Former Kenya National Rally Championships female navigator Gillian Bailey will face off with her 15-year-old son Ryan in Round One of her maiden autocross event in Cheita Farm, situated 10km from Nanyuki.
While there have been previous cases of parents and their children competing at the same event including Ruhi and her son Izhaz Mirza, Ryan and Gillian Bailey are believed to be the most fancied mother and son participation. They also competed together during the 2016 karting championships.
The Bailey family contribution and participation in motorsport doesn’t just end there. During the recent autocross awards, Ryan’s father—Paul was named the most dedicated organiser.
Paul is incidentally the 1998 Motor Personality of the Year. “The Bailey Racing Team has acquired a new sponsor this week in Papyrus Africa Ltd to whom they would like to thank most sincerely for the companies sponsorship,” Gillian announced. “I am so excited to make my autocross debut in Nanyuki this weekend but even more exciting as a mother, is the fact that my son will be graduating from bambino to junior non turbo class,” she said.
Like the legendary Ian Duncan in the senior classes, Ryan is no doubt the best young motorsports all- rounder in Kenya. He has competed in Moto X championships previously but quit bikes to concentrate on autocross and karting. Ryan signed up from bambinos in awesome fashion last year, racking up an unprecedented hat-trick of championship titles since he started competing in Auto cross.
