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I was a little disappointed by the second visit of World Superbike to Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele (pronounced two-illa), Utah. For all intents and purposes, this is a Salt Lake City venue (about 30 miles from downtown). This year, instead of being at the track for every moment of activity, I limited my attendance to Sat and Sun.

As far as I’m concerned, the AMA screwed the pooch this year by not showing up. Lots of stories have been bandied about related to why, but I believe DMG (the new roadracing arm of the AMA) asked Miller to pony up a lot more bucks this year and Miller said “screw you”. I think it hurt both parties as well as the enthusiast fans. I mean we’re not getting an AMA round at all at one of the best tracks in the country (WSBK or not). Tell me what sense that makes? It’s lose,

lose, lose (AMA, Miller, fans).

First, a little history: Larry Miller, local entrepreneurial magnate (sports teams and car dealerships), envisioned a world class racetrack in the Salt Lake area and had the money and fortitude to build it. I’ve been in this community for a long time, and the plans to build a track have come and gone many times over the years. Mostly due to a lack of money and all the other hurdles, requiring a gaggle of attorneys to sort through. There was always that next big plan that never got off the ground, but then Larry started writing checks. 80-100 million dollars later we’ve got a beaute.

But I’m worried about the track. Even though the series has re-upped for 5? years, Larry Miller had to go and die this year and I’m worried without his support and enthusiasm, the venue is doomed to a slow decline from profit mongering managers likely to fill the void he’s left. If the guiding light isn’t an enthusiast, it’s always an eventual failure.

I can’t begin to describe how nice it is to have this track so close to my home. I can sleep in my own bed (and avoid $400 a night Monterey hotels… hint, hint Laguna Seca, where I haven’t been since MotoGP in 2005 due to the ridiculous gouge factor). I don’t have to deal with the cost or calories of eating all my meals out. I can go early or late and still see plenty. I can provide moto-friends a free place to stay. I don’t have to burn any vacation days.The only drawback is I already have ridden all the local roads (one nice thing about distant venues was the touring and road exploration aspect of the trips).

The GOOD:

The shuttle service (pick-up trucks pulling a 3 car trolley) that transports folks around the outside of the track was great. While I wished it ran more frequently, it still saved a lot of walking. And at the end of the day on Sat, even after most folks had left, I was walking back to the parking lot, and one of the drivers spotted me and asked where I was headed? I told him where I wanted to go and he stopped his empty rig and took me to within feet of my destination.

The RV spot some of my out-of-state friends scored was sweet. Just outside turn 4? and the Blackrock Hairpin on a place called Momentum Mountain. Not only is it one of the highest places around the track but you can see about 70% of the track. They even have the track speaker system wired up in this location. The only drawback, no Jumbotron. My friends came fully prepared to entertain with plenty of food and drink along with a grill ready at a moments notice. And the shade provided by their EZ-Up was quite welcome as the sun can be pretty brutal this time of year (even if the temperature was tolerable).

Chris Pfeiffers’ stunt show was jaw dropping. First he rides a BMW F800 (not known for it’s stunting prowess). I remember watching Gary Rothwell when he started the stunting scene back in the early ‘90s, but this Pfeiffer guy makes Gary’s stuff look pretty simplistic. He does more in a smaller space than I could fathom.

This years’ announcers were much better. They were more knowledgeable and provided a lot of insight. They stirred up interest and excitement without resorting to yelling and using the same old tired racing clichés. It was obvious they knew motorcycle roadracing in addition to announcing.

There was real grass growing in many of the common areas. It sure beat the dirt and dead grass from previous years. It kept the dust down a bit, was cooler and was more comfortable for standing for hours on end.

The BAD:

During what is normally a calm and pleasant time of year here in the this part of the country, some serious thunderstorms were kicking around. Fortunately, they didn’t interrupt the WSBK events but they easily could have (one did cause the GTU race to be run on a wet but drying track). And there were some pretty gusty winds to make things tougher on the racers.

The pits were boring! I only briefly saw a few of the riders. Their garages were perpetually closed and even during the official Pit Walk, garage doors started coming down early. The one exception was the Chris Pfeiffer stunt show mentioned earlier but other than that, the extra $10 wasn’t good for anything.

It was almost impossible to tell the running order of the races. If you weren’t intimately familiar with the rider/bike color schemes (which can change race to race these days) or their numbers, which due to size and lack of contrast, is harder to read than ever, it was almost impossible to tell who was where. And if you were cheering for a backmarker, the announcers were no help either.

We need a scoring tower. A way to keep track of who’s where on the track! This is one of the features I love so much about Laguna Seca.

And the UGLY:

When leaving at the end of the big days events, we didn’t move in the parking lot for almost an hour. Even though I didn’t mind because I was enjoying the company of a lovely companion, They have to figure out how to make egress much more organized. Not a lot of planning has gone into the route planning or infra-structure.

There are 3 Jumbotrons at the track. While these are great in terms of keeping up with the action that you can’t see, the one in front of the Grantsville grandstands had about 25% of the screen that wasn’t displaying anything. Also, the combination of a lack of brightness and resolution, made most of the text unreadable meaning they were basically useless. About the only thing they were good for was determining who was in the lead, and then only if the colors of the bikes and riders were substantially different.

The fact that all the turns are already named I find this incredibly presumptuous. Not only does this remove the opportunity to give them significant names in the future, like of a famous racers or moments or other significant historical context, but the present names are childish:

wind-up and release,

????

and my least favorite:

1^st, 2^nd and Bad Attiude.

I mean come on, that’s just lame! Let’s wipe the slate and start over, PLEASE!!!

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The racing was boring. Ben Spies cleaned up (expected). The problem with Ben is he doesn’t know how to make it look like a race, I guess he’s still too young and singularly focused. This track is not going to be on Hagas’ fave list; crashes here both last year and this year made the series points leader an also ran. Fabrizio is looking stronger every race and seems poised to challenge both Haga and Spies if they have any significant lapses. Even the non-FIM races were unexciting except for the crashes. World Supersport (first year at Miller) was the best race but even then, there wasn’t enough passing for me to be entertained.

I was extremely disappointed for Melissa Paris, the first female to participate in a World Supersport race. She was running 2 up from the bottom (27^th) when her motorcycle let her down about halfway into the race. She parked it in turn 3 where I was watching and proceeded to bend over several times. I couldn’t tell if she was hurt, sick or overcome by emotion. If she had just finished where she was, I would have at least been satisfied. I hope this setback doesn’t dissuade her from trying again.

This year, instead of buying grandstand tickets, I decided to move around the track to do my spectating. I don’t feel there any real advantage to paying an extra $20 to get a little shade and watch a Jumbotron (especially when they don’t work very well). I watched from several locations and found this to be a better way to take in the event. While the grandstands along the front straight provide a view of virtually the whole track, you are so far from the action that it feels a bit detached.

 For each of the races, I stood in a different corner and this seemed to make the races more engaging. The flatness of the track made it hard to see the action in more than about 4 or 5 corners at a time, but by moving around to different locations it made it more accessible. Even though the Miller publicity machine insists there is some “extreme” elevation change (mistakenly comparing it the corkscrew at Laguna Seca), the track is basically flat except for 3 turns (the Attitudes).

The crowds seemed to be about half of last year. Some blame the recession, some blame the media for not getting the word out. I blame the lack of AMA presence and the fact that the novelty of the sole/premier WSBK race in the US has already worn off. As an avid racefan, I’ll go every year the race comes but I believe I’m in the minority.

In fact several people I know who are only slightly less enthusiastic didn’t come this year, even some that feel the same as me didn’t show. I don’t care what the industry says about the growth of roadracing fans, the simple fact is that motorcycles are NOT popular in this country, they do not appeal to joe average, and as such only enthusiasts will ever go to races on a consistent basis. I’m totally OK with that, because if it ever got as popuar as, let’s say NASCAR, it would be a total pain-in-the-ass to attend a race.

So all and all a decent event. Will I go back again next year, of course. How could I not with a track and a race of this caliber so close by. But I’d only give it a C+. I’m not complaining mind you, just giving my opinion.

Rhino