Miller track offers races today, Sunday

TOOELE — Fans got a taste of Le Mans racing in the form of practice runs on Friday. What remains is a few more practice runs today, followed by the all-important qualifying runs.

Racing for the titles in four racing categories in the American Le Mans Series will take place on Sunday at the Miller Motorsports Park northwest of Tooele.

Under the series format, four car classes — listed as LMP1, LMP2, GT1 and GT2 — will race on the track at the same time. Drivers say this puts a lot more interest in racing because there will be a lot more passing.

The green flag will drop about 1 p.m. on Sunday. Then, for 2 hours and 45 minutes, an expected field of 30 cars will race on the 3.6-mile track. The one car in each of the four classes that crosses the finish after the 165-minute time frame will be declared winners.

Along with the main event, there will be several other class races held, including the SPEED World Challenge Championship, the STAR Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, the IMSA Lites presented by Hankook Tires and the IMSA Challenge presented by Michelin.

Last year's race as held on the 4.6-mile layout, which included a total of 24 turns. This year, to make the race more visible to spectators, only the outside perimeter of the track will be used, which covers 3.6 miles and includes 13 turns.

Race officials believe this could make the Miller track the fastest in the 11-race American Le Mans Series.