It was a weekend for the 20-something crowd last Saturday and Sunday as GT Live made its second appearance at Miller Motorsports Park.

“Younger kids don’t go to the track anymore because they don’t want to sit and watch a two-hour race. They would rather be part of the action,” said Randy Grube from Los Angeles. Grube is the founder of GT Live and helped stage the first event back in 2004.

“I have been part of the entertainment industry and our challenge was to create an event that would get younger kids interested in coming out to the race track again. With all the entertainment available now we all have a short attention span. If we don’t like something we just hit the remote and find something new,” Grube said.

So he came up with GT Live where racing fans can race their own cars at the track, ride in drift cars, watch professional drift car competitions and race karts. It’s dubbed as an “interactive mostorsports festival.”

Grube’s organization stages only two of these events each year and Grube is banking on those events continuing to grow during the next few years. Last weekend it was GT Live West in Tooele County and in the fall it will be GT LIve East at Virginia International Raceway.

On Friday, media members were allowed to ride in drift cars. The cars reached 100 mph and then drifted sideways through corners.

“Drifting competition is somewhat like a beauty pageant,” said Griff Allen a media specialist who helps promote GT Live. “Drift cars are judged on various factors such as the entry speed before going into the drift, the drift angle, the proximity to a designated spot where they are supposed to start the drift and also what I call the X-factor. That is the impression the judges have about the excitement of the drift such as engine noise and the amount of smoke created.”

Drifting competitions are also similar to a tournament where one car goes up against another car and there is a designated winner. Cars are continually eliminated until one becomes the champion.

“There is a lead car and a car following it. In drifting if the second car can actually pass the first car it makes a big impression on the judges,” Allen said.

Kyle Mohan of Long Beach, Calif., said it is a misconception that drift cars use slick tires. “Actually, we want as much traction as possible for drifting,” he said.

Mohan said drifting originated about 15 years ago in Japan and that it is rising in popularity in California. Most of the professional drift car drivers at MMP last weekend were from California.

Patrons this weekend were also allowed to drive karts and participate in Tarzan’s Lapping Session which allowed them to test out their own cars on the track.

Upcoming action this coming weekend at Miller Motorsports Park includes the Race 2 Save Lives event Thursday through Sunday. Motorcyle enthusiasts from Utah and the western United States will be racing on the track. Proceeds from the event help raise money for children’s charities.

Last year, despite inclement weather, R2SL managed to increase both the number of participants and their fund-raising results, attracting a total of 372 participants, some coming from as far away as New York, and collecting $70,000 to donate to children’s charities in Utah and Colorado.

mwatson@tooeletranscript.com