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Skip Barber Racing School
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It conducts Racing schools (such as the one in which Michael Andretti first started), driving schools ("defensive" driving and/or high-performance schools), six separate amateur and professional racing championships and corporate entertainment schools.

It is the largest racing school in the world, and is noted for being the "serious" school for those intent on racing careers. Barber started the school in 1975 with two borrowed Formula Ford race cars and four students. It uses up to 30 race tracks across the U.S. and Canada, and owns 120 race cars. It is affiliated with the Dodge Division of DaimlerChrysler Corp., which provides engines for the race cars and street cars (such as the Viper SRT-10) for its driving school.


OVERVIEW

The Global Leader in Automotive Education and Entertainment

For more than 30 years, Skip Barber Racing has operated a fully integrated system of racing schools, driving schools, racing championships, corporate events and OEM events across North America. With more than 200 dedicated and passionate professionals, no other organization delivers the same high quality instruction, equipment, facilities and memorable experiences.


THE OFFERINGS:

The Skip Barber Racing School—held at more than 20 of the most prestigious race tracks in North America

The Skip Barber Driving School—five different locations, all at world-famous destination locations

The Skip Barber Race Series is collectively six separate open-wheel, equal-car racing championships—four regional amateur series, a national championship for drivers over 40 (with professional rules), and a prestigious entry-level professional national series that awards $100,000 to its season champion.

The Skip Barber National Championship is an entry-level professional racing series that takes drivers to several top venues each season, and exposes them to bigger racing markets. Each season's champion earns a $100,000 scholarship to help advance their racing career.

The Skip Masters National Championship is a racing series for drivers over the age of 40 who are looking to race in a professional-level series without becoming full-time professional racers.

The Corporate Events unit creates custom Racing and Driving programs for companies of any size that desire special, exciting events to train, entertain, educate and reward

OEM Events provides unique, specialized automotive-related training, analysis, evaluation, logistics and consultation


THE VEHICLES:

120 racecars: With 60 Formula Dodges for the Racing School and Corporate Events and 60 R/T 2000 race cars for the six racing championships, it is the largest racecar fleet in the world. Dodge Vipers, Formula Dodge, etc.

More than 75 passenger/street cars: Porsche 911s, Boxsters, BMW M3s, 330i sedans, Dodge Neons, Dakota Quad Cabs and Viper SRT-10s for use in the Driving School, Racing School and Corporate Events.

30 transport and support vehicles: Dodge Rams and Sprinters Our cars and parts are maintained one of our five base locations around the country. With the largest racecar fleet in the world, we can deploy transporters and school staff to tracks nationwide.


THE TRACK RECORD:

Our instructional prowess speaks for itself. Since its founding in 1975, Skip Barber Racing has trained more motorsports winners and champions than any other organization of its kind.

Skip Barber alumni race and win in every major event and championship, from NASCAR's Nextel Cup and Busch Series to Formula One, the Indy 500, Le Mans, the IRL and Champ Car.

Since 1983, our Racing School has trained over one-third of all Indy 500 competitors and one-quarter of the current NASCAR Nextel Cup field. Our alumni have won every major U.S. auto racing championship.


THE FOUNDER:

John "Skip" Barber, one of a select few Americans to compete in the Formula One World Championship, started racing in 1958 while studying at Harvard University, where he earned a degree in English.

In the mid-1960s, he won three SCCA National Championships in a row and finished third in the 1967 United States Road Racing Championship. Later, Barber went on to win consecutive Formula Ford National Championships (1969 and 1970), a record tied only recently.

When his racing career ended, Barber's belief that auto racing was "coachable" in the same manner as any other sport -- at the time, a distinctly minority position -- led him to create the eponymously named Racing School, and a year later, the equal-car Race Series.

In 1975, with two borrowed Lola Formula Fords and four eager students, Barber started the Skip Barber School of High Performance Driving. In 1976, it was renamed the Skip Barber Racing School and that same year, he created the Skip Barber Race Series.

Within a decade of its founding, Skip Barber Racing became the largest racing and driving school in the world. Barber remains active in motorsports today as the owner and operator of Lime Rock Park, the famous road racing venue in the northwest hills of Connecticut. He lives in the nearby town of Sharon, with wife Judy.


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