ILXgirl

Watched 3/4 hrs and didn't see C7.R until 9 min. left and then on last lap when it was passed by leader. Not hard to spot yellow corvette. Saw shots of LMP1 Toyota a hundred times. Boo on Velocity TV.

Mcrider

C7R was never in the mix from the drop of the green flag. You want TV exposure, run with the leaders, or be the leader. This isn't Velocity's fault, it's GM's. The feed you everybody was watching was broadcast world wide and the Corvettes are an American only race car, Want exposure, run better and run in the WEC like Ford does.

dvilin

As Mcrider states you want exposure you have to run up front or crash.

Demnos

Vet Interested

Back markers get no TV time and do not deserve it. Velocity did a great job covering Lemans.

R50THC5

descartesfool

LeMans coverage was really great and I enjoyed it a lot. Corvettes were nowhere in terms of performance and there was no Corvette story to tell. They were just backmarkers this year. Why would any TV channel cover that? GT classes were all Porsche this year. Great for Patrick Dempsey's team to get the win in their class.

It was very nice to see Toyota win overall with a 1-2 finish after trying since 1999, and their cars and drivers were simply bulletproof, from pole to finish.

spireland

I thought Velocity's coverage was pretty great. They stayed with certain cars, commentary was on point, and great camera work. Can't get upset at them because the team that isn't do well, in one of four classes, doesn't get much coverage.

C6_Racer_X

Velocity didn't do the coverage. They carried coverage from a European source, and even the commentators mentioned that they were getting the "World feed video," so they had no control of what was airing.



GM isn't interested in European endurance racing. They don't field any Corvettes in the World Endurance Championship, except when they ship the American (IMSA) cars over to Le Mans for the 24hrs. They don't sell any cars to privateer teams, either. So there's only two tired old C7-R's with no real money for development because all the development work now is on the C8-R for next year.



Even with American camera crews, the Corvettes probably would have gotten less coverage than the 4 Ganassi Fords, where there was a Team USA vs. Team UK rivalry playing out on track, and the cars were more competitive with the leaders.

budgreen3564

much better coverage than FOX Sports and all on one channel

Kent1999

It was like “24 hours of Toyota”

TKgs2010

Honestly, I thought Velocity did a great job covering the whole race, MAJOR improvement over the previous clusterf**k that was Fox Sports. The #64 had early issues and was never in the mix, retired early, and the #63 was right there, but 2 early safety cars put them well back from the lead pack, and they never could get it back. The #63 actually had the fastest race lap in GTE Pro, the only car to dip into the 3:49's.

Kent1999

I respectfully disagree -- so-called "coverage" was horrible. I certainly didn't expect them to focus JUST on the C7.R, but it was like there were only LMP class cars in the event -- extremely little coverage of the other class cars, unless there was a wreck. I guess they thought no one cared about the other classes in the race?

Race video that focuses solely on the leader for the entirety of the event or ONLY cover 1 of the 4 classes is pretty boring. It would be like attending the race in person, but closing your eyes anytime the leader isn't passing by your seat.

sunsalem

That is correct.
Velocity just wrote the check for the American rights.

The reason is GM considers CR part of their marketing program.
The whole point of its existence is to sell more GM cars to the motoring public.
General Motors is not a racing team.

sunsalem

Thank you.
I was beginning to think I was the only one.

SRQStingray

I watched quite a bit of the coverage and felt it was well done. If the Corvettes had been more competetive, they would have gotten more coverage.

plmmd

Would have seen more vette coverage if the safety car was a zr 1 and it crashed during the race- that got a lot of play two weeks ago!

Mcrider

I would hope that GM will have taken note of how Ford re entered endurance racing with the Ford GT and adopt their mentality with the C8. The Ford GT sweep at LeMans after a 50 year hiatus was the type of press you just can't buy, and the C8 could be the car that puts the Corvette on the world stage as a legitimate supercar against the best the other manufacturers have to offer.

davepl

If the American audience wants to see the American team and the American Television company that brings it to them fails by simply mirroring a feed of interest to more mainstream European viewers... then yes, the coverage sucked in the opinion of those who cared about that!

Foosh

I can't remember any racing broadcast that spent much, if any time, covering cars that are completely out of contention. The C7Rs were never in contention.

And BTW, this was not an American broadcast. Velocity simply purchased the rights to broadcast the European-based coverage. Velocity had nothing to do with it's production. However, kudos to Velocity for airing the entire 24 hours. I thought it was a superior broadcast to anything I've seen from Fox Sports.