The fifth race of the season saw a return to the superb Miller Motorsports Park at Salt Lake, Utah. A track which is a complete contrast to the previous three venues, all of which where street races.

The Utah track is a purpose built 4.5 mile, 23 turn circuit in the desert, it has fantastic facilities for teams and drivers but also presents specific problems when trying to get an optimum set-up. On Thursday afternoon the teams had to contend with a sand storm which completely engulfed the track and brought visibilty down to zero.

Out on track the Mazda was struggling for front end grip, particularly in the slow bends and that was reflected in the times. During the test sessions both Ben and Jamie not only had to learn the circuit but try to overcome the handling problems that were leaving them with a 6sec deficit on lap times.

Ben was given the job of qualifying and in just 2 laps managed to shave just over 4 sec off his previous best lap. However the rest of the pack pulled out all the stops and all improved on their previous best, leaving the number 8 Mazdaspeed Lola in 9th place on the grid.

Ben was first in the car for the start of the 5th round of the ALMS and was relishing the chance to get amongst the LMP1 and LMP2 cars in front of him.

On the rolling lap Ben was positioned behind one of the Audi's and off the last bend both he and the Audi found enough space to get on the power on the run to the start/finish line. By the time they crossed the line they had'nt passed anyone but where both flying and in the charge to turn 1, Ben made a dramatic move round the outside and went into the turn in 4th place. A fantastic start from 9th on the grid. Once the field had settled it was obvious that Ben would have his hands full holding back the pursuing pack of quicker LMP cars. He did a brilliant job defending each turn fairly and skillfully. The Mazda engine able to hold its own with the chasing pack down the straights but the car having to defend heavily in the slower turns. Ben, obviously enjoying the close racing was eventually overwhelmed by the quicker cars but during that opening 15-20 minutes showed that the no 8 B-K MAZDA is not far away from competing for podium places. After a full course yellow Ben again got a great start and found himself in front of the Porsche once more. Again racing for position and defending fairly he was able to hold off the chasing car much to the annoyance of the driver who, when he did eventually get past, decided to take some retribution and cut right across the front of the Mazda. This manouevre causing contact between the cars and resulting in the Porsche recieving a stop and go penalty.

Ben was able to continue although there was some front end damage, but it did not affect the performance of the car. He was running strongly in 8th place overall and continued like this after a routine pit-stop for fuel and tyres after about 1 hour 10 mins. Just on the 2 hour mark he came in for a pit stop and driver change and Jamie jumped in for the run to the finish.

Unfortunately after only 2 laps the car was back in the pits with a fuel/electrical problem which turned out to be the end of the race for the no 8.

So another race ending in disappointment but one that will have lifted the spirit of the team and their supporters, the first 20 mins showed that they are there to race and compete with the best LMP cars and drivers.

There is a break now in the ALMS calender to allow any teams competing at Le Mans to do so, the season commences again in the first week of July at Lime Rock for The North East Grand Prix.