Earlier I shared a tale from a previous trip to Barber – here’s a quick report from reader Bob Kelly, who just came back from his first trip to the festival, now having completed its 11th running. All photos and text by Bob.
I traveled with friends this year to the Barber Vintage Festival. This was my first trip to the festival and my second trip to the museum. Now in its 11th year, the festival lasts three days and includes food, entertainment, and swap meet with hundreds of vendors, extended hours at the museum, motorcycle races and more attractions.
Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama opened in the spring of 2003. The park features a 2.38-mile racing circuit that is 45 feet wide, with 17 turns and elevation changes of more than 80 feet. It has been considered one of North America’s finest road courses for car and motorcycle racing, and has served as the venue for several international product launches. It also features the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. This 144,000 square-foot facility houses more than 1,400 vintage and modern motorcycles from 17 different nations and more than 125 manufacturers.
The museum will expand by 84,000 square-feet by 2016. The Barber folks assured me it has plenty of motorcycles to fill up the additional space. For more information visit www.barbermotorsports.com
I enjoy motorcycle races and the highlight for me was the two Britten V1000 races! I love their sound! There were seven of the ten Britten’s ever produced at the Barber Vintage Festival.
As if road racing isn’t hard enough on its own; a small deer somehow made its way on the race track Saturday, he found his way off the track and back in the woods. The red flags went away, racing resumed and no one was hurt.
The Barber Motorsports Park sits on 830 acres in Birmingham Alabama. Walking from one end of the park to the other is quite a chore. On Saturday alone, my iPhone indicated I had walked more than 12 miles. A lot of folks bought small tiddler’s to ride around on like Trail 90’s, Grom’s, Hodaka’s, small displacement enduro’s and scooters. As the old saying goes; smaller the bike, larger the smile.
There were at least three vintage motorcycle shows. The Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club, Antique Motorcycle Club of America and Motorcycle Classics Magazine all had a judged show.
I read online that the attendance to the show was 69,264 over the three-day weekend, up from last year. Enjoy the pictures.
Bob Kelly
Editor’s Note: Want more photos? Check out the rest of Bob’s album here!