Motorcycles roar into Millville for Motorsports Park's first club event
By EDWARD VAN EMBDEN Staff Writer, 856-649-2072
Press of Atlantic City

Millville, N.J. (July 8, 2008) –Standing next to his bike, Marcus Clarke said it was good to get out on the track now, while the asphalt still has grip and before those racecars, the bane of him and other motorcycle racers, get the chance to screw it up.

The Yardley, Pa., resident was one of approximately 150 bikers who made the trek to New Jersey Motorsports Park as the facility, which hosted a member's only soft-opening this past weekend, welcomed its first ever club, a motorcycle club, to ride the track on Monday.

Clarke said he's been waiting for what he heard was going to be a really good track.

Throughout the day Monday, as riders ranging from beginners to experts took their turns on the 1.9-mile Lightning course, he and his fellow motorcycle riders finally got a chance to experience it firsthand.

"Motorcycling on the road is a sport wrought with danger. You always have to worry about things like a car pulling out in front of you," he said. "The beauty of coming to the track is, everyone knows what they're doing, everyone is going the same way, and if you lay your bike down you're not going to run into anything."

Clarke came to the track with his neighbor Tom Cutter.

The two men bought tickets for $205 from Absolute Cycle Performance, a northern New Jersey-based outfit that now has the distinction of being the first-ever club to rent time at the track.

Cutter said the riders spent most of the day figuring out the track's dimensions and getting accustomed to its details, which he called challenging, like its elevation and numerous turns.

All this, he said, while hitting top speeds of about 160 miles per hour.

"This is our first day on the track, so we had to take it easy," Cutter said. "The condition of the track is flawless."
NJMP General Manager Don Fauerbach was standing next to the track taking pictures as a group of nearly 20 motorcycles, all just feet from each other, rounded the course's signature Lightbulb Turn.

Fauerbach, who raced motorcycles professionally for eight years, said he was out at the track as the motorcyclists - his people, he said - took their first lap.

"The greatest treat was seeing that first lap," he said. "The first hot lap at 8:30 a.m., it just melted by heart right down."

As Fauerbach talked about the response he's received so far, about how he's heard from the people who've come to the track that this is the finest motorsports park they've ever visited, and that nothing matches it, a new member with a motorcycle strapped to the bed of his truck rolled by.

"This is better than Disney Land," he said.

Scott Wistar of Landenberg, Pa., owner of a corporate membership, said the details of the track, its elevation changes, its challenges and its safety are all things that stand out.

While problems with his bike's transmission ended his day Monday, Wistar said it was a memorable first day.
"You get the butterflies, you know, that roller coaster feeling," he said. "The rolling elevation changes make it fun, it's just a blast to ride."

Reach Edward Van Embden at evanembden@pressofac.com