Miller Motorsports Group announce earlier in the year that as of Oct 31st, they were no longer going to operate the MMP. I was heartbroken by this news and was worried that we would be losing the world class facility to a housing development. (Spoiler: we aren’t losing it; Tooele County has sold it to a group that can’t wait to bring more racing to it!)
Any way….
I talked Jaime and Lance into heading up to SLC to race there, just in case it closed. I really didn’t have to talk too much, Jaime was all over the idea and she convinced Lance to go. We used my truck and old trailer to haul the 3 bikes to TMC’s house in SLC. We all crashed there for the next days.
Friday was getting everyone familiar with the track, me included. I’ve only ridden the west track a handful of times, so I had to relearn my way around. Racing a track is very different from doing track days or schools on a course. I found myself struggling, there just like I was at home. I was stuck in a rut and I couldn’t see how to break free of it. I had talked with Scott about it before we left for the trip. He agreed to follow me around and see if there was something he could see that would help. It really came down to me rushing my entrances on the slower corners and tipping in too fast on the quick corners. Once he pointed it out ..I totally understood what I was doing; I set about working to fix it. Right away, I had a huge drop in lap times, which is what I really wanted.
One of the things I love about Miller is the high quality photogs they have there. Steve took some shots of my there that I’ve had enlarged and framed for my wall. He also had one blown up and gave it to me. It’s one of my favor shots; it has me, Mike and Lance all in a row. (I’m in front, of course).
Racing with those two was the highlight of the weekend. I have a BLAST in the Time Attach class, it’s run to a set time, that no one knows but the tower. The first one across the s/f line at the checker wins. It’s not the fastest who wins, it could be the slowest, you just need to be at the front of the group you are racing with.
Jaime learn a lot valuable lessons over the wknd. She accidently when out in the wrong practice, it completely scared the tar outta her, she was really lucky to not get hit by the all the guys out there trying to qualify for the money race. Not speed differentials I would like to experience… ever. She did great otherwise. I was excited to see Lance really go fast there, both of them had never been to another track so it was cool to see the grins on their faces after the first time out on the track.
