The 2007 inaugral Easykart UK Championships kicked off at a very spring sunny day at Whilton Mill with Barnaby showing good form in testing as he prepared for the season.

All of the pre season hype about being the championship favourite counted for nothing as Barn rolled in fourth in timed qualifying, some 3 tenths off the pace and a collective scratching of heads.

A superb start in the Pre Final saw Barn jump into 2nd place behind Mark Elder, who set a murderous pace to become the only driver ever other than Barn to win an Easykart UK race, and as the kart began to grip up, Barn fell back to third place, and some would say, a better grid position for the start of the Main Final.

From grid 3, Barn once again followed his nemesis Mark up to the first corner, but this time dived through to take the lead. Using his undoubted ability on cold tyres, Barn worked an advantage of over a second in the first half of the race, but then Mark began to peg the lead back.

With just 3 laps to go, Mark dived through on the inside at the boot, only for Barn to get his wheels in line quicker out of the corner, and retake the lead establishing a half second lead.

As the tension mounted, Mark gathered himself for another go, but Barnaby slowed the pace and kept the door shut to produce a well worked win and a rare show of emotion across the finish line to signify victory and remain unbeaten in Easykart UK........

For round 2  we made our way to Rye House, where Barnaby won the first ever UK Easykart race in October 2006, but all was not well.

Crucially for Barn, the scales were weighing heavy and some of the lighter drivers were allowed to take off their ballast, leaving Barnaby with the prospect of major surgery required to make the weight!!

In the warm up, he came in 7th, 2 tenths off of main rival Mark Elder and first quali saw him down to 9th, although the same difference from Mark. Second quali was a whole lot better, coming in third, a tenth away from Elder.

The pre final start from grid 6 was the normal 'buy a ticket take a chance' type, and a brutal first hairpin saw Barn grab 2nd place behind Elder as the two championship favourites began to draw away from the group. Mark drove a faultless race and kept Barn at bay for the whole race, always having that little bit in hand and changes required for the main final.

Unfortunately, the changes in set up took Barn down a blind alley, as once again Mark cruised away to a faultless victory, this time Steve Youle made the start and followed him home. Barn drove a lonely race for the main part, trying to stay with the leaders, but to no avail. At the tail end of the race both Lee Jenner and Tony Longstaff caught and passed our man, but Barn picked his way back past Tony with 2  laps to go, and closed the race down to finish fourth.

Back to Whilton Mill for round 3, and a new situation for Easykart, changeable weather.

With the rain holding off for the most part during qualifying, there was a mad scramble to take to the track in dry conditions and Barnaby registered 3rd in warm up, 4th in first quali and 2nd in 2nd quali to clinch grid 2 for the prefinal, again 2 tenths behind championship leader Mark Elder.

The pre final started in wet conditions, with Steve Youle acknowldeged as the fastest in the wet and Scott Baines also going with him, dropping Barnaby to third after a ragged start left him bouncing along the grass for most of the first straight on lap one, but a crucial 4 place advantage over Elder had been gained.

Then came the drama. The circuit dried out totally for the main final and all the drivers arrived on slicks. As the race was being called to start, the heavens opened and pandemonium reigned as all drivers had the tough choice to make. For Barn there was no choice. Do what Elder does and beat him.

The race started with most drivers on wets including Barn and Mark, and after another poor start left Barn trailing in 8th place, within 4 laps, Barn worked his way back into the lead, which he held onto until.........the track dried on lap 10. With the advantage of dry tyres both Cockhill brothers and Tony Longstaff shot past Barn leaving him fourth on circuit again, but there was more to this race.

Tony had, whilst picking his way forward, tipped Mark Elder into a spin, leaving him well down the order, and a successful protest led to Tony receiving a five place penalty, and Barn up to third!

So we go to Rowrah for rounds 4 and 5, one of Barn's favourite tracks where no one has tested and with a handy 10 point lead in the championship. Dare we beleive.......

To sunny Rowrah with it's own weather system for round 4, and as the drivers tried to get to grips with the slippy circuit and tyre choice, Barn as usual plumped for slick tyres for the Pre Final, despite a wet track.

A strong qualifying performance saw him never outside of the top three, but a bump of the lights and slick tyres had Barn down in 6th place. 4 laps later, he was back up to third and maintained that position to the end of the race in a good quali spot for the Main Final.

Off the start, there was a fair scrum for the first chicane, but Barn stayed in 3rd until lap 5, when he climbed up to 2nd place. This position was mainatined until lap 13 when disaster struck with a capital D, chain off on the downhill chicane outside kerb, DNF, 102 points for the race meeting!!

Must be better tomorrow.............

The day started in fine fettle with the fastest warm up time, and then the sun came up and the grip went down. With all drivers and machinery toiling in the heat the heavier drivers were made to pay for their excesses...

Qualifying one saw a disappointing result of grid 10, the lowest so far but a confidence that second qualifying is always better once the problem of binding brakes can be eliminated. And so it was, but only to 9th, so the hard work would have to be done in the finals now.

The pre final started with a steady move through the pack to be 5th on lap 6, followed by a breif flirtation with 4th place and 6th before settling in a more familiar grid 5 for the Main Final. As the engines roared and some failed to start, tempers began to fray as the start was delayed to allow everyone in.

Eventually the race got underway and an improvement of the grid in front saw a meeting best position of 3rd, and a race long yoyo pattern, until a minor catastrophe on the last lap saw Harry Cockhill and David Spencer both blitz past, leaving Barn and his limping kart, slow puncture and locking brakes, back in fifth, and in the championship now trailing Harry by just 3 points as the gladiators headed back to Rye House for round 6.

Round 6 then held at the adopted home of Easykart UK, Rye House in Herts, where the Club 100 organisation is based, and is actually the track that can claim Lewis Hamilton as it's protegee, Lewis had his first meetings here in a kart. More importantly that all of that, Barnaby goes round here ok and Harry hates the place!!

Warm up went roughly to plan, second fastest (again) by 0.02 sec to Mark Elder, another track specialist, so no drama there then.

The drama was to some in qualifying with Q1 seeing Barn drop to third behind Firas Bilbasi and Steve Youle and worse to come in Q2. Trying to push on saw an improvement of 0.13 sec for Barn, enough to leap frog Steve, but now behind Firas, Mark and 'newcomer' Terry Langley, so an uncomfortable grid 4 start for the Pre Final.

But not for long, as a supreme effort around stadium saw Barn slip into 2nd place behind Mark Elder and the chase was on. Once Mark gets into his rhythm, it is very difficult to open any chances to pass the flying Kiwi, so Barn took an outrageous inside dive on hairpin one lap 2 to take the lead in the race. Mark slipped back by 0.4 sec immediately, and the gap changed lap by lap to as much as 1.2 secs, as Mark defended his position from Steve Youle, and back to 0.36 sec by the end as Barn eased to victory.

The Main Final saw our man lead for the first 4 laps under the consistent threat and pressure of Terry Langley, who eventually slipped past into the lead on hairpin 2 lap 5.  As these two drew away from the pack, Barn could never get close enough to make a move on Terry, the weight difference of about 8kg being critical at Rye House between the hairpins, and as the race wore on, he fell steadily backward from the metronomic pace of the race leader.

So second place to a non championship contender a great result and with 2 rounds left to go, Barn looks well placed to secure his first ever British Championship.

Clay Pigeon is a funny old place. A small track set on the top of a windy hill leads to all kinds of weather and track conditions. Barn won his only ever Super One round at Clay in the pouring rain, but he has also been in the armco barriers a few times as well. So what kind of day was to come at Clay?

Not good judging by warm up. Barn did not appear due to the electrics packing up on the kart and he only just got sorted out ready for Q1.

All the drama appeared to be over as he outqualified arch rival Harry Cockhill to take provisional pole, those two appearing at this point to be head and shoulders above the rest. Q2 went a little bit haywire when guess who Mark Edler produced a lap of blinding skill to take pole away from the champioship leader, but grid 2 not so bad around Clay is it?

The cracks began to appear in the Pre Final. Making the customary jet start, Barnaby led from the first corner, but was clearly struggling for pace. First Harry came past on lap 7 with no responce, followed by Terry Langley on lap 10 and finally Mark Elder on lap 17 relegated Barn to fourth place on the Grid for the Main Final. But grid 4 not so bad around Clay is it?

It was this time.

As the pack raced around Billy's Blind from the start, a little nudge and wink took place further down the grid, and by the time it reached row 2, the ferocity of the bumping was enough to send several drivers spinning in a cloud of dust into the armco at the bottom of the hill, including one driver with a very distinctive red with a yellow star helmet. Disaster. Lap 1 18th place.

There then followed an insane cavalry charge as Barn attempted to catch drivers who were 0.2 sec quicker last time out and who now had a 10 second lead. For the neutrals it was enthralling racing as Barn, clearly very pumped up by the first corner incident, charged through the field with little regard for anyone else on the racetrack, including one lap when 4 drivers were overtaken in one move!

To start with top 10 was the target. This was achieved by lap 7 of the 25 lap race. Then top 6 was the new mark. This was achieved by lap 13, but conceded on lap 17 to old foe Mark Elder. Together they hounded the drivers in front and on the last lap, Barn had both Mark and Scott Baines lined up for a last lap special.

Sadly, they are probably the most experienced 2 drivers in the field and were never going to yield to the hard charging attack but worse was happening at the front.

Although appearing quicker, Terry Langley showed no interest in overtaking Harry Cockhill for the lead stating that 'he did not want to interfere with the championship'. Didn't mind at the last round though...... so Harry now goes to the last round leading the championship at his local circuit with Barn needing to win and Harry third to take the title.