I just got back from the barber vintage festival…what a blast! One of the nicest facilities i’ve ever seen. They obviously race motorcycles there ,they also race cars and indy cars. Have the ever race karts there? It looks like a dream kart track!
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Yes, used to run there in 04-05. I don’t think any road racing series goes there anymore.
Not sure why!
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I’ve been to a few races down there as a spectator!! Just recently thought about getting into karting but don’t know how to get started and seems like the karting series doesn’t come anywhere around here!!! Living in Alabama sucks
I think the scca still races at barbers and the Indy cars but they got rid of the Rolex series and all that and like y’all were saying I’m not to sure Cause that was some of the best racing
Karts raced on the Barber road course to the early 2010’s
Kart Road Racing series no longer race there, and other road race venues, for several possible reasons. Some series’ entry numbers have dwindled to the point that the kart club hosting the event could no longer pay the track rental fee for the weekend.
Another crucial reason is the number of new car and racing organizations that have sprung up in recent years that are looking for track dates. Go back a decade, and ****-box endurance car series like Lemons, AER, Chump/Champ Car etc. didn’t race much, if at all, on these type of road courses. Now they’re everywhere. Nor did groups like GridLife or those odd Semi-Pro leagues for exotic GT cars driven by wealthy amateurs. Add to that orgs. like Chin Track Days and “vintage” clubs like SVRA trying to land a date on seemingly every road course in North America.
Obviously, this increase in demand for renting a road course for a weekend has lead to a noticeable increase in track fees. So a kart club or series may not have trouble with getting entries, but still may have trouble justifying the inflated cost of the rental.
Worst case, in a couple examples, a race track simply tossed the kart club aside for more lucrative, and wealthier, car/race organizations, or even their own programs, even if the kart group had no problems paying the track for an available weekend.
I don’t know the exact reason why karts stopped racing at Barber, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was for one the reasons mentioned above.
All good points! Ive got a couple of friends that race the high end stuff…one of them in a lmp2, crazy expensive…his hauler is as nice as nascar…crazy money. Alot of it comes from a crazy stimulated fake economy we’ve been living the last 10-12 years…and then trillions of covid and ppp money…brought tthem out in big numbers.
CoughcoughHPDEcoughcough