The 79th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours -- the world's most prestigious endurance race -- highlights a diverse lineup of motor sports disciplines to be featured on Speed this weekend.
Uninterrupted live, multi-platform race coverage from Circuit de la Sarthe starts June 11 at 8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 a.m. PT.
Speed and Speed.com are lining up 25 hours of fully produced, flag-to-flag high-definition coverage from this historic endurance event, 18 hours on the linear network and seven hours slated for Speed.com.
Le Mans is definitely the centerpiece. "The coolest racing throughout the world can be seen on the network that weekend," Speed president Hunter Nickell said in a statment.
With both of Speed's control rooms in Charlotte, N.C., at capacity to manage Formula One, MotoGP and Speed Center, a full remote television compound unit is being brought in to handle Le Mans, treating on-site production as the network would an off-site race presentation.
Five separate feeds -- timing & scoring, ACO's race cut world feed, full-time on-board cameras, dedicated pit cameras and a dedicated framing shot -- originate from France and are first beamed to Geneva's Eurovision. They receive and re-transmit that stream to Charlotte, which is then sent on to Los Angeles for distribution.
"Once the signals get to Charlotte, we insert our graphics, generate replays, historic footage and the visual enhancements that have always defined our race day presentations," Rick Miner, Speed SVP of Production & Network Operations, said in the statement. "Now imagine us conducting similar operations for Formula One and MotoGP all in the same timeframe. For instance, we're also putting together our full, regular broadcast for F1 -- a race seen live on Fox on Sunday (June 12) -- as well as a full MotoGP presentation. It's one of the busiest race weekends we undertake throughout the year."
On Friday night June 10, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series takes to Texas Motor Speedway at 9 p.m. ET, a show preceded by NCWTS Setup at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Immediately following the dramatic start to Le Mans on Saturday morning (June 10) and subsequent coverage switch to Speed.com, the linear network heads live to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying from Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., at 11:30 a.m. ET.
Speed then transitions to Formula One qualifying from the Canadian Grand Prix at 2 p.m. ET, rejoining Le Mans at 3:30 p.m. ET to capture the race's sunset hours.
At 8 p.m. ET, on-track action from Pocono heats back up as the ARCA Racing Series battles it out, while the two-wheeled set gets in on the action at 10 p.m. ET as the AMA Pro Motocross event rolls off from High Point Raceway in Mt. Morris, Pa.
Starting at 11 p.m. ET, Speed takes the audience to Le Mans for more than 10 hours of nonstop coverage of night into day and the dramatic conclusion on Sunday morning (June 12).
A special edition of Speed Center at 9:30 am ET wraps up Le Mans, the previous day's activities and primes the pump for NASCAR RaceDay Built by The Home Depot live from the Speed Stage at 10 a.m. ET. Host John Roberts, Kyle Petty, Kenny Wallace, Hermie Sadler and Wendy Venturini provide the latest news heading into the Pocono 500.
Speed then heads in a whole different direction, as the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series from Batesville (Ark.) Speedway leads into four hours of motorcycle racing starting with the British Grand Prix Moto 2 (1 p.m. ET) and the MotoGP World Championship (2 p.m. ET) from Silverstone.
Then two races from the FIM World Superbike Championship (San Marino) are on tap starting at 3 p.m. ET, while the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge from Watkins Glen International at 5 p.m. ET rounds out the on-track coverage.
Wrapping up the weekend is Speed Center at 7 p.m. ET, NASCAR Victory Lane at 8 p.m. ET and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain at 9 p.m. ET.
