Michael Barnard

Michael Barnard

Formula Challenge Career
Nationality	United States
Active Years	2015
Team(s)	Deltec Racing Team
Grand Prix	0
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First Grand Prix	2015 Open Series Japanese Grand Prix

Early Years

Where did it all start me? Well in 2006, when I was 14 years old. A nascar driver named Denny Hamlin got his first win at Pocono. He was on tv one night when I was with my dad cooking dinner. He mentioned something called sim racing and I had no idea what it was nor ever heard of it. So that's when I started looking into it. I came across a live broadcast race on PSRTV with the FSR league and as well as the BCR league afterwards. After listening to the commentators and seeing how competitive everyone was and just how serious people got into it, I was simply hooked.

Soon after I got my first wheel and sim. I bought a Thrustmaster RGT and bought Arca Sim Racing to go with it. I sat around for close to a week and even skipped school for 2 days because I was that much into it. I wanted to be the best. Truthfully I thought I was the best, until of course I signed up with the league and jumped onto the practice server... Oh man, It was a bad day for me. The first 20 guys in practice were all about .5 tenths off of each other and I was about 1.5 Sec's off of everyone else. At that moment I then started to realize I needed a lot more work than just a week of practice.

I had an amazing 3 years being apart of BCR and my old race team Texas Sim Racing. Had great group of guy's who all cared about one another. Scored a few wins in the league, great top 5 and top 10 finishes and of course, Cant forget my Championship! Lot of hard work that I put in to win it. I wanted it so bad that I would stay up with my teammate's and practice all thru the night and go to school the next day on no sleep just because i wanted to find that .3 of a tenth on my lap that I was loosing. Soon after my time at BCR ended, I signed up being apart of 2 leagues A league called SRC which had there broadcasts on OLR tv and specifically ran the Dirt factor mod. Now growing up i lived 2 miles away from our local track. Saturday night lights at Dixie Speedway. All I had to do was go outside and I can hear those Big blocks firing up and racing around until 11 at night. So that was a big reason I joined over there. Ended up racing there for about 2 years and also right near the end of it they decided to open a new series called the Indy series. (very original) But ran 500 miles at all the big circuits just as the INDY series schedule ran. That's right about when i truly started to love open wheels even more. Just how precise you have to be and your judgment going into the corners is something like no other. During the end of SRC I found a league called BPRL which only ran for about a year and ended up scoring the championship there but only about 15 guys were there every race. So no comparison to my championship at BCR. After my time with league racing i took a little break and ventured off into IRacing for a few years and placed really well in there class A championships every season but just never found it in me to compete for a pro license. Was mostly just doing it for fun. and even took breaks at times for months. At first didn't really know how to handle working and sim racing.

My run back to racing. I went on Youtube one night looking for a stream for the 24 hour SPA last year and some how someway, VEC's 24 hours of LE MANS. showed up. And actually had no idea it was even sim racing related. Just accidentally clicked it. Well after about 10 minutes of watching. I had to find my wheel and just do a race or something. Mind over matter at that point. I signed up shortly after and ended up getting picked up by a team in development which eventually we called ourself's Flatline Racing. Which is now home to Thomas Jacobs, Boyd Bryson, Mark Fuller. All from GPVWC. Currently we are running LMP2 and GT-Pro this year. I took ownership of the team after our original owner of the team had to leave due to personal reasons. Last year was a big learning experience for all of us and are very excited for this season.

How I met my teammates that race here.

Mark- The one and only one left of the original 4 that started the team. Ever since we got the team started ive always been able to count on mark for anything. Its not even about the competitive nature from him that I love. But its just how much fun he has when he's online. Also, probably one of the most consistent guys we have. He talks about it all the time about how he's not as fast as we are but the one thing we need from him is just his competitive side and consistency.

Boyd- I was out looking for new teammates since 2 of them had to go just after the 2nd race of the year and mark came across Boyd and im assuming he was just interested in a ride. Well his first race was just a grand opening for him and one other brand new teammate. It was Boyd Bryson, Pedro Delgado and myself at the 6 Hours of Mid Ohio. By the time Boyd got the car we had moved the car from 7th to 4th just before he got a hold of our big green machine. with 2 hours left he was about 15 seconds off of 3rd and another 15-20 seconds off of 2nd. At this point we just wanted to get the car home in one piece. On honestly one of the hardest tracks I've ever raced on for mixed class racing. Mid Ohio isn't meant for LMP1-2 And GT Pro-Am.. Not at all meant for it. Boyd didn't care. He was all out! He passed 3rd during a pit stop and in remarkable fashion. Boyd was in a battle for 2nd with only about 15 minutes left on the clock. BOYD CAME THRU!!!! right as the white flag was coming out Boyd an amazing pass on 2nd place with a perfect pick with a lmp1 car in the middle of them. I was impressed from there and never looked back. Gave us our best finish of the year!

Thomas- I got to know Thomas thru Boyd since they're teammates already in world gt. He came in to help for the 24 hour's of le mans and after his performance and hearing his ambitions for the coming year. I had no choice other than to go after him. Great talented driver. His driving etiquette is unbelievable. Give him any car. Loose, Tight. anything. He'll somehow get a decent time out of it and get comfortable with whatever it is. Reminded me a lot of how I was when I got into racing. Always looking for the next best move on track. Stats: 6 years of league racing 2 Championships. 17 League Wins 42 League Top 5's 6th in the 24 Hours of Le Mans GTE-AM.

2015 & 2016

I join Deltec Racing Team in the 2015 & 2016 Formula Challenge Series. I am looking forward to the partnership.