COAL TOWNSHIP, Pa.
I recently attended my 40-year high school class reunion at a nice restaurant in Woodstown, N.J., not far from where I graduated from Sacred Heart in Vineland in 1967.
There, one of my classmates, who is now a Special Trial Judge for the United States Tax Court and a best friend growing up, said: “Greg, I have only two channels on my television preset. One is a news channel and the other is Speed TV.”
The judge is a huge Formula One fan, enjoys “Wind Tunnel” and is the proud owner of four motorcycles and an Alfa Romeo. He goes to some F-1 races, watches the rest on Speed and is planning a trip to the Moto GP at Indy in 2008. 
A second classmate chimed in (another good friend whose father is responsible for taking me to my first race at Vineland in 1957) and informed the table his construction company would be erecting some of the buildings at New Jersey Motorsports Park. There, our own Chris Economaki was recently honored during a formal groundbreaking near Millville’s Municipal Airport. My classmate and another 550 people witnessed NJMP principals Harvey Siegel and Lee Brahin unveil a Chris Economaki Media Center plaque that will grace its future press room and scoring tower.
As kids, these two classmates and I went regularly to Vineland Speedway for asphalt modifieds on Friday, drags on Saturday and SCCA racing on Sunday.
Our table was on a roll, and more racing discussion ensued. It didn’t take long before our tablemates were talking even more about Speed, Economaki, how racing has grown and Vineland Speedway memories.
Specially noted were the days in late 1950s and early 1960s when bypassing Vineland Speedway’s ticket taker meant assuring the necessary money for additional food, a visit to the novelty stand and the purchase of the all-important copy of NSSN.
My two classmates and I would traverse through a thick, snake- and tick-infested forest surrounding Vineland Speedway, scale a fence at the far end of the sports-car and drag-racing shutdown area, scurry forward in “blend in” fashion and then safely disappear into the grandstand seats.
By this time, our table started attracting more attention. Surprisingly, “NASCAR talk” took a back seat to segments like F-1, Moto GP, IRL, Economaki’s Millville Press Room, A/FX drag racing, road racing and Speed TV.
I informed our table that Speed began broadcasting in 1996 as “Speedvision” under the efforts of founder Roger Werner. Early on, I was amazed at Werner’s tenacity and passion for what Speedvision could be. That first year, he was running early 1960s black-and-white foreign car commercials as “filler” for what he hoped would be paid commercials in the future. Werner’s vision and hopes centered on aligning himself with good sanctioning bodies and investment partners that would help bring his ideas to fruition.
 I asked Werner in a 1996 interview for PRI Magazine if he felt he was alone in a deep sea of water paddling away in a rowboat, hoping to be rescued by a passing vessel? “Yes, but it will be worth it,” he quickly replied.
Soon, Werner was not alone. As founder and CEO of Speedvision and Outdoor Life in 1995, he linked with Cox Communications and obtained financial backing from Cox and The Times Mirror Co., resulting in first-day broadcast numbers of 3.2 million homes on Jan. 1, 1996, on Cox’s cable system. Soon, Comcast and Media One joined as investors, followed by FOX/Liberty in 1998. By 2001, Werner’s efforts achieved profitability on combined revenues of more than $100 million.
Werner and his partners were rewarded when Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought the company in 2001, and Speedvision was renamed Speed Channel as a division of Fox Sports. I also told the table that according to Erik Arneson, Speed’s vice president of media relations, Speed now reaches nearly 73 million U.S. homes. 
That’s real growth.
More reunion car talk ensued, and 11 p.m. came quickly. I thanked my two car-loving classmates for starting the conversation and vowed to try my best to sneak them into the Economaki Media Center when Thunderbolt Raceway hosts its first race.