, its subtitled, its got naked giants without genitalia eating people.  Its anime which if you don't already know what it is, you probably won't like it.

That said, its about as good as anime gets.  Its weird in all the best ways.  Humanity has been stuck inside three concentric walls since it was almost exterminated some 100 years earlier by these giant "Titans" of which there are different kinds but all of which love to wordlessly eat people--lots of them.  Besides the enormous walls the only thing standing between humanity and extinction are teams of military like individuals who use waist mounted devices to swing from building to building or tree to tree with their reloadable swords to slice the Titans apart.

So you have the classic Japanese anime with lots of people flying through the air showering each other in oceans of blood.  Behind it all are the questions of what exactly are the Titans?  Where do they come from? Why does the royal family get to stay inside the safest circle and get all the resources?  How do we kill more of the Titans?  Why can Eren turn himself INTO a Titan?  Has a Titan who can transform into a human infiltrated the group?

It started off as a manga (comic) in Japan and has quickly spread across the globe with novels, films, video games, etc. with millions of editions in print.  The english subtitled anime series does not carry it all the way through where the manga has gone and leaves much unresolved and unanswered and thus a bit dissapointing that more answers aren't given and so I'm waiting for the collection of episodes (this first "season" was some 25 episodes long).  The translation is fairly good though a bit too literal vs. conversational as is typically the case with anime but there is definitely a bit of info lost in translation and there are gaps in information that leave you asking if you missed an episode or part of an episode that I attribute to the move from Japanese to English.

The series has been a bit controversial in Asia with those in Hong Kong and Taiwan seeing the Titans as stand-ins for invading China and South Korea calling it a reflection of Japan's recent militaristic turn.  I doubt its either but the fact that it has gotten a lot of people all riled up over it shows its now widespread influence.  If you've given things like Akira and Ghost in the Shell a chance in the past and enjoyed them (as I have, though I am only a VERY small anime aficionado, knowing only the largest of titles and series), I would recommend some binge watching to include Attack on Titan for a current look at the top level of work coming out of Japan.

State of North American Rally for January 2015

Maybe we'll try and look at the state of Rally on a month to month basis in 2015 so that we develop an ongoing story as to what is going on and where things stand.  A nice narrative may give a better impression of the health and development of the sport than picking out singular points in time and individual events/circumstances...So for now we'll just try and cover the major events and news in stage rally as they occur.  If you are reading this and have info/results/data/developments that are not mentioned, please feel free to forward them to me at spalind@yahoo.com and I will either go backwards and edit prior entries to include this info or place the information in the following month's recap.



Lets take it series by series...

Rally America was the only major series with an actual event occurring in January with Snow Drift in Michigan. Though '14 saw TV coverage on NBC Sports of this event, that coverage disappeared after a few events without stated reason and has not returned for '15. Replacing the TV coverage was an Internet broadcast by Jim Beaver (a noted Trophy Truck driver and internet radio host via his weekly Down and Dirty Radio show). Airing during the event were various interviews with drivers and crews, "Rally America Radio" is seeking to provide live content and scoring at all eight of the National Rally America events in '15. Listening in to the broadcasts revealed a professional operation and near realtime updates but its still radio and leaves the action and personalities to exist in the mind's eye only. This also comes after prior abortive attempts such as rallystream.tv, vlirp.com as well as the non-payment of prior RA radio host Greg Strange who died without ever being paid. Rally America also announced the soshutter.com platform for sale of photos and in the future, video shot by Rally America itself and then sold by Rally America. It does seem to have Sno Drift 2015 photos included already so it is fairly up to date but does not seem to have fairly intuitive breakdowns of photos by event with everything dumped in one large folder and relying upon the user to search by driver, event, car, etc. A nice menu with dropdowns to at least the most current events and then breakdowns by class, driver or car would be something you would think would be present. Speaking of Sno Drift, it was the one significant Rally event to occur in January and saw 13 National entries and 24 Regional entries begin the day vs. 19 and 38 in '14 (a drop of 20 entrants). David Higgins would take the win in both '14 and '15, with his '14 margin being 2:10.5 over Antoine L'Estage and his '15 win being 9:05.5 over Nick Roberts. Rally America's next event takes place in late February at 100 Acre Wood where Ken Block has already announced his entrance and will provide a legit competitor to Higgins in this event while extremely fast National competitor David Sterckx is also participating. As of now there are 62 listed entries (19 National and 43 Regional) vs. the 25 National and 29 Regional entries in '14. If these entries come to fruition it would make for a great turnaround in the number of participants from Sno Drift but not completely making up for it. Rally America also saw some great publicity via popular stories and videos written by Alex Lloyd of Indycar fame regarding his entrance in a Honda Fit at LSPR in '14 as well has his driving of Higgins' Open class Subaru for Yahoo. Lloyd seems to have gotten the Rally bug. On the video side of things, Rally America posted two videos of Sno Drift interviews/action, their first videos posted on You Tube in some four months. The quality of the videos and action was good and fairly timely being released shortly after the action was recorded though the aggregate number of views for the two videos is less than 10,000 and shows a decided lack of attention to this media production. Rally America--29,748 Facebook likes, 10,033 YouTube subscribers, 19,700 Twitter followers, 4,246 Instagram followers, 139,632 ranking for rally-america.com in the US via Alexa rating.

Monthly NISMOStuff grade: B (The "biggest" US Rally Series had a low turnout for its first '15 event and was unable to explain or replace its '14 TV coverage while it did have live radio coverage from a well known talent, released its internal photography on a new platform, has a solid # of early entries for 100 Acre Woods and generated some solid media coverage).

USRA (United States Rally Association) is the upstart series that began early in'15/late '14 with its announcement of formation from a number of former current Rally America associated organizers and with a supposedly new insurance backer and a nationally known sanctioning body. It was supposed to have a schedule for '15 as well as a ruleset and other info out by now but none has been forthcoming. They did announce a partnership with Mad Media to assist in the production of PR and other media related items. Without much news, there hasn't been much for Mad Media to do. USRA's first event was SUPPOSED to be the Waste Management Winter Rally in Pennsylvania with its organizer Meredith Croucher being part of the USRA but as stated in a press release "Due to contractual obligations, WMWR 2015 will be sanctioned and insured by Rally America, Inc." What this means to me is that USRA was either threatened with a lawsuit by RA or there were late noted terms in the STPR contract that prevented the WMWR from moving over. So that was 0 for 1. 0 for 2 came with the move of the Arizona Extreme Shortcourse Rally from 2/14 to 9/12 reportedly due to feedback from racers looking to avoid the Valentine's day racing. The first event that looks like it may occur under the USRA banner is the Matthew Marker-Noble "Livin' the Dream" RallySprint organized by Steve Warren. Scheduled for 3/7 it certainly seems to have a lot of local interest but we'll have to see if it comes off as rules, pricing, entries, etc. have not been fully released. No media has been produced by USRA to date and it doesn't seem to have a FB page, YouTube account or other social media presence. Its homepage is currently ranked as the 22,051,690 most popular website in the world with no ranking within the US. In somewhat related news USRA's media partner, Mad Media did announce that they will be welcoming stage rally vehicles again at the Mint 400 (most popular desert racing event in the US and based out of downtown Las Vegas) contingency. The Subaru Rally Team (with Higgins' car likely) have announced they will be there and given the 25,000+ offroad fans present at the Mint 400 contingency, this will likely be the most viewed in person Rally/offroad focused display this year.

Monthly NISMOStuff Grade: C (the new series didn't hold to its announced release of information and had could not put on two events that were anticipated to be USRA sanctioned for various reasons while a new RallySprint seems to be coming to fruition and a USRA partner is welcoming rally vehicles to get in front of the most number of living bodies this year)

NASA Rally like USRA did not have any events in January. Upcoming events for NASA include the California Rally Series Rally School on 2/21 with 38 entries listed and then the Sandblast Rally on 3/7 with some 47 car entries and another some 47 motorcycle entries (both are maxed out and final numbers to be seen on race day). The popular Empire State Performance Rally in New York announced its move to a gravel event from a tarmac one disappointing a number of competitors who liked the difference in surfaces as well as the uniqueness of running flat out through the streets of small towns--something not seen in any other current US Rally event. Reportedly the "new" roads will incorporate some of the roads utilized last by the Rally New York group a few years ago, perhaps back at the Boy Scout Camp they utilized? NASA Rally also announced a "Test and Tune" program, basically downsizing its "Rally Sprint" format to an event held for up to 10 entrants on roads up to seven miles in length. This is not an SCCA Rallycross or SCCA Rallycross test and tune. No need for cones with this type of event, this is full stage rally test/tune or "race" on real roads or course. NASA also saw its stage rally event at the FIRM shown in part on the Extreme Off-Road TV show on Spike TV. The program covered the build of entry level Ford Focus as well as its entry into its first event where program host Ian would wring it out (though not showing on the results page?). Perhaps NASA's biggest announcement was that its Rally West Virginia '15 event will be part of the FIA NACAM Rally Championship. This series will come to the US after two events in Mexico and prior to events in Costa Rica, Panama and Jamaica. It will bring some major international attention and competition to the US and hopefully this can be taken advantage of. NASA Rally--2,615 FB likes, 232 YouTube subscribers, 301 Twitter followers, 378 Instagram followers, 526,968 most popular website in the US per Alexa.

Monthly NISMOStuff Grade: B+ (no events took place while near term events look to have excellent turnouts while introducing a new, low cost/impact event option, Rally West Virginia joins with a FIA associated series and NASA Rally gets great visibility through a cable TV outlet)

Again, this is just off the top of my head. I think I have been "fair and balanced here" and if anyone wishes to dispute that or point out where I am wrong in any of the above, I'm open to hearing your view. If there were major developments/announcements/events that I have missed here, please let me know--racers, organizers, advertisers, etc. are reading this...

Mike Johnson--Not Running Dakar Due to Surgery

Mr. Mike Johnson of Drivers, Inc., a collection of professional drivers (inclusive of Paul Dallenbach, Rhys Millen and Greg Tracy among others) specializing in meeting the needs of the commercial, television and motion picture industries took Baja 1000 and Baja 500 victories in his class 10 buggie in '14.  Along with these victories came the winning of a free entry into the 2015 edition of the Dakar. 

Unfortunately a brief email exchange has revealed that he will not be able to take advantage of this opportunity.  Due to an impending shoulder injury requiring surgery and extensive recovery time and Johnson will not be entered in the 2015 Dakar.

He is however looking to the future in regards to the international exposure that the Dakar could bring both himself and his sponsors:

"My tire sponsor (Radar Tires) still really wants to do it so we may try to put a program together for 2016. I think it's a great thing what Roger Norman, SCORE and the Dakar guys are doing to get the two series together, it will only help strengthen each series both in outside interest (fans) as well as sponsors & TV worldwide." 

One last item of note--the Dakar organizers do not allow you to carry over a free entry win from one year to the next so unfortunately Johnson will have to go back out and with the free entry again in '15 if he or Radar Tires or others are not going to pay for the entry fee out of pocket.  Its a use it or lose it proposition.  A shame really but likely an appropriate one designed to encourage entries to come to the event rather than just leave it out there as an idea to always hold in your back pocket for when the "time is right".

Thanks to Mike for the brief conservation and  make a quick recovery!

Global RallyCross and Lucas Oil Offroad Racing Series 11/15-11/16 TV Ratings

These are from the weekend of 11/15 and 11/16.  The LOORRS broadcast had the more favorable slot in that it was shown on Saturday, up against significantly weaker college football broadcasts vs. the 11/16 GRC show which faced off against nationally televised NFL football.  The GRC broadcast was a showdown between Joni Wiman and Ken Block for the 2015 driver's title with Wiman coming out on top by finishing second to Block and garnering enough points to retain first place for the year (though his lack of a single win on the year will likely drive a change in the way GRC scores points for each event in '15)

Neither show fared that well, though the LOORRS show was no worse than its typical ratings.  GRC's 0.3 rating ties for its worst of the year and shortest of its brief existence.  This will wrap up GRC's programing for the year I would imagine and so I'll recap their ratings for their events below, prior to the weekend's full ratings.  Their high for the year was a 0.5, equating to 578,000 households and some 636,000 actual viewers and the low was a 0.3, equating to 350,000 and 382,000 viewers.  Overall this puts Global RallyCross a bit behind the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series shows as we will recap in the future.  Of note is the recent F1 ratings on NBC for the Brazil event which grabbed a 0.5 rating and two weeks prior a 0.7 rating for the USGP in Texas.  NBC paid $3 Million to acquire the rights to F1 in the US (prior to any production, talent, coverage costs), so to have LOORRS and GRC somewhat equaling those ratings with what is essentially a paid advertisement, costing the networks nothing, both can be viewed as being successful on their own terms.  Though when you compare the measly $3 million paid for F1 to the $2.4 billion Fox paid for NASCAR (not completely an apples to apples comparison but you get the idea) you understand how far behind in the Q ratings sports like F1, RallyCross or short course are from NAPCAR.

Global RallyCross 2015 Ratings:

5/24--0.4
6/22--0.3
7/20--0.5
7/26--0.3
8/03--0.3
9/20--0.5
9/21--0.3

NFL: Eagles-Packers (84%)	11/16	Fox	4:25-7:30pm	17.1
"Sunday Night Football": Patriots-Colts	11/16	NBC	8:30-11:15pm	13.6
NFL: (singleheader)	11/16	CBS	1:00-4:05pm	11.7
NFL: (regional)	11/16	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	10.1
College Football: Mississippi State-Alabama	11/15	CBS	3:30-7:15pm	6.6
College Football: Florida State-Miami	11/15	ABC	8:00-11:45pm	6.1
"Football Night in America"	11/16	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	5.4
College Football: Ohio State-Minnesota	11/15	ABC	12:00-3:30pm	4.3
"Fox NFL Sunday"	11/16	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.5
"The NFL Today"	11/16	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	2.8
College Football: Nebraska-Minnesota	11/15	ABC	3:30-7:15pm	2.3
College Football: Northwestern-Notre Dame	11/15	NBC	3:30-8:00pm	2.0
"Courage in Sports"	11/16	CBS	5:00-6:00pm	1.5
"College Football Today"	11/15	CBS	3:00-3:30pm	1.0
College Football: Texas-Oklahoma State	11/15	Fox	7:30-11:00pm	1.0
College Football: Washington-Arizona	11/15	Fox	3:30-7:15pm	0.9
ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Russia	11/16	NBC	4:00-6:00pm	0.9
"Fox College Saturday"	11/15	Fox	3:00-3:30pm	0.5
Ironman World Championship	11/15	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.5
"Notre Dame Football Pre-Game"	11/15	NBC	3:00-3:30pm	0.5
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing	11/15	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.4
"College Football's Open Season: Vanderbilt"	11/15	CBS	2:00-2:30pm	0.4
"College Football's Open Season: Arkansas"	11/15	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.4
"World of X Games: ASP Surfing"	11/16	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.4
"The Grantland Basketball Hour"	11/16	ABC	4:00-5:00pm	0.3
Global Rallycross: Las Vegas	11/16	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.3
Spartan Race: Vermont	11/16	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.3

9/20-9/21 LOORRS and GRC Weekend TV Ratings

Lots of good offroad motorsports events on Network TV this past weekend. NBC had two "live" GRC broadcasts from Los Angles where the results were Scott Speed (VW), Wiman (Ford), Block (Ford) on Day I and Rhys Millen (Hyundai), Block (Ford) and Wiman (Ford) on Day II. CBS meanwhile had a LOORRS broadcast of the Pro 2 and Pro 4 races from the Wild West Motorsports Park in Sparks, NV.

The Saturday broadcasts had an easier time of it only having to compete against a smattering of fairly uninteresting college games while the Sunday GRC show had to face off against the NFL. True to form the Saturday LOORRS and GRC shows pulled significantly higher ratings at a 0.5 for each (578,000 households and about 636,000 people viewing)than the Sunday GRC event that only generated a 0.3 rating (347,000 households and about 381,000 people viewing). Of note is that the weekend's NASCAR event from NH on Sunday saw a 2.2 rating (3.1 million viewers) and the Tudor United Sports Car Championship event at Circuit of the America's drew a 0.9 rating (1.1 million viewers), both running against the NFL.

From a historical perspective the 0.5 ratings for LOORRS and GRC on Saturday represent recent highs for both series and solid improvements from recent shows. The result is not however outside the "norm" for either series and can be considered a good but not spectacular result and at least the Sunday GRC broadcast beat out the European cycling event and canned golf preview show!!

TELECAST DATE NET TIME (ET) RATING
NFL: Broncos-Seahawks (89%) 9/21 CBS 4:25-7:30pm 16.9
"Sunday Night Football": Steelers-Panthers 9/21 NBC 8:30-11:30pm 12.3
NFL: (singleheader) 9/21 Fox 1:00-4:05pm 12.2
NFL: (regional) 9/21 CBS 1:00-4:25pm 11.1
College Football: Florida-Alabama 9/20 CBS 3:30-7:00pm 5.1
College Football: Clemson-Florida State 9/20 ABC 8:00-11:30pm 4.9
"Football Night in America" 9/21 NBC 7:30-8:15pm 3.3
"Fox NFL Sunday" 9/21 Fox 12:00-1:00pm 3.2
"The NFL Today" 9/21 CBS 12:00-1:00pm 2.9
College Football: Oklahoma-West Virginia 9/20 Fox 7:30-11:30pm 1.9
College Football: (regional) 9/20 ABC 3:30-7:00pm 1.7
MLB: (regional) 9/20 Fox 1:00-4:45pm 1.5
"College Football Today" 9/20 CBS 3:00-3:30pm 1.2
Tudor United SportsCar Championship:
Lone Star Le Mans (COTA) 9/21 Fox 5:00-6:00pm 0.9
PBR: Cooper Tires Desert Showdown 9/20 CBS 2:00-3:00pm 0.7
EPL: West Ham-Liverpool 9/20 NBC 12:30-2:30pm 0.7
Boxing: Fight Night 9/20 NBC 3:00-5:00pm 0.6
"World of X Games: Best of Austin" 9/20 ABC 2:00-3:30pm 0.5
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series 9/20 CBS 1:00-2:00pm 0.5
"Premier League Goal Zone" 9/20 NBC 2:30-3:00pm 0.5
Global Rallycross 9/20 NBC 5:00-6:00pm 0.5
STIHL Timbersports Series 9/21 ABC 5:00-7:00pm 0.5
Diamond League Track & Field 9/21 NBC 2:00-3:00pm 0.4
"World of X Games: Big Wave Hellmen Preview" 9/21 ABC 4:00-5:00pm 0.3
Women's Rugby World Cup 9/21 NBC 3:00-4:00pm 0.3
Global Rallycross 9/21 NBC 5:00-6:00pm 0.3
"Road to the Ryder Cup" 9/21 NBC 1:30-2:00pm 0.2
Cycling: Vuelta a España 9/21 NBC 4:00-5:00pm 0.2
.

LOORRS Ratings From 9/13

Back on the weekend of 9/13 and 9/14 we saw a single offroad racing related broadcasts on Network TV.  On Saturday 9/13, CBS broadcast from 1:30-2:30 PM the LOORRS Pro2 and Pro4 racing at Glen Helen.  Positioned as a lead in for the days’ College Football broadcasts on CBS the program produced a 0.4 rating, with about 462,000 households tuned in and about 508,000 people viewing from home.  In comparison to other broadcasts this weekend this was the same rating as ABC’s “World of XGames: Real Ski Backcountry” show the following day from 5-6PM and was about half the audience of the weekend’s regional Fox MLB game.  The weekend’s #1 sports broadcast was the Chiefs-Broncos game on CBS that saw a 14.6 rating, about 17 million households turning the game on and at least 19 million viewers.

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
NFL: Chiefs-Broncos (56%)	9/14	CBS	4:15-7:30pm	14.6
"Sunday Night Football": Bears-49ers	9/14	NBC	8:30-11:45pm	14.0
NFL: (singleheader)	9/14	Fox	1:00-4:05pm	12.3
NFL: (regional)	9/14	CBS	1:00-4:15pm	9.9
College Football: Georgia-South Carolina*	9/13	CBS	5:00-8:45pm	4.2
"Football Night in America"	9/14	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	4.1
"Fox NFL Sunday"	9/14	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.2
"The NFL Today"	9/14	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	2.7
College Football: Tennessee-Oklahoma	9/13	ABC	8:00-11:45pm	2.2
College Football: UCLA-Texas	9/13	Fox	8:15-11:30pm	2.1
College Football: Purdue-Notre Dame	9/13	NBC	7:30-11:15pm	2.1
College Football: (regional)	9/13	ABC	12:00-3:00pm	1.9
College Football: Arkansas-Texas Tech	9/13	ABC	3:00-6:30pm	1.9
"College Football Today" (extended)	9/13	CBS	3:45-5:00pm	1.9
PGA Tour: The Tour Championship: Third Round	9/13	NBC	2:30-6:15pm	1.8
PGA Tour: The Tour Championship: Final Round	9/14	NBC	1:30-6:00pm	1.7
"College Football Today"	9/13	CBS	3:00-3:45pm	1.1
College Football: Illinois-Washington	9/13	Fox	4:15-7:30pm	1.0
MLB: (regional)	9/13	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	0.9
EPL: Liverpool-Aston Villa	9/13	NBC	12:30-2:30pm	0.8
LPGA: Evian Masters: Final Round	9/14	NBC	12:00-1:30pm	0.6
"Inside College Football"	9/13	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.5
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series	9/13	CBS	1:30-2:30pm	0.4
"World of X Games: Real Ski Backcountry"	9/14	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.4

Vegas to Reno and AMA Motocross TV Ratings From Weekend of 8/9

This week we’ll stick with just the simple weekend TV ratings from Network TV.  For the purposes of our conversation we’ll define Network TV as those stations most commonly broadcasting an “over the air” signal—signals you can pick up for free with a pair of “rabbit ears” (this would most commonly be your local NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox stations).  The weekend of 8/9 and 8/10 saw two “offroad” motorsports broadcasts, both on NBC.

The first of these was the Saturday, 8/8 live broadcast of the 450 Moto2 from 3-4PM Eastern at the Red Bull Unadilla National in New Berlin, NY.  Trey Canard and his Muscle Milk Honda would follow up his 4^th place Moto1 result by taking the Moto2 win followed by Moto1 winner Ryan Dungey.  The hour long broadcast produced a 0.3 rating which equates to an estimated 347,000 households tuning in to watch.  If you figure that a few of these households had more than one individual watching the program (say 1 in 10) then you end up with about 380,000 people were exposed during this time frame to the sport in general and to the advertisers (Red Bull and Lucas Oil were foremost amongst these) in particular.  As a point of contrast, during this same time period, ABC was broadcasting the NASCAR Nationwide event a stone’s throw away in NY over at Watkins Glenn, obtaining a 1.2 rating.

Sunday 8/9 would bring another offroad event on NBC.  This time, its broadcast wasn’t so clear to the casual observer.  If you looked at your available TV programs on Sunday you would have seen the “World of Adventure Sports presented by GoPro” on NBC from 3-4 PM Eastern.  Great, but I’m busy revalving my shocks or watching the final round of the PGA Championship over on CBS you say.  Well, then you would have missed some sweet HD coverage of the 2013 Vegas to Reno BITD race.  Won by Jason Voss in Trick Trucks and CJ Hutchins in the 1500 class, the coverage here would not be for the full hour as within this program was also coverage of other non-motorsports events such as a marathon on Mt. Blanc in France and downhill mountain biking.  Still, the program did generate a 0.4 rating, reflecting about 462,000 households tuning in with about 508,000 viewers.  When you consider that this broadcast was competing directly against the culminating hours of the PGA Championship (6.0 rating) and the NASCAR Sprint Cup race on ESPN (3.1 rating) it’s really quite decent.

Both of these broadcasts are well within what I would consider the “norm” for offroad motorsports ratings on Network TV over the past few years—though the Unadilla motocross event is on the very low end of what Moto/Supercross typically generates. 

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
NASCAR Nationwide Series: Zippo 200 at The Glen	8/9	ABC	2:15-5:00pm	1.2
"ESPN Sports Saturday"	8/9	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.7
Major League Fishing: Summit Cup Championship	8/9	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.5
PGA Championship: Third Round	8/9	CBS	2:00-7:15pm	3.2
AMA Motocross	8/9	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.3
U.S. Swimming National Championships	8/9	NBC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5
World of X Games: Games of Skate	8/10	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.4
PGA Championship: rain delay coverage	8/10	CBS	2:00-3:00pm	2.0
PGA Championship: Final Round	8/10	CBS	3:00-9:00pm	6.0
Ironman World Championship	8/10	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.6
World of Adventure Sports	8/10	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.4
U.S. Swimming National Championships	8/10	NBC	4:00-5:30pm	0.5