Scott Barnes is delighted after making it to the podium after going it alone on his latest racing weekend in Daytona.

Barnes competed in an unfamiliar class and without his usual team and mechanics at the United States Pro Kart Series, pushing him out of his comfort zone for the first time in a while.

But the idea of going solo and having only himself to rely on got the competitive juices flowing.

“This is an event that does not run the Shifter class, so it was a new class for me,” Barnes said.

“It was the KA Masters, a 100cc automatic kart. I’ve raced it once a few years back but this was really a new adventure. My team wasn’t with me, I had no crew and no mechanic, so had to do everything on my own.”

With his first day of practice lost because he was having to put his kart together, Barnes had just one day to familiarise himself with the track conditions and could qualify only ninth of the 14 drivers for the heats, in which he suffered mixed fortunes.

“I started ninth in the first of three heat races on the Saturday and worked my way up to sixth with three laps to go,” Barnes said.

I was right behind the fourth and fifth and unfortunately the fourth-placed kart spun out right in front of me, backed into my axle and bent it pretty bad, which took me out of the race.

“I had to get the kart back together, put a new axle in and got out for heat two and salvaged a lot of points after working my way up from ninth to third. I threw a big change at the go-kart before the third heat, just trying to find some more speed and unfortunately it didn’t work. I finished ninth and that meant starting eighth in the final on Sunday.”

Despite starting the final in ninth, Barnes knew he had the ability to make it through the field but a disappointing start made him have to work harder than anticipated.

“Unfortunately on the track, the outside lane was a pretty big disadvantage, so after being stuck on the outside in eighth going into turn one, I fell to eleventh on lap one,” he said.

“But I stayed calm, stayed patient, put my head down and just started to click off the fast times. I started passing people one by one and it was a long 25-lap race, so by lap 20 I found myself in sixth place, caught up to third, fourth and fifth.

“I made the pass of two of them and got to the back bumper of third place. I could see these guys leading were getting tired and I’m used to doing 20 laps in a shifter, which is a much harder class to drive.

“I wasn’t tired at all and had plenty of energy so I was getting faster as these guys were getting slower. I managed to take third and get a podium finish in my first time at this event, so pretty happy with the weekend overall.

“I packed up my truck, my tools and did it without a mechanic or a team, so leaving with a podium against some of the best guys in the country in that class was pretty satisfying.

“I’m happy and I need to thank Butterfield & Vallis, Powerade, All Rise Bermuda, Stephen Roberts and Simpson Motorsports. My team, even though they were not there, sent me parts and were on the phone if I needed any advice, so Maranello Usa and Carlos Racing Engines, I definitely couldn’t do it with them.”