I’ll start by saying Barber Motorsports park is AWESOME, may be surpassing Road Atlanta as my favorite, (a big MAYBE). Most of you know I went to Barber a few weeks ago for the first time. I left pleased that I picked up the track so well in a short time, and was probably in the top four or five fastest cars that day with a 1:41.8, while being in the novice group all day, and only getting 3 clean laps at the end of the day. I did feel like I was pushing the car though so I was a tad worried that I’d have a hard time keeping up with some of my time trials rivals, one of which (in a prepped mustang) ran a 1:40.2 the day prior to my first day, and the other, the shop owned Z06 that has a great driver, ceramic brakes, tunnel tested down force, and now a built 454 while weighing 3150 w/ driver(1:36.xx). So I went into this weekend hoping to at least get into the high 1:30’s. The Z06 wasn’t driving this weekend so it was me and the mustang , well two of them (more on that later).



Since my last track day, I bought some Yoko race car scrubs. They felt almost identical to the hoosiers I had a while back (R3S03) and seemed well past their prime, but certainly usable heat cycles remaining in them. They slide quite a bit, but offered better turn in grip than the Sport Cups I ran last time at Barber. The rest of the car remained the same: 996 TT, GT2 turbos (K-24), Orton ECU, PSI loud Exhaust, JIC coilovers. Wait I take that back, I did add a 6 piston brake kit, which didn’t help times because it had stock pads, but there was no fade, and the rotors did crack, even after I had them smoking, so when I get some pagid’s on there, watch out!!!!!!

First Session:
I was gridded behind a C5 Corvette (first come first serve) which would be my last time not gridded first for the weekend. We took a two laps behind the pace car and I was feeling out the tires and saw that they were sliding a lot in the cold (it was about 50* at the time), well I wasn’t the the only one, the C5 vette in front of me was lighting up the R6’s during the pace laps and I remember thinking, “I bet that car is a handfull, looks like I’m in for some good competition”, well as soon as we got the green flag, the car really was a handfull, and after drifting 3 corners, he waved me by as I was very close. After him was “open road” and I started off about 8-9/10ths while I figured out the tires, well after about 3 clean laps I caught up to lap traffic, I took a cool down lap and pitted, but during the cool down lap I looked down at my traqmate and saw a 1:37:7xx, I thought the traqmate was screwed up, but hoped it wasn’t, I didn’t feel like I was going any faster than I did the last time I was down there. Well sure enough I got the official results and my time was a 1:37.756. (my traqmate finish line was different than the NASA one so the times are different in some cases). I was elated to say the least. And now looking forward to a VERY fun weekend.

Second session:

I was gridded first and had two angry looking mustangs behind me, both well prepped for track use. Upon pit out, it was me, a red prepped mustang, and then then a silver prepped mustang who is a friend of mine. Well he knows the guy in the red mustang (who I later found out wasn’t even driving his own car) and had told him I was fast (which I suppose my opening lap time should have given him a clue) and while we didn’t have a pace car this time, we went double yellow first lap and single the next, it was kind screwy, I was confused as to what to do after the first lap. But the guy in the red mustang was literally riding my bumper, nearly rear ending me several times while “warming up his brakes” (I would have stopped the event and fought him one the track if he had hit me), and scrubbing tires. It got to the point where I pointed him by on the double yellow pace lap but he wouldn’t go, so I tried again on the single yellow pace lap, still wouldn’t go, then finally he went right before we got a green flag. By this time I’m pissed, and made one blazing lap to catch and pass him (1:36.842) but was driving sloppily because I was angry, I had some words with him not to long after that, but I’m still pretty mad the more I think about it.

Third Session:

I know my tendency is to have my fastest lap on my second session, so I didn’t expect to improve the last session. This put me in “I’m not going to get faster this round, so I’m somewhat chillin mode”. At this point I’m not going for gold because I knew my fastest lap last round was in rage, not skill, so I worked on hitting my marks and being smooth, and trying different lines. My bud in the silver mustang started catching me and pushed me to go faster but I still managed a 1:37.778 and him a 1:37.956.


Well come to find out I had the fastest lap of everyone there , and the 1:37.956 by the stang was as close as anyone got to me the whole day.


Second day/ First Session:
I went out not sure how the tires were going to hold up being that they were used anyways and really just wanted to try some new things (trail braking in a few turns which REALLY helped), some people got on the track late so I only got 2 clean laps, did a lengthy cool down as I had the brakes smoking the day before and headed to the pits, was surprised I even managed a 1:37.9.

Second Day/ Second (last) Session

I told my wife if I beat my time from the day before we were going home after this session even though there were two more after that. So 1:36.842 was the time to beat. I was in kill mode this time, and was gridded first and neither mustang was behind me (gridded late) so I was only seeing ahead. I got out on the first lap after the caution lap and went fast to warm up the tires, I then went for broke on the second lap only to catch up to traffic coming onto the track late. GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!. Since I had gapped the rest of the field this one car was messing up my whole plan, I knew I had one chance to beat my time, so I followed closely behind the slower car until I got to the front straight got a run on him and passed him going for it. I didn’t get my speed up completely so I didn’t think my lap entry speed was great, I used my trail braking, hit may marks and just as I passed the Nasa finish line 10/10ths, I went around turn 1 only to see traffic again and had to slow, and my lap finish line was in turn 2 (had to stay away from pit lane) so it only said 1:39.1, but I knew the Nasa time would be faster, but wasn’t sure if it was fast enough. Sure enough I ran 1:36.621 to improve my time by over .2. Packed up the car and I’m typing this on my way home from Alabama.




This was one excellent event,!!!!! Now it’s time to get ready for next year:
( 150 less lbs, more down force, corner balance, maybe a few more suspension tweaks)

 

Congrats. Sounds like you were moving.

lol

 

Good story!

What do the fastest 997GT3s lap on that track as a reference point?
Thanks for sharing.

 

Fun read, good driving!

 

Good Question.

 

Great writeup Dez and great times.

 

BTW Al Norton was there in traffic.......I mean HPDE 1 and passed everyone several times. As a matter of fact, his turbo and a 600 hp hennessey viper on slicks were the most potent cars there, but both are pretty new to tracking (and their cars).

 

Here they are for your reference, best way to know how one is doing:

http://www.pca.org/clubrace/track_re...ck-Records.htm

 

Now the challenge is finding out the mod levels of the cars in the classes. I know B stock allows some pretty extensive mods on the GT3's, but I have no clue on the GT classes. Looks like I fit somewhere in the GT4R group