Fox televising 23 hours of Rolex 24

Fox Sports, using a multitude of platforms including the broadcast network, will air 23 hours of the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Fox originally planned to live stream the entire race on its Fox Sports Go app, but later decided to run most of the race on its two sports networks, Fox Sports 1 and FS2.

The FSG app is available in the Apple App Store and Google's Play Store.

The missing hour of TV coverage will be from 10 to 11 p.m. Saturday when Fox Sports 2 will carry post-fight coverage from an UFC event. FS1 has a Supercross race during that time slot.

The telecast of road-racing's "Super Bowl" event will begin with a 3-hour run on the Fox TV network beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday. At 5 p.m. the feed will move to FS1 until 10 p.m.

"We go straight into it," Fox announcer Calvin Fish said in a telephone interview. "We are live on Fox the first three hours so you want to put your best foot forward as do the teams.

"There is a lot of nervousness about that, but it's exciting at the same time."

After the 1-hour break, FS2 will broadcast the next 14 hours of racing. The 55th running of the Rolex 24 will finish on FS1 from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.

"We have a great partner with Fox Sports and they know how important this event is to us and certainly they see the interest that folks around the world have in this event," Daytona International Speedway president Chip Wile said.

"It's great for them to able to broadcast live for (23) hours through all their different platforms."

Frank Wilson, who is the Fox vice president of studio and event production, said the Fox announcers will turn the broadcast over to IMSA Radio from 10 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday.

"We have a one-man camera on the roof and the cameraman will be listening to IMSA Radio," Wilson said by phone. "We have onboard cameras on several cars and we have many locked-down cameras around the course.

"So we will use that limited format in order to get the crew the proper break. It will be limited, but informative. If you are watching the race at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, you are pretty hard core."

For the record, this is not the first time Fox has broadcast the Rolex 24 from start to finish. They did a full broadcast of the 2001 race on the old Speed Network (now FS1).

"That had never been done before," Wilson said. "That's not what this is. We're not budgeted for two crews, but we don't want to just shut things down."
Wilson said the 9-hour break will give the crew adequate time to rest for a strong finish on Sunday.

"This is certainly challenging, but it's a challenge we are up for, much like the race teams," said Fish, who earned a GT class victory in the 1990 Rolex 24 driving for Jack Roush.

Fish said race fans are in for a treat because the level of driving skills is up several notches this year.

"The talent in this field is unbelievable," he said. "In terms of a global racing event, the Rolex 24 is it.

"It doesn't matter where you race, you'd love to be on that grid next weekend. This is like a Race of Champions with people from all disciplines being thrown into the same melting pot." Daytona Beach News Journal