Eric Berg loves his Porsches. Not for others to stare at and admire, but to use the machine for which it was designed: racing.
The following is the NMA director’s photo essay of taking his 911 out for several spins at a race track in Alabama. We’ll let Eric set the stage:
“Rezoom is a driver school that I’ve used several times. I returned to one of my favorite tracks in Leeds, Alabama. The Barber Motorsports Park is known as the Augusta of race tracks because of its manicured landscaping and whimsical outdoor sculpture.
“Set up on Friday consisted of taking the day off from work, and getting the car inspected at the Porsche dealership in Nashville on the drive to Alabama. Then there was tech inspection by the drivers school, signing the waiver at the track, and getting that prime spot in the paddock for the rest of the weekend.
“My run group never started on time because of mishaps in the previous novice run group that required spill cleanup, towing, or Armco barrier repair. Sunday, my new friend from the Musikstadt Region of the Porsche Club of America joined me as my passenger. Even with a passenger and street tires, I was able to log a lap time below 1 minute, 47 seconds on the 2.38-mile track.”
Images from the weekend of racing, with comments by Eric:
Can you believe I got all of that into a tiny 911?
This is a rent-a-racer. I’m not making this up. One of the vendors provides mechanical assistance, tire changes, and other services. They started carting along a $7,000 thirteen-year-old supercharged Mini Cooper race car. If your car breaks and they can’t fix it, then you can rent their car and not spoil your whole weekend.
This is what happens when your tires get so hot that pebbles stick to the tread.
Cars get very thirsty when you’re going this fast and accelerating this hard. They only get about seven or eight mpg.
This is what happens on the first run of a frosty morning with cold tires. The Corvette ahead of me spun out on the warmup lap under the yellow flag BEFORE LEAVING THE PIT LANE! He left a lot of debris on the track that my tires ran over.
This is what happens when you try too hard.
Heavy traffic
The final day of Daylight Savings Time at Barber Motorsports Park.