Skip Barber, longtime record holder in the Formula Ford series, has been inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame (MSHF) as part of the organization’s Class of 2025.
Barber – whose real first name is John – won three consecutive Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) championships in the mid-1960s. Barber caught the racing bug while attending Harvard University and began his motorsports career in 1958. When he switched gears and began racing in Formula Ford, Barber solidified his name in the history books by winning the 1969 SCCA National Championship Runoff at Daytona. He went on to win back-to-back Formula Ford national championships by winning in 1970 – a feat that was only matched recently – then capped off his trio of wins with a win in Formula B in 1971.
Barber even tried his hand at Formula One in the early 1970s. He competed in six F1 races with a best finish of 16th in the 1972 U.S. Grand Prix.
While he was successful on track, Barber shifted to motorsports education in 1975, starting the Skip Barber Racing School. While things started slow with a loan and a set of borrowed race cars, the endeavor became more and more successful throughout the decades. More than 400,000 aspiring racers have graduated from the program, including the likes of Tom Cruise, Jeff Gordon, Danica Patrick, Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, Patrick Dempsey, and more.
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Barber was inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2013, so he’s no stranger to recognition. He also owned Lime Rock Park for decades before selling the racetrack in 2021, although the massive structure at the track’s start-finish line still bears his name: Skip Barber Tower.
Beyond Formula Ford, another Blue Oval racer was recently inducted into the MSHF. Bill Stroppe, famous for the success of his Ford Bronco off-road racers, is also part of the Class of 2025 – and yes, this is the same Bill Stroppe that inspired the 2025 Ford Bronco Stroppe Edition model.
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Great school! I graduated from the program back in 1993.