But motorcyle racers and their support groups from throughout the world started arriving on Monday and practices begin Friday for the HANNspree Superbike World Championships here in Tooele Valley. Practices for the AMA Superbike series begin today.
Tooele County, Utah, USA is the sixth stop on the World Superbike circuit for professional racers who already have competed this year in Qatar, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
The Ducati Xerox team of Troy Bayliss from Australia and Michel Fabrizio of Italy was just arriving at MMP on Wednesday afternoon and the group was checking out the trackside garages.
Fabrizio said he had not yet tested the track at MMP. He was a bit concerned because one of his racing team members had broken three fingers recently. "I need to go check out my teammate," he said as the rest of his group arrived.
Fabrizio has raced for 10 years and his partner Bayliss is one of the top contenders in the World Superbike series.
"There will be practice events Thursday for the AMA bikes with the world superbikes will be on the track Friday," said MMP media manager John Gardner, who has been working long hours trying to accomodate international media and prepare for this major event. "It should be the biggest draw of fans we've had in our history," he said.
Some members of the racing media were at the track on Wednesday surveying the landscape and getting ready to cover the international event.
Freelance photographer Brian Nelson of Minneapolis, Minn., said he prefers shooting motorcyle riders because you can actually see who is riding as opposed to car racing where the drivers are hidden in the cockpit. "You can identify the riders. When they brake they sit up and you can see their faces," he said.
Nelson said MMP facilities are some of the best in the world and that motorcyle riders like it because it is safe with long runoff areas. "It's harder to shoot here though because photographers are so far from the action," he said.
"Alan Wilson knows motorcyle racing and designed this track for motorcyles first and then race cars second," said David R. Swarts, editor of Road Racing World magazine.
"The riders like it because it is safe. There are only a couple of tracks in the United States that even compare with this one," Swarts said.
He said the high altitude may slow down the bikes by 15 percent. "You put this track at sea level and these riders could hit 200 mph. Here they will probably get up to speeds of about 180 mph."
About 28 to 30 world superbike riders will compete at MMP this week. Only one American, Scott Jensen from Colorado, is schedule to compete in the world races. Word in the press box on Wednesday was that one of the AMA riders from the USA was going to join Jensen and compete against the international racers.
Fans will have unprecedented access to look at the bikes and mingle with the drivers this week.
"At other international events, fans are allowed almost no access to the riders," said MMP general manager Wilson. "We have tried very hard to overcome this by working with the HANNspree Superbike World Championship, and as a result we have been able to provide a series of pit lane walks where the teams will cooperate to allow interaction between the riders and the fans and allow the fans to look into the garages at the bikes. We are pretty confident that this will be the most access that fans have ever had to the international riders."
mwatson@tooeletranscript.com
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