"After all, you know this guy!"

Actually, readers that aren't local to this Wasatch Front may not get the reference in the title, but if you are from Utah, that slogan refers to just one, very prominent, very visible individual, Larry H. Miller. Now Larry's a mighty successful guy, as you might note from the Wikipedia linkbut one of the things the article doesn't mention is his interest in fast cars. Larry really likes fast cars. In fact, he has a collection of Cobra cars and Ford GT40 race cars that still see regular racetrack action around the world. Larry likes cars so much, he even built his own racetrack, Miller Motorsports Park!

Yesterday, Noah and I went to see Larry's new, world-class racetrack so we could spectate the Heros of Speed Classic Car races. Now we had a terrific time early on, walking freely through the paddock, chatting with car owners and checking under the hood of every car we passed while they sat under canopies and awnings attached to the fanciest of transport rigs. But all the folks were friendly and seemed to have time for a chat or to explain what their car was and how it was performing for the weekend.

Before the lunch break we watched a race or two from the fence along the front straight, then, when lunchtime was called, we had a stroll through the garages in front of the pits. This was where the really high performance stuff was parked. We didn't have the right color badges to be in the garages but the attendants didn't really seem to care too much, so we just let ourselves in through the open doors.

At one garage, Noah really got excited because inside were 3 Ford GT40 endurance racers and several more Cobra race cars. He was having a real good time walking around this GT40 and noticed that the car had a video camera set to record in-car action during the race. He asked one uniformed person how he might get a copy of some of that video and they directed him to another uniformed guy who seemed more than happy to accomodate Noah's wishes, even taking down his address and phone number and making a note of what Noah wanted. Then he asked if Noah might like to sit in the race car!

Well, you didn't have to ask him twice!

  

Noah finds himeself in the cockpit of his dreams...

  
So, who was this pleasant guy that chatted with Noah and I for fully 10 minutes, promised to send Noah a DVD of racing action and instructed his chief mechanic to open up the big-block GT40's tail so we could have a peak inside?

Yeah, it was Larry Miller himself! It didn't dawn on me right away, and he was wearing sunglasses so I couldn't see his eyes. But he was wearing a Salt Lake Bees baseball cap- he owns that team too- and his walkie-talkie that he sat down at one point had LARRY labeled onto it... But after having chatted with him for quite some time, and thanking him for letting Noah sit in the car, I was pretty certain it was Larry Miller, and his garage boss confirmed it after he was called away.

What a nice guy!

There is more to write about the day, and the weekend, but right now I've got to go meet a tall, attractive brunette for coffee!