Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

First Person/Opinion by Michael Hannas

I got to visit Barber Motorsports Park the other day with Bill St. John, a civil engineer/racer who has been involved in the project from the very beginning. All I have to say is, WOW!

I had heard all the talk about the place and didn’t really think much of it, but after seeing it, I am a believer. Everything you have heard so far is true. The place is a first-class facility with a first-class track.

To start, the layout of the track is really cool. There is a good variation of different types of corners: Off-camber, banked, blind-entry, decreasing-radius, tight, technical, tricky, fast and flowing.

The track is really wide, so wide it looked like you could get lost out there. The layout seemed like it would really promote some tight racing, with some good hard-braking zones and some long straightaways combined with corners with what looked like multiple line possibilities. Unlike a lot of the tracks we race on, Barber had more of a GP-style layout, more flowing and not so stop-and-go. The surface looked bump-free from what I could tell, and there were no noticeable bumps at the moderate pace we drove around in St. John’s Mercedes. The curbs were all custom, with individually-designed pieces each unique to themselves. The whole track was designed to FIM specs, including the curbing.

Aaron Yates was out there not too long ago from what I was told. Yates thoughtfully marked the track while he was riding with clearly visible black marks indicating the proper corner exit lines, as well as the proper entry lines to some corners.

It was the complete opposite of some tracks I am used to going to and looking at saying, “We have to race on that?” This track you took one look at and said, “Sweet. Where do I sign up?”

The facility is almost even more impressive. Although being a racer, I was more interested in the track itself, the facility was amazing. Even though a lot of stuff was still under construction and they have a lot of landscaping to do still, the facilities are first class. I don’t mean first class for the U.S., I mean first class for the world. There isn’t another facility in the United States that will be as nice as this when it is done. It looked like something you would see on TV watching MotoGP or something, seriously. I thought V.I.R. was a pretty nice facility, but Barber pretty much blows it away.

The buildings are built all crazy with this funky architectural style, really cool. The track is designed so that there are hills around the key spectator areas that people can sit and watch on, like stadium style. You can imagine the hills full of people cheering, and I can’t wait for the track to host a major event.

You sort of have to see it to really believe it. I guess the track owner is a sort of perfectionist type of guy, so I don’t think there will be anything to worry about once the track opens. I heard that after they built the bad-ass, able to withstand the force of a million NASCARs at 400 mph or something-pit wall, he made them tear it down and start over because he wasn’t happy with the finish of the concrete. I heard he even made them tear down all the glass in the five-story museum building because he thought it looked wavy. It seems like he is every bit as concerned with the track, because I had no complaints.

Usually you get to a place and look at all the improvements that could be made. With Barber, it is like they actually really thought about how everything would work before they started. They definitely did their homework.

The place is only like a minute off the I-20 just east of Birmingham, so it should be easily accessible.

There are rumors of a September date for the AMA Superbike Championship, but nothing confirmed and on the schedule yet.