Utah Motorsports Campus
First visit to an epic facility
In June 2026, I made my first trip to Utah Motorsports Campus (UMC, originally Miller Motorsports Park, also known as Burt Brothers Motorpark) as staff with Volant Vivere. The track is ~20 miles west of Salt Lake City, Utah. UMC opened 2006 and has four possible configurations. The Outer course is 3 miles and has 14 acknowledged corners, and this is what we ran. This is a fast, flowy track without much appreciable elevation. The track surface is good and the noticeable patches don’t seem to be much of an issue. I’d say it’s on par with Thunderhill West. Elevation is about 4,400 feet (1,340 meters) so your bike will probably be down ~20% in power. I rode my Tuono V4 and I only saw wheelie control activate a handful of times. Unfortunately for us, the event didn’t sell out but for our clients, it meant loads of unimpeded track time.
Facilities
The facilities are unlike anything I’ve seen in the US. The campus itself is huge with attractive buildings, loads of spectator viewing areas, and the nicest track garages I’ve ever seen. The garages have private bathrooms, power and compressed air are available throughout the interior, there are garage doors on both ends of the space so you can load from one side of the garage and on the other your can roll out directly into the pits. Staff are very accommodating and helpful. This circuit has hosted MotoAmerica and WSBK in years past. There’s some interesting history on it in Wikipedia. Since Volant Vivere provides catered lunch, I didn’t have the opportunity to try the track’s restaurant. Fuel is available on-premise but at a ~50% premium over the fuel stations in Tooele and Lake Point. The facilities are very secure with gates that are normally closed and require security personnel to open them. I did not notice power being available if you’re outside of the garage unless you rent an RV spot.
There are several local Utah track day providers and there is a racing series with an AMA-sanctioned club called UtahSBK. This was Volant Vivere’s first trip to UMC.
Being at high elevation in Utah, weather can be a consideration, whether it be hot summer temperatures, wind, or periodic storms that roll through. The track is not far from the Great Salt Lake and there are tremendous views of the surrounding mountains. Salt Lake City is a reasonable drive and there are good food and lodging options 20 minutes away.
Our event was a Sunday-Monday schedule and when coming into the park on Saturday evening, a super-duty truck event was wrapping up. I’d never seen trucks like these before, apparently it’s a thing in the area. They were really fun to see but, coming from California, it was a bit disconcerting to see the giant plumes of what appeared to be burnt coal.
This event was particularly special as my coach, Ken Hill, made a detour following his event in Calgary and spent a few sessions showing me the way around the track. He didn’t have his own bike so he spent time on my Tuono, Dylan’s Kramer, a couple of Ducatis, and for old time’s sake, Cam’s FZ-1. He’ll be doing a post about all of the different bikes he rode between Calgary, Utah, and back to NJMP, be sure to check that out in his Substack. A handful of other California and Oregon friends made it out for the event too so we got to spin a few laps together too. It was really an epic couple of days.
Travel to the Track
I also did something different for this trip—I rented a medium-roof Ford Transit van. While this was nowhere as luxurious or comfortable as my own pickup, it was great to have all the room and weather and security protection that the van afforded. Fuel mileage was similar to what I’d see with my F-150 but it’s a much more utilitarian vehicle. If I were to get a van, I think I’d either try to get more of a ‘toy hauler’ style or maybe a standard-height roof model. It was nice being able to stand up in the van but the sensitivity to wind was significant. I do like the potential to camp in the van and the security while away from it was nice.
Here’s a video from my Aprilia with Ken showing me the way around the place. The brake light on Ken’s bike was a bit wonky, it wouldn’t light up until the lever was squeezed to ~5 bar brake pressure so I would instinctively fall back a little in the braking zones, I really don’t want to rear-end my coach!
I was having some technical issues with my camera and not all my sessions recorded which was a bummer, I had some good sessions with friends and it would have been fun to relive and share those.
My A Bike
I did nearly the entire two days on my Aprilia Tuono V4 Factory. The Tuono was a great bike to ride there—it’s not as quick as a proper fully-faired super bike, but it still managed 157 mph with Ken riding and I went 155 mph (GPS); the fully-faired bikes would break 170 mph. Sitting more upright than a super bike, it affords a better vantage and at a track that’s new to me, I want the additional visibility. The ergonomics are really nice on it too. I ran it with Pirelli SC2s front and rear. Ken made some changes to rebound and compression front and rear, generally softening up the bike but we left preload alone. If this were a dedicated track bike, I would prefer manual suspension, however, I also use this as a coaching bike as well as I ride it on the street, the electronic suspension is very useful. UMC Outer is definitely a left-hand track, the tire had some pretty appreciable shelving on the left-side.
Riding Opportunities for Me
The two biggest areas where Ken completely gapped me were Workout → Scream and Witchcraft corners. These are high speed corners, almost kinks. I think I just need some more seat time to build my confidence and refine my trajectory. I also have some reservations about getting to the outside edge of a track that I’m not familiar with.
As I’ve noticed with tracks that are new to me, I’ll leave a significant gap between end of acceleration and beginning of braking. There was a lot of this and I was consciously aware and just tried to hold throttle fractionally longer and/or use much lighter initial brake pressure.
I didn’t really brake hard at all in my 2 days there, so there’s lots left on the table.
I have room to build more acceleration sooner in a couple of corners that are nicely banked and it’s safe to do that while on the side of the tire.
Turn 6 caught me out more than once, I clearly need more seat time and/or better visual references. Toward the end of day 2, I just left it in 2nd gear and let it rev out and I knew it was time to go to the brakes as I approached the rev limiter.
For some reason, I’m apprehensive about a lot of lean angle on the Tuono. Not sure why, I’ve never had an incident on the edge or touched any hard parts. On my BMW and my former Daytona, I’ll have a good 4-6° more lean angle regularly.
I look forward to going back to UMC. The track is so cool and the facilities are phenomenal. The Utah clients and local support were awesome. I was able to work with some of our regular VV clients as well as a couple of locals and that was really fun. It’s pretty cool to be able to learn a new track with clients and take them through my own process.