It was the first time Daniel had raced his Toyota Starlet in a competition, although he also races quad bikes and twowheel motorcycles and is a national titleholder in the quad class.
‘‘It gives me a thrill,'' Daniel said simply, when asked his attraction to the sport.
His uncle, Paul Manuell, races V8 supercars. Fellow pupils at Barton Rural School near Timaru, where Daniel is a year 8 pupil, thought it was ‘‘cool'' that he raced cars.
While Daniel admitted to a few nerves on Saturday morning, he had a test day at Levels on Friday and did 50 laps.
The hill climb, one of the highlights on the Otago motorsport calendar, was last held in 1995 and was run over the traditional route on the Ngapara-Georgetown Rd to Tilverstowe Rd.
The North Otago Car Club went into recess seven years ago, but former members decided to arrange a weekend of events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its formation, including a dinner on Saturday night and display of cars in Oamaru yesterday.
Windsor motorsport enthusiast Murray Frew competed in the hill climb ‘‘many times'' and was back with a Ford Escort RS2000 and a Chrysler race car.
Mr Frew said his impressivelooking Chrysler had a 1928 chassis and the rest of the car was dated about 1934 ‘‘as far as we can tell''.
He bought the car two years ago after seeing a small advertisement in a newspaper. It was owned by a man in Kaikoura who wanted to buy a Range-Rover so he decided to sell the Chrysler.
Saturday was the Chrysler's first official outing - in the demonstration class - with Mr Frew, who said he only competed to have fun.
Fastest times. -
Glenn Frew (Mitsubishi EVO) 00.52.51; Daniel Barnett (Mazda RX7) 00.54.35; Gordon Beeby (Subaru WRX) 00.54.47; Quentin Doig (Subaru WRX) 00.55.24; Andrew Neill (Toyota Starlet) 00.55.87; Grant Notman (Ford Cosworth) 00.56.15; Chris Hey (MR2) 00.56.27; Phil Winter (Subaru Impreza) 00.56.30; Graeme Vaughan (Formula Ford) 00.56.73; Allan Wills (Escort RS2000) 00.56.97.