Barnes Aims For Victory In Skusa Winter Series
[Written by Stephen Wright]
Scott Barnes is looking for a flying start to the opening two rounds of the Skusa Winter Series at the AMR Homestead-Miami Motorplex in Florida this weekend.
The island’s top karting driver hopes to improve on his second-place finish last year and win his Shifter Masters class.
Barnes, 37, will be up against four other drivers in his category: Patrick Otto Madsen, Farshad Bagheri, Ken Schilling and Johnston Erwin.
The four-round championship concludes with rounds three and four at the same venue next month.
“The goal is always to get on the podium,” Barnes, the Bermuda Karting Club president, told Bernews. “The competition level will be a bit better than last year. I’m looking to try and win it.”
Round one takes place today [Saturday] with qualifying, pre-final and final before round two tomorrow. Points are accumulated from the pre-final and final races on both days.
“It’s only four rounds, and you’re only allowed to drop one [race], so it’s imperative to make a strong start,” Barnes added.
Barnes will look to build on his impressive display, including a win the 206 Masters class, at the World Karting Association Daytona Kart Week last month.
His campaign did not go without incident after injuring his hand during a racing collision, which required a trip to the hospital.
“It was an up and down weekend [in Daytona],” he said. “I got ran over [by another kart] on the first day of practice and thought the weekend could have been over because of a hospital trip.
“I came back and got a win and a couple of seconds. I was a bit disappointed because those two seconds should have been firsts. That’s road racing.”
Local drivers Brian Bulhoes and Blake Horseman are racing this weekend in the Skusa Winter Series in the KA 100 and X30 Tag categories, respectively.
“I’ll be looking to show them the ropes and see how they get along,” Barnes said. “It’s great to have two more Bermudians here this weekend.”
Good lucky boys!