Leigh Diffey

Leigh Diffey (born 3 March 1971 in Brisbane) is an Australian American auto racing commentator with NBC Sports in the United States. He has also worked in Britain and in his homeland of Australia, where he commentated on Champ Car and V8 Supercars for Network Ten in Australia. He is nicknamed "Stiffey" by fans and fellow commentators.

Pre-television

Prior to his commentary and TV career, Diffey was a primary school teacher at Ipswich Grammar School, leaving in 1995–96 to pursue his love of motorsports and television.

BBC career

Prior to his 2002 move to the United States, Diffey commented on the Superbike World Championship and presented coverage of the World Rally Championship for the BBC in the United Kingdom. He worked alongside Steve Parrish who along with Diffey, shared a mutual friend - the late Barry Sheene. Sheene was instrumental in joining Diffey and the BBC together.

Speed career

In 2001 Diffey filled in for Jeremy Shaw covering the Champ Car series for ESPN International alongside Ben Edwards at the Rockingham Motor Speedway (United Kingdom) and the Lausitzring (Germany).

In 2003, Diffey was hired by Speed. At Speed, Diffey was the play-by-play announcer for the network's coverage of the Speed World Challenge, the American Le Mans Series, the Rolex Sports Car Series, the Rolex Grand-Am Cup, the SCCA Trans-Am Series, and an occasional The Speed Report anchor and Formula One host. He also did occasional lap-by-lap coverage of the NASCAR Busch North Series.

In 2008, Diffey filled in for Speed commentator Bob Varsha during the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix. Varsha was unable to assume his usual role due to his covering the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction in Las Vegas, NV. Diffey also did two Formula One on FOX broadcasts in 2010.

Diffey also filled in for Ralph Sheheen for the 2008 AMA Motocross Championship.

Diffey, Bob Varsha and Krista Voda are now the mainstays of The Speed Report - the network's popular Sunday evening wrap of the week's news and results. Leigh has also commentated selected rounds of the AMA Superbike and AMA Motocross Championships.

Network Ten career

At the end of 2004, Diffey left the network for family reasons. He returned to his native Australia where he covered V8 Supercars and Formula One for Network Ten. He did, though, return to Speed on occasion to call the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans. Diffey was a regular host for Network Ten's nightly sports wrap, Sports Tonight, and also did commentary on such events as the Australian Supercross Masters series. His last Sports Tonight broadcast was 3 December 2006. He announced that he was returning to the United States where he rejoined Speed starting with the 2007 Rolex 24 Hour race at Daytona.

NBC Sports

In November 2012, NBC Sports announced that Diffey would join its network to become the play-by-play announcer for its broadcasts of both Formula One and IndyCar events from 2013. The announcement named David Hobbs and Steve Matchett as the analysts who would work alongside him.

He also worked on NBC's Olympic Coverage as well, covering luge, skeleton, and bobsled.^[1] He made his NASCAR debut as a play-by-play announcer at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.^[2] Diffey also commentated the Richmond, Dover and Kansas NXS races.^[3]

In December 2015, Diffey, Hobbs and Matchett were given an Honorable Mention in a list of Best Broadcast Teams of the year published on the Sports Illustrated website SI.com.^[4]

Citizenship

Diffey obtained his United States citizenship on 23 June 2011.

References

Bibliography

• Casamento, Jo (1999). "Moving for Mel." The Sunday Telegraph. 21 February.
• Corby, Stephen (2006). "F1 Royalty Gather For Grand Prix." The Sunday Mail. 2 April.
• Waddell, B. (1998). "Bikes or Boats--What's the Diff?" Sunday Mail (Queensland). 1 March.