Topic: Far too early planning for Barber, what can you tell me?

First, just finished at Gingerman, awesome weekend everyone, thanks to anyone who worked the race and to you teams who help others... all good stuff.

We've now done the last 4 races there, and we're gonna try to do a few more in 2023.  The first would be Barber in Feb.  What can you tell me that would help in our planning?   We'll likely take our "new" car which is a '92 Accord that is slow for B, fast (strike that, less slowish) for C, depending on where it lands.  We're hoping for a lot of track time, and running just 1 hour stints we are far from competitive. 

What can you tell me about places to stay, where to park at the track, staying at the track v. outside, food, kids, paddock stuff, anything else that might be helpful for someone's first trip to this track? 

The race / racing itself?  I read about Code 35, looks like that's only for "the big ones."  We hot pit at Gingerman, looks like that's pretty common. 

Looks like weather in past years has run from 30 - 70, so that part will be super easy to plan for :-)

Thanks in advance!

2021 Gingerman-I:  IOE (Strickland Propane)
2021 Gingerman-II:  20 seconds of footage on the wrap-up!
95 Chevy S-10

Re: Far too early planning for Barber, what can you tell me?

places to stay

There are a couple of hotels right by the track.

where to park at the track

Paddock has terraces, basically, on a hillside. Lowest tier tends to be "prime" territory, but there's not really a bad spot. It's easy to get around, stairs cut into the hillside.

food

There's some food by the highway and a Buc-ee's. Decent taco place not far away and half the racetrack usually ends up at the BBQ joint up the road. There's a food truck in the paddock usually that's decent.

paddock stuff, anything else that might be helpful for someone's first trip to this track?

Nicest facilities we go to, bar none. Bathrooms are clean. No glass bottles, don't be a dick, and clean up after yourself.

There's a big, enclosed classroom that's usually open during the race. We use it for Driver's Meeting and Trophies, but the view of the track is pretty good. Top of the main building also has an observation deck and there's another covered, open observation deck on the second floor opposite. That'll make sense when you're there. You can also go around to the back side of the track where you can watch the race from a berm. Theoretically, if you had two teammates with radios on opposite sides, you could almost play "Let's Tie Up the Radio With Spotters!"

HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you come down a day early and spend some an entire day at the museum. It's an amazing place.

The race / racing itself?

Racers really love the track. I've never actually been on it, but it's really technical and roller-coaster-y. Usually, at least one driver gets bad motion sickness.

I read about Code 35,

We try to minimize Code 35 as much as we can, would prefer not to use it at all because its use is generally not applicable to Lemons, but it's out of our hands. We aren't supposed to say that it's a full-course yellow with a speed limit, but if you've done it...anyway, the general idea is that any time the towing crew feels like they're in a rough spot (ie the hill right before the hairpin/spider turn/Turn 5) or we have multiple tow crews out or any other precarious position, the track's controller will use Code 35.

Barber does have excellent flaggers and a closed-circuit camera system so if you get called for something, you did it.

Eric Rood
Everything Bagel, 24 Hours of Lemons
eric@24hoursoflemons.com

Re: Far too early planning for Barber, what can you tell me?

Thank you, we are pretty pumped about it. Since we are driving so far we will probably get the practice day too, looks like that gets you in Thurs night.  It will be fun to compare our laps to INDYCAR.

2021 Gingerman-I:  IOE (Strickland Propane)
2021 Gingerman-II:  20 seconds of footage on the wrap-up!
95 Chevy S-10

Re: Far too early planning for Barber, what can you tell me?

therood wrote:

We try to minimize Code 35 as much as we can, would prefer not to use it at all because its use is generally not applicable to Lemons, but it's out of our hands. We aren't supposed to say that it's a full-course yellow with a speed limit, but if you've done it...anyway, the general idea is that any time the towing crew feels like they're in a rough spot (ie the hill right before the hairpin/spider turn/Turn 5) or we have multiple tow crews out or any other precarious position, the track's controller will use Code 35.

Barber does have excellent flaggers and a closed-circuit camera system so if you get called for something, you did it.

IIRC, at the NCM driver's meeting, it was announced that if we didn't 'play nice' they would use Code 35.  I drove for 3.5 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday and saw some of the best 'play nice' I've ever seen in my 14 years of Lemons, yet Code 35 was used for pretty much every local yellow...all weekend. 

I get it, that shit show we had at Road Atlanta last year that caused the come to Jesus meeting due to idiots buzzing the safety workers, was a wake-up call.  Buzzing the safety workers is NOT acceptable, and if I, or someone my team did that, and we got tossed out, I'd totally understand. 

That said, it seems to *ME* that throwing the yellow TWO stations prior to the incident would give us idiots time to slow down before we are even near the safety crews to avoid the Code 35 because to be frank, it SUCKS.  If you (my fellow racers) don't agree, then you must not have had the pleasure of riding around for 25 mins worth of 35 MPH laps at NCM while they restacked the tires in T16.  Had there been a yellow flag at T14, I can't see how that wouldn't have served the purpose of having us pass by the safety crews and a safe speed.

My $0.02...

Captain
Team Super Westerfield Bros.
'93 Acura Integra - No VTEC Yo!

Re: Far too early planning for Barber, what can you tell me?

VKZ24 wrote:
therood wrote:

We try to minimize Code 35 as much as we can, would prefer not to use it at all because its use is generally not applicable to Lemons, but it's out of our hands. We aren't supposed to say that it's a full-course yellow with a speed limit, but if you've done it...anyway, the general idea is that any time the towing crew feels like they're in a rough spot (ie the hill right before the hairpin/spider turn/Turn 5) or we have multiple tow crews out or any other precarious position, the track's controller will use Code 35.

Barber does have excellent flaggers and a closed-circuit camera system so if you get called for something, you did it.

IIRC, at the NCM driver's meeting, it was announced that if we didn't 'play nice' they would use Code 35.  I drove for 3.5 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday and saw some of the best 'play nice' I've ever seen in my 14 years of Lemons, yet Code 35 was used for pretty much every local yellow...all weekend. 

I get it, that shit show we had at Road Atlanta last year that caused the come to Jesus meeting due to idiots buzzing the safety workers, was a wake-up call.  Buzzing the safety workers is NOT acceptable, and if I, or someone my team did that, and we got tossed out, I'd totally understand. 

That said, it seems to *ME* that throwing the yellow TWO stations prior to the incident would give us idiots time to slow down before we are even near the safety crews to avoid the Code 35 because to be frank, it SUCKS.  If you (my fellow racers) don't agree, then you must not have had the pleasure of riding around for 25 mins worth of 35 MPH laps at NCM while they restacked the tires in T16.  Had there been a yellow flag at T14, I can't see how that wouldn't have served the purpose of having us pass by the safety crews and a safe speed.

My $0.02...

In the interest of not throwing anyone under the bus, I can't really add much, but we are very much aware of this situation.

Eric Rood
Everything Bagel, 24 Hours of Lemons
eric@24hoursoflemons.com