Barber Motorsports Park

Thanks for eating ice cream and drinking milk. If you’ve bought anything from Barber Dairies then you may have helped provide the venue for my weekend fun.

This past weekend Michael, Dad and I went to the NASA (National Auto Sport Association, not space ships and satellites) race weekend at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, AL. BMP is owned by George Barber, who made his fortune from cows. It’s an absolutely beautiful facility that is landscaped more like a golf course than a race track. There are large sculptures scattered around the grounds and it has the feel of a very nice park. The track itself is also incredible.


As at Road Atlanta in March, I was driving in group 2, of 4 levels, while slowly working my way (hopefully) to a competition license in a few years. This time Michael was also able to drive in his first weekend on track in group 1. My dad also flew out from California to help out and generally just be there. It also gave him a chance to see how different NASA regions do things as he usually drives in the Norcal region and this was a NASA Southeast event.

A general summary of the weekend: It was HOT! Temps were hanging somewhere around 95° in the shade with track temps above 120°. At one point while sitting on grid waiting to go out on track, my super snazzy on-board computer told me that it was reading 137°. I’ve now decided that no matter how much weight I could save, I’m not getting rid of my air conditioning until it’s 100% race car and I have another driver cooling system.


Michael and I both got 4 twenty minute track sessions each day. I actually sat out my last session on Saturday because I was way too hot and just worn out, but this still works out to almost 5 hours of track time on the car. The car again ran perfectly and actually rolled over 210,000 miles while out on track. I think that’s pretty impressive for an engine that still burns zero oil and can get over 30mpg.


For his first time on a real track, Michael did great. He had an instructor ride with him all of Saturday and for the first 2 sessions on Sunday. She said he was doing really well and signed him off to solo for the last two sessions. My dad then rode with him for one and he was all alone for the final session. He also accomplished his primary goal which was don’t break the car or hit anything.

Overall it was a very successful weekend. We had a great time, met some cool people, burned some gasoline, removed some of the rubber from my tires and I can’t wait to do it again. Hopefully I’ll get another chance in December back at Road Atlanta.

It has been said that the only way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a large fortune. Would anyone care to sponsor a future race team?