Barker Excited for Moranbah Debut

Kingsthorpe based Darren Barker #611 lives and breathes offroad racing, and this weekend his journey lands in Moranbah, for the Inspec Industries 150; Round 6 of the 2024 QLD ARB Mickey Thompson Championship.

Barker’s racing career began with a V-Twin Class 6 Can Am at Stanthorpe in 2016, since then he and his Rekrab Racing crew have experienced the many highs and lows of the sport.

“I started racing at the backend of 2016 at Stanthorpe, and finished 2nd in the QLD Short Course Championship in 2017, I then had a few years away, before my comeback which didn’t go to plan last year,” said Barker.

Since his return, Barker has been competing in the ex David ‘Red’ Loughnan 2017 Can Am Maverick X3, which was one of the first of its kind to land in Australia, and the oldest still competing in the country.

Barker’s first two events of his comeback in 2023 were at Federal and Dalby, before a massive rollover at the Zooms Cup in October ended their charge prematurely.

“I bought 611 off Red last year when he bought the Honey Badger. Unfortunately I wrote it off during our third race at Limevale, we did a full ground up rebuild during the off season and returned for our first outing at St George.

With two confidence boosting runs already in 2024, including a 15th outright, 3rd in class result at the Dam Buster 250, and a 4th outright, 2nd in class finish at the recent Dalby event, Barker is just happy to be going racing.

“Every time I’m on track it’s special, I just love the sport. Finke is up there with my favourite, I raced it in 2017, navigated in 2018 and went and spectated again last year.

Now with all eyes on this weekends Inspec Industries 150 at Moranbah, Barker who is also committed to the final round of the QLD short course championship at Kilkivan is not getting carried away with his 2024 form.