i just got home from alabama and the new barber track.
very cool. i'll post pics when i have a chance.
my friend tom race spec miata and did fine, we had so much fun..............
if you get the chance go see it for yourself, we got to take a feew touring laps and man what a cool track.....
later
robert

 

Hey Rob.
Did you take your RX-7? How long did it take you to get there? Do you need a racing liscense to drive on the track?
I won't have my car ready for the race on the 22nd. I found all the parts that I need but I won't have my engine finished and broken in before the race. I'm also looking for someone to build a roll cage. Who built your roll cage?
Will you be able to race on the 22nd?
I have to work and it isn't worth taking vacation if I'm not going to be racing.

Good Luck
Brett.

 

PICTURES PLEASE! And any anecdotal (sp?) information about amenities, spectator areas, camping?, and anything else you can think of. I am (we are?) VERY interested in this track as it's only an hour and a half or so from home.

 

I was there all day Saturday working F&C at turn 16. There was almost NO action at the turn but I would argue that I had the best view of the track. I could see turn 15 and pit in, turn 16 and the entire front stretch. The cars came back into view at turn 6 (lots of action there) and came back into view on the back stretch past turn 11 and I could see the cars until they went behind the trees at turn 13.

The track is unbelieveable. Absolutely no expenses spared on its construction. They even have iron statues all over the track. For example there were two large iron spiders that were placed to look as if they were crawling up the grass embankment towards turn 16 (they were about 3' tall and their legs spread about 6-8'. In the field beyond turn 6 there is a LARGE iron spider. It is big enough to nearly walk under. There is stuff like that everywhere.

And another example of the detail that went into the track was the tire barriers. All the tires are NEW. Granted they were probably defects and not suitable for road use but buying thousands of new defects has to be much more expensive than buying thousands of used tires. The advantage is that new tires are going to have more bounce and will not have the possibility of exposed steel belts that could injure a rescue worker trying to get a driver out of a burried car.

The track surface is supposed to be some experimental racing asphalt that gives extra grip with soft compound tires. I am not sure if it was because of the special surface or because it was just new but I noticed that tires make a different type of sound than normal when a car is sliding.

There were only 2 major accidents during the time I was there. The first accident was an ITA or SM Miata. It went nose first into the armco between turn 11 and 12. The front of the car looked to be a total loss but the driver was ok.

The second involved a IT7 or ITA 1st Gen RX. I didn't see the accident so I don't know the details but I think it happened around turn 14 and the car looked as if it had hit a tire barrier.

 

HI GUYS
bru, i'll be there on the 22nd to race, yes you have to be scca to race the track. matter of fact you have to be scca just to get into the track. no spectators allowed.
will you be off on friday? we may rent the track,??????
i built my own cage, get in touch with winston and call jason, he makes the main hoop behind driver for $100 and then you just need to either have him do all or just buy the tubing and fit all the peices and get a welder if you don't weld yourself. i recomend a full cage even though you only need a 4 point to run npr i would do at least 6 point.think safty first. plus it makes the car handle better........
this track is worth the drive from anywhere. i did 5 laps in a porsche boxster and man it's such a cool track.
i'll try to post pics as soon as i can. everything about this track is first rate. lots of blind corners and hills.
were trying to plan on being there in ma for the pro grand am race. maybe we can all meet up somewhere. we went to eat at dreamland and it was very good ribs.
more to follow.....................................
robert

 

Rob, Let me know when you go back to Barber, I might follow you up there. Did you get your SCCA liscense from NPR. and does it matter if it is a provisional liscense?
When are you talking about renting the track?

Later Brett.

 

MAYBE FRIDAY for the track. 3/21/03
i hav'nt gotten my scca liscense yet. i need to take some scca schools first, npr IS not a school the that any organization would accept for a liscense. they may accept our experience but would still require us to complete their schools. the race in may will be a pro trans am and open to the public.
theres so many hoops to jump threw for scca that if you even think you might want to race scca you better get jason or some other professinal to build your cage and join scca asap to get a rule book because you can't do much to your car. i would have to add stuff back on mine. thats why i didn't throw stuff away.
give me a call some time.
heres some pics
later
robert

 

Anyone run both Barber and Road Atlanta? I did the 8 hour drive to Atlanta, and it was worth it to do a two day driving weekend, but not sure about driving to Birmingham.

Looking for feedback on what people think comparing the two.

TIA.

David

 

Road Atlanta has mystique...and you gotta love that Bridge Turn LOL

 

Oh yeah, the bridge turn............

Nothing like driving off a 6 story building at 100mph............

Went damn near through a whole case of Depends that weekend....... ...........

I thought RA was friggin awesome; just wondering if Barber is as good. Too bad the weekend I was there (RA) that it was in January and the high each day was about 29 degrees, so the tires never got heated up much. The one thing about RA is that there are walls everywhere, and not too much space to screw up in.

Thus, it was a fairly conservative weekend. What the hey, brought the FD home un bent.

My avatar is an RA shot with a badass Porsche RS closing in to pass me............again.............

David