'It's been a great ride'

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Current page

145

Current page

146

Current page

147

Current page

148

Current page

149

Current page

150

Current page

151

Current page

152

Current page

153

Current page

154

Current page

155

Current page

156

Current page

157

Current page

158

Current page

159

Current page

160

Current page

161

Current page

162

Current page

163

Current page

164

Current page

165

Current page

166

Current page

167

Current page

168

Current page

169

Current page

170

Current page

171

Current page

172

Current page

173

Current page

174

Current page

175

Current page

176

Current page

177

Current page

178

Current page

179

Current page

180

A few words this month about Roger Bailey’s remarkable career in racing, which spanned more than half a century until his recent retirement from running the Indy lights series. Bailey grew up in Cambridgeshire and started his career working in a local garage while attending Peterborough Technical College. his first job in racing came in 1959 when he was 18, working on Jim Russell’s cars.

Included on Bailey’s amazing CV as a chief mechanic and engine builder are winning the british F3 Championship with Jackie Stewart in 1964; helping build the Le Mans-winning Ford MKIIs in 1966; spending the years from 1967-69 as Chris Amon’s personal chief mechanic at Ferrari in Formula 1, Sports Cars, Tasman and Can-Am cars; building McLaren’s Can-Am and indycar engines through the early and mid-70s, including the incredible 1100bhp turbo Offies which powered the McLaren M16s with which Peter Revson and Johnny Rutherford qualified on pole at Indianapolis in 1971, ’73 and ’76, and Rutherford used to win the 500 in 1974 and ’76; plus being IMSA’s technical director from 1981-84.

While working for the Cooper F1 team in the ’60s bailey shared a house with Amon, among others, and Chris and he became good friends. After joining Ferrari in 1967 Amon asked Bailey to come to maranello to work on his cars. thus began Bailey’s two and a half years as the first non-Italian race mechanic on the factory Ferrari F1 and sports car teams.

Amon won the Tasman Championship in 1969, and bailey and Amon also campaigned the fearsome ferrari 612 in the Can-Am series in 1969 (above).

“That was probably the most enjoyable time of my 50 years in racing,” Bailey declares. “Those two and a half or three years at Ferrari I think were the best of my racing life, though they weren’t the most successful because we didn’t win an F1 race that whole time. We led a lot of them but Chris and I never won an F1 or Sports Car race together for Ferrari. We were second in the ’67 BOAC 500 with a P4 with Jackie [Stewart], and Chris finished second at Sebring in ’69 with Mario [Andretti].”

After his Ferrari interlude with Amon, bailey spent 10 years with McLaren engines in detroit building big-block Chevrolet Can-Am and turbo-charged Offenhauser Indycar engines, earning the nickname ‘boost’. His work at McLaren ultimately resulted in Bailey becoming IMSA’s Technical Director in 1981. Four years later a pivotal step in Bailey’s career took place when he became the operations boss of a new series, bankrolled by leading CART team owner Pat Patrick, called the American racing series. The ARS became CART’s primary support series and was reborn in 1991 as the firestone indy lights series. bailey ran it for 26 years before reluctantly retiring this spring at an energetic 70 years old.

“It’s been a great ride,” Roger grins. “I wouldn’t change one damn thing. To me the greatest thing of all has been the people. I was very fortunate to be around in the days when there was very little differentiation between mechanics and drivers. We would go to the tip top up the hill at monte Carlo with graham, Jimmy, Trevor, Bruce and Denny, and everybody else would be in there. It was like everybody was part of it. now it’s so deined between the mechanics and owners and drivers.

“I feel very blessed to have been part of that era when it was still fun to go racing. it’s very impersonal now. I think it was much more a team sport with very much more togetherness.

“It’s a different era. the cars are so different and we’ve taken the driver out of the equation. look at F1 qualifying today. So often it’s two McLarens, two Red Bulls, two Mercedes, two Ferraris and so on. There will be some oddball cases thrown in there, but really it’s all about the car. Would Jenson Button have been World Champion last year in Vettel’s car? I think so. But it is what it is.”

Ever the realist, Roger Bailey enjoyed a great career in racing and we salute him for his many contributions to the sport.

Gordon Kirby