#MillerMotorsportsPark

Miller Motorsports Park will remain open thanks to Geely.

One of the country’s most popular tracks is shutting down this year.

The world’s only high performance driving school sponsored and supported by Ford Racing has announced its 2013 schedule.  

This coming Sunday, October 9th, a very special event will air on Versus at 3 pm Eastern Time. It’s the Duel in the Desert, a special edition of the Viper Cup race series, where a talented collection of drivers and motorsports heros, from all different forms of the genre, race against each other at Miller Motorsports Park, in Toole, Utah.

The two-day experience begins with a private dinner and tour at the track’s Larry H. Miller Total Performance Museum, where owners will bone up on their knowledge of Boss heritage. The next day consists of classroom sessions with instructors, then a chance to practice vehicle techniques behind the wheel of their Mustangs. After lunch comes exercises around the entire track with instructors and then by themselves. Upon completion, owners get a special graduation pack and the bragging rights of their entire neighborhood.

Last week we reported the news of Kuno Wittmer setting a new lap record at Miller Motorsports Park in a Dodge Viper ACR and now we get to witness it through the beauty of two synchronized cameras. The record-setting lap time, which was just barely shy of 2-minutes (1 minute 59.995 seconds) was close to four seconds faster than the previous record time in a Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.

What is amazing to watch is the ease at which Wittmer pilots the ACR through the course on its way to a record-setting lap. It’s obvious in the video just how well-tuned the Viper ACR is and how balanced of a machine it is on the track. The video features an in-car camera that has been synchronized with video footage of the track, which really gives a great sense of the speed that Wittmer was sustaining throughout the course.

Check out the video after the jump.

After a shaky start to the 2011 World Challenge series season, Cadillac‘s CTS-V Coupe race cars finally showed some promise over the weekend at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. Drivers Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim finished fourth and fifth in the GT Class, helping both drivers move up the standings in the Championship race, and landing Cadillac second in the manufacturers points category.

The Dodge Viper ACR does it again. On Monday, April 11, Kuno Wittmer drove a production spec ACR to a new lap record at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah; in the process breaking the 2-minute mark for the very first time.

Heffner Performance is all about tuning luxury and exotic vehicles to maximize their performance. Recently they had the opportunity to team up with Roger Miller and TDC Motorsports to install their coveted twin turbo kit on an Audi R8 at Miller Motorsports Park. While Heffner Performance was working on twin turbocharging the R8 beast, PPI North America helped overhaul the R8’s suspension, brakes and body kit, but mainly focused on installing their own carbon fiber components to the Audi R8. The entire build took place at Miller Motorsports Park and as soon as the vehicle was done, it was taken straight out onto the track by Roger Miller himself.

And apparently Jason Heffner joined in on the fun by having his own R8 sent out to Miller Motorsports Park. Together both R8s hit the track for plenty of fun. So much fun in fact that Heffner has just chosen to leave his R8 out at Miller Motorsports Park and plans on returning soon.

Check out the video after the break and check out photos of the entire build here.

[Source: Automotive Addicts and TeamSpeed]

While Larry H. Miller might be better known as the owner of the Utah Jazz Basketball organization, auto aficionados know him for creating the Miller Motorsports Park. Miller died on Friday due to complications due to diabetes.

Miller was more than just a business owner, however; he was an active member of his community. He donated millions of dollars to build a 20 acre Salt Lake Community College campus, he taught several masters of business administration classes at Brigham Young University, and gave money to establish a police officer training center. Some estimates put his donations at well over $100 million.

Miller was a self-made man, who created the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies from his auto-parts business and one Toyota dealership which he opened in the late 1970s. Miller expanded his auto empire to include more than 40 dealerships. From there he ownered and operated several movie theaters as well as local radio and TV stations and even the Jordan Commons, a retail, entertainment and office complex.

As mentioned, he is best known for owning the Utah Jazz, although he also owned the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team.

The Miller Motorsport Park, located in Tooele, Utah, is a 23-turn 4.5-mile road course. Originally a $5 million project to be used as a playground by Miller, the project quickly became an enormous undertaking with a cost of $85 million. The track opened in 2005 and now plays host to the American Le  Mans Series, Grand Am Series, SPEED World Challenge Series and the AMA Superbike series. It also hosts certain NASCAR series races and is home to the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School. In 2006 it was named Motorsports Facility of the Year by the Professional Motorsport World Expo in Cologne, Germany.

The Larry H. Miller Group of Companies is one of the 150 largest privately held corporations in the United States with more than 7,000 employees in six states with an annual revenue of $3 billion.

“Larry was not only one of the finest auto dealers in the country, he was also one of the finest humanitarians,” said Iowan John McEleney, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association. “In fact, it would be hard to find a finer human being. When it came to helping others, Larry set the standard.”

[Source: Salt Lake Tribute]

See a tour of the Miller Motorsprots Park Museum by our friends at Garage419 after the jump: