Brad competed in rounds 7 & 8 of the Ginetta Junior Championship at the weekend. Struggling with set-up, Brad qualified down in 19th place for both races. Sunday proved the better race with Brad finishing 4 places ahead of his grid position in 15th.

Brad next competes at Croft in rounds 9 & 10 - part of the track will be familiar to him as this is the track where he clinched his 2009 Junior Rallycross Championship Title.

The Brad Bailey Racing Team made the journey from Thruxton on Easter Sunday night to compete in the second round of the BTRDA Junior Rallycross Championship at Lydden Hill.

The event at Lydden was a 2 day event which meant Brad had already missed practice and 1st heats while at the Ginetta Junior opener at Thruxton.  Junior Rallycross heat 2 was the first race on Easter Monday so Brad had to be in good form to take the grid without even a single practice lap. Brad needed two times to qualify for the A final, and so had no room for error.

As in round 1 Brad was briefly challenged by Paige Bellerby in both heats, but Brad was patient and took victories in both heats, setting himself up for pole position for the A final.  Again Paige put up a good fight, but Brad’s experience shone through to see him win the A final by over 5 seconds, despite a problematic clutch.

Brad now leads the championship by 6 points having won rounds 1 and 2, but won’t be completing in the next round at Knockhill as this clashes with the Ginetta Championship event at Rockingham. Brad will be back in Junior Rallycross action at Blyton on 9th May.

The 2009 MSA British Rallycross Awards dinner, held at Sutton Coalfield on 30th January 2010, was attended by over 230 guests. Nicky Grist was on hand to help present the awards to championship winners, and Brad collected his trophy after sealing the 2009 MSA British Junior Rallycross Championship in his first full season.

At the awards, Brad was asked about his plans for the future, and chose the occasion to announce that he wouldn’t be defending his Rallycross title, but that he would be concentrating on a new challange by making the switch to Ginetta Juniors. Brad did however reveal that he would compete in some Rallycross events, but clashes in dates prevented him from being able to attend enough meetings to defend his title in full.

Brad Bailey and his 2009 double Championship and 2009 Junior Rallycross Superprix winning car will be at the Autosport International Racing Car Show which takes place at the Birmingham NEC on 14-17 January 2010.  Brad’s car will be on the PSM Motorsport Ltd / Fuchs Open Rallycross Championship stand for all 4 days of the show.

Brad and his car will be on stand 7530 in Hall 7 at the show. Brad, as 2009 Junior Open Rallycross Champion,  will be representing the 2010 Fuchs Rallycross Open Championship alongside ‘Mad Mark’ Watson, the 2007 & 2008 Division 1 Rallycross Open Champion, with his Citroen Xsara, and the RX150 Open Champion Andy Scott.

Brad received his 2009 Open Junior Rallycross Championship trophy at the awards dinner on Saturday 28th Novmber 2009. The awards were presented to class Champions at the event held at The Best Western Rippon Spa Hotel.  Further pictures from the evening can be found atthe following links

Pictures1

and

Pictures2.

Brad added a further Championship title at the final round at Croft on 31 October 2009. In a mature drive, Brad let a determined Quinn through on the penultimate lap of the A final to secure a safe second place. This gave Brad more than enough points to beat Championship rival Keifer Hudson to the Open Junior Rallycross title.

Going into the final round with a 7 point lead, Brad was always favourite to take the title, but with a maximum 24 points on offer nothing was guaranteed. Brad got off to a good start by setting fastest lap in an unusual timed practice session, beating Simon Quinn by half a second and Keifer Hudson by a full second. This secured Brad a point towards the Championship.  He added a further point by winning the first heat, but in the second heat clipped the types at the hairpin on the last corner of the last lap, handing victory to title rival Hudson. Brad broke a draft shaft and bent the steering arm in the incident, which fortunately were replaced in time for the A final.

Hudson gained a point for his victory in the 2nd heat and also inherited pole position, giving him a further point.  Going into the A final then, the title rivals had 2 points each and the gap of 7 points in the title positions remained unchanged.  Brad had to secure 4th place or better to guarantee Championship honours.

In the A final, Brad led Quinn all the way, with Hudson somewhat a distant 3rd. But Quinn’s pressure was unrelenting, and Brad showed great maturity and composure to let Quinn through in the knowledge that 2nd place guaranteed him a 2nd Championship title this year, adding to the British Junior Rallycross Championship title he secured at Pembrey.

Rounds 6 & 7 of the British Junior Rallycross Championship at Pembrey, sponsored by Bill Gwynne Rallyschool, saw Brad finish 1st and 3rd to put the Championship out of reach of closest rival Simon Quinn.

Although Quinn challenged hard, Brad remained calm and reaped the rewards from a mature and accomplished driving performance.

The British Championship now moves on to the final round at Mallory Park, but accounting for dropped rounds, even a win for Quinn and non finish for Brad will still see Brad crowned Champion in arguably the most coveted Championship out of the 3 that the Juniors compete for. And although technically Brad had sealed the British Junior Rallycross Championship, ironically a protest from Simon Quinn meant that Brad’s engine was also sealed.

Rounds 5 and 6 of the BTRDA Championship were a bit less eventful at Pembrey, with Brad taking the chequered flag first on both days, to give him another armful of trophies and a mass of maximum points.

Following on from his double win at Blyton, Brad took another clean sweep of winners trophies in rounds 6 & 7 of the open championship, at last weekends double header at Pembrey race circuit, in Carmarthenshire, South Wales.

Brad took 47 out of a possible maximum 48 points over the weekend to take the lead from Keifer Hudson at the top of the Open Championship table. The championship is now wide open heading to the final round at Croft in October, where points must count towards the final total.

Open Round 6 - Saturday 25th July 2009

Round 6 on Saturday saw Simon Quinn perform well in the early heats, taking victory in Fuchs Challenge heat 1 and Open championship heat 2. But it was Brad that dominated the rest of the heats winning the other 4 races. Quinn’s day finished in heat 2 of the Fuchs challenge with a blown engine, after having given Brad a large nudge in Heat 2 of the Open Championship.

Having sealed pole for both the Fuchs and Open “A finals” (the Open A final is shown in the video above) Brad won both comfortably ahead of the depleted field.

Open Round 7 - Sunday 26th July 2009

Sunday’s round 7 saw Brad win all the heats that were run, and complete the perfect day by sealing victory in both finals. The Fuchs Challenge proved eventful even with only two cars remaining, as Brad led on the penultimate lap then lost control and spun. He regained track position behind the only other remaining competitor, Paul Barrett, but Barrett himself then lost control for Brad to regain the lead and take the chequered flag, sealing his 5th Fuchs Junior Rallycross Challenge win in only 7 rounds.

The Open Championship A final win, together with victories in all heats saw Brad pick up a maximum 24 points for the round, the first driver to do so this year. The maximum points victory takes Brad into a 7 point lead in the Open Junior Rallycross (Chris Birkbeck Rallyschool) championship, ahead of Keifer Hudson in his newly liveried white 553 mini.

And next…

Attention now turns to the MSA British Championship (BRDA & BTRDA) with round 5 at Lydden circuit “the home of British Rallycross” in Kent, on August 31st bank holiday Monday. There it is expected that Brad will compete again with Hudson and Quinn for winners honours and maximum championship points.

Brad continued to show his class with domination of both the Fuchs and Open Championship events at Blyton Circuit.

Brad took wins in 5 out of 6 heats, securing pole position for both the Fuchs A final and the Open Championship round 5 A final. Brad already enjoyed success last time out at Blyton on 17th May (round 4), where he won both finals on that occasion too.

The finals were a tense close affair, with the Open Championship final in particular providing plenty of controversy, with Brad and championship rival Keifer Hudson having a coming together on the penultimate lap. (A protest from the Hudson camp was lodged, and after careful deliberation the officials decided not to uphold it and classed it as a racing incident - though as always with these things it could have gone either way). Still, on the last lap, Brad had it all to do with Chris Ingram putting in a good drive having taken full advantage of the coming together. With Ingram now leading into the last lap, Brad caught him on the final corner to pip him to the chequered flag.

Brad now closes the gap on Hudson at the top of the Open Championship table, just 5 points adrift of the lead with 3 rounds remaining. See tables here.

Welcome to bradbaileyracing.com the on-line home for news and information on Brad Bailey, a very promising young racing driver from Maldon in Essex.

Brad Bailey is a leading Junior Rallycross Driver competing in all the major Junior Rallycross championships. This new site provides information, news, results and media relating to Brad and his Junior Rallycross endeavours.

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