Autocross Site

[viccath5]

Just received my October edition of Alabama Living. In it is a great article on Barber Motorsports Park. In the last paragraph, Mr. Barber is quoted as saying he plans on building an autocross track. Anyone have any information on this?

[rodhx]

Old news here Mark. Basically unless there is going to be A LOT more work on it than what I saw at the labor day club race/tt then it is far too small to host a large event. Looks to have significantly less usable space for course + grid + paddock than Oak Mountain and the rental rate we have heard would be prohibitive for anything less than a tour or divisional.

Basically the intended customer base seems to be the Porsche & Mercedes schools, not autocrossers.

[nicktcr]

Rod, having seen it personally, there is enough space to comfortably have an event there. However, the rental rates are far beyond what we could even remotely consider. One day of autocross there is half of what we spend in a season of rentals at our current lot. The only possibility would be to add it into our club race and make it a huge blowout event. However, that would have its own problems, due to draining our already limited worker pool.

It's a nice place, but currently out of our scope.

[JohnW8]

The only possibility would be to add it into our club race and make it a huge blowout event. However, that would have its own problems, due to draining our already limited worker pool.

Throw in a Rallycross and a teen driver event while your at it. That would be a full weekend.

I bet the autocross site at Barber will be nice if we can use that for the end of the year autocross we host out there. Better than using the paddock area.

[rodhx]

Rod, having seen it personally, there is enough space to comfortably have an event there. However, the rental rates are far beyond what we could even remotely consider. One day of autocross there is half of what we spend in a season of rentals at our current lot. The only possibility would be to add it into our club race and make it a huge blowout event. However, that would have its own problems, due to draining our already limited worker pool.

It's a nice place, but currently out of our scope.

I've seen it too Nick. It's too small for a significantly sized event...not because you can't get a "normal" course on it, but because once you do that you have no convenient room for grid or paddock. What they have to work with is a very similar size as our course area at Oak Mountain. By "significantly sized" I mean a tour/divisional. Anything smaller as a standalone event is clearly cost prohibitive, and at the rates we've heard even a big event may be a non-starter.

Interesting idea about the autocross during the club race. If we could get a handful of workers to run it who don't normally work the club race, then it could be done similarly to our PBOC autocross without jeopardizing our race worker pool. Only makes sense if they throw it in for "free" though.

Speaking of which, maybe we can do the PBOC thing on the new "demonstration pad" and find out firsthand what we could do there. (looks like W8 had the same idea

[engled]

Or maybe the club racers could take turns working corners.

/runs
//hides

[nicktcr]

I've seen it too Nick. It's too small for a significantly sized event...not because you can't get a "normal" course on it, but because once you do that you have no convenient room for grid or paddock. What they have to work with is a very similar size as our course area at Oak Mountain. By "significantly sized" I mean a tour/divisional. Anything smaller as a standalone event is clearly cost prohibitive, and at the rates we've heard even a big event may be a non-starter.

There's plenty of additional paddock/grid room up on the hill in what they call the upper lot, with a road that comes directly down to the larger portion of pavement. A big fancy tour event would likely be crowded, too crowded to pull off perhaps. But we could easily fit a local event there. However as we all agree, the cost is impossible for such event. They also don't throw it in as a freebie if you rent the big track

However, it'd be cool to use during the PBOC shindig.

[rodhx]

However, it'd be cool to use during the PBOC shindig.

Maybe if we suggest it the PBOC guys can "make it so" and perhaps pave the way for future use.

[Interjon]

Article today on al.com: http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf..._more_business

[TouringBubble]

The article mentions something about running multiple events on a single day, so they would probably want an extra fee to use that section alongside a track rental. But, PBOC might want to do that.

[rodhx]

For reference, the part of Oak Mountain's lot we typically use for our courses is ~900 feet x 400 feet.

[engled]

The proving ground looks ripe for autocross.

[HPEVOX]

So essentially 650x300 for the large lot without using the little roads that i'm sure aren't SCCA legal once they put poles up? seems small. I like Hoover met better

[engled]

We did autocross at TGRP for years until they ran is off. No problem using the road, just keep the speed

[HPEVOX]

I was asking about that last weekend. I never got to experience that. I wanna...