How Leigh Diffey became the voice of American motorsport

You know his voice, even if you’ve never seen his face. It’s warm yet urgent, authoritative yet inviting with an unmistakable timbre like the hum of a V8 engine before it roars to life. When the race is calm, his voice is steady and measured, but as the action reaches a fever pitch, he crackles with excitement while delivering each syllable with the confidence of someone who has spent decades living and breathing motorsport. Much more than just a commentator, Leigh Diffey is a maestro who could inject a burst of energy into a tortoise race – and he doesn’t only tell you what’s happening, he makes you feel it. 

You’ve heard Diffey’s Australian lilt everywhere. The 100m sprint finals at the Paris Olympics with one of the closest finishes in history? That was Diffey. The Indy 500? You bet, and he was the voice of IndyCar for over a decade. He’s soundtracked NBC’s Formula 1 coverage in the US and continues to lead the network’s slate of motorsport offerings, including NASCAR and the Rolex 24, where I managed to steal a moment of his time during a commercial break.

Leigh Diffey, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, mid-interview during the 2022 IndyCar Portland GP race weekend

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Although the commentary box wasn’t on his radar until early adulthood, Diffey’s ambition grew quickly, and he left the job of a lifetime in Australia to chase an even bigger dream on the other side of the world. However, the 53-year-old’s path to the pinnacle didn’t begin in the paddock, but in a classroom outside Brisbane, where he worked as a schoolteacher in his early twenties and toyed with the idea of a career in farming.

Before Diffey’s dulcet tones were heard around the world, he was juggling an eclectic mix of jobs. “I worked in the fitness industry as a gym and aerobics instructor, I worked on building sites as a chippie’s laborer [Ed. note: a carpenter, in Australian], and I worked at the theme park Warner Brothers Movie World,” he recalls. “This was all at the same time — I was doing everything and anything.” Even as a teenager working on a tomato farm, he absorbed lessons that shaped his work ethic. “I had a tremendous boss who taught me there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

After taking a job as a physical education teacher at a prestigious all-boys school, Diffey was met by fate when some friends he used to race dirt bikes with asked him to handle public-address announcing duties at a local motorcycle club meet. “I naturally had a very energetic style,” he says, admitting some of his early commentary “probably wasn’t all that factual.” His enthusiasm, however, laid the groundwork for mastering the art of race calling. “My passion helped lead me to all of the other intrinsic elements of making a good race call,” he explains, attributing his storytelling skills to lively conversations around the family dinner table. “Maybe it came to me through osmosis,” he muses.

Doors soon started to open for Diffey as he ascended the ranks in Australia, eventually landing a coveted job that almost certainly would have seen him become one of the nation’s most recognizable figures in sport. “I was a reporter on Sports Tonight covering so many different motorsport categories, and I started to get opportunities abroad really early on in my career. I got the bug for [moving overseas], and I’d met a gentleman in the UK who was very well connected, so I left what could have been the job of a lifetime in Australia to chase the big dream,” he recalls. 

That lofty dream was perhaps the loftiest dream possible in the small world of commentating: supplanting the long-time, deeply beloved voice of Formula 1 when he retired in 2001. “I’d convinced myself that I was going to replace Murray Walker, which was a beautiful naivety and youthful exuberance,” he says with a laugh. He even cold-called Bernie Ecclestone to throw his hat in the ring. “I got close, I got to the final three.”

James Allen (now this publication’s president of motorsport business) ultimately secured the role at ITV, where he was the network’s lead commentator for seven years until they lost the broadcast rights in 2008. But I ask Diffey what life might have looked like if he was successful, and dove headfirst into Formula 1 in the early 2000s. “I think it would have been tough purely because I would have been a foreigner stepping in and I was still so young and so green …  look at the hardship and the criticism that James faced. He was already part of the team, and he’s English,” Diffey says of the constant comparisons made between other pundits and the late, great Walker . “I’m now well-tenured having lived in the US for over 20 years. I know what it’s like to be a foreigner doing big, big events, but back then … I think it would have been somewhat of a poisoned chalice.”

After a short stint in the UK with the BBC, he moved stateside to join Speed Channel as a play-by-play announcer, before inking a deal with NBC in 2013. The network held F1’s American broadcast rights until 2017, meaning Diffey was the voice of the series for four years. “I really enjoy walking through airports now and seeing kids, and adults, wearing Red Bull shirts or McLaren caps, because even as recently as when we were doing F1 on NBC, that was pretty sparse,” he recalls, noting that the rise of F1 fandom represents a broader victory for all forms of motorsport. “Instead of wearing a New York Yankees shirt, they’re wearing a McLaren shirt, and that’s great for our sport.” 

Also great for the sport, in Diffey’s eyes: an American driver in F1: “I would be surprised if you didn’t see Colton Herta in one of the seats,” he predicts when I ask about Cadillac’s 2026 arrival, referring to the IndyCar star who partnered Lando Norris in their junior single-seater careers. “That’s the last missing piece of the puzzle of the American Formula 1 success story: having a [competitive] driver.”

AJ Allmendinger, Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish, for NBC at Road Atlanta, 2019 IMSA race

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

As we speak, Diffey is gearing up for one of the most notoriously grueling challenges in racing: the Rolex 24 at the Daytona International Speedway. “We have a rotating team, so we all tap out and tap in, but you can’t go too far away. You’ve got to keep your eye on the race to maintain the thread of the story,” he explains. During a visit to race control, in the room next door to the NBC booth, I spot blow-up mattresses under desks, makeshift hammocks between workstations and trash cans full of coffee cups. Sleep is hard to come by during an endurance race, so you rest anywhere you can. “We’re either in the back of the booth or we’re in the production trailer,” Diffey tells me. Although there are hundreds of drivers and countless stories to tell, 24 hours is still a lot of airtime to fill. “When there’s not much going on, that’s when you earn your money,” he says with a laugh.

Outside of motorsport, Diffey’s voice has become a staple of Olympic broadcasts, including the most-watched 10 seconds of the Paris Games: the 100m sprint final. “There’s a lot of parallels and crossover between motorsport and track and field,” he says. “With the 100-meter, me and my teammate Ato Bolden, the four time Olympic medalist, will have a pre-set rhythm so that the broadcast is seamless. Typically we’ll have a bit of silence so you can hear the gun and build anticipation, then you get into the race call.” 

He goes with his gut and 99% of the time he gets it right, but he’s also the first to admit when he’s made a mistake. “I got it wrong,” he wrote on Instagram last summer after incorrectly identifying Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson as the winner of the 100m final, rather than American sprinter, Noah Lyles. “You’ve just got to go with what your eyes see,” he tells me. With six Olympics under his belt, Diffey hopes to call the 2032 Games in his hometown of Brisbane. “That would be something special,” he says.

His next big challenge, however, is continuing to win over hardcore NASCAR fans unaccustomed to hearing an Aussie accent in the commentary booth. Diffey joined analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte as the series’ lead announcer after IndyCar moved to FOX last year, and he’s already earning rave reviews.  

“You’re never going to please everybody, but I was totally honest and open with the fan base by saying ‘I’ve never been to Talladega, I’ve never been to Bristol, I’ve never been to Martinsville.’ 

“I had this child-like enthusiasm and wonderment, and I think viewers got to see the real me,” he explains. When he headed to the Coke Zero Sugar 400 for his first race in the big chair last August, he made sure his homework was done. “It was tough coming in later in the year when I had already done Supercross, IMSA, IndyCar, the Indy 500, and the Olympics. I prepare best when I compartmentalize. I had so many other things I had to focus on and do a good job with first, especially Paris,” he says. “When it’s finally go-time, I watch every race of the season and write myself notes that I can refer back to.”

Leigh Diffey, Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett and Steve Letarte speak to media during a press conference at NASCAR Championship 4 Media Day at Phoenix Raceway, 2024

Photo by: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

Diffey quickly earned his stripes in the eyes of NASCAR faithfuls after he energetically declared, “Jeff, your little boy has done it,” when Harrison Burton took home a surprise victory at Daytona during his maiden outing in the booth. “I don’t know if nervous is the right word … I was anxious. I really wanted to have a good start and make a good impression. I told myself what I tell my kids when they have a school exam: just one step at a time. I made sure I’d done my homework because I wanted to do a good job for the company, for the fans, and for myself,” he says, describing Harrison’s win as “one of those epic moments” that he’ll remember forever.

My conversation with Diffey eventually circles back to the idea of legacy. With two young sons growing up on motorbikes, I wonder if he envisions a Diffey dynasty. “Not at all,” he laughs. “Our boys are into so many sports, the motorbikes are just a fun thing on the side.” In fact, his sons’ races might be the only motorsport events where he isn’t calling the shots. “I work most weekends so my wife is a full moto mom. She’s unbelievable,” he says. “She’s the one loading the pickup truck with the bikes, the fuel cans, the ramps and the gear.” Diffey’s role? Keeping quiet. “I get tense when my kids compete,” he confesses. “When I’m at a race, I have to keep my mouth shut.”