Group C Bailey's career emerged in the late 1970s, becoming a front runner in two-litre touring car racing in
Toyota Celicas, usually driving the car raced the year prior by factory supported Sydney based Toyota racer, Peter Williamson. In
1980 Bailey won the two litre class at the
Bathurst 1000 and finished 12th outright. By 1983 small capacity class touring cars were falling out of favour, and at Bathurst the two litre class was merged into the three litre class. Bailey spent the next few years out of racing himself, although he did co-drive with
Peter McLeod at the
1983 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst in McLeod's
Mazda RX-7 where they finished 5th outright. The race was run as part of the
1983 Australian Endurance Championship, which McLeod would go on to win. Bailey again teamed with McLeod at the
1984 Castrol 500 at
Sandown in
Melbourne, but the RX-7 was retired after just 57 laps. The
1984 James Hardie 1000 wasn't much better for the pair, despite reportedly having the most powerful RX-7 in the field. After a troubled practice, the car was retired with overheating problems on just lap 39.
Group A With the advent of
Group A in Australia for the
1985 season, Bailey considered competing in the open class and together with regular partner Peter McLeod, the pair entered a
Holden Commodore (VK) in the
James Hardie 1000. After a strong run which had seen them rise from 22nd on the grid to the top 10 by mid-morning and into the top 5 by mid race, the near standard Commodore (as they were in 1985) was retired with a broken gearbox on lap 126. In 1986 he sold the Celica and acquired a
Holden VK Commodore SS Group A from the
Roadways Racing team for the
1986 season. Teaming up with
Allan Grice in a Les Small built Commodore, he took the Commodore to Europe to race in the 1986
FIA Touring Car Championship (while also commuting back to Australia to run his business and race a Les Small built Commodore in the
1986 ATCC). Bailey, who readily admitted he was not on the same level of driving as was Grice, struggled in Europe and in both the first and second rounds of the series at
Monza and
Donington Park respectively, he ended the Commodore's race when he spun off into sand traps causing the cars retirement from both races. Budgetary problems saw the team return to Australia earlier than they had hoped, but with renewed confidence, though teamed with
Peter Brock's two car
Holden Dealer Team, the team won the "Kings Cup" prize at the
Spa 24 Hours race on the famous
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium (although Bailey was present, he did not drive). At the
1986 James Hardie 1000, Grice and Bailey dominated the race, finally giving Grice a long deserved Bathurst victory. Bailey only drove the 30 lap lunch time stint during the race, but with Grice in career best form he admitted that was their best chance of victory, though a measure of his progress as a driver was shown when he was able to hold a 5-10 second gap to the HDT Commodore of four time Bathurst winner
Allan Moffat (though Moffat was hampered by a very sore wrist after having crashed the car in qualifying). From there Bailey drove his Bathurst winning Commodore in the Group A support race at the
1986 Australian Grand Prix in
Adelaide, finishing a close 7th behind the
Nissan Skyline DR30 RS of young charger
Glenn Seton (Grice won the race in another Roadways built Commodore). Bailey's career wound down at that point, choosing to concentrate on the successful family business, Chickadee Foods which was sold to Inghams in 2004. Bailey's son briefly raced in
Sports Sedans in the mid-2000s, racing a
Chevrolet powered
Nissan 300ZX. ==Career results==