Motourage

Considering the total disregard for motorcycle events in the US, we have a relatively full week of television coverage coming up.

Plenty of chances to catch this past weekend’s American Superbike and Daytona Sportbike races from the AMA Pro Racing West Coast Moto Jam at Infineon Raceway are on the menu, as well as Isle of Man TT Senior and 600 Superstock races (there’s usually a few seconds of sidecar coverage thrown in for good measure).

If you haven’t checked out the Supersport Class race of the FIM World Superbike Championship from Kyalami, South Africa, make a point to set your DVR for 2pm on Tuesday, as it marked a brilliant performance by former AMA Aprilia and Attack Kawasaki rider Chaz Davies.

One of the most well-produced motorcycle programs on television, Twist the Throttle on Discover HD Theater, covers Ducati motorcycles this week. The episode is a must-see for any desmo enthusiast.

If we’re missing coverage on one of the lesser-known channels, or if you’d like to add any non-US television schedules, please shoot us a message at info@motourage.net.

Thanks for watching, and please, if you’re planning on sitting down to catch a race in front of the tube, grab the phone and invite a friend who’s never seen a race. If we can add one more fan this week, we’re on our way to accomplishing our mission.

This Week’s Motorcycle TV Listings:

Monday, May 17

Isle of Man TT, Isle of Man
Pokerstars Senior TT Race
9:00pm-10:00pm
Discovery HD Theater

Tuesday, May 18

Isle of Man TT, Isle of Man
Pokerstars Senior TT Race
12:00am-1:00am
Discovery HD Theater

Twist the Throttle, Ducati
1:00am-2:00am
Discovery HD Theater

AMA Pro Road Racing, Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, CA
3:00am-4:00am – Daytona Sportbike
4:00am-5:00am – American Superbike
Speed

Isle of Man TT, Isle of Man
Pokerstars Senior TT Race
4:00am-5:00am
Discovery HD Theater

Twist the Throttle, Ducati
5:00am-6:00am
Discovery HD Theater

AMA Pro Racing, Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, CA
American Superbike
1:00pm-2:00pm
Speed

FIM World Superbike Championship, Kyalami, South Africa
2:00pm-3:00pm – Supersport
Speed

Isle of Man TT, Isle of Man
600cc Supersport Race 2
2:00pm-3:00pm
Discovery HD Theater

Sunday, May 23

MotoGP World Championship
Monster Energy Grand Prix de France, Le Mans, France
2:00pm-3:00pm – MotoGP
3:00pm-4:00pm – Moto2
Speed

[SPEED Press Release]

DAYTONA BEACH, FL (February 19, 2010) – AMA Pro Racing and Daytona International Speedway are pleased to announce the Daytona Short Track National will air in high-definition Sunday, March 7th on SPEED at 6 p.m. ET.

Back-to-back Daytona Short Track Nationals will kick off the 2010 AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship at the new DAYTONA® Flat Track on March 3rd and 4th. After traditionally being staged at Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium, the events now have a new home on a quarter-mile lime rock dirt track located in the West Lot outside NASCAR Turns 1 and 2.

The one hour show will feature highlights from March 3rd with coverage of the March 4th race.  The Daytona Short Track Nationals have a tradition as two of the most difficult nationals of the year just to make the main events, as over 300 entries are expected over the two days. Speed will capture the excitement and thrills of handle bar to handle bar action on the ultra fast quarter-mile track.

Henry Wiles will make his first appearance of the year carrying the No. 1 plate on his Kawasaki 450 after winning the 2009 AMA Pro Grand National Expert Singles division. Defending Pro Singles National Champion Brad Baker will make his debut on a Honda 450 carrying the No. 1 in the Pro Singles National.

“We are thrilled that our season opener on the new DAYTONA® Flat Track will be on SPEED,” AMA Pro Racing Director of Flat Track, Mike Kidd said. “This is a great opportunity for our fans, riders, teams and sponsors to showcase one of the most exciting forms of motorcycle racing in the country.”

SPEED™ is the nation’s first and foremost cable television network dedicated to motor sports and the passion for everything automotive. From racing to restoration, motorcycles to movies, SPEED delivers quality programming from the track to the garage. Now available in more than 79 million homes in North America, SPEED is among the fastest-growing sports cable networks in the country and, the home to NASCAR on SPEED and an industry leader in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services. For more information, please visit SPEEDtv.com, the online motor sports authority.

AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines.  Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com.

This is a twitter-inspired blog post. The YouTube clip that started it all can be found HERE.  The link to that clip was originally tweeted by Alphonso and commented on by Bridget.  Bridget’s comment on Alphonso’s link was a simple “Just what I needed right now to get me through the rest of the day,” which was a stark contrast to one of the comments posted on YouTube: “would be boring to go like 1 mile to see 15 motorbikes for like 0.30 seconds.”  Those two philosophies pretty much sum up the difference between motorcycle racing fans and everyone else.

I’m a motorcycle racing fan.  I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a motorcycle racing fan. Like most people reading this blog, to me there’s nothing like the smell of an engine and the heat of the asphalt.  A paddock pass, an event program and a hot dog and I’m good to go.  It doesn’t matter if the sun’s heating everything up to plus-100-degree temperatures or a monsoon is threatening to flood the entire infield, nothing beats a day at the track – except a weekend at the track.  Friends who don’t get it have asked me, “How can you spend all that money, walk around all day in the heat, finally find a place to sit and then watch the bikes go past for one second.  Those people are the unlucky ones who’ve never experienced that one second.

It’s that one second that makes racing. To you and me, sitting in the grandstands, it’s the blink of an eye.  To the racer on the track, it’s a lifetime. Races are won and careers are ended in one second of speed. Records – and bones – are broken within that one second of speed.  Some of us are lucky enough to live that one second on the track, but regardless of whether we’re watching, pressed up against the fence, or piloting a 220bhp GP machine with our knees and elbows dragging the pavement, we’re all connected by that one second of speed.

Of course, there’s so much more to a race weekend.  It’s the entire experience that draws us to it, whether it’s an amateur event or MotoGP.  It’s the atmosphere: Friends, vendors, bikes. The sights, the smells, the sounds.  It’s practice, warm-ups and qualifying. But all of that is disguised anticipation. Anticipation of that one second.  The poor guy who has already decided that walking a mile to see 15 bikes go by would be boring doesn’t understand that most of us would walk much farther to watch far fewer bikes go by.  Those guys on the Isle of Man TT course at Keppel Gate near the 34^th didn’t take the party bus up there.  The hundreds of fans at the top of the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca didn’t catch a ride. They’re there for that one second, and they do whatever it takes to get there for that one second.

There’s a lot of talk on Twitter about this weekend’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP, and the discussions are evidence of how the desire for that one second has the ability to remove any trace of rational thought from a person’s mind.  There’s talk about missing work, missing bills. Putting in 16 hours of drive time between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening.  Sleeping in cars.  Normal people don’t think like this, do they? Cycle World’s Peter Egan once wrote “Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague desire for something salty,” and how right he is.

Whether you’re a racer or a fan – or both – common sense seems to go out the window when you’re in search of that one second of speed. In the grand scheme of the universe, one second is meaningless. It’s a microscopic moment lost somewhere in an eon. But, when you’re in search of speed, that one second is the most important moment in the world.  So, if you’re thinking about heading up to Indianapolis this weekend, ask yourself one simple question.  Are all the sacrifices necessary to get there this weekend worth one thing, that one second of speed?

Tune In Reminder – Day 2 of the Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals Air Tonight on SPEED