IndyCar at Milwaukee, Motocross in Indy highlight NBCSN weekend coverage - MotorSportsTalk

NBC Sports Group presents more than 30 hours of motorsports coverage this weekend across NBC, NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra, highlighted by the IndyCar ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at the famed Milwaukee Mile on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

NBC Sports Group will also feature coverage of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships from the Indiana National on Saturday, Mecum Auctions from Monterey beginning on Thursday, and new episodes of Mecum Dealmakers: Indianapolis and /DRIVE on NBC Sports on Thursday night.

All IndyCar, Lucas Oil Pro Motocross and Mecum Auctions’ coverage will be streamed live via NBC Sports Live Extra, NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets.

INDYCAR ABC SUPPLY WISCONSIN 250 – SUNDAY AT 3 P.M. ET ON NBCSN

NBCSN’s coverage of the IndyCar ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at the Milwaukee Mile begins Saturday evening with qualifying at 8 p.m. ET. Live race coverage begins on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, followed by coverage of the Indy Lights Milwaukee race at 6 p.m. ET.

Two weeks ago, Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing) earned his first win of the season with a victory at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, his fifth career victory at Mid-Ohio, making his way to the front after starting in 22nd position. Will Power (Team Penske) finished sixth to pass teammate Helio Castroneves for the Verizon IndyCar Series championships point lead.

The series shifts this week to the Milwaukee Mile, which holds the distinction as the oldest operating motor speedway in the world, hosting at least one auto race each year since 1903, except for the years during the U.S. involvement in World War II. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) has won the last two IndyCar races at the Milwaukee Mile.

NBC Sports Group’s lead motorsports voice Leigh Diffey will call the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 from West Allis, Wisc., alongside veteran driver/analyst Townsend Bell and veteran analyst and former racecar driver David Hobbs.

Reporters Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Kevin Lee and Robin Miller will report from the pits. Lee will be joined by Anders Krohn and Jake Query to call the Indy Lights Milwaukee race.

LUCAS OIL PRO MOTOCROSS INDIANA NATIONAL – SATURDAY

NBC, NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra will combine to present six hours of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Indiana National coverage from Crawfordsville, Ind., on Saturday. Coverage starts on Live Extra at 10:30 a.m. ET with practice, followed by the pre-race show at 12:15 p.m. ET. Race coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on Live Extra with Moto 1s, followed by live coverage of the 250 Class of 2nd Motos at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN. An encore presentation will air on NBCSN at 1 a.m. ET on Sunday.

Last weekend Ryan Dungey took the 450 Class at Unadilla National for his fourth win this year, and Christopher Pourcel earned his first victory of the season by winning the 250 Class.

Veteran play-by-play voice Jason Weigandt, analyst and two-time AMA Pro Motocross ChampionGrant Langston, and pit reporter Georgia Lindsay will call the action from Indiana National in Crawfordsville, Ind.

Motorsports Coverage This Week on NBC, NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra (subject to change):

Date	Program	Time (ET)	Network
Thurs., August 14	NASCAR America	5 p.m.	NBCSN
	Mecum Auctions: Monterey	6:30 p.m.	NBCSN
	Mecum Dealmakers: Kansas City (Encore)	9 p.m.	NBCSN
	*Mecum Dealmakers: Indianapolis*	10 p.m.	NBCSN
	*/DRIVE on NBC Sports*	11 p.m.	NBCSN
	/DRIVE on NBC Sports (Encore)	11:30 p.m.	NBCSN
Fri., August 15	Motocross Highlight Series	12 a.m.	NBCSN
	/DRIVE on NBC Sports (Encore)	1 a.m.	NBCSN
	Mecum Auctions: Monterey	6:30 p.m.	NBCSN
Sat., August 16	Pirelli World Challenge – Toronto & Mid-Ohio	12 a.m.	NBCSN
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Indiana – Practice	10:30 a.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Indiana – Pre-Show	12:15 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Indiana – Moto 1s	1 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Red Bull Series “Mavericks Invitational”	2:30 p.m.	NBC
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Indiana – 250 Class	5 p.m.	NBCSN
	IndyCar ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 – Qualifying	8 p.m.	NBCSN
	Mecum Auctions: Monterey	9 p.m.	NBCSN
Sun., August 17	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Indiana (Encore)	12 a.m.	NBCSN
	IndyCar ABC Supply Wisconsin 250	3 p.m.	NBCSN
	Indy Lights Milwaukee	6 p.m.	NBCSN

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(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.”