Live coverage of Petit Le Mans announced

SPEED Channel Live with Seven Hours of Petit Le Mans Coverage at Road Atlanta

BRASELTON, Ga. (October 13, 2003) -- The SPEED Channel will have seven hours of live coverage from Saturday's Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, the season-ending event for the American Le Mans Series.

The professional sports car racing series will close its 2003 campaign with an endurance race that covers 1,000 miles, or 10 hours, whichever comes first on the 2.54-mile road racing circuit located in the Georgia hills north of Atlanta. Both driver and manufacturer championships are on the line and will be determined in the event. The race starts in late morning and ends well after darkness, creating the effects of flaming exhaust, glowing brakes and glaring headlights that sports car racing fans love.

With the length of the race, SPEED Channel is beefing up its normal crew of announcers for American Le Mans Series racing, with sports car racing anchor Leigh Diffey joined by Bob Varsha for play-by-play. Also joining the telecast will be David Hobbs, who normally works on SPEED's Formula One telecasts as an analyst, supplementing SPEED road racing analyst Bill Adam.

Covering the action in the pits will be Calvin Fish, Martin Haven, Andrew Marriott and Brian Till.

SPEED's coverage begins with a pre-race show at 11 a.m. (ET), with the race getting underway at 11:30 a.m. SPEED will leave Road Atlanta at 12:30 p.m., but will return at 3 p.m. for three hours of coverage.

After leaving at 6 p.m., the cable network will return at 7 p.m. and will be on the air until 9:30 p.m., covering the finish of the race as well as post-race activities.

As has been the case all season for the American Le Mans Series, Wheeler Television will produce the telecast of the event for SPEED Channel. Wheeler TV Executive Producer will be Patti Wheeler, while the show producer will be Jim Roller. Billy McCoy will direct the telecast.

-alms-