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Just got home from Birmingham, AL where I spent the past week with an all-access pass to the inaugural Alabama Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.

Located in Leeds, a B'ham suburb, Barber Motorsport Park is a 2.38 mi. road course set on 800 acres of Alabama countryside. Completed in 2003, it is arguably one of the finest race facilities in the country.

The Grand Prix weekend consisted of a Continental Tire and Rolex Series race along with the third stop on the calendar for both the Firestone Indy Lights and IRL series.

My pass was all-access incl. Hot Pit access. While at the track for 13 hrs. each day, my duties took about an hour a day and I spent the rest of the time going everywhere, filling up three 4Gb. cards in my camera. I had access which even those with Media credentials didn't have and it's gonna take me several days to edit the shots and I'll post them on my imagecave album - I'll post a link to it.

It was truly a week of highlights, but amongst the most special was staying at the same inn as the Sam Schmidt Motorsports crew (the winningest team in Firestone Indy Lights history) and sharing 'adult' beverages each night with the crew until the Applebee's closed. I got especially close to Chief Mechanic of the #7 car, Dave Higuera. Their car and driver, J.K. Vernay, earned the Pole position in qualifying on Sat. and finished in first place in Sunday's race . Dave was quite a guy with a distinguished career having been crew chief for Bobby Rahal and Chief for Chip Ganassi. His insight into the sport was absolutely amazing.

On Qualifying Day, I attended a private breakfast for 16 people. At my table sat Bobby Rahal, Hurley Haywood and Michael Andretti. Across from us were AJ Foyt, George W. Barber (founder of the Track and Motorsport Museum) and Roger Penske. Later in the day, I met Marco Andretti (5th) and Helio Castroneves (1st), Milka Duno (24th) and I got to walk Danica Patrick (18th) from her Go Daddy paddock to her pit for the qualifying session.

As I was walking to the upper paddock area during qualifying, a cart pulling a car up the hill stalled as it's clutch began to slip. I stepped over the help push the car, along with it's crew. A guy jumped in next to me and said: "Thanks a lot guy...", I looked over and it was Patrick Dempsey (aka McDreamey), the co-driver and co-owner of the team and I was pushing his #40 Mazda RX8. They went on to finish 10th in the Rolex Sports Car Series GT class later that day.

Especially nice was the Porsche Corral set up in turn #14 and sponsored by PCA and the Alabama Chapter. They had a nice covered area across from the Porsche parking with tables, chairs, soft drinks, snacks and a large screen TV and numerous drawings and giveaways. In one of PCNA's presentations, they had a trivia round giving away prizes for the correct answer. I won a Panamera Turbo model for correctly answering the weight of the new Boxster Spyder's top - 14 Lbs., which I had just read about on the flight down. Parked in front, they had a parade of cars throughout the week incl. some PDK Boxsters, 911's, a Panamera (the first one I've sat in) and several significant racing Porsches. Hurley Haywood and Bobby Rahal gave presentations. I spent quite a bit of time there through the week. Special thanks to Alabama Chptr. Pres. Rick Teer, VP Brynley King and especially the Event Chairman, Porter Fell - their hospitality could not have been better!

It was an incredible week and certainly one of the most memorable weeks of my life. I hope you enjoy the pics.

Cheers!