Kerry’s interest in racing was born in the days of Jack Brabham winning world titles in the 1960s, which fuelled his dream of one day competing.

The Huonville racing community was very active in the late 60s and 70s and had a significant influence on Kerry's interest in the sport, much to his father’s disgust, who said it was waste of money, but Kerry had other ideas.

After searching on the mainland for a suitable car, he finally found it a few km down the road.  Originally owned by Greg Rumney and bought on the advice of Darryl Wilcox (who probably came to rue the day that he encouraged Kerry to join the competition), he started racing on February 6, 1977 in a Torana XU1 – and with a win and a 2nd place under his belt, he was addicted.

From his early days in the XU1, Kerry proved to be the yardstick for the six cylinder Holden competitors taking out the inaugural six cylinder championship and amassing a total of six state championships – five of which were in the trusty Torana.

Although these were not his biggest victories in the sport, they were significant, in that it demonstrated his potential for future success.

Kerry dominated the local sports sedan scene for several years in a car that proved to be reliable, albeit heavier than many of vehicles competing against him.

In 1989 Kerry undertook the challenge of building a sports sedan that would be competitive on a national level with the best sports sedans racing in Australia at the time.

The result was the Toyota Supra Chevrolet, which after a season of gradual development in 1991, Kerry and the Supra won the Australian Sports Sedan Championship in 1992 and 1993.

The next three years resulted in a third and second in the championship, before once again the Supra topped the podium, taking the championship again in 1997.

After a 3rd and 2nd in subsequent years, the Supra came to the end of its highly successful life.

With experience came wisdom and what was required to win, and in 2000, Kerry Baily appeared at Oran Park in a new Nissan 300ZX Chevrolet, resulting in a pole position and three wins on debut.

This led to Kerry’s third Australian title that year, followed by another in 2003.

 The following eight years proved to be lean pickings for Kerry, with a second and two thirds in the title, before he got his hands on a stunning Aston Martin DBR9 Chevrolet, based on a GT1 class car.

The carbon fibre body was created from a 1:18 scale model and it’s fair to say that the only original Aston Martin parts on the car were the front and rear badges.  

It proved to be a potent weapon and a credit to its builders, with pole position and three wins on debut at Malalla in South Australia.

The car dominated the early races of the 2012 sports sedan series, to give Kerry a commanding lead resulting in his sixth and final Australian sports sedan championship.

While leading the 2013 championship the Aston was pinged for noise at Philip Island which destroyed any hope of another title.

That effectively ended Kerry’s dominant role in Australian sport sedan racing

While most of Kerry’s career involved sports sedans, he co-drove touring cars at Bathurst and Sandown on nine occasions with a best Bathurst result of 11th place.

 Written by Dennis Burgess