My father lives in Birmingham, I of course live in NY but would love to visit him and combine a track event (HPDE). In or around his locale.

I looked on the NASA regions site and didn't find anything close, but maybe I missed something?

http://www.barbermotorsports.com/

I've followed the Barber motorsport's park build and was curious if anyone here has driven it? If so, Impressions?

I also noticed a few "driving schools" linked to the Barber park site hosted by Porshe and Bimmer Clubs but nothing through NASA or anything close to there through NASA either.

Looking for suggestions and experiences.

Thanks,

Anton


Modified by 1GreyTeg at 9:35 AM 5/15/2004

 

Just watching the MotoGp on Speed and have to say that the complex looks amazing, thought I was watching a Eurpoean Race, would love to drive there and a great course, nice and flowing, sorry didn't help much but though I would share,

ITR Expo '05 ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Arsenal &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just watching the MotoGp on Speed and have to say that the complex looks amazing, thought I was watching a Eurpoean Race, would love to drive there and a great course, nice and flowing, sorry didn't help much but though I would share,</TD></TR></TABLE>

tanks


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Arsenal &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ITR Expo '05 ?</TD></TR></TABLE>

H'mmm maybe. That could be totally crazy since I have family there with a huge house.


Wonder if anyone here has seen the statues?

Saw the Taladegs grand prix circuit down there as well: http://www.tgprace.com/


What better way to plan a family reunion than include track time?

 

Barber is fanfriggintastic. One of the most fun and technical tracks in the country. You'll spend the entire weekend there and still leave thinking that you still haven't done a single corner well. Its a tough one.

The facilites are 1st rate as well, so its expensive to play there. SCCA races are in the $325 range for a double, which is at the high end for this division (which includes VIR and Lowes, two other expensive rental tracks).

BMWCCA and PCA both run there. Other various clubs do as well. Just poke around the internet until you find one.

Talladega GP is an excellent little test and Solo facility, but its not remotely in the same league as Barber.

 

That track charges extremely high daily rental rates, which is why most clubs are avoiding it, and the rest have very high registration fees for events there.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1GreyTeg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My father lives in Birmingham, I of course live in NY but would love to visit him and combine a track event (HPDE). In or around his locale.

I looked on the NASA regions site and didn't find anything close, but maybe I missed something?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Talladega GP is not far from Birmingham, and they have HPDEs there. NASA-SE had one there this weekend, in fact.

 

The area is not well endowed by NASA -YET.
I too have family in the Birmingham area and wanted to tow to Barber, but alas face the same issue as you. Check with a Honda dealer down there, maybe they can hook you up with a club doing an event there or at Talladega (the sports car course). I would also contact the local SCCA region. For those from greater NY-you can also head out this way and run at BeaveRun Motorsports Park. Very similar design to Barber; the architect did both tracks.

 

Barber is 10 minutes from home. Talladega Gran Prix Raceway (TGPR) is 45 minutes. Barber is a very nice track. Smooth, good grip, low wear rate (although I have not driven on the newest 3rd paving version). Several turns are interconnect from a flow/steering input so that is a fun challenge to do T2,3,4 with about one input etc. It is not a "high speed" track like say a Road Atlanta in that there is an esse on the back straight. Technical and busy though. Heart of Dixie BMWCCA chapter is putting on a DE in July. I think it still may have some openings. PCA runs at least two DEs there a year. I will be there is July for BMWCCA.

TGPR is completely different but very fun http://www.tgprace.com When it comes to top end speed on the track I can't say that Barber is that much faster than TGPR. I run TGPR 3 to 4 weekends a year. Little rougher on tires. Turn one (skidpad) and the turn four (the sweeper) are both very fun turns there. Was instructing at NASA's first event there last weekend.

Yes, track rental at Barber is very expensive. DEs there charge $450 to $495 a weekend so you can see $325 a weekend for club racing ain't bad in the grand scheme of things.

Barry H.

 

Barber is 10 minutes from home. Talladega Gran Prix Raceway (TGPR) is 45 minutes. Barber is a very nice track. Smooth, good grip, low wear rate (although I have not driven on the newest 3rd paving version). Several turns are interconnecting from a flow/steering input so that is a fun challenge to do T2,3,4 with about one input etc. It is not a "high speed" track like say a Road Atlanta in that there is an esse on the back straight. Technical and busy though. Heart of Dixie BMWCCA chapter is putting on a DE in July http://www.albmwcca.org . I think it still may have some openings. PCA runs at least two DEs there a year. http://ala.pca.org/DE_Pages/driversed.htm
I will be instructing there in July for BMWCCA

TGPR is completely different but very fun http://www.tgprace.com When it comes to top end speed on the track I can't say that Barber is that much faster than TGPR. I run TGPR 3 to 4 weekends a year. Little rougher on tires. Turn one (skidpad) and the turn four (the sweeper) are both very fun turns there. Was instructing at NASA's first event there last weekend. The Alabama Region SCCA is trying to find a date in the fall to put on a DE at TGPR. Track days there are usually somewhere in the $150 range. I think NASA is coming back to TGPR in September. You can email me at alsccaracechair@bham.rr.com if you want more info. ITRCA runs there but has alerady done their usual yearly event. If they do another one they always contact me.

Yes, track rental at Barber is very expensive. DEs there charge $450 to $495 a weekend so you can see $325 a weekend for club racing ain't bad in the grand scheme of things.

Barry H.


Modified by apexinghonda at 3:02 PM 5/17/2004

 

Also you might ask the guys over at http://www.teamtac.org

That is the local autocrossing group for Huntsville, and there are a number of guys that do some road racing. Just post a question on the forum there, someone should be able to help you.

 

We went to Barber last year for the inaugural scca weekend there. I loved that track. You will not hit high top speeds since there is no one long straight, but your first session will feel like you just ran a 20 minute continuous lap - there is no time to breathe and it’s hard to separate one lap from the next. I found it quite technical because on top of the different kinds of turns, there are also elevations changes in some very key parts that you really need to account for and drive accordingly. It's definitely a VIR-like track where (at least I still need to) you need to run a lot of laps to just half way figure it out. Even though we did win the inaugural race there, everyone still had a lot of room for improvement and I’d expect lap times to drop big time as people run the track more. I can't wait for the next time we'll run there, whenever that’ll be. It's a great and challenging track with absolutely excellent facilities. to Barber motorsports park.

 

The Alabama Region SCCA will be holding its Double SARRC race weekend at Barber Motorsports Park on July 10th-11th. Registration will be online this year and under that system the supps and entry forms will probably not go online until thirty days before the event. We plan on doing pay pal this year for those interested. Go to http://www.alscca.org closer to the event for more details and registration.
Barry H.

 

TracQuest is running a DE down at Barber over Thanksgiving weekend. Albeit expensive, you also get gobs of track time (sometimes 5-6 hours for the weekend). Since it's a holiday weekend, I'll likely run down there then. Plus it won't be Africa-hot that time of year...

 

Everyone I know that's driven Barber came back and told me it was incredible.

The on-season rental fees for a weekend are very, hideously expensive, so I wouldn't hold one's breath looking for a cheap-ish DE weekend there.

 

I'm from the Birmingham area, about 20 minutes from Barber Motorsports Park. My friends and I are in the process of arranging an event similar to the ITR Expo, but open to all Hondas/Acuras. We would like to hold the event around late August or early September of this year, is that too soon?

We want to have approximately 75 participants and the fee will be about $100 less than the ITR Expo. At this price, we will have the entire track to ourselves all day long on Saturday and Sunday.

I need to make a thread to guage interest in this event, but let me know what you think!

 

You are not talking about renting the Barber Track in August or September are you? There are no dates available in 04 from what I have seen or been told. Also 75 dollars x 100 people will not even rent the Barber Track for one day which you would in addition have to purchase insurance, corner workers, etc. Now you could rent TGPR http://www.tgprace.com but dates are filling up there too.
Barry H.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BrewerHatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm from the Birmingham area, about 20 minutes from Barber Motorsports Park. My friends and I are in the process of arranging an event similar to the ITR Expo, but open to all Hondas/Acuras. We would like to hold the event around late August or early September of this year, is that too soon?

We want to have approximately 75 participants and the fee will be about $100 less than the ITR Expo. At this price, we will have the entire track to ourselves all day long on Saturday and Sunday.

I need to make a thread to guage interest in this event, but let me know what you think!
</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Well, see: my friend's father is a friend and former neighbor of Mr. Skip Barber (wink wink), and what I said was 75 people at $100 less than the ITR Expo, meaning $200 per person. Also, security and insurance are not a problem, we've got a handle on that. We already went on a personal tour of the facility and talked with them about arranging an event.

You are correct, though, about the availability of open weekends. We will probably have to push this back a ways. We've been taking too long to try to get it set up.

 

Here is on board bike video of barber...if it helps

http://www.newbieracing.com/vi...3.wmv


The grass there is mint

 

Hmmm, that vid didn't work for me... but here is one that does:

http://www.cornerspeed.net/quicktime/barber_qt.mov

 

yours doesn't work for me!

maybe its the Quicktime