Objective, tour northern Arizona and southern Utah and attend the World Superbike Races at Miller Motorsports Park. And last but not least, participate in APEX Trackdays on one of the greatest tracks in the world.

We left on a Thursday and arrived at Tooele (prounounced “too el ah”) Friday night.  Jerry, a lifelong good friend, and I road our motorcycles to the event.  Not to be outdone by the chores of getting there and back, we decided to ride our motorcycles through some of the great roads in northern Arizona and southern Utah and make a fun trip out of the adventure.  We Left on a Thursday morning and road through Payson,  Mexican Hat on the way to Hanksville, Utah, where we spent the night.  Next day we had a short 400 mile ride through some of the really great middle and southern parts of Utah.  We even ran into snow while traversing one of the passes just south of Salt Lake City.

Jerry road his Yamaha FJR and I was on my 2007 Sportster.  When we made the reservations and planned for the trip, I was going to ride my 2007 Suzuki Bandit.  But due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to ride the fun little Bandit and had to fall back on the Sportster.  For pictures of the ride to the event and back please checkout the on the road trip pics.
Friday night we arrived at Tooele and after checking in to our room headed over to the track to check things out.  For pictures around the track and events check out the pics from around the track.

Saturday and Sunday we watched the races and were totally blown away with some of the exhibits that surrounded the event. Of course the race event was just plain mesmerizing as you watch up-close the speeds these guys run at.  Now this is the ultimate entertainment. It was very impressive. Here are just a few of the race day pics.

We toured some of the Yamaha, Honda, and Ducati pit crews and watched them working on the track bikes and saw how they analyze some the feedback on their PC’s from the sensors on the bikes that tell them everything that you can imagine about what the riders and the bikes are doing on every inch of the track.

And yes, it was fun watching American Ben Spies (No. 19 Yamaha World Superbike) annihilate the opposition in the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship at Miller Motorsports Park, as he picked up his second double win of the year in his rookie SBK season. In front of 47,300 spectators. The Texan again reopened the title battle in a championship that appeared to be firmly in the hands of Ducati after the previous event at Kyalami, South Africa. The battle goes on.

Monday – APEX Trackdays.  Ted from AZ Trackdays was there and he towed about 7 bikes up from Phoenix for some of the Phoenix riders.  Jerry had Ted bring his Honda 600 cc track bike for the event.  We even got one of the pit garages on the track to set up our bikes.  Ted, of course, brought his two up bike and made over 17 runs, 2 up, for the day.  I timed one of his runs, it was 2 minutes 19 seconds, 2 up.  Just for a reference, the professional riders, WSB racers were turning in times around 1 minute 4X seconds.  Ted rocks. Not only that but he is very fast. Trackday Pics.

As for me on my Sportster and how I felt – Well have you ever felt like the guy that shows up to a business meeting with IBM executives wearing a leisure suit?  Well here I am with my little Sportster in the Metric Sandbox.  But, not to be denied track time to one of the greatest racing tacks, a 3.08 mile road course, in the world, I had to endure the embarrassment of riding a Sportster with the metric community looking on.  Actually they were very kind to me.  I think it was out of sympathy.  But, don’t get me wrong, I had a really great time pushing the Sportster to its limits.  When I was done, I had tire wear right up to the outer limit of the rear tire and I ground the riding pegs down about an inch.  I did carry the camera and made about 6 minutes of movies out of the 60 minutes on the track.  Check Track Day Movies.

Tuesday, we took off for home with the Sportster no worse for wear with the exceptions of tire wear and road pegs.  We first headed west for the Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway then headed south through Nevada to find our way back to Phoenix staying in high country for the duration with the exception of the descent on I-17 to the scorching Phoenix Valley. 

We logged just over 2,000 miles over the fun filled 7 days.