Stories from our visitors

6/14/2008

Hello,

I've been doing some stories on Jim Barber (a California racer from the 60s and 70s). Jim Barber made his name in SCCA "regional" racing in the San Fransisco Region. Although faster than most of the "professional" racers, financing was always a barrier to competing effectively in the Trans-Am and IMSA race series.

Jim's early background included racing one of the factory-built center-seat RSK cars. Jim began to attract attention while riving Ralph Wood's Porsche RSK, one of seven Porsche RSK cars that came with center-seating and one of only two that had been factory-backed cars. These center-seat RSKs were actually European factory Formula 2 cars which after winning in Europe had been imported to the USA. Jim won his class in the 1963 SCCA Series in this car, but when he broke his wrist in a motorcycle accident he was unable to continue in 1964. The car continued to be raced with Steve Froines as driver, with much success. The car can currently be seen in its fully restored state in the Collier Museum in Florida.

In 1965 moved over to Corvettes. He bought Herb Caplan's 1963 Z06 coupe. He then bought one (two) of Ron Kaplan's AMC Trans-Am Javelins. Subsequently he purchased Herb Caplan's 1968 L88 and, with support from Phyllis Stiles, ran the SCCA regional and nationals series for several years.

I'll be doing more on this story in the future but I thought you might like to have this short note, in the interim.

Wayne Ellwood

VPRacing.com
West Linn, OR
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