Former MotoGP wildcard looks to expand horizon after claiming Southern Downs title

A former MotoGP wildcard entrant has fought back from two ‘major’ crashes to claim a coveted superbike title and now the Toowoomba rider has his sights set on bigger competition.

A $10,000 ‘race crash’ and a highly competitive field of riders were not enough to stop Callum Barker-McVey from claiming a title that eluded him last year.

The Toowoomba motorcycle racer recently claimed the 2023 Southern Downs Road Racing Title after a supreme effort at Warwick’s Morgan Park this year.

Competing in the superbike category, he fought through adversity to take home the championship which eluded him last year.

“It was good (to win the title), we missed out last year with a bad run of luck with a crash towards the end of the season,” Barker-McVey said.

“This year, myself and the team worked hard throughout the year and had another crash at the last round but luckily had enough points buffer to claim the title in the end which was good.”

Barker-McVey has been no stranger to adversity this season with the former MotoGP wildcard entrant forced to fightback after a major crash midway through the campaign.

“There was a big crash in June, there was a bit of a racing incident after the race,” he said.

“Another rider crashed into me at turn one after the chequered flag and it pretty much destroyed my bike and it was around 10 grand to fix it.

“So that was a big setback again and I didn’t think we were going to be able to finish the season but we pulled together and got it done.”

Throughout his 15-year career, which started when he was just 11 years old, Barker-McVey has raced at both overseas and national level and was the Australian Moto3 champion in 2014.

He also won the FX Superbike Championship in the 600 class back in 2018 but has been mainly competing in the Warwick series on the superbike since 2019.

However, after a strong run of form, the rider is eager to broaden his horizons in 2024 to taken on further tracks.

“We are looking to do the new track up in Townsville when they open that and hopefully Toowoomba, out at Wellcamp, they have their track ready sometime next year,” he said.

“If we can, we’ll try to get down to Sydney and Melbourne just to do a couple of away races if possible.

“With fuel prices and everything, it is probably going to be a bit dearer than when we were doing the national title rounds and races, but there is only so much you can do at the club stuff and we are just trying to branch out now on the bigger bikes.

“I haven’t really raced the bigger bikes down south, so I’m just trying to get out there again back to where I used to be doing the national championships.”