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Like Phoenix, in every metro market you’ll find an event that you can enjoy and participate in: car
shows, cruise-ins, autocrosses, races, rallies, drive and dines, tech lectures, parades, power tours, and the
list goes on. One of the Corvette Clubs in Phoenix has the motto, “If you’re not having fun it’s not our
fault!” and that pretty much sums it up and applies to what events are available in most metro markets.
Never have there been so many events for the automobile fanatic. And once again I say, “Lucky me!”
Even when you can’t get your car out of the garage
because the snow is too deep, don’t despair! There
are other auto-related venues you can enjoy without
leaving the comfort of your home. The most obvious
is TV. There are some of you old enough to
remember when there were no automobile or
motorsports programs on TV. Hard to imagine, but
in the fifties the only TV coverage pertaining to
automobiles were the advertisements for the “Big
Three” US auto manufacturers. Except for some
local TV coverage around Indianapolis during the
Indianapolis 500 there was no racing of any type to
be found on TV. Automobile racing and motorsports didn’t debut on TV until the sixties. No NASCAR,
no Formula 1, no American LeMans, no Indy car (USAC), no SCCA Runoffs, no Dirt Track racing, no
Drag Racing. You get the point.
It was not until the early sixties that auto racing made its debut on national TV. I remember my
excitement when I found out that the Grand Prix of Monaco was actually going to be shown on network
TV in 1962. For the first time in my twelve years I was able to see a Formula 1 car actually racing. Before
that I could only read about, look at pictures, and dream of them. It wasn’t until the seventies before
national TV networks realized the motorsports “golden goose” had just started to lay the “golden egg” of
TV coverage.
Today there are at least two cable TV networks devoted to nothing but the automobile. In addition every
major race is also broadcast on either network or cable TV. If you have cable, dish or direct TV you can
watch several automobile programs any given hour of the day. Every conceivable type of motorsports is
covered from mud racing to rock crawling. It is hard to find an hour of the day during the racing season
when you can’t find something on TV about NASCAR. Today every major event in Formula 1, Indy Car,
NHRA plus a plethora of European and Australian racing is covered in depth.
In addition to the motorsports coverage, over the
past decade TV has discovered that there is a huge
market for reality based automobile and motorcycle
programs. “American Chopper” just ended their
ten year run. We can watch Chip Foose building
another “Riddler Award” car, or Wayne Carini
chasing another classic car and losing money on his
latest auction recommendation. We can watch Ryan
on “West Coast Customs” build a custom Camaro
for Rascal Flatts. SPEED®, formerly Speedvision®,
discovered covering the Barrett Jackson® auctions
on national TV was also big business. Then
Velocity® TV jumped on the bandwagon broadcasting Mecum® auctions. Now each of their several
auction events is covered in depth. Mecum’s Kissimmee auction and Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction
will each be televised over forty hours, many of those hours broadcast “live”. Never before has there been
so much coverage of automobile events of every type. And as an enthusiast I say, “Lucky me!”