The Salt City Derby Girls have finally broken the silence about their 2011 roller-derby season plans—at least partially: They’re switching from flat-track to old-school banked-track. ---

SCDG, Utah’s original derby league, have played a flat-track game since 2005—as have the majority of roller-derby startups across the country and the others in this state. Since all you need are an open space and a flat surface, it’s always been the no-brainer way to go on the cheap (very few of these leagues are making money, let alone breaking even).

Still, most people associate roller derby with the classic, faster banked tracks of the ‘70s and, of course, Drew Barrymore’s 2009 flick Whip It (which is loosely based on Austin, Texas derby, the epicenter of the modern roller-derby revival). Outside of Texas and the east and west coasts, banked-track leagues are few. Salt City will be the first league in the Rocky Mountains to go banked.

In a press release sent out yesterday, the Salt City Derby Girls didn’t say when their new season would begin, or where this new banked track is located (unless someone can store a disassembled track in their garage, you need a permanent facility to house such a structure; SCDG likely isn’t going haul a track in and out of the Salt Palace once a month). SCDG President Brew HaHa! did say in the release, “Join us for our season-opener party that will be held on Saturday, March 12, where you’ll learn more about banked-track and what it means to our community. We’re thrilled and honored to join the banked-track skating community and show that our athletes can compete at this higher level of competition.”

That Salt City “Queen Bee” season-opener party is this Saturday at The Complex (536 W. 100 South), 8 p.m. Cover is $6 for the first 100 people, $10 after; ages 18-21 and up can attend. Facebook event page here.

A couple of examples of the faster-harder banked-track style of roller derby, from Seattle’s Tilted Thunder Rail Birds: