Parella Motorsports Holdings (PMH) honored Skip Barber with the PMH Trailblazer Award on Friday night. The presentation took place at Lime Rock Park during a dinner celebrating the SpeedTour All-Star Race weekend. The award recognizes individuals who have made a significant and lasting impact in motorsports.
“It’s an honor to recognize Skip Barber with the PMH Trailblazer Award,” said Tony Parella, Founder and CEO of PMH. “We established this award last year to recognize people who challenge the status quo while creating opportunities for others. Over his nearly seven-decade career, Skip has done exactly that.”
Barber started his racing career with the purchase of a Bugeye Sprite and completion of an SCCA Drivers School at Marlboro Motor Raceway, located just outside Washington, D.C. Racing a variety of machinery in the 1960s and 1970s, ranging from sports cars to high-powered formula cars, Barber delivered some shining moments while in the driver’s seat. Along the way, he won three SCCA National Championships, set 32 different lap records and earned the President’s Cup. Ultimately tapped to drive for the March factory in Formula 1 and Formula 5000, Barber ran six Formula 1 races from 1971-1972.
His racing career was only the beginning of Barber building a lasting legacy in motorsports. Believing that racing was a teachable sport, he formed the Skip Barber Racing School in 1975, with four students and a pair of borrowed Formula Fords. Since then, over 400,000 students have become racers and champions. Skip Barber Racing School graduates have taken the podium in all facets of motorsport, including NASCAR, IndyCar, SCCA, World Challenge and IMSA. Not just impacting racers, the Skip Barber Racing School saved countless lives on the road through safe driver training programs, as well as training and developing an entire generation of mechanics, administrators and marketing specialists, who often passed through the school on their way to the upper levels of motorsports. In 1999, Barber sold the school, but its legacy continues today while still bearing his name.
In 1983, Barber led a group of investors to purchase Lime Rock Park from then-owner Harry Theodoracopulous. Eventually becoming the sole owner, he sold the facility in 2021 to a new group of investors, but remains a large shareholder, as well as an active track management team member.
“I have great respect for Tony Parella and what he has accomplished,” said Skip Barber. “That’s why I feel so honored to receive this award.”
PMH is back on track next weekend, hosting two SpeedTour events on opposite ends of the country. The New Jersey Lottery SpeedTour at New Jersey Motorsports Park, July 25-28, will feature Formula Regional Americas Championship, Formula 4 United States Championship, Ligier JS F4 Series, Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA), Formula Race Promotions and Shelby American Automobile Club. On the West Coast, PMH will host the PIR SpeedTour at Portland International Raceway with the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s Western Championship, as well as SVRA, Prototype Sprint Series Association and Optima Ultimate Street Car, July 26-28.