Live motorsports tripleheader across NBC, NBCSN and CNBC this Sunday

By Jerry BonkowskiJul 16, 2014, 3:20 PM EDT

* Honda Indy Toronto Doubleheader – Races 1 and 2 at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday andSunday on NBCSN

* Formula One German Grand Prix – Sunday at 7:30 a.m. ET on CNBC

* Global RallyCross New York – Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC

* Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Spring Creek National – Saturday at 6 p.m. ET on NBCSN

* Iowa Indy Corn 300 Most-Watched IndyCar Race on NBCSN in More Than Two Years

NBC Sports Group presents coverage of six different racing series this weekend, including a live tripleheader on Sunday featuring the Verizon IndyCar Series, coming off the most-watched race on cable in more than two years, Formula One, and Red Bull Global RallyCross across NBCSN, CNBC and NBC, totaling more than 30 hours of motorsports coverage. In addition, NBCSN will present races from the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross series, as well as races from Indy Lights and GP2, the developmental series for IndyCar and F1.

Sunday’s live motorsports tripleheader begins at 7:30 a.m. ET on CNBC with the F1 German Grand Prix, followed by Global RallyCross action from New York at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, and Race 2 of the Honda Indy Toronto doubleheader at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

NBC Sports Live Extra – NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets – will provide live streaming coverage of this week’s IndyCar, Formula One, Global Rallycross and Lucas Oil Pro Motocross events.

INDYCAR HONDA INDY TORONTO DOUBLEHEADER – SATURDAY AND SUNDAY AT 3 P.M. ET ON NBCSN

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series continues this weekend from the streets of Toronto with the Honda Indy Toronto Doubleheader. Coverage starts at 1:30 p.m. ET with qualifying, leading into live coverage of Race 1 at 3 p.m. ET. NBCSN will present live coverage of Race 2 at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, followed by the Indy Lights Toronto race at 6 p.m. ET.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport), who won in Toronto in 2012, earned his third victory of the 2014 season last weekend at Iowa Speedway, passing Tony Kanaan (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) in the final two laps to earn the checkered flag. Hunter-Reay now sits in third place in the championship points standings behind Helio Castroneves (Team Penske, 471 points) and Will Power (Team Penske, 462 points).

Bob Varsha will call the Hondy Indy Toronto doubleheader on-site, alongside Toronto native and two-time Hondy Indy Toronto winner Paul Tracy, and Townsend Bell, who raced in this year’s Indy 500. Reporters Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Kevin Lee and Robin Miller will report from the pits. Lee will handle play-by-play of the Indy Lights Toronto race alongside analysts Anders Krohn and Jake Query.

FORMULA ONE GERMAN GRAND PRIX – SUNDAY AT 7:30 A.M. ET ON CNBC

NBCSN’s coverage of the F1 German Grand Prix begins Friday at 4 a.m. ET on NBC Sports Live Extra with Practice 1, followed by Practice 2 at 8 a.m. ET, and Practice 3 at 5 a.m. ET on Saturday. NBCSN will also present coverage of Practice 2 on Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET. CNBC’s live coverage starts with qualifying on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. ET, with an encore presentation airing at noon ET on NBCSN. Live coverage of the German Grand Prix begins at 7:30 a.m. ET on Sunday on CNBC, followed by an encore at noon ET on NBCSN.

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) pulled within four points of championship leader and teammate Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) with a victory at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix two weeks ago, after Rosberg retired on lap 29 due to gearbox issues. Hamilton is a two-time winner of the German Grand Prix, winning at the Hockenheimring on both occasions, where this year’s race will take place. The German Grand Prix has alternated between Hockenheimring and Nurburgring since 2006.

Lead F1 announcer Leigh Diffey will call the German Grand Prix, and will be joined by veteran analyst and former racecar driver David Hobbs, and analyst and former race mechanic for the Benetton F1 team Steve Matchett. F1 insider Will Buxton will serve as the team’s on-site reporter from Hockenheimring in Hockenehim, Germany, and will also call Sunday’s GP2 race, which airs at 7 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

RED BULL GLOBAL RALLYCROSS NEW YORK – SUNDAY AT 2 P.M. ET ON NBC

NBC’s coverage of the 2014 Red Bull Global RallyCross Championship continues on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET from New York. Patrik Sandell(Olsbergs MSE) will look to build off of his win in the Washington D.C. race on June 22, while Scott Speed (Volkswagen Andretti) hopes to hold his lead over Nelson Piquet Jr. (SH Racing) in the driver standings.

Veteran motorsports play-by-play announcer Brian Till will call the action on Sunday on-site from Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., joined by motorsports analyst Tommy Kendall and reporter Kristen Kenney.

LUCAS OIL PRO MOTOCROSS SPRING CREEK NATIONAL – SATURDAY AT 6 P.M. ET ON NBCSN

NBC, NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra will combine to present five hours of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Spring Creek National coverage from Millville, Minn. on Saturday. Coverage starts on Live Extra at 11:30 a.m. ET with practice, followed by the pre-race show at 11:15 p.m. ET. Race coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on Live Extra with 1st Motos, followed by live coverage of the 450 Class of 2nd Motos at 4 p.m. ET, and 250 Class of 2nd Motos at 5 p.m. ET.

Last weekend, Ryan Dungey took the 450 Class at Budds Creek National for his third straight win in Mechanicsville, while Blake Baggettmatched Dungey’s accomplishment with his third straight Budds Creek National victory in the 250 Class.

Veteran play-by-play voice Jason Weigandt, analyst and two-time AMA Pro Motocross Champion Grant Langston, and pit reporter Georgia Lindsay will call the action from Spring Creek National in Millville, Minn.

IOWA INDY CORN 300 MOST-WATCHED INDYCAR RACE ON NBCSN IN MORE THAN TWO YEARS

Last Saturday’s Iowa Indy Corn 300 on NBCSN (8:25-11:03 p.m. ET) averaged 444,000 viewers, making it the most-watched IndyCar race on NBCSN since the Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2012 (4/5/12, 468,000). Viewership was up 75% from the same race in 2012 (254,000), which was delayed due to rain (no cable comparison for 2013).

Through seven races this year, NBCSN’s IndyCar coverage is averaging 391,000 viewers, up 37% from the first seven races of 2013 on the network (285,000).

Additionally, last week’s live Lucas Oil Pro Motocross coverage from Budds Creek National on NBCSN (3-5 p.m. ET) averaged 210,000 viewers, up 23% from NBCSN’s 2013 average live motocross viewership.

**Motorsports Coverage This Week on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra:**

Date	Program	Time (ET)	Network
Thu., July 17	Motocross Highlight Series	11 p.m.	NBCSN
Fri., July 18	F1 German Grand Prix – Practice 1	4 a.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	F1 German Grand Prix – Practice 2	8 a.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	F1 German Grand Prix – Practice 2 (Encore)	2:30 p.m.	NBCSN
Sat., July 19	F1 German Grand Prix – Practice 3	5 a.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	F1 German Grand Prix – Qualifying	8 a.m.	CNBC
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross – Spring Creek (Practice)	11:30 a.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	F1 German Grand Prix – Qualifying (Encore)	Noon	NBCSN
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross – Spring Creek (Pre-Show)	1:15 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Honda Indy Toronto – Qualifying	1:30 p.m.	NBCSN
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross – Spring Creek 1stMotos	2 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Honda Indy Toronto – Race 1	3 p.m.	NBCSN
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Spring Creek – 450 Class	4 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Spring Creek – 250 Class	5 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross – Spring Creek National	6 p.m.	NBCSN
Sun., July 20	F1 German Grand Prix	7:30 a.m.	CNBC
	F1 Extra	10 a.m.	CNBC
	F1 German Grand Prix (Encore)	11:30 a.m.	NBCSN
	F1 Extra (Encore)	2 p.m.	NBCSN
	Red Bull Global RallyCross – New York	2 p.m.	NBC
	Honda Indy Toronto – Race 2	3 p.m.	NBCSN
	Indy Lights Toronto	6 p.m.	NBCSN
	GP2 Germany	7 p.m.	NBCSN

MOTORSPORTS ON NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA: NBC Sports Live Extra — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets — will provide live streaming coverage of this week’s Formula One, IndyCar, Global Rallycross and Lucas Oil Pro Motocross events. The majority of coverage will be provided via “TV Everywhere,” the media industry’s effort to make quality content available to authenticated customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms.

For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at http://www.nbcsports.com/liveextra. The NBC Sports Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets is available at the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.

Races airing on:

NBC will live stream to PCs, mobile devices and tablets through NBC Sports Live Extra;
NBCSN will live stream to PCs, mobile devices and tablets through NBC Sports Live Extra, and to the digital platforms of participating cable, satellite, and telco services, via “TV Everywhere,” which is available on an authenticated basis to subscribers of participating MVPDs;
CNBC will live stream exclusively through NBC Sports Live Extra via “TV Everywhere.”

MOTORSPORTSTALK: MotorSportsTalk (@MotorSportsTalk) on NBCSports.com brings racing fans up-to-the-minute news, video and information on the Formula One, Verizon IndyCar Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and all other motorsports racing from around the world. The site also serves as the destination for all news, analysis and video from NBC and NBCSN productions of IndyCar and F1, including contributions from on-air commentators.

MotorSportsTalk’s content is provided by top racing journalists and expert analysts, including:

Luke Smith is creator and editor at Richland F1, which begins its second season this year. He’s on Twitter at @LukeSmithF1, primarily handling the F1 scene from Europe in great detail.
Tony DiZinno has most recently served as web editor for RACER Magazine and has more than seven years of experience in the industry. Follow him on Twitter at @TonyDiZinno.
Chris Estrada has written for NBCSports.com’s MotorsportsTalk since its inception in 2013, and has been a contributor for various outlets, including the Boston Globe, IndyCar Nation and FoxSports.com. Follow him at @estradawriting.
Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran NASCAR reporter with more than 30 years of experience. He has contributed to USA Today, Yahoo! Sports and other websites over the course of his career. Follow him on Twitter @JerryBonkowski.

To explore the site, please visit MotorSportsTalk.com.nbcsports.com or www.NBCSports.com.

SOCIAL: Follow @MotorsportsTalk, @F1onNBCSports and @NBCSN on Twitter and “like” Facebook.com/NBC Sports for the most up-to-date news, videos and commentary about Formula One on NBC Sports and NBCSN.

Heart of Racing program aims to elevate new generation of women to star in sports cars

By Nate RyanMar 29, 2023, 12:00 PM EDT

Mike Levitt/LAT Images/Heart of Racing

(Editor’s note: This story on the Heart of Racing sports cars shootout for women is one in an occasional Motorsports Talk series focusing on women in racing during March, which is Women’s History Month.)

Heart of Racing driver and team manager Ian James says his daughter, Gabby, isn’t so interested in auto racing. But she is interested (as a New York-based journalist) in writing about the sport’s efforts and growth in gender equality

It’s a topic that also was brought up by James’ wife, Kim.

“They’re always saying, ‘Hey, you manage all these guys, and you help them, so why not a woman?’ ” Ian James told NBC Sports. “And I feel like there are a lot of women that haven’t had a fair crack at it in sports car racing.

“Our whole DNA at Heart of Racing is we give people opportunities in all types of situations where there’s been crew personnel or drivers. And I felt like we hadn’t really addressed the female driver situation. I felt like there was a void to give somebody a chance to really prove themselves.”

During the offseason, the team took a major step toward remedying that.

*Hannah Grisham at the Heart of Racing shootout (Mike Levitt/LAT)*

Heart of Racing held its first female driver shootout last November at the APEX Motor Club in Phoenix, Arizona, to select two women who will co-drive an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 in the SRO SprintX Championship.

The season will begin this weekend at Sonoma Raceway with Hannah Grisham and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt behind the wheel. The team also picked a third driver, 17-year-old Annie Rhule, for a 2023 testing program.

The Phoenix audition included 10 finalists who were selected from 130 applicants to the program, which has been fully underwritten by Heart of Racing’s sponsors.

“We didn’t want it to be someone who just comes from a socio-economic background that could afford to do it on their own course,” James said. “We can pick on pure talent. We’re committed to three years to do this and see if we can find the right person. I’m very hopeful.”

So is Grisham, a Southern California native who has been racing since she was 6 in go-karts and since has won championships in Mazda and Miata ladder series. She has several victories in the World Racing League GP2 (an amateur sports car endurance series). The last two years, Grisham has worked as a test driver for the Pirelli tire company (she lives near Pirelli’s U.S. headquarters in Rome, Georgia, and tests about 30 times a year).

Starting with the Sonoma during SprintX event weekends (which feature races Saturday and Sunday), she will split the Heart of Racing car with O’Meara-Hunt (a New Zealand native she got to know at the shootout).

“It’s huge; the biggest opportunity I’ve had in this sport,” Grisham, 23, told NBC Sports. “Now it’s up to me to perform how I know I can. But I’m super lucky to be with such an amazing team and have a good teammate. The Heart of Racing has a family vibe and energy to it that’s really amazing. It’s super exciting. It’s hard to put into words.”

Grisham is hopeful that a strong performance eventually could lead to a full-time ride with Heart of Racing. The team has full-time entries in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and won the GTD category of the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona with the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 piloted by James, Darren Turner, Roman DeAngelis and Marco Sorensen.

James said “there’s no guarantee” of placement in an IMSA entry for Grisham and O’Meara-Hunt, but “if they prove themselves, we’ll continue to help them throughout their career and our team. The GT3 program is an obvious home for that. If they get the opportunity and don’t quite make it, we’ll be looking for the next two. The next three years, we’ll cycle through drivers until we find the right one.”

Grisham described the two-day shootout as a friendly but intense environment. After a day of getting acclimated to their cars, drivers qualified on new tires the second day and then did two 25-minute stints to simulate a race.

*Hannah Grisham reviews data with Heart of Racing sports car driver Gray Newell during the team’s shootout last November (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

“Everyone was super nice,” she said. “Once everyone gets in the car, it’s a different level. A different switch gets turned on. Everyone was super nice; everyone was quick. I feel we had an adequate amount of seat time, which is definitely helpful.

“It’s always cool to meet more women in the sport because there’s not too many of us, even though there’s more and more. It’s always cool to meet really talented women, especially there were so many from all over the world.”

IMSA has celebrated female champions and race winners, notably Katherine Legge (who is running GTD full time this season with Sheena Monk for Gradient Racing). The field at Sebring and Daytona also included the Iron Dames Lamborghini (a female-dominated team).

*The Heart of Racing’s female driver shootout drew interested candidates from around the world (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

James believes “a breakout female driver will be competing with the best of them” in the next five years as gender barriers slowly recede in motorsports.

“It’s been a male-dominated sport,” James said. “It’s still a very minute number of women drivers compared to the guys. I’m sure back in the day there were physical hurdles about it that were judged. But now the cars are not very physical to drive, and it’s more about technique and mental strength and stuff like that, and there’s no reason a girl shouldn’t do just as well as a guy. What we’re just trying to achieve is that there isn’t an obvious barrier to saying ‘Hey, I can’t hire a guy or a girl.’ We just want to put girls in front of people and our own program that are legitimate choices going forward for people.”

“There’s been some really good female drivers, but a lot of them just haven’t been able to sustain it, and a lot of that comes from sponsorship. I think (with the shootout), there’s no pressure of raising money and worrying about crash damage. We’ve taken care of all that so they can really focus on the job at hand.”

Funding always has been a hurdle for Grisham, who caught the racing bug from her father, Tom, an off-road driver who raced the Baja 1000 several times.

“I don’t come from a lot of money by any means,” she said. “So since a young age, I’ve always had to find sponsorships and get people to help me, whether it was buying tires, paying for entry fees, paying for the shipment of a car to an actual race. Literally knocking on the doors of people or businesses in my town.

“So yeah, it’s definitely something I’ve always struggled with and held me back because the sport revolves so much around money. So again to get this opportunity is insane.”

*Rianna O’Meara-Hunt was one of two women selected by the Heart of Racing to drive in the SRO SprintX Championship this year (Mike Levitt/LAT).*

Grisham credits racing pioneer Lyn St. James (an Indy 500 veteran and sports car champion) as a role model who has helped propel her career. She was hooked by the sights, smells and sounds of racing but also its competitive fire.

“There’s a zone you get in, that subconscious state of mind when you’re driving. It’s like addictive almost. I love it. Also I’m just a very competitive person as I think most race car drivers are.

“For sure I want to stay with the Heart of Racing. Obviously, I’m still getting to know everyone, but it’s a super family vibe. That’s how I grew up in the sport with just my dad and I wrenching on the cars. That’s what I love about this sport is all the amazing people you meet. And I think this is one of the most promising teams in this country. For sure, I want to learn as much as I can from them and hopefully continue. I feel so lucky and grateful to be one of those chosen.”