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After all the planning, plotting and logistics, (thanks to Mike Andrews) we were finally on our way to the WSBK races at Miller Motorsport Park the weekend of 30 May in Tooele, Utah. 
DAY 1 With our special guest all the way from Italy, Fabio Baldelli, President of Desmoboys D.O.C. in Reggio, Italy came along to provide us with the best in Italian companionship! Meeting up at Edgefield Brewery on Thursday, 29 May for breakfast and a quick route recap, we saddled up 5 ST’s and one monster in a light rain. Our goal was to make it to Ontario the first night through the central and eastern Oregon twisties. The roads were great although they remained wet most of the day; we will definitely have to hit them again in the dry season. Pulling into the Best Western in Ontario, we soon discovered that no restaurants were open and we had to work at getting pizza delivered to the hotel. So with a few beers and pizza we sat in the pool room and plotted the next day.
DAY 2
Late in the night, Andrew Cox made his arrival and as we prepared to take off the next morning we had to quickly find him some gas as he was lucky enough to make it to the hotel with just enough! On the road again in sunshine made for a much nicer day and we motored on through to Idaho where things started to get funky! Outside of Murphy, Idaho (according to Murphy’s Law) Fabio’s ST3 started pouring smoke out the back!! Mike Andrews zipped ahead to get everyone’s attention. Back with Fabio, Lili, and Don Green was the wounded Duck. Oil puked out of the oil cooler after it spent time rubbing against the exhaust header and developed a hole! No worries, the bike had an extended warranty and all we had to do was get on the phone and have them rescue the bike and transport it to Boise. Yeah right! Just as we started the rescue attempt with phone calls, we realized that only one U.S. cell phone would work in the middle of Idaho, but it had a low battery, so Fabio’s Italian cell phone to the rescue! In the middle of nowhere Idaho, who would have thought that it would take a European cell phone to contact the help!
In the meantime, Mike had forged ahead and finally got hold of Andrew Cox and Larry Hess, who had been brainstorming ideas for an on the road repair/rescue. While I was huddled under my raincoat with crappy cell phone reception and getting soaked by the only thunderstorm around trying to get the rescue underway from Boise, Lili, Don Green, and Lynette were playing phone tag with Richard and each other in an attempt to get answers and help.
After about 45 minutes on the road, Andrew, Larry and Mike returned with a brilliant idea! Take the trashed oil cooler off the bike and turn the oil lines around on each other. Ride the bike with no cooler and just watch the temps! Fabio’s brilliant riding skills (no doubt honed in the hills of Italy) shut the bike down in time to save the remaining oil and keep from trashing the motor! Bravo!! The ST was up and running and we were back on the road to Utah about 3 hours late. The good thing about this was the fact that Larry and Don checked out their ST’s and found the same problem!! Disaster averted!
The group split and Fabio and Lili with the wounded Duc and me took the freeway to SLC in case we need more assistance. Andrew and rest of the troops blasted south into Nevada for twisties that turned out to be more straighties! While we made it to the hotel about 8 pm, the rest of the posse got in much later.
DAY 3
 Well, we all finally made it to the Hotel in SLC. After breakfast it was off to the track to watch the qualifiers for the AMA and WSBK races! Rooting for Troy Bayliss and Michel Fabrizio of Ducati Xerox, we watched as they both landed some choice starting positions for the next days race. Another lucky stroke came with Fabio and his friend Davide (Da Da) who is a mechanic for Ducati Xerox. We were able to get up close and personal in the pits and paddock area after the races! Several of the group even met with Troy and Michel and got their autographs!
The weather was great and the crowds minimal. Nothing like the crowds we experienced at Mugello, Imola or Misano! Italians are crazy for their motorcycle racers! Miller Motorsport Park is HUGE!! Three separate tracks can run at any time! It is set in a valley between two snow capped ranges and is easy to get around, although it takes a LOOONNNGG time to walk from one side to the other. Lucky for us, many of the grandstand officials let us sit in open seats close by instead of walking 40 minutes to our assigned seats.
Ducati North America was present with the Ducati Island, so Ducatisti were able to park close to the vendor area and right next to Ducati Island where food and drinks were provided for us! Thanks Ducati! We finished the day watching the WSBK pole qualifier and then cruised the paddocks and pits for a couple of hours until we all met up at Squatters Brew pub in downtown SLC before we called it a night.
DAY 4
The sun was out and the temperature was perfect! Although a bit of wind was kicking up, race day was here. It was bittersweet for Ducati, with Bayliss crashing out on the first race and Fabrizio taking the podium for 3rd place. The second race had Bayliss coming on strong until a mechanical put him out again! But Fabrizio worked his way up from the middle of the pack to take another 3rd place podium! A good showing for the team, but a bummer for Bayliss. In between the WSBK races was the AMA races, these guys put on a great show and seemed more entertaining than the SBK at times. Great fun and some fast racing.
DAY 5
Packing up the bikes and heading north to Idaho for our return trip took us through Ogden Canyon and a little visit from the local law enforcement community! The great thing was that the cops were very cool and “no laws” were broken since they didn’t witness anything! Just before we were to depart, Fabio in broken English asked “signori, scusi, but may we have some photographs with you?” That broke the tension and got us some great pictures! Grazie Fabio!
As the day wore on, we worked our way up past Bear Lake and into the flat Snake River valley. The group split at Idaho SR 75 as some of us continued to Boise, while the rest went north to Stanley. Well, no trip would be complete without running out of gas, and yes, Mike Andrews and his monster win the award! With only 18 miles to gas, the monster shut down. Off to the rescue was Fabio and Don Green, Mike had to buy a gas can then the gas, so he ended up paying $9 a gallon! So today’s prices are a bargain compared to running out! In the meantime Lili received a text message from the rest of the group, “cold, dark, staying in Stanley, see you tomorrow”.
We were able to find a hotel in Boise and crashed hard that night.
DAY 6
We sure didn’t expect the day to turn out the way it did, but the rain took us out big time! Now that the group was split, we decided on going north to McCall on Idaho SR 55, while the other group came down to Caldwell and picked up the interstate! See ya!! As we trucked north, the rain picked up and it really started to DUMP!! We were soaked to the bone, cold and hurting with the reduced visibility. We changed our route and dove south for the freeway to try and make Baker City, OR for the night. As we pressed on we caught even MORE rain, wind and traffic. By the time we rolled into Baker City, we were done!! The second group was as close to us as 70 miles at one point, but they were ahead of us and decided to continue for Portland. We still had over 300 miles to go at 5:30 pm., NO WAY!!!
A hot shower and some cold beers and we were feeling no pain. A nice easy night since we were not pushing for home.
DAY 6
Taking off in the sun, our departure from Baker City was cold! Heading out to the interstate we crossed in WA for SR 14 for the final push home. The weather was great, but man, the wind was whipping! Coming down 14 the whole way was brutal, the ST’s taking the wind like a sailing ship, we were all over the place. We pushed on into Stevenson where Mike Andrews, Fabio and Lili decided to press on home while Don Green and myself finished up the trip with a last beer and sandwich at the Big River Grill. All in all, a memorable trip!! Let’s do it again!!! |
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