Weather KOs Knoxville Nationals TV
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Knoxville, IA - by Bruce Neimeth
Continued weather problems finally caused the 45th Annual Knoxville Nationals presented by Midwest Ford Dealers to miss the Saturday date for the first time since the mid-80s. The rescheduling to Sunday has taken the event out of the available TV window.
Senior management at Knoxville Raceway and Speed Channel worked throughout Saturday to keep the 4-hour live broadcast, even extending the start time to 11 pm EDT. When it was determined the races would be rescheduled to Sunday, Speed Channel, the fastest growing motorsports network and home to the “360” Knoxville Nationals, Knoxville Nationals and Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals worked with Knoxville Raceway to find a mutually acceptable prime-time slot for a highlights show.
With the earliest dates carrying into late fall, the logistics and cost involved in rescheduling the equipment and forty crew members it was determined that Knoxville Raceway would return focus to running the Friday and Saturday races this Sunday for the most important people here in Knoxville – the fans, teams and drivers.
According to Ralph Capitani, Director of Racing, “I appreciate Speed Channel working with us during the last few days. Obviously we will starting planning ahead for our 2006 broadcast as soon as possible and build in a timely date to air a tape-delay version of the event in case of weather problems. Hopefully we’ll go at least another 18 or so years before we have to deal with this again.”
Knoxville Raceway, using the in-house video production facility headed up by Kris Krohn, will video-tape today’s races and using already recorded early segments, produce a video-tape for sale in early fall. “Our contract with Speed Channel allows us to produce and market a highlights version of the Knoxville Nationals with a portion of the income shared with Speed Channel” said Bruce Neimeth, Director, Business Development.
The next air dates for Knoxville Raceway events include the 15th Annual “360” Knoxville Nationals on Saturday, August 20th at 8-10pm and the 2nd Annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals on Saturday, October 8th at 8-10 pm.
|