FIRST LAPS AT MILLER MOTORSPORTS PARK Saturday April 1st saw the first commercial event ever held at the Miller Motorsports Park main track when ApexTrackdays hosted a two session trackday event on the 2.2 mile, 12 turn West Track ~http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/trackOverview.cfm~ (the East Track was still under construction, receiving final touches like curbing paint and runoff prep). Club racers and trackday enthusiasts from Portland to Denver to Las Vegas attended the inaugural event. While much of the $80 million facility was still under construction, the excellent staff at MMP were able to make some of their finer amenities available to APEX customers and crew. Chief among these was the use of the Day Garages. The two open bay structures, each about as long as a football field, are divided into individual garage stalls. Each stall, about the size of a one car garage, comes with its own roll up door. The stall itself is marked on the concrete floor with yellow lines. A center “aisle” runs the length of the bay leading to a small common area at each end with bathrooms. Power is available in each stall at no extra charge. APEX found the format of the Day Garages created a buzz and camaraderie among the riders that contributed profoundly to the overall success of the sold out event, both in terms of enjoyment and safety. A Day Garage (one stall) rents for $75 a day and can hold up to 4 bikes. The 24 individual Grand Prix garages will also be available for club race and trackday use for $125 a day. They’re equipped with private restrooms and showers (MotoGP style). Second on the amenities list was the use of the West Track race control tower. It provided a commanding view of the entire 2.2 mile circuit for the APEX staff, the Utah Sport Bike Association officials who were conducting race certification as part of the event, and the EMS crew (who of course were never paid because they never left the tower”¦no work, no pay, right?). The morning sessions saw laps under mostly cloudy skies and cool temperatures (mid-50s F). Lunch brought some light rain showers and lapping in the damp (not really wet) until 3 pm when the skies cleared. The remaining diehards were able to ride the last 2 hours of the day in bright sunshine on a dry track in low 60 degree temperatures. Here are some preliminary impressions of the counter clockwise circuit. It’s wide”¦very wide. Because of the topography, Turn 1 (of not just the West Track, but the Full Track too) appears when you still think it is 200 yards away. From this fast and sneaky left hander the speed builds and builds along with the elevation (though not as dramatically as the speed) through turns 2, 3, and 4 and onto the back straight. By lunch time some of the faster club racers were taking turn 4 at a buck twenty. Turn 5 is a first gear hairpin that opens up, 6 is almost a mirror opposite and closes down. The 7-8-9 complex is a “triple apex” that begins off camber and finishes on camber while dropping noticeably in elevation throughout. The AMA may never see this turn(s). They have not yet decided between the Full Track and the Perimeter Track for their event in June. It would be a shame for them to miss this complex of turns by choosing the shorter Perimeter configuration. 10 is a sweeper that leads down a little further to the generous but decreasing radius turn 11. 12 is a hairpin much like 5 that leads back onto the front straight. The fastest rider on the day was MRA Champion Shane Turpin (finished 11th in AMA Superbike last year at Pikes Peak) who laid down a few relatively uninterupted laps in the high-1:30s late in the afternoon aboard his 2006 Yamaha R6. A full turn for turn, gear for gear analysis of the MMP West Track from a trackday perspective will be posted next week at www.ApexTrackdays.com when their new website comes on line. Riding opportunities abound throughout the month of April, most notably with Racing 2 Save Lives charity trackday event held Thursday through Sunday, the 13th through the 16th (www.Racing2SaveLives.org). They are followed immediately with the first school event of the year hosted by STAR Motorcycle School (www.StarMotorcycle.com).