Dakar rally coverage?

Speed, in their infinite wisdom, has apparently decided to drop broadcast coverage of the Dakar Rally this year. I guess they needed more timeslots to cover hillbilly bumpkins turning left, or "Cooking With the Wives of Hillbilly Bumpkins", or "Hillbilly Bumpkins Behind the Wrenches", or "I Wanna Date a Hillbilly Bumpkin", or "Classic Hillbilly Bumpkins Turning Left, circa 2003", or whatever it is that they play between NASCAR seasons. :roll:

Anyway, does anyone know where I can get broadcast coverage of the most famous and grueling endurance race known to man? Or am I stuck watching "Teenage Mutant Hillbilly Bumpkins" on Speed?

What is wrong with Hillbilly Bumpkins? :roll:

I can't help you, but I can sympathize. :(

You have to remember that FOX owns Speed and thus will air all the other NASCAR programming it would like to air on FOX but can't. I remember they promised they would continue coverage on all sorts of racing but I have yet to see that promise be carried out. I used to watch DTM racing on Speed but no longer. :cry:

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Originally Posted by onething

What is wrong with Hillbilly Bumpkins? :roll:

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Nothing really. I realize that it has a large fan base in this country, and I don't really have a problem with that (even if I don't particularly enjoy it). But I do get sick of the fact that Speed covers every excruciating little piece of minutia that is in any way associated with the sport ("Up next on Speed! A half-hour in-depth special on what Jeff Gordon had for dinner last Tuesday!"), and that they devote so many programming hours towards it. It is a popular motorsport and it should have its rightful place on a channel dedicated to motorsports, but why not balance that coverage with coverage of other forms of motorsports?

Think for a minute what it would be like if ESPN were the only 24-hour all-sports network on TV, and they suddenly decided to devote 23 hours of every daily programming schedule to ping pong. That's great if you love ping pong, but what if you don't?

Heck I even read where one of the NASCAR boys won the first stage..... :wink:

No Dakar on Speed, well that sucks I always enjoyed watching it... :cry:

Not as good as the last time I watched it, but it should get some coverage on OLN. It looks like they're doing "Rider Search" from now through the 21st with some rally coverage starting on the 22nd.

Here's what a friend sent meabout OLN's coverage:

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Saturday, January 22, 2005
9:30PM - 10:30PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Sunday, January 23, 2005
9:30PM - 10:30PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Monday, January 24, 2005
12:30AM - 1:30AM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Monday, January 24, 2005
10:00PM - 11:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
1:00AM - 2:00AM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
10:00PM - 11:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
1:00AM - 2:00AM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
10:00PM - 11:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Thursday, January 27, 2005
1:00AM - 2:00AM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Saturday, January 29, 2005
2:00PM - 3:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Saturday, January 29, 2005
3:00PM - 4:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Saturday, January 29, 2005
4:00PM - 5:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Saturday, January 29, 2005
5:00PM - 6:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Saturday, January 29, 2005
6:00PM - 7:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
4:00PM - 5:00PM DAKAR RALLY (TV-PG)
DAKAR RALLY
TBD

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Looks like TC is correct.

This is strange...

OLN isn't covering Luge and Bobsledding... it's on Speed... I wonder what the Speed program directors were thinking on this one.

I was up pretty late last night and checked out some of the OLN coverage. Not too bad.

Chuck

Yeah, I've been watching it this past week. OLN's coverage wasn't too bad - the only downside I saw was that there was almost zero coverage of the trucks.

I was shocked to find out that Fabrizio Meoni was killed on Stage 11. :cry: