Barry drives a car, a Lola T8750 F3000, that has already won the championship on four occasions. Allan Hamilton was the first to win with it at Victoria’s Gippsland Park in 1989, and then West Australian Gary West won again at Gippsland in 2004, and in ’06 and ’08 on the Esses course.

The event will be run by the Bathurst Light Car Club, and it will be the 68th edition of this historic championship, and the eighth occasion it has been run at Bathurst.

It will also be the longest and fastest of all time, as it will be the first occasion it has been conducted on the 1.7km Mountain Straight course, which runs from the hump on Mountain Straight and finishes just before McPhillamy Park.

The outright record for the Mountain Straight course is 39.35 seconds, set by Sydney driver Tim Edmondson early in 2011 when he won the NSW Championship round driving his  imported British Gould GR55B.

However, he has twice been faster than that time, the most recent in late August when he clocked 36.91secs, and on each occasion was under the 100mph (160kph) average, which is remarkable given it is from a standing start. He has admitted that on the telemetry it shows 250kph twice.

Since he bought the Lola at the end of 2008, 50-year-old Barry has been learning the trade of driving an open wheel racing car, for it is the first time he has competed in anything but a tin top since starting motorsport in 1988.

A motor mechanic by trade, the grazier (from a farm some 20km from Mudgee) started competing in drags and lap  dashes, before moving up through supersprints and hillclimbs to circuit racing in production cars driving an AP5 Valiant complete with press button gearshift.

He had an extended break from motorsport in 1994, and then in 2005, following a medical scare, and on the advice of a doctor, he returned to the wheel driving an Alfa Romeo GTV V6, which was soon replaced by a Mitsubishi Evo 2, which he sold to Bathurst’s Scott Tutton in ’08 when he bought the Lola to run in the NSW Hillclimb Championships.

In his first three years in the  championship he finished sixth outright, then this year turned it all around,  finishing second in the first three rounds, and then won the Bathurst round on the Mountain Straight course, and came within 0.01 of a second from Edmondson’s record.

He then went on to win the next three rounds, and in the penultimate round at Huntley finished second to Edmondson, who had missed the majority of the season. It was enough to wrap up his first title.

Just over a week ago, in the final round at Newcastle’s King Edward Park, he  finished second behind former rally champion and dual Holden and Ford  factory driver Dave Morrow in his 1.3 litre Krygger Suzuki.

It was the veteran Coffs Harbour  driver’s first round victory.

“We had a new compound tyre, and we were in trouble with the rear end – it just wouldn’t stop sliding. Dave (Morrow) really took the fight to me and ended up on top. But he really deserved it, so good on him,” he said.

“I’m really looking forward to the Australian titles at Bathurst. I like that hill. It’s better than the Esses, for I hold my breath the whole way up, and I can’t on the Mountain Straight. Besides, it  really suits my car, and if there are no driver brain fades, I’ll back myself to take it up to all challengers.”

Barry is certain to get all the challengers he wants, for already there are in excess of 100 entrants from all around the nation.

Edmondson will start the event favourite in the Gould with its superb ground effects and its 3.5 litre Nicholson McLaren V8 powerplant.

Renowned Sydney hillclimb race car builder Ron Hay will also be competing in his Synergy Dallara. It has a Dallara  chassis which was raced in Japan before being imported to Australia, and  purchased as a rolling chassis by Hay.

The New Zealand-based Synergy  company were then entrusted with the job of building a special hillclimb engine, 2.4 litres and weighing just 100kg.

Also a contender for Sunday will be Malcolm Oastler and his new weapon, the Dallabusa: a Dallara with a Hayabusa engine, a car that should be very fast and attract a considerable amount of interest this weekend.

The former Australian champion from Victoria, Brett Haywood, has also entered his 09 Haywood, and there are two other drivers who as yet have not entered, but if they do will be among favourites.

Four-time champion Garry West has his latest project, an imported British Pilbeam MP 82, which was last used by Sydney’s Tom Donovan, which is being fitted with a super charged Nissan SR20 2.3 litre.

The other strong possibility is Queenslander Dean Tighe with a Dallara 395, the same as Ron Hay’s. Tighe has fitted a 4 litre EV in the back with a Reynard F3000 gearbox.