Roy Dyckman and I embarked on a trip to Birmingham, Alabama to cover the 3rd annual Barber Vintage Festival October 19th through the 22nd. We left after work on Thursday and headed south on I -71 hoping to get to Cincinnati before it was too late. Roy had booked us into a snazzy hotel and we wanted to get there because we were experiencing very high winds making travel by motorcycle hazardous. Just after we covered the bikes we heard the hail hitting the building and the winds were gusting. A tornado was passing about 40 miles away and we were feeling the effects of it so it was a great time to layup.
Friday morning dawned bright and early with blue skys and plenty of sunshine as we mounted the bikes and headed started our remaining 530 mile trip to Birmingham, Alabama down I -71. Just through Louisville, Kentucky we headed west on I- 65 taking that to Birmingham. Once on the outskirts of Birmingham we headed east on Route 20 to Leeds where the 2.38th mile track was located.
Barber Motor Sports track is 2.38th mile long with approximately 80 feet of elevation changes with the entire area beautifully landscaped. The show piece just outside the track is the Barber Motor Sports Museum, a 100,000 square foot motorcycle museum showcasing motorcycles from the early 1900's all the way through to the current day bikes. Plan on spending an entire day at the museum.
Surrounding the eastern end of the track was the vintage motorcycle vendors. The vendor area was completely sold out and just about every conceivable part, bike or product was displayed! The Japenese Vintage Motorcycle Club as well as the Veterans BMW motorcycle club were on hand to show off their bikes. Bruce Williams had a cool vintage BMW racer displayed in running condition. Dale Walksler owner of the museum that runs the Wheels Through Time in Maggie Valley, North Carolina was there defending his Century race title from a year ago.
Saturday morning was sunny and hot. Mid 80's and not a cloud in sight which made it perfect to see the acrobatic air show before the opening ceremonies. Roy was checking out the planes while I attended the start of the Century Race which comprised motorcycles which were at least 100 years old. All the riders dressed in the period and the motorcycles did their part by being finicky. These bikes were all direct drive so the start of the race was a "rolling start". It's funny how these old bikes are. Dale Walkslers bike ran perfect all week and on race day he put in a new spark plug and the bike wouldn'r run very well. I guess the old saying still holds true, "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Anyways the race went off and you can catch the winners pics that we've listed on the web page here.
The races comprised everything and anything Pre-1977. It was run under the AHRMA sanctioning body. The races lasted till 4:30pm and from there Roy and I hiked over to the Trials events. Unfortunately by the time we managed to find the event it was just finishing up. The auction was coming at 6:00pm so we headed off to check out the early 1900 Harleys and meet with Bruce Williams and the gang at the Vintage BMW display.
The auction later that evening yielded some big surprises! How about a Ducati 851 fresh out of the crate never started selling for $30,000! There were a couple of good deals to be had like a 1971 Harley Davidson Superglide from AMF sold for $6,000.00. All in all it was a terrific evening absolutely awesome to see those bikes in such terrific condition. It brought back many a good memory as I'm sure it did with others. That's probably the biggest lure of this type of an event. It strikes a magical moment in our lives when things weren't as complex, life was easier and gas was on 75 cents a gallon.
Sunday morning Roy and I decided to head back around 9am but an unexpected birthday party invitation (Happy Birthday Kenny Sampson!) delayed our departure until 10am. As we were heading down 20 approaching Birmingham Roy pointed to a mountain. Sitting atop of the mountain was our old friend Vulcan saluting us and wishing us well as we made the turn heading north on Route 65.
The trip home took a little over 12 hours riding time. We went through 4 full tanks of gas and stopped at the Crackerbarrel in Lousiville, Kentucky for a well deserved dinner.
You can use the Keyword Search engine on 570 WKBN's web site to find Barber Motor Sports track and also to check out AHRMA which is American Historic Motorcycle Racing Association.
I predict that in 5 years the barber Vintage Festival will rival Vintage Motorcycyle Days at Mid Ohio. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of the event and if you have any questions please email me at larryward@clearchannel.com Larry
