The Barber Dodge Pro Series was an American
open-wheel
An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...
auto racing series promoted by the
Skip Barber Racing School from 1986 to 2003. It was one of the first professional
spec series for open-wheel racecars in North America. The races were primarily on road and street courses in North America, although the schedule did sometimes include a few
ovals.
This series is often confused with Skip Barber's long-standing amateur racing series which has always used different and significantly less powerful cars. The amateur series currently has regional and national components.
The Barber Pro Series was a spec series, in which all cars were identically prepared by Skip Barber Racing. From its beginning in 1986 to 1994, the series was known as the Barber Saab Pro Series; the spec car was a
tube-frame Mondiale chassis (basically a
Formula Ford
Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...
2000 design) powered by a turbocharged 16-valve
Saab 16v engine. For the seasons 1986 and 1987, the cars used street-legal racing tires, but for the 1988 season they used Goodyear Racing Eagle slicks instead.
History
The idea was discussed as early as 1979 as a way to get Saab involved in serious motorsports in the United States. Len Lonnegren, PR boss at Saab Cars USA, had heard that
Skip Barber was planning to launch an open-wheel "spec car" professional race series, and that it was to run on the same
IMSA
The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida, under the jurisdiction of the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States, ACCUS arm of the Féd ...
programs as the GTPs and Camel Lights. Originally Barber had planned on using small displacement naturally aspirated 1,600 cc
Dodge
Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence, Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...
engines, but was talked into using turbocharged Saab engines instead. Saab provided engines and spare parts, as well as the assistance of an engineer nicknamed "Turbo Anders" who flew over from Sweden rather frequently once things got rolling. The engines were basically stock
1,985 cc 16-valve twin-cam turbo engines with an output of 225 hp. The engines differed from street versions in that the boost was increased, emission control systems were removed, fuel-injection settings revised and a racing exhaust fitted, together with dry-sump lubrication.
Mondiale, based in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
was contracted to supply the series with chassis. The first race was run at
Meadowlands and was won by
Brian Till. By 1991 the marketing strategy at Saab changed and Saab USA did little more than provide the engines.
In 1995, the Saab engine was replaced with a production car 240 hp 3.2 L 24-valve Dodge aluminum sixty degree
V6 engine
A V6 engine is a six- cylinder piston engine where the cylinders and cylinder blocks share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, ...
and the series name was changed to the "Barber Dodge Pro Series". The series continued to use the original tube frame Mondiale chassis. In later years, the engines produced 265 hp.
SCCA Pro Racing took over the organization from IMSA. The first Dodge powered race was won by
Geoff Boss. In 1997 it was announced that
Reynard
Reynard the Fox is a list of literary cycles, literary cycle of medieval allegorical Folklore of the Low Countries, Dutch, English folklore, English, French folklore, French and German folklore, German fables. The first extant versions of the cy ...
would design and build a new car for the Barber Dodge Pro Series. The Mondiale chassis was retired after twelve years of racing in 1998.
The organization was taken over by
Professional Sports Car Racing. PSCR was formed by
Andy Evans and
Roberto Muller after they bought IMSA. For 2002, after
CART
A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs.
A handcart ...
took over the series, the Skip Barber Challenge was launched. This series comprised three race-weekends. The series was run by the
Skip Barber Racing School but used the same cars as the pro series. Both seasons were won by
Matt Franc. After the CART organization filed for bankruptcy in early 2004 the Barber Dodge Pro Series was initially put on hiatus. The assets were transferred to Open Wheel Racing Series, LLC who decided not to run a 2004 Barber Dodge Pro Series. As a result, the Skip Barber Racing school decided to focus on the Skip Barber National Championship.
Statistics
Cars
Mondiale
Mondiale Car Company was contracted to build cars for the Skip Barber Racing School and the Barber Saab Pro Series. The Pro series car was based on the
Formula Ford 2000
Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One d ...
chassis Mondiale had experience with. The chassis was a spaceframe design. The powerplant came from the
Saab 900
The Saab 900 is a mid-sized automobile produced by Swedish manufacturer Saab from 1978 until 1998 in two generations: the first from 1978 to 1994, and the second from 1994 to 1998.
The first-generation car was based on the Saab 99 chassis, ...
and
Saab 9000 production car.
Reynard
Reynard launched the Reynard 98E for the 1998 Barber Dodge Pro Series. This car featured a
carbon fiber
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...
monocoque
Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell".
First used for boats, ...
. The engine came from the second generation
Dodge Intrepid
The Dodge Intrepid is a full-sized front-wheel drive four-door sedan that was produced by Dodge for the 1993 to 2004 model years. It is related to the Chrysler 300M, Chrysler Concorde, Chrysler LHS, Chrysler New Yorker, and Eagle Vision whic ...
. The suspension, brakes and radiators were made by
Chrysler
FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...
. The bodywork was designed using
computer-aided drafting (CAD). The car was designed by
Andrew Thorby and
Adrian Reynard. The car was initially tested at
Mallory Park
Mallory Park is a motor racing circuit situated in the village of Kirkby Mallory, just off the A47 road, A47, between Leicester and Hinckley, in central England. Originally used for Grass track racing, grass-track until 1955, a new, basicall ...
and
Snetterton
Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population ...
by
Rob Wilson
Robert Owen Biggs Wilson (born 4 January 1965) is an English politician and political author. He was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the Reading East parliamentary constituency in the 2005 general election, being re-elected in ...
. In the USA testing was conducted by
Robbie Buhl.
Series champions
Other notable drivers who have raced in the series include
Juan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán (; born 20 September 1975) is a Colombian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to , IndyCar between 1999 and 2022, and the NASCAR Cup Series between 2006 and 2024. Montoya won seven Formula One Grand ...
,
Alex Gurney,
Jon Fogarty,
Ryan Hunter-Reay,
Danica Patrick
Danica Sue Patrick (; born March 25, 1982) is an American former professional racing driver and model. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win ...
, Jeremy Dale,
Townsend Bell
Townsend Lorenz Bell (born April 19, 1975) is an American professional motor racing driver competing in the International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and also as a motorsports commentator for FOX Sports’ I ...
,
Michael Valiante,
David Martínez,
Memo Rojas, Rocky Moran, Jr.,
Al Unser III
Alfred Richard Unser (born October 23, 1982) is an American former professional race car driver. Unser has competed in the Indy Lights series and Toyota Atlantics Championship. He is part of the fourth generation of the Unser family.
Al Richa ...
, Andy Swett,
Jerry Nadeau, and
Ernesto Viso.
References
{{Class of Auto racing
Formula racing
Saab
Dodge
One-make series