John "Skip" Barber III (born November 16, 1936) is an American retired racecar driver who is most famous for previously owning and founding the Skip Barber Racing Schools.

Driving career

Barber started racing in 1958 while studying at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, 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 won consecutive Formula Ford National Championships (1969 and 1970), a record tied only recently. At the start of the 1971 season he purchased a March 711, which he planned to take back to the United States and race in the U.S. Formula 5000 series. Before he did so, he took part in the Monaco Grand Prix,

Dutch Grand Prix The Dutch Grand Prix ( nl, Grote Prijs van Nederland) is a Formula One motor racing event held at Circuit Zandvoort, North Holland, the Netherlands, from 1950 to 1985 and from 2021 onwards. It was a part of the World Championship from 1952, ...

, United States Grand Prix, and Canadian Grand Prix in a privately funded March. He returned to the U.S. and Canadian races in 1972. After that, he raced GT cars.

Retirement leads to Skip Barber Racing

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 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. Barber divested from the racing school in 1999. Barber was the owner and operator of Lime Rock Park, a road-racing venue in Connecticut. In April of 2021 he sold the facility to Lime Rock Group, LLC. He maintains a minority stake. He lives in the nearby town of

Sharon, CT Sharon is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States, in the northwest corner of the state. At the time of the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 2,680. The ZIP code for Sharon is 06069. The urban center of the town is ...

with wife Judy. Barber was inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame on March 2, 2013.

Racing record

SCCA National Championship Runoffs

Complete Formula One results

( key)

References

*''Lime Rock Park: 35 Years of Racing,'' by Rich Taylor, Sharon Mountain Press, 1992, page 153, {{DEFAULTSORT:Barber, Skip 1936 births American Formula One drivers SCCA Formula Super Vee drivers Harvard College alumni Living people Racing drivers from Philadelphia SCCA National Championship Runoffs winners Germantown Friends School alumni