Utah Motorsports Campus announces 2016 schedule
Utah Motorsports Campus, which is managing the facility on behalf of Tooele County while the procedures to sell the former Miller Motorsports Park take place, has been able to put together a complete schedule of events on very short notice.
“Considering the time constraints that we’ve had to deal with, we have what should be an outstanding schedule of events for the 2016 season," said Alan Wilson, President of Utah Motorsports Campus. “We’ve only had management of the facility since January 8, and as you can imagine we’re scrambling a bit to get everything going. For example, we’re still finalizing our ticketing system, but we’ll have that organized soon and will announce the details when we have them."
Fans can expect the same quality and variety of events that they have come to expect in recent years. There will be four major events, the first of which will be the sixth annual appearance of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series on May 21-22. The biggest names in off-road racing, including Jeremy McGrath, Brian Deegan, Rob MacCachren, Carl Renezeder and Rodrigo Ampudia, will return for two days of intense, door-banging, take-no-prisoners racing on the Off Road Short Course.
The weekend of June 24-25 will see the welcome return of the MotoAmerica (AMA/FIM) Superbike Challenge. North America’s premier motorcycle road racing championship brought great racing to Utah with its 200-mph superbikes in 2015, and the series looks to be even more competitive this year.
August will feature back-to-back weekends of tremendous sports car racing. The biggest amateur event of the year, the six-hour endurance race presented by the Utah Region of the National Auto Sport Association (NASA Utah), will take place on August 6-7. The following weekend, August 13-14, will see the return of the Pirelli World Challenge Championships, the most exciting professional sports car racing series in North America featuring Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Bentleys and Audis, among many other makes, and some of the sport’s top drivers.
The final major event of the season, on September 10-11, will be the return of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West to Utah for an historic double-header weekend. The series, which raced here from 2007-14, serves as a premier training ground for the NASCAR Sprint Cup stars of the future. The thunderous stock cars always put on a great show on road courses, and this year fans will get two complete races on the same weekend. This will be the first time that the series will run on back-to-back days since 1979 and the first time since the series’ modern era began in 1971 that two races will be run in two days at the same track.
Other events scheduled during the season include a major national karting event, the MaxSpeed U.S. Open, on June 24-25; the ever-popular 11th annual AHRMA Bonneville Vintage Grand Prix for vintage motorcycles (Sept. 3-4), the track’s longest-running annual event; and the annual visit from the Porsche Club of America (Sept. 17-18).
Utah Motorsports Campus is also happy to announce the return of all five of the track’s amateur championships. “The racing community that has developed in this area since the track opened in 2006 is one of the most active and vibrant in the country," said Wilson. “The racing in all five series is tremendous, and we hope the public will come out and support these great competitors. We will be pricing our amateur events to make it affordable for all families."
The sports cars of NASA Utah will contest an eight-round championship, including the six-hour enduro on August 6-7 and the season-ending Tresduro endurance event on October 8-9. The Utah Sport Bike Association’s Vortex Masters of the Mountains motorcycle road racing series will have a six-race title chase. The Utah Kart Championship will have an 13-round championship in 2016 plus two “Ice Breaker" events. The ever-growing Lucas Oil Off Road Regional Series – Utah will have a five-race schedule of events (dates to be announced in the near future) and the Utah Supermoto Championship returns with a five-round series.
Details on ticket prices, options and purchasing methods will be announced in the near future. Note that this schedule of events is tentative, and some changes could be made.
For additional information regarding Utah Motorsports Campus, visit the track’s website at www.UtahMotorsportsCampus.com.