Throughout the 30 years that Barry drove competitively he clashed with many rivals. Some of the more well-known characters are featured here. When Barry began racing midgets Ross Goonan and Ian Holden were the undisputed kings of the Springs. They were the benchmark that he, and others, aspired to. Over Barry's long career at the top he, in turn, saw the beginnings of the careers of several young drivers who went on to become his rivals. Among these were Trevor Morris, Ron Mackay and Ted Tracey. By the time of his last drives (in the post-VW era), Graham Standring and Brett Horrobin had become top-line drivers and Ted Tracey was near retirement. In Auckland, during the early and mid 70's Trevor Morris was Barry's fiercest rival while in the late 70's and early 80's it was Ted Tracey. Barry's younger brother, Max, became a top-line driver in the early 80's and was part of the NZ midget test team along with Barry. In supermodifieds, and early in his sprintcar career, Roger Bertram was one of Barry's main rivals. Barry lived in Sydney between 1966 and 1971 and raced against Australia's best. In addition, throughout his career, top-line professional drivers from the USA raced in Australasia each summer and Barry was able to pit his skills against the best.

Early in Barry's career (1962-63), when Barry drove in the Auckland midget team, the Australian team included the great Jeff Freeman in the Mackay Offy and later when Barry raced in Sydney in the Mintex Offy, Jeff was at the peak of his career. Unfortunately Jeff died several months later. When Barry moved to Sydney, in the late 60's, Johnny "super" Stewart was running offy-powered cars and was the back-marker. Garry Rush and George Tatnell were middle-markers and, like Barry, they became sprintcar greats in the 80's. By the early 70's Ron Mackay had become a top-line midget driver and George Tatnell had purchased an offy. In addition, both George and Ron were frequent visitors to Western Springs over Christmas/New Year in the 70's. Queensland hotshoes, Bill Goode, Blair Shepherd and Ron Wanless visited Auckland in the 60's and 70's and Wanless, even in the 80's. Barry also raced against these stars while he lived in Australia.

During the 60's Bob "two gun" Tattersall was the standout American import, and the man to beat. Barry tried very hard to beat the hard-living, hard driving man from Streator, Illinois. In the 70's it was "miraculous" Mel Kenyon from Lebanon, Indiana, who was the benchmark. The quietly spoken, likeable and highly religious Kenyon was extraordinarily fast in a midget. The great AJ Foyt also raced at Western Springs in the mid 70's. Nice guy, Larry Rice was highly competitive in the mid and late 70's and "rapid" Rich Vogler was a fierce competitor in the late 70's and early 80's. During the 80's Stan Fox was a frequent and popular visiting driver. Ron "Sleepy" Tripp was a frequent and extremely successful visitor in the late 70's and throughout the 80's and 90's. Sleepy raced in Auckland 18 consecutive seasons to become the most well-known of the visitors from the USA. In addition, in the late 80's Jeff Gordon raced a sprintcar at Western Springs and Meremere while in the mid 70's the odyssey of the visits of "hostile hippy" Garry Patterson in midgets, supermodifieds and sprintcars certainly livened up the Australasian Speedway scene!