Barry Oliver’s first experience of motor sport was when his father took him to the Longford road racing circuit in March 1955 when he was 11 years-old.

The two plus four meeting had a lasting effect with Barry, becoming an avid follower of all forms of the sport over the next 25 years, culminating in the opportunity to be a course commentator at the Touring Car championship round at Symmons Plains in March 1980.

Over the next eleven years Barry provided commentary, not only for circuit racing, but also karting, rallies, speedway and drag racing, as well as presenting motor sport segments on radio and local television.

From 1992 to 2007 Barry was the course commentator for the Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercars championship as well as the V8 Development Series from 2001 to 2007.

It was a very busy period with additional commentary for the Australian Formula Ford championship from 1994 to 2002 and Rally Australia from 2000 to 2002.

Barry was Chairman of CAMS Tasmanian State Council from 2003 to 2013 and the state Race Advisory Panel from 2003 to 2015 and since 1990, Barry has been the chairman of the Tasmanian Motor Sport Hall of Fame.

Since 1988 Barry has written a weekly motor sport column for the Examiner newspaper.

In 1993 Barry was given the opportunity to navigate for Jim Richards in the second edition of Targa Tasmania and over the next 25 years the pair contested 78 tarmac rallies in Australia and New Zealand.

In that time they stood on the podium 43 times, including 21 wins, with eight of those in Targa Tasmania, and only failed to finish on seven occasions in 25 years.

Two of those were very minor “offs” that damaged a radiator while the other five were due to mechanical issues.

Their consistency and the reliability of the many Porsches used was critical to their success, which netted a clean sweep of the available trophies and awards in Targa Tasmania.

Along the way they won the gold, platinum, diamond, golden diamond and the platinum diamond Targa trophies – awarded for completing five lots of three consecutive years without exceeding the maximum allowable time nominated for each stage.

In total that represents approximately 600 stages over 15 years and 7500 competitive kilometres.

Barry was inducted into the Targa Tasmania Hall of Fame in 2008 and is now officially listed as a Targa Tasmania legend.

In 2000 Barry was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for sporting achievement and as a member of the Motor Sports Club of Tasmania since the early 1980s and was also awarded life membership of the club in 2008.

Barry retired from active competition after Targa Tasmania in 2018 but still maintains an active interest in the sport.