I’d been told that Barber Motorsports Park feels more like a country club than a track, but I don’t think I really knew what to picture.  The drive into the park consisted of rolling hills lined with trees and perfectly manicured grass being watered for the evening.  Due to a number of small events that slowed my drive to the track down, I made it in time to register on Friday evening but not with enough time to get the car to tech.

The track was extremely hot on both Saturday and Sunday with no rain on either day, but with an abundance of humidity.  The paddock area is all concrete which is ideal for servicing the cars, but just adds to the heat and makes shade a rather innovative occurrence.  The track itself has a bit of everything- sweeping turns, sharper 180’s, elevation changes- the whole nine yards.  One of my favorite things about Barber besides the variety it offers is that, instead of concrete rumble strips typical to most tracks which may or may not upset the car, the concrete pads in their place are truly an extension of the track.

I ran the car at 34/32 tire pressure which seemed to work out for the entire weekend.  My instructor was Bob Wilkes, the same instructor I had at the CMP event in April.  Having an instructor that was familiar with my driving really added to the productive time on the track since he didn’t need to spend the first session evaluating where I was as a student.  We were able to jump right into learning the lines of the track.  On the very first session out though, I carried a bit too much speed through Turns 2 & 3 without finding the correct lines.  Although I was able to correct without any issues, I found out how quickly something could go wrong on Barber and took particular notice at how little run-off room there was in most places.  Earlier that morning one of the Time Trialers had learned that lesson the hard way during the very first session out on track that ended in a red flag occurrence on track. 

As I’ve been discussing doing since March, my pedals were adjusted the Wednesday before the event so that I could start practicing the heel-toe technique at Barber.  As irony would have it, various instructors throughout the weekend stressed that there were many places on track where you would want to shift gears, but on this course would just amount to unnecessary movements that acted to unsettle the car rather than settle it. This certainly was true with the cobra and I found that 3^rd gear offered all the torque I needed coming out of the curves as well as all the power I needed going down the straights.    So after attempting to use both 3^rd and 4^th a few times during my first session Saturday morning, I ran the entire course for the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday in 3^rd gear only.   Practicing heel-toe shifting on track will have to wait until CMP next month.

Turn 14 concerned me the most at the beginning of the day on Saturday.  The line I was taking put me early apexing at Turn 14 and I could tell that with any speed the cobra would be off track in heart beat when exiting over the top of the hill.  Taking a later apex in 13 put me in a comfortable later apex in 14 which allowed me to carry a lot more speed without any concern.

I seemed to follow my usual pattern- Saturday morning was spent going relatively slow, giving lots of point-bys, and learning the lines and braking zones of the course.   By Saturday afternoon I was picking up more speed as I was able to hit the lines more consistently.  Sunday morning I was able to pick up right where I left off and refine the lines and braking zones each time around the course.  Due to the heat, I did lose the supercharger during the last session on Saturday and on Sunday.  Saturday was mid-session and by using 4^th gear for the rest of the time, the engine quickly cooled down and the supercharger was restored.  Sunday the supercharger didn’t cut out until I was coming out of Turn 12 into the very back straight.  At that point it just reduced the torque I could carry out of the turns, but at Turn 17 coming onto the front straight I saw the checkered flag and it was time to cool down anyhow.