Concours de Competition - July 3, 2021 - Barber

WERA will be presenting the 3rd Annual Concours de Competition hosted by the Barber Museum on July 3, 2021. If you missed the previous events you should start thinking now about getting a bike ready for the 2021 event. Details will be in following posts.

The trophies made by the Museum last year were mounted in pieces take from the track! There may not be a more coveted trophy for a classic racer. Start planning and working on your bikes and exhibits. It takes a combination of on track performance, great preservation and inspiring exhibits to take top honors.

The invitation process will open in late February and it requires a photo of the bike as part of the request to be accepted. So you may need to start working on the bike now to convince the Museum that you will have a worthy and running bike by the 4th of July. We are available to answer questions now. The 2020 event was a real challenge with the Covid summer. Looking forward to a larger and better event in 2021.

 

Concours de Competition FAQ

When and where will the concours be presented? The event will be part of the WERA race weekend at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday July 3, 2021.

How will the concours operate? There will be two concours run: a concours de competition (go class) for on track laps as well as display and a concours d’ elegance (show class) for static display. Once a participant has be accepted into the “go” classes they will also be given the opportunity to enter additional bikes in the “show” class.

How will the track time on for the “go” class operate? WERA will conduct the sessions and tech inspection for the “go” class as they do for the regular vintage competition classes. Riders of the concours machines must have AMA membership and license with a racing organization WERA recognizes. WERA will have the final authority over issues related to safety per their technical standards, rider licenses and everything related to the on-track portion of the event. WERA will register the participants at the track.

How much track time will the “go” class have? WERA will give the concours participants 2 fifteen minute “practice” sessions in morning and 1 six lap “racing exhibition” in early afternoon. During the exhibition, the bikes leave the grid in a single wave with the newer and faster bikes leaving first. Minimum number of “at speed” laps to qualify for concours judging will be 6.

How many entries will be accepted into the “go” class? 30. Entries will come from a field invited by the Museum.

Where will the concours area be located? WERA will provide a dedicated area of the paddock (lower most tier) for the concours.

How will the machines be judged? The concours will be under the direction of the museum and the promoter. This includes establishing the rules, recruiting the participants, and judging. The museum will provide the judges. Bikes in the “go” class will be judged on the combination of how well they performed on the track, their appearance, and their exhibits in the exhibition area. Bikes in the “show” class will be judge on appearance and educational exhibits. The Museum will provide the awards and preside over the awards ceremony.

What bikes are eligible for the event? Any bike which is eligible to run in WERA’s classes 250GP – 500GP or V1 – V7 can apply for an invitation. V7 class is a pre-96 class with a few like design models allowed in later years. For the Concours the actual bike enter must be at least 25 years old. WERA rules found here: http://www.wera.com/rulebook/?x=1098#ch11.

Where do I get more information? Information is posted on WERA’s website at wera.com and Facebook page Concours de Competition.

What is the tentative schedule?

Friday 5:00 pm Early move in and set up.


Saturday 7:00 am Registration and exhibit set up. Tech inspection by WERA.

9:15 am Qualifying session 1 (15 minutes)

10:00 am Concours area open to fans

10:45 am Qualifying session 2 (15 minutes)

1:00 pm “Racing exhibition” (and last chance to qualify) (6 laps)

2:00 pm Judging begins

3:30 pm Winners will to be announced and prizes awarded.

How much does it cost to enter? Entry is by invitation only. Those who are invited will not pay any entry fee.

How do I get invited? Send a request to [email protected] along with a photo of the bike you wish to enter the “go” class. If you have additional bikes you would like to enter the “show” class, include that information in your request.

What prizes will be awarded? The museum is making its own unique trophies. First, second and third will be awarded in each the “go” and “show” class. In addition, there will be one trophy awarded for best of show.

In addition, there will be a few awards for special merit that the judges can present if they feel any entries meet the criteria. Stay tuned for details of these awards as they are announced this spring.

 

Concours de Competition - Photos - Videos - Exhibits

The Concours de Competition is a unique event. It features racing bikes with history which run on track and are displayed with exhibits explaining their history. In preparing your entry you should review the winners from past events found on the Concours Facebookk page: https://www.facebook.com/Concours-de-Competition-104816537536615 This should give you a pretty good idea of what the judges are looking for in entries and for awards.

 

Concours Grand Marshal - David Aldana

WERA is pleased to announce that its 1985 Endurance Champion, David Aldana, will be the Grand Marshal of the 3rd Annual Concours de Competition at Barber on July 3, 2021. David is well known to race fans all over the world for his many rides in all disciplines of the sport including winning the Suzuka 8 Hour race in Japan in 1981. https://www.facebook.com/Concours-de-Competition-104816537536615

 

2021 Poster Released

It looks great. However I can't figure out how to post the image here. You can see it on the Concours Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Concours-de-Competition-104816537536615 Maybe when Sean and Gabe get back from Tally they can help me get the image to post here. We will be opening the application process for invitations in a couple weeks. We are already getting inquiries so we hope to have a full grid and a safe summer. See you at Barber on July 3rd.

 

Thanks Mark. You kids just naturally take technology. Hope you will bring something vintage for us in July.

 

Now Accepting Applications

We are now accepting applications for an invitation to participate in the 2021 Concours de Competition. The following link will take you to the form to provide the museum staff with the history of the bike, owner and rider as well as a photo showing its present condition.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetR5o6NIk5DXuBN25P8TNyQDvXqT6O2iODM8pnENdVQiMH8Q/viewform

Again this year, those invited to ride will not pay a registration fee.

Last year was a struggle to put the event on during the pandemic. We still had 23 entries on track and expect to fill all 30 slots on the grid this year.

When you send in your applications for the "go" class, be sure to send in additional applications for the "show" class. We will have a new location in the paddock this year and should have room to display dozens of bikes on static display.

So start sending in those "cards and letters". We look forward to seeing you in July.

 

Ron

The only static photo I have is about seven years old, will one of those do? Apart from a couple of small items it looks the same. If I sent in "a photo showing its present condition" it would be a bunch of bits sitting in my workshop

 

Robin,
Good to hear from you. If the prior picture represents what the reassembled bike will look like it is fine. We are trying to avoid taking applications for "fantasy bikes" (I am going to use that chassis over there and put that front end on it, and pull the engine from that frame over there and use the bodywork hanging up there . . . ). Looking forward to seeing you in the paddock again.

 

Ron

The link you posted requires me to open a Google account, I don't want one, can I get to the forms any other way?

 

Robin,
I am a bit baffled by this problem. We used the same form last year and no one had this problem. It seems unlikely they all had google accounts. I went back over the form and the only change in settings this year was to automatically send a notice back to the person saying we had received their form. I have turned that option off now in the form. Please try again. If it still doesn't work I will print the form as a PDF and send it to you. You could see the information required and send it back to me and I could fill out a form for you and send it to Brian at the Museum. Hopefully the change to the form will let you fill it out. When this technology works it is clearly better than sending pictures and forms over the fax, but when it doesn't . . .

 

Requests are coming in quickly!
In the first 3 days we have had more than 10 requests for invitations. After last year's masked adventure it appears there is pent up demand for this year's event. The quality of the submissions so far is outstanding. Brian has told me that he does not intend to start sending invitations until the end of the month. He and his team will meet and review the applications with an eye to producing the most interesting field.
If you would like to be considered in the first batch of invitations, get your request in by March 24. Hope to see you at Barber on July 3rd.

 

So who on here is going to be there with their vintage bikes? Especially the "Go" class.

 

"Go" class.

 

dave3593 glad you asked.
I will let the owners identify themselves if they wish. Brian Slark has issued "go class" invitations to:
Yamaha TZ250 (3): TZ350 (3, one a Spondon);
Ducati 750 and 250;
Triumph 750 (one twin, one triple);
Yamaha FZR400, 750, YZF750/1000, RZ350, XS650/750;
Suzuki T500 (2 one Rickman chassis, one Grant), XR69 Harris;
Kawasaki H1, Z1, 1000S1;
Honda CB750, Rickman CR750, CB1100F;
BSA 750 Trackmaster; and a
Bultaco 250.
All have race history. Quality is looking very good. Brian has only a couple open slots which he is looking to fill with either singles or cool history.

 

GREAT!!

 

Damn, forgot to submit entry for my TZ.
Will be cool to see other vintage bikes that weekend

 

We are hoping to make it but also have to head west to Laguna for a couple weekends after, even looed at stopping in along the way but thats gonna drag it out, we will see I might just shoot over on a bike to spectate