Miller Motorsport

[Benman]

Left a little later than I wanted to (3:45am:trash: ) but drove straight and true and made it to Salt Lake City in @ 10 hours time.

As owners of B5 S4s know, these cars don't offer much room for travelers. In fact, there was so little room that even my wife's small dog "Cinammon" had to stay on the dash! :D

[Benman]

After the long drive had a couple of beers and crashed at the hotel that the Rocky Mountain Audi Club had reserved for the event. Met up with Neil from AudiWorld to drop off some beers for the Sunday get together that he and his wife Ginger were so gracious enough to host for all of us visitors. Sunday's turn out was good with about 50 or so of us showing up for the party.

Now at this point I need to extend a special thank you to Justin and Jeremy at Matrix Integrated Inc. Seems when I ordered the Schroth seat belts for my car, they billed me correctly and had my correct address on the shipping invoice but the shipping company sent the belts to them! :trash: So here we were the Friday before I left Saturday morning, and my belts are up in Oregon and I'm heading to SLC, Utah!!! These guys actually paid to overnight the belts to a friend of theirs (Elf at Streamline in SLC) and had him bring the belts to give to me at the party on Sunday!!!:bow: :thumb: So to the guys at Matrix...:cheers: and also to Elf...:cheers: Thanks to you guys I was able to enjoy those belts for the event!

And of course also need to thank Neil as afterall, there is clearly not enough room in my S4 to bring 4 different track tires to the event so he was kind enough to allow me to ship them to his home!

Sunday night's driver's meeting was a bit misleading... We were told that Orange Group (advanced) would be "signed off" after our first session with our instructors only to find out Monday that would not be the case. In fact no students were signed off until the second day after lunch time!:( Weak...

The track:

Miller Motorsport is a fantastic facility. First class. As it stood, the owner had already sunk over $80 million into the place! The garages all had private bathrooms with flat screen tvs (no reception yet:bye2: ) and the balconies provided an excellent view of the track. Here is a pic of the track from the balcony (sorry my family is standing in front of the view:D ):

Also, in pics the track looks very flat, but this is misleading. Although it only has about 20' elevation change, it is in all the right spots will blind hills and corners, great fun!:applause:

[Benman]

Well... as I was saying, not only was Monday not quite what was promised, but the track time was extremely dissapointing. In fact, there was only two sessions for each group the whole first day!:vgrumpy: What made it worse, some of the instructors were way over worked and were running late to their other students (which proved to be the case for me:( ), so... for Monday, I had a whopping 6 laps for my first day there!:nono: Kinda sucked...

Tuesday was much better with 5 sessions for each run group. Students were finally being signed off but politics played a part as ones who "knew" certain people were signed off before other despite having less track experience (ahh... such is life).

I apologize if I sound bitchy, but compared to the Las Vegas event there was much less track time and much more "babysitting" (at Vegas, nearly all Orange group was signed off by the end off the first day, plus we had way more track time: 4 hours, 45 minutes compared to less than 2 hours at Miller). Don't get me wrong, if I had the opportunity to decide to go again, I would. In a heartbeat! The track is that great!

The weather on the otherhand, smoked (in a good way)the heat we had to deal with at Vegas. Monday had a high of @80 and Tuesday was even better with the weather staying overcast in the mid 70's, absolutely beautiful!

Below, pulling out for action:

[Benman]

Getting familiar with turn 23:

[Benman]

Now despite my "negative" attitude, Tuesday afternoon proved the highlight of the event. Everyone was getting more familiar with the track and therefor faster around it. I met up with another Ben I had met at the LV event and we filmed a few laps of us playing follow the leader. I'm sending the video to Robert Gideon to edit so might have a link for it in the near future. Those few laps made the event for me. Man, that track is awesome and I encourage anyone who has the chance to go check it out. You won't be dissapointed.:thumb:

I think in the end, it is easy for us who participate to criticize those in charge because we have so little to do to put on the show. Putting ourselves into their shoes would prove a different story so I am in no position to say what they could have done better. So again, not to come off as negative, just wanted to point out things I wished could have been better. Think of it as constructive criticism for the next event.

Again, thanks to the guys at Matrix and Streamline for going above and beyond for my belts and off course to Neil and Ginger! Also, to Bauer for suggesting the Alcons. Man they work great (although was not pleased about the rears being loose without the wheels in place. Made for a hassle when changing tires! Will need to convert to a stud set up...).

With a final thought, I found our daughter Kassandra playing "racer girl" with my equipment... looks like she'll have fast cars in her blood.:cheers:

[AndyBG]

Last pic', excelent :0:

BTW, funny dog you have. :hihi:

[7:53 RS6]

Nice reading Ben! You seem to have some nice tracks over there.
It sucks when you dont have enogh track time, still hope you and family had fun:0:

[Audihead]

Very nice write-up Ben. Looks like you're in for an expensive future.:D That dog is soooo cool.

[IulianUM]

Nice .
The last pic is really good . :thumb:
Looks like a good track .:incar:

[Erik]

Thanks for an interesting story with pics! :s4addict:

[Benman]

Yep, expensive future for sure.;) :D

Forgot to mention how nice it was to meet up with Jimmy and Chris for the stay there. Also saw Terry and his wife with their RS 6 owner and met a new RS 6 owner who had his Beast there, Mike and Marsha. Hopefully they'll visit this forum.:cheers:


Ben:addict:

[eazy]

Yeah, nice days i think :incar:

[SoCal]

Nice report, Ben. Glad you had such a good time. Thanks.:race:

[jeremy@matrix]

Originally posted by Benman
After the long drive had a couple of beers and crashed at the hotel that the Rocky Mountain Audi Club had reserved for the event. Met up with Neil from AudiWorld to drop off some beers for the Sunday get together that he and his wife Ginger were so gracious enough to host for all of us visitors. Sunday's turn out was good with about 50 or so of us showing up for the party.

Now at this point I need to extend a special thank you to Justin and Jeremy at Matrix Integrated Inc. Seems when I ordered the Schroth seat belts for my car, they billed me correctly and had my correct address on the shipping invoice but the shipping company sent the belts to them! :trash: So here we were the Friday before I left Saturday morning, and my belts are up in Oregon and I'm heading to SLC, Utah!!! These guys actually paid to overnight the belts to a friend of theirs (Elf at Streamline in SLC) and had him bring the belts to give to me at the party on Sunday!!!:bow: :thumb: So to the guys at Matrix...:cheers: and also to Elf...:cheers: Thanks to you guys I was able to enjoy those belts for the event!

And of course also need to thank Neil as afterall, there is clearly not enough room in my S4 to bring 4 different track tires to the event so he was kind enough to allow me to ship them to his home!

Sunday night's driver's meeting was a bit misleading... We were told that Orange Group (advanced) would be "signed off" after our first session with our instructors only to find out Monday that would not be the case. In fact no students were signed off until the second day after lunch time!:( Weak...

The track:

Miller Motorsport is a fantastic facility. First class. As it stood, the owner had already sunk over $80 million into the place! The garages all had private bathrooms with flat screen tvs (no reception yet:bye2: ) and the balconies provided an excellent view of the track. Here is a pic of the track from the balcony (sorry my family is standing in front of the view:D ):

Also, in pics the track looks very flat, but this is misleading. Although it only has about 20' elevation change, it is in all the right spots will blind hills and corners, great fun!:applause:

Great write-up Ben--and you're very welcome for the extra service; always!

We'll have to make it out there for an event or two. It looks like a wonderful facility.

Take care,
Jeremy

[Benman]

Originally posted by jeremy@matrix
Great write-up Ben--and you're very welcome for the extra service; always!


Take care,
Jeremy

No! Thank you!:cheers:

Ben:addict:

[Benman]

BTW,

I've been hearing a lot about how the B5 S4s don't get that great of fuel economy. Not so!

Going over the records from the trip, I averaged over the 1600 some mile round trip @ 29.5 mpg!!! Good stuff. Yes, I was driving slow (@ 73mpg average) but still, if you're not WOT, B5 S4s get better mileage than B6/B7s!!! And I got @ 8.6mpg at the (LV)track vs Jimmy's 6.5 mpg in the Beast. :D


Best tank was 342.3 miles, 11.03 gallons used= 31.03 mpg!!! (although trip computer was a tad more generous saying 31.5...). Could have went for the record of most miles on a tank but our daughter really had to go potty. As it stands, most miles on a single tank in the S4 sits at 401.0...

Just thought I'd let y'all know.;)

Ben:addict::s4addict:

[Audihead]

You are right about the B6 & B7. I only get about 280 miles out of a tank in the S. With @ 14.5 gallons used. 19.31 miles a gallon at @ 80-85 MPH.

[sturs6]

Nice write up Ben... Does your daughter have a Hans device on?

[Benman]

Originally posted by sturs6
Nice write up Ben... Does your daughter have a Hans device on?

Close, she's wearing my R3 by http://www.lfttech.com/ . Bauer recommended them. :thumb:

Ben :addict:

[Benman]

Here is the video link of a lap at Miller: http://audifahrer.com/aw/track/06miller/ben.wma

Here, me and Ben are playing follow the leader.:D :thumb: It was great fun. Also, for those watching, sorry about the clanking metal sound you hear. My instructor forgot to fasten his seat belt after he left and I forgot to check it. And yeah, I get loose a couple of times, but hey, don't we all?

Many thanks to Robert Gedeon at So Cal Audi for hosting for me!:cheers:

Ben:addict:

[IulianUM]

Thx for the video .:applause: :applause: