Ice Racing

There's a story on the BTCC site today about a race happening between one of the BTCC Ford Foci and an ice-cream van. It won't be as straightforward as you'd expect though because this ice-cream van is a 200mph ice-cream van owned by Jody Scheckter.

This race will be happening on Sunday as part of the Snetterton rounds of the British Touring Car Championship together with a host of support races all of which will be free to view in Britain on ITV4.

This contrasts sharply with how the British F1 fans are being treated. I reported last week about the deal done with Sky and since then the backlash has been amazing and the silence from the BBC has been deafening.

The BBC tried to justify it with a Blog posted by their head of F1. This Blog quickly got beseiged with 8415 comments before the BBC shut it with the rather arrogant announcement:

"This blog is now closed to comments.

If you do wish to make a formal complaint about this announcement, or any aspect of it, you can do so at the BBC Complaints website (bbc.co.uk/complaints).

This blog was kept open to comments for longer than usual because of the volume of responses coming in and the clear interest in the subject matter. However, this blog is designed as a place to debate topical issues, rather than a forum that stays open indefinitely.

We are grateful for the high levels of interest in this issue, and the time it has taken everyone to comment here. We have explained the reasons behind the announcement in the initial blog post, and at this stage there is nothing more to add - but we have reviewed the comments and we thank everyone for them.

Sport Hosts"

The vast number of replies to that Blog are articulate and condemn the BBC for this deal and are looking for a better response. Reply number 5555 is particularly good.

At the same time, a petition on petition-buzz was started. This currently has 30,228 signatures.

The Hungarian Grand Prix came and went last weekend with scant mention of this backlash - it was obvious that the presentation team were unhappy but had been told to toe the party line which seems to be keep schtum. This even applied to the post-race red-button forum which is where the fans are supposed to be able to air their views.

The deal stinks for many reasons. One recurring argument is that the BBC could have let the whole F1 rights go to another free-to-air channel so everyone would be able to see all of the races but rather than allow one of their competitors have that, they would rather do a deal with the organisation they have just spent the last three weeks questioning the ethics and morals of.

If that is true, it seriously stinks and heads should roll.

The official response from the BBC is still being eagerly awaited.

Jake Humphrey posted a Blog entry which has now taken over as the place to post your complaints. It's currently sitting there with 1146 replies.

There is now also an Parliamentary e-petition currently with 6097 signatures (including mine) but I'd be surprised if that reaches the 100,000 that is required to get a debate in the House of Commons.

The BBC have let Murray Walker comment but he is not a BBC employee and reluctantly accepts the deal - he also, rather surprisingly, seems to imply that he can't afford Sky TV.

On many occasions within Metro's Car Blog I have discussed and compared F1 & BTCC. I know which I'll be watching next year.

Overall, the lack of coherent responses by the BBC Sport management to the very real arguments being put is disgraceful.

To quote rock-band Foreigner, they're, "As cold as ice".