GoKarts: Bonny Hills teenager Cooper Barnes competes at Australian Kart Championships

The 13-year-old from Bonny Hills managed to climb his way into the middle of the pack in three of his five races before he learned first-hand how competitive racing is at the top level.

In the first heat, the youngster qualified in 24^th position and worked up to 17^th spot before he was taken out on the track and had to do the hard work all over again.

Cooper's father Jamie said a similar scenario unfolded in the second and third heats.

"He learned that it's pretty tough at the top," he said.

"Practice is imperative before these events and I guess defence is a pretty big player in a large-numbered field.

"Cooper's times were the same as another 20 of them in the race, but the problem is if you're all driving the same time, it's more about taking that defensive (driving) line to get that edge."

Mr Barnes said it remained a valuable trip as they were able to mix it with some of the bigger-named teams in motorsport.

"Out of the 314 competitors in the field, at least 250 of them would be racing in teams that have V8 Supercar drivers as mentors," he said.

"James Courtney has a GoKart team and Tim Slade was another one so they're all watching what's going on and advising what could be done to the kart to make it go better."

The main difference between the competitor from "little old Port Macquarie" and the rest of the field was access to any one of the five race tracks throughout the year.

"Some of those guys will spend a month at a time at each of the tracks, try six chassis and find out what the best engine is for what they're doing," Mr Barnes said.

"That's what we have to work on; putting a bit more time on the track and trying a few more tactics.

"It comes down to having the best parts because they're running the best of the best so it's all about more dollars."

Gaining sponsorship would go a long way towards closing the gap between themselves and the top teams.

But the Hastings team know Cooper has what it takes to climb to the top, having won round two of the state championships last year at Wingham.

"You've got to put the time in at the track like we did at Wingham in preparation for the state round," Mr Barnes said.

"We got the race result, smashed the lap record in qualifying and came out on top in the race so Cooper can do it, it's just poor old dad's got to put more time in it."

The next round is in Seymour (April 17-19), followed by Ipswich (June 19-21) and Newcastle (July 31-August 2) with the final round set for Melbourne (September 18-20).

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