Barber Motorsports Park F-USA Weekend

[Chuck]

Whoa!  I forgot how nice that track and facility was...  Add elec. hook ups and a PA system and it would be perfect.  

Hope everyone had as much fun as we did.  Would have liked to have done better, but it was a HUGE event I guess.  

A side from the race reschedule on Friday I thought CCS did a pretty good job handling the event.  Wish they wouldn't over book the track though.  GT races cut to 6 laps  ??? ??? ???

Some fast guys showed up...  :o :o :o

Anyone one else have a blast in the AL Coaster?  Weeeee!    ;D

[speedster_1]

They really screwed up the AM GTO race.  First it was shortened to 20 min.  then rescheduled for Sat then shortened to 6 laps....then the actual race was 15min!  I was in first on the 6th lap and 2nd at the checker.  The starter was not reminded of the 6laps...  I didn't formally protest...wasn't to concerned about it but did talk to the race director about it.  He seemed pretty upset about it. When I went to pick up my plagues I had all firsts...so they gave me a first....Not sure if they gave the leader at the end of the race first or not?

I was very disappointed about the track surface.  Compared to last year before the last AMA race it was sooooooo much smoother....It seems all the seams have sunken down and are now bumps...mainly over the blind hills.

The museum was awesome!  ...and the sidecars were a trip to watch!

Everything else was great!  Had a blast!

[Stinger562]

Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2004 10:01 am    Post subject: Barber, great place, poorly run event    

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
$175 Team Challenge entry fee
$500 plane ticket
$375 New tires
$180 Hotel room

Only getting 5 laps in a Team challenge race! Pathetic!!!

That's the story of my team challenge partner for Barber who flew in from Delaware just to do this race with me. I at least got the other 22 laps.

This was the most disorganized event I have ever seen. From the start of the weekend it was a mess, practice started 1/2 hour late on friday forcing 3 and 4 lap sessions. GT races were cut to sprints. An unannounced riding school race was given priority and shoved in cutting into the Team challenge. Races were moved to saturday, again cutting into practice. Races were over-sold so some riders were told that they could not race after paying. Thunderbike qualifing times were f'd up so riders had to grid by points, other classes did'nt get the chance to qualify and were gridded by entry. They did not have enough transponders, we tried to help by returning one and had trouble getting it back in time to race. The list goes on.

As for the Team Challenge there was an announcement just prior to the race stating that the race would go the full length since they moved other races to the next day. In addition there was an agreement that the track could stay open an hour later for $1000. Third call was made with no change to this agenda. We moved to the hot pit and got started. I got 22 laps in then pitted to swap riders and refuel. He was out 5 laps when a red flag came out at 45 minutes of racing, no problem he would still have plenty of race time, it is a 67 lap, 2 hour race after all. We were shocked when they called the race at that time. They later told us that it was changed to a one hour race. They argued that they made an announcement to that affect, if they did it was after third call, I was next to my radio. There was not a single racer that could be found who was aware of this change. Needless to say every team would have implemented a different race strategy, in my case just to give my buddy some track time since he paid for everything in order to use my bike. For others like Himmelsbach Racing it was a matter of losing the points lead since their fastest rider never hit the pavement.
    We had a meeting to air our gripes, we were told that we had 'til the end of the weekend to take the points or get a full cash refund. When I went to the cashier on Sunday for my money she told me it was too late, if I would fill out some paperwork she would see if I might get credited for future races.


Other than that the track itself and the facilities were great. Nice to meet Wizard and Sanee, and the Gixxer.com crew. I didn't get to meet Scuba Toe since he was at the Hospital, heal up quick man.

 

[MELK-MAN]

I was pissed when i found out i had just paid $175 for a 45 min "practice session".. but they told me i will get my credit card refunded. had to fill out a form by 8am the next day though.. I feel for the teams that spent thousands on air fare, bike prep, etc. however and if they get a refund, give up valueable championship points.

[OmniGLH]

What refund?  What meeting?  How in the heck did you find out about this meeting????

Had we known we could've gotten a refund, we would've been FIRST in line.  

[Bling]

I think we all know there were a huge amount of red flags.  Its tuff to keep any type of schedule.

 My hats off to Phil S. for dealing with alot of situations.

What a beautiful weekend and a beautiful place.

Jon Ytak

[jp233]

a bunch of us spoke with Kevin Elliott after the "team challenge"....... before the race he asked Barber exec to rent the track until 6pm on friday, willing to pay the extra $$$, but they said flat out NO

he asked for 5:30pm, they said NO....... 5:20 was all we got which was barely an hour total time (minus the red flag in the end). i got about 9 laps i think. our 3rd rider didn't even throw his leg over the bike.

i am pretty sure you will still be able to get a refund, or a credit for a future event. But yeah its payment for the price of points....... Call them yourself, explain and hopefully they will oblige.... they should since we all know we got ROBBED on that one

no offense to Learning Curves but it does not belong on a National weekend. between CCS/FUSA/USGPRU/SRA there was simply not enough open track time in the weekend to cram it all in

[tzracer]

I found out on pit lane before the start of the race that it would end at 5:20pm (one hour). We made our rider change at 4:50pm. I heard it from Dean H., so at least 2 teams knew about the shortened race.

[davegsxrold929r]

Stinger562 was good to meet/talk to you.,


and a bunch of us went up to talk to kevin ., there was about 20 of us., wish we had more people go up with us....

and out other rider only got 1 lap in... not a good setup for ccs/fusa..... uggggg