The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum held its 4th Annual Barber Vintage Festival Oct. 17-19, 2008, and this event just gets better every year. Classic bikes and vintage racing (courtesy of the American Historic Motorcycle Racing Association) were the order of the day, with everything from Thirties American to Seventies Japanese bikes roaming the grounds and the tracks. Fans of truly old iron got to watch pre-1909 racers vieing for top honors in the Race of the Century. Better yet was watching ex-Cycle magazine editor Cook Neilson turn laps on Deja Blue, the museum’s just-completed replica of the Ducati 750SS — Old Blue — that Cook and Phil Schilling took to first place at Daytona in 1977.
Attendance was pegged at roughly 32,000, a three-fold increase since the first Vintage Festival in 2005. Those are pretty impressive numbers for a show that’s only 4 years old, but when you remember that founder George Barber and crew took the museum and adjoining track from concept to reality in less than two years, it doesn’t surprise. If you think Mid-Ohio is something, check out Barber. MC
