trumperZ06

I spent this past weekend over at Barber in Alabama with Todd Serota's TracQuest group! Todd runs a Great Event and even caters a Hot Lunch for both Saturday and Sunday. We had ~ 70 cars evenly divided among three groups.

As I recall, we had 2 Porsche GT3's, 4 or 5 Porsche TT's, a bunch of 911's, a couple of 944,s along with many BMW's including M-3's, a couple of Vipers as well as a whole flock of Z06's. Three Ferrari's also attended , two 360's and a 355 Challenge series as well as an E55 AMG Mercedes. Everyone was well behaved and I don't think anyone caused an off track occurance.

TracQuest sets up three groups, yellow is novice, blue is inter-mediate, and red is the advanced & instructors group. We started with 30 minute sessions for each group until lunch time. Then Todd combined groups for the rest of the afternoon and all day Sunday. Todd allowed the yellow group to run in both yellow and blue, blue group got to run in yellow... blue... or red, and the red group was allowed to run in both red and blue. With 30 minute sessions for each group.... track time was ample.

It rained hard Saturday morning and although the rain stopped the track remained wet all day. Two cars were damaged Saturday caused by spins on the wet track. Both a Viper and an 2003 super-charged NSX hit the Amco causing major damage to both cars.

Sunday was Sunny but Cold in the morning. By 10:00 am the track had dried and we were able to really motor. Chris Ingle with his T-1 Corvette had fastest time running in the 1:30's. Us other high powered cars were running low to mid 1:40's, so I'm told. No official times were available as this was a D E Event.

A BMW 540 spun and hit the Amco Sunday afternoon after the driver turned off his electronic traction control system . Many of us instructors are now letting the student decide about using the traction/stability controls available... its a tuff call.

I heard that the same guy designed both CMP & Barber and there is some simular features. IMO... Barber is much faster and technically more challenging. This track is among the very best available here and everyone seemed pleased with the event. TracQuest will be at Barber again in 2005, for those wanting to join in!

APKhaos

Having instructed at a couple of Todd's Watkins Glen events last year, I'm sure everyone had a great time and enjoyed more track time than was decent. I like the format, although it took a little getting used to after the PCA DE regimen. Instructors acting the street corner hooker took some convincing!

Great to hear the event was a success. Agree re the tracktion control issue. Making the call on letting the car save the driver vs letting the driver drive the car is a tough one.

Lemming

Trumper - you forgot to mention one 924S

I had a great time, this was my third DE at Barber, the 2nd being the week before with the PBOC.

Saturday was not the best day to be driving, but I still managed to get about 2.5 hrs of track time, albeit wet track time. I had one spin coming out of the corkscrew but never left the track.

Sunday was fantastic and I managed a little over 4hrs of driving time and 1 hr of riding with instructors. Needless to say, I was exhausted at the end of the day.

riviera 93

My first trip to Barber, wow! can't wait to bring my car to this track! (down for service). Next year! e
Don't miss the museum!

TT Surgeon

I did the PDE there, awsome track. Next yr, I'm going to try and take my car to a DE there, my brother will come over from TX, a good(long) trip. Does anybody know what clubs run DE's there?

ltc

http://www.barbermotorsports.com/events.html
Looks like Alabama region had a couple of days and there appears to be one other as well.

Doug Donsbach

The local PCA and BMW clubs run there.

Jarez Mifkin

I think Phil Wicks Driving Academy is going to be there in February.

sprbxr

Anyone know how much Barber charged the guys that did damage to the track? I heard management is pretty harsh concerning track damage.

BrianKeithSmith

That's what I was wondering... How Much was the bill?

Brian

kev

I know someone who unfortunately wrecked during the club race and was billed $800 just for oil cleanup of the track. Related to this I suspect, I heard a rumor that PCA is not interested in returning in '05 for a race.

Greg Fishman

Not a surprise. Wonder what they 914 that leaked oil all the way around the track got billed. Took them over an hour, maybe 2, to clean it up. Too bad it didn't work out as it was a great place.

BrianKeithSmith

I recently heard of a guy who got a $21K bill from Barber for hitting the armco. I can't confirm the dollar amount, so it may be an urban legend type thing. However, the guy that told me about it bascially told me how the entire bill broke down. So who knows...

The guy that hit the armco had a 944, so that means his bill from the track was probably more than his car was worth. (I'm not trying to demean his car by the way).

Brian

riviera 93

the thing is, this IS a first class Race Track. I guess if you want to drive at IRP or Nelson and Hit stuff, thats fine. If you want to drive on a seamless darn near perfect contact patch there is a price to pay. e

Greg Fishman

I like Barber but think the track was not designed well for cars. too much Armco and it is way to close, next to no room for error. Even Road Atlanta is more forgiving, IMO.