Barber Motorsports Park hosted the Grand Prix of Birmingham presented by Porsche, part of the 7th annual Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Fifty drivers made up four classes including Grand Touring (GT), Grand Touring Sport (GTS), Touring Car (TC), and Touring Car B-Spec (TCB). Races are in sprints of roughly 45 minutes in length, featuring multiple classes running simultaneously. The Round 5 GT Cup and Round 6 GTS pilots race were part of the Pirelli World Challenge

Learn more about Albins ST6 Series Sequential Gearboxes.

The Grand Touring (GT) class features production based sports and luxury cars making between 425 – 525 horsepower. The Grand Touring Sport (GTS) class are production based sports cars closer to stock, racing at slightly slower speeds than their GT counterparts. This year's GTS field featured cars such as Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Porsche Cayman, Kia, Nissan 370z and Aston Martin. Two newcomers, #45 Jade Buford and #54 Scott Heckert, both in Albins ST6-M equipped SIN R1 GT4s completed the GTS field. 

Buford had a rough start, stalling his car off the line. He later admitted it was rookie nerves as he was accustomed to a rolling start. By lap 3, Buford caught up to the pack. In a dazzling pass during lap 23, he battled his way into the top 3. Buford managed to grab the lead in lap 27 and held on until the checkered flag.

Buford had nothing but praise for his SIN R1 GT4, noting his vehicle was at top performance. Racer’s Edge Motorsports owner Jon Mirachi remarked the Albins ST6-M gearboxes ran flawlessly during the race. The Albins ST6 Series are 6-speed, sequential-shifting  gearboxes that feature a standard set of drop gears for quick and easy ratio changes at the track. All gears are  profile-ground, shot peened and isotropic polished.