Hugh Barter

Hugh was born in Nagoya Japan on the 15th September 2005 to his Japanese mother, Natsuki, and his Australian father, Chris Hugh has always loved anything that moves – his rocking horse, his little trike, and his toy cars of course. But, it wasn’t until the family moved to Australia and Chris took two year old Hugh to the Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne that his love of motor racing truly began When Hugh was three years old Chris and his Japanese grandfather took him to the V8 race at Phillip Island, Victoria, where Hugh met Craig Lowndes who would become an inspiration to Hugh. On the way out of the race Hugh spotted a racing simulator and wanted to have a drive, even though his feet couldn’t reach the pedals. Even at that age Hugh knew he had to drive, and saying he couldn’t go on the simulator because he was too little did not make for a happy Hugh Chris asked the simulator’s operator if he could work the pedals for Hugh while he took control of the steering wheel. The operator agreed, and Hugh was so excited. The track was Mt Panorama, which is not a simple street circuit All Hugh could talk about that night was the simulator and how much fun it was. There was only one thing to do – Hugh’s Mum and Dad bought him a PlayStation 2 with a pedal and steering wheel setup and the V8 Super Car game for his fourth birthday Just before Hugh’s fifth birthday a cheap go-kart and trailer was put up for sale and it was such a good deal that Hugh’s parents bought it for him for his fifth birthday, and for the last three years he has been driving almost every weekend. He races go-karts at Stony Creek Go-Karts (not an AKA member in Victoria In 2012 Hugh and his little 2 stroke Comer engine raced against other Adults drivers in the Stony Creek Club Championships whose go-karts had 4 stroke Briggs and Stratton engines. Hugh came fourth overall for the year. This was a big achievement, especially as there were 21 entrants and only three, including Hugh, were junior racers