Skip Barber Racing Files for Bankruptcy; Owes Lime Rock Park $1.2 Million - The Drive (just to be clear - Skip has not owned the school for a long time)
That's too bad, hopefully they can propose a confirmable plan. Otherwise Barber's Lime Rock might end up getting a chunk or control of it again. The IP value is probably a little optimistic for BK court purposes.
I'd tend to think the value of the cars and parts might be overstated also - be a royal pain if it goes to auction. Other than Lime Rock I'm surprised at how high the debts are with some of the other tracks. Would have expected lower thresholds before they were cut off.
Yes, but then again with a corporate customer that is decades old I understand that they probably did not expect the AR to get so old and then a BK.
who lets the receivables run up that much ? the only real bidder for the name is likely skippy himself...
He's supposedly been asked in the past if he was interested in having it back and said "no". Disclaimer: I know Skip but have never asked him about this subject!
i read that also but if you could buy back the name for next to nothing to remove it from circulation ..... i doubt he has any interest in running a school again...
the way to keep a track profitable is to keep it "hot" (booked). so I totally understand why tracks kept renting out to Skippy, even if they knew Skippy had a bad habit of, ermmm...."skipping" () out on bills. better to book the track and have a chance at a receivable than leave it empty...
Kind of like radiology facilities in that way. They keep people moving through the MRI and build up huge amounts of AR.
10 to 50 million in liabilities us a very vague figure. Not a whole lot of assets. How do other racing schools survive or prosper? Pity I went to two of their racing schools, learned a lot, it was good program..
That's just a check box on the initial petition pages. The total debts are on Schedules D, E and F. Although some can be marked "Unknown" if the current balance is missing. The creditors will file their claims in the case to be paid.
I agree. If the biggest creditor is Lime Rock at $1.225 million, then Pareto would predict it's far less than $10 million. If $29,600 to Willow Springs is worth mentioning, it's probably a whole lot less. And $2 million for the Skip Barber name is ridiculous. It may even have negative value now. Sad, though. I did the 3 day racing school (when they were Neon engines) for my own bachelor party, and the 2 day advanced school when my son was born. Matt
I did the 3 and two day as well. Personally i think the something like the 3 day should be mandatory for people wanting to move up the ladder at DE events.
Many of the best people left over the last few years and have landed at places like the Lucas Oil school while others left the business completely. The writing had been on the wall for a long time.
I'm honestly surprised it has taken this long. I understand the school never made much money even when run properly. The way they were even able to stay profitable (barely) was with the large corporate sponsors - Saab, Dodge, Mazda, Bridgestone, etc. Then Culver started running it and destroyed it. They owe a lot of money to instructors in addition to the tracks. The RT and MX5 cars are worthless IMO - they are in horrible shape. I'm not sure if they own the road cars which would have some value - Mustangs, Porsches, etc. Most of the Lucas instructors are ex-Skippy instructors. Except now you have newer cars, the same teaching methods, plus advanced video and data. Hopefully Lucas grows (which is the plan) and that results in more jobs for the industry. The cars are much better as well. I'll always have a place in my heart for the RT's, but the Lucas cars are proper FF cars from a winning chassis which is well balanced.
They run schools, and their race series, all over the east coast. I believe their next school is at Limerock.
Yes. It's a Rays GR11 chassis which is a Formula Ford winning chassis which is modified to FIA F3 size to accommodate a wide range of people.
Copy that. For tin tops, I would look at Bondurant in Phoenix. Mid Ohio school. Others might have more recommendations. Skippy is still running schools currently also, but obviously a precarious situation. The driver that won their series, and the 200k scholarship for racing, just came out publicly and stated that he never received the money. He's racing in F4 this year and it will definitely be a struggle for him without the money he earned and was promised.
Hate to see them in trouble. I am a Skippy grad and got my SCCA lisc afterward. Great school with excellent instructors.