Prior to a scintillating race at Road Atlanta last weekend, Motors TV (Sky Channel 413 and Virgin Media 545) and the American Le Mans Series were pleased to announce a two-year television contract extension.

The ‘High Speed Television’ channel has been home of endurance racing over the past few years and enhanced that reputation further by securing the Europe-wide rights to screen LIVE coverage of the USA’s premier sports car championship for 2009 and 2010.

Motors TV Head of Programming and Acquisitions Frédéric Viger said: “The 2008 season marks the fifth year of our partnership with the American Le Mans Series, and it's definitely been one of the highlights of the channel. The Series keeps growing in entries and interest, and will certainly gain even more next year with Acura entering the LMP1 class.

We are confident the American Le Mans Series will remain must-see programming for our audience of 15 million homes in 54 countries via our Pan-European satellite service. While it's a bit early to give final indications, we're also working closely with the American Le Mans Series in order to improve the quality of the coverage over the next two years, and are hopeful that it will help the series to gain even more well-deserved awareness in Europe.

This new agreement not only marks our commitment to endurance racing, but to bringing our viewers the best coverage of the world’s premier racing championships.”

Scott Atherton, President & CEO of the American Le Mans Series, added: “Our extension with Motors TV represents the continued growth of the American Le Mans Series. It continues to give us truly world-class television coverage throughout Europe, which is extremely important to a number of our manufacturers and marketing partners. Given the sheer number of viewers we are able to reach through our alliance with Motors TV, the extension ensures that the Series will continue to be at the forefront of premium motorsport coverage across the Atlantic.”