Ford Performance’s RS and Raptor Experiences

Buying a new Ford Focus RS or F-150 Raptor? Ford Performance wants to send you to school – for free

Utah Motorsports Campus has had its ups and downs. As Miller Motorsports Park, the Tooele, Utah, facility was flying high on seemingly unlimited Miller family money since its creation in 2006. When the track founder passed away in 2009, the facility continued to operate as usual, hosting everything from professional on- and off-road races to racing schools. But in 2015, the facility’s future became uncertain when the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies, which managed the facility, decided not to renew its lease on the Utah-owned land. Bids were made for new track ownership, but as of right now, the facility sits owner-free. But that doesn’t mean the doors have been shuttered; in fact, this is the story of one of the newest things you can do there.

For a track with no real ownership, the Ford Performance Racing School signage sure makes the Utah Motorsports Campus (UMC) look like an official Ford testing facility. This is what I first noticed when entering the grounds as one of Ford Performance’s invited guests, on location to preview the school’s newly offered RS Adrenaline Academy and Raptor Assault.

In a nutshell, anyone who purchases a new Ford Focus RS or Ford F-150 Raptor gets an invitation to the Ford Performance Racing School, with Focus RS owners attending the daylong RS Adrenaline Academy for free and Raptor owners partaking in the equally-long Raptor Assault for free (the school price is actually baked into the purchase price of the vehicles). Straight to the point: Are these experiences a good bang for the buck? Considering you’re only out the price of a plane ticket and one or two nights in a hotel (after the new vehicle purchase, of course), the value is indisputable. Then considering that the only way into either school is to buy one of these new vehicles, and this certainly becomes an opportunity RS and Raptor owners can’t afford to pass up.

The Ford Performance Racing School instructors hosting students for the RS Adrenaline Academy and Raptor Assault are personable and top-notch, with credentials to back up their words. For example, Ty Hamill raced in the IMSA Firehawk series, Brandon Davis holds a Pirelli World Challenge GT title, and Brian Smith raced in pro series and was a Michelin test driver. There are other instructors at the school with equal experience, but the point is that when you’re talking with these instructors, their knowledge comes from hands-on experience, often at the professional level. And of the instructors I spoke to, all were excited to help students go faster and push their own limits, be it entry level or advanced. I’ve been to other performance schools where this was not the case.

Back to the RS Adrenaline Academy, this part of the owner experience includes everything from on-track sessions to autocross (branded as Urban-X) to a drift circle utilizing drift mode on the RS. The on-track portion of the Adrenaline Academy utilizes half of UMC’s massive 4.486-mile circuit and involves lead-follow sessions, hot laps and ride-alongs with instructors – and the circuit is challenging. For this Academy preview, the students took to the East Course, touting a number of high-speed fourth-gear sweepers leading to technical third-gear turns, all of which showed off the nimble attitude of the RS. This being my first time in the Focus RS, I was pleasantly surprised to find the car allowed for trail braking rotation while the all-wheel-drive system had more rear bias than front when powering through turns. That said, it didn’t take long to learn that while the RS can hotdog at high speeds, smooth is key, even with 350hp to absorb your mistakes.

The same holds true on the Urban-X autocross course. Here, students try their hand at using the car’s launch control setting – a feature that brings a smile to the face. Drift mode exercises come on what is essentially a wet skid pad; yes, it’s as fun as it sounds.

The Raptor Assault is very different from the RS Adrenaline Academy. Here, students take the Raptor through various off-roading features at UMC, like the 30-degree hill tipping the Raptor to exciting angles, then down another hill utilizing the Raptor’s feet-free descent control. With that complete, students then hit the road for a 30-minute drive into Utah’s mountains for off roading, rock crawling and higher-speed trail running down sandy paths.

With the Raptor Assault, once the students hit the trails, splashing through puddles and bounding over bumps at healthy speeds, it’s easy to believe this is something many Raptor owners won’t be willing to do with their own brand-new $50,000-plus truck – luckily, both the Raptor Assault and RS Adrenaline Academy are done in school-provided vehicles. You get to see what these vehicles can actually do, and at no point put your personal RS or Raptor in harms way, which is great news.

Both programs were a blast, and being a racer myself, the RS Adrenaline Academy was fantastic. Track time and autocross is in my wheelhouse, so I was comfortable with all aspects of this program. The Raptor Assault, however, was a different case. Spending a day on Bureau of Land Management land, climbing several thousand feet of rocky trails, then descending toward the Utah basin for high-speed, dusty fun was refreshing and beyond exhilarating. For F-150 Raptor owners, the thrill will undoubtedly live up to the promises of this school experience.

Let’s recap: The RS Adrenaline Academy and Raptor Assault are remarkable experiences held at the equally amazing Utah Motorsports Campus. The only downside to either program is that the price of admission is a Focus RS (roughly $36,000) for the RS Adrenaline Academy or an F-150 Raptor (about $50,000) for the Raptor Assault. But these programs are ones you truly can’t otherwise buy, making them must-do items for any new RS or Raptor owner. You’d be hard-pressed to leave disappointed.