Craig Baird: Titles From Karts to Porsche Cup Racing

New Zealand's Craig Baird spent a long career chasing titles in single-seaters, touring cars, sports cars and Porsches. He raced in V8 Supercars from 2000 to 2016, and he is regarded as one of his country's most successful drivers. Since leaving full-time competition he has worked in an official role, observing driving standards for the Supercars Championship. His racing also took him to Britain, South Africa, America and Argentina, which is why his record spans so many championships.

How did Baird start his racing life?

Baird began karting in 1974 at the age of four and won four New Zealand karting titles along with two Asia-Pacific championships. He moved into cars in 1985 in the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship. After two seasons of moderate success, the breakthrough came with his first title in the 1987-88 season.

He then graduated to the New Zealand Formula Pacific Championship the season after. After a respectable first full season, he ran a part-time programme the following year and won three of his four starts. The next year he took the championship, the Motorsport New Zealand Gold Star and the New Zealand Grand Prix, all in a Swift DB4-Toyota.

The early 1990s brought more of the same. In 1992 and 1993 he dominated the Formula Pacific championship again, won the Gold Star both years and took two further New Zealand Grand Prix victories. That made three wins in the race in total, which puts him level at the top of that race's all-time list for a single driver.

He also tried racing overseas. In 1992 he competed in the British Formula Two Championship with Graham Lorrimer Motorsport and finished tenth overall with only nine points. He made select Formula Atlantic appearances in America in 1990 and 1993, where mechanical problems interrupted his runs. He also entered the World Cup Formula 3000 race in Buenos Aires and retired after 40 laps.

A driver who collected titles in karts, single-seaters, touring cars and Porsches, and who now watches over driving standards for others.

How did his touring car years in New Zealand and South Africa go?

Baird moved from single-seaters to touring cars in 1994, when he drove for BMW Motorsport New Zealand in the New Zealand Touring Car Championship and won the title on debut. He retained it for the next three seasons, giving him four consecutive championships from 1994 to 1997.

In 1996 he also raced in South Africa with BMW's works squad, collecting three podiums and finishing eighth overall for the season. In 1997 he took part in only some rounds of the Australian Super Touring Championship, driving for BMW Motorsport Australia.

Later that year he teamed up with Paul Morris for the AMP Bathurst 1000. The pairing started from pole position and Baird took the car to provisional victory. The team had broken the regulation that limited any one driver to three hours of continuous driving, however, and was disqualified from the overall result.

Why did his British Touring Car Championship season struggle?

Baird signed a two-year deal with West Surrey Racing to race a Ford Mondeo in the British Touring Car Championship from 1998. The car was uncompetitive for much of that year, mainly because of poor balance and extra engine weight, and his best result was sixth in the rain at Snetterton.

The Mondeo had shown promise in pre-season testing at Donington in the previous year's car, but the newer version did not carry that promise through. It tended to excel in wet weather, and Baird led a race at Knockhill. He kept changing his driving style in search of improvements, yet results stayed thin for the whole campaign.

The team owner, Dick Bennetts, was already familiar with him from earlier Formula 3 testing. The campaign was also interrupted in select rounds by an arrangement linked to the 1992 Formula One world champion Nigel Mansell. When West Surrey lost the Ford contract for 1999, Baird left Europe and returned to New Zealand, and the British chapter closed.

How did his V8 Supercars career unfold?

His first V8 Supercars race came in the 1997 Primus 1000 Classic, where he partnered Steven Johnson at Dick Johnson Racing and finished fourth, three laps down.

Baird made his championship debut in the 1999 Queensland 500 as co-driver to Jason Bright at Stone Brothers Racing. That run earned him a two-year full-time contract from 2000, and he won the second race of that season's opening round at Phillip Island. The Queensland 500 pairing had put their Ford Falcon on pole and were comfortably on course for victory before mechanical issues forced them out after 111 laps. Bright then left for the United States to race in Indy Lights, which created the vacancy at Stone Brothers Racing that Baird filled.

At Phillip Island he started ninth on the grid and won by four seconds from Garth Tander. That proved to be the last podium of his V8 Supercars career. He struggled for results for the rest of 2000 and was sacked mid-contract at the end of the year, leaving him without a full-time drive for 2001.

In 2001 he partnered John Faulkner at the Queensland 500, and at Bathurst he drove with Mark Noske in a Budweiser-sponsored Prancing Horse Racing entry. That team struggled for pace, and its car retired 27 laps into the Bathurst 1000 after Noske collided with Craig Lowndes at Forrest's Elbow.

He returned to the series full-time in 2002 with Rod Nash Racing, which ran under the Team Brock banner. He partnered Peter Brock at Bathurst, but the pair lacked pace and suffered mechanical problems, finishing 23rd and 25 laps down. In 2003 he moved to Team Kiwi Racing, whose resources were limited, and in 2004 he took a handful of top-ten finishes through racecraft despite a lack of pace, with a surprise pole position at Winton as the season's highlight.

In 2005 he joined WPS Racing in a Ford. The most memorable moment that season came at the final race at Pukekohe Park Raceway. Rain began to fall at the end of lap 31 and caught several drivers out, and Paul Dumbrell spun Baird into the wooden paddock fence that was part of the horse racing track. The damage brought out an extended red flag, and WPS later replaced both Baird and teammate David Besnard with Jason Bargwanna and the Brazilian driver Max Wilson. That ended his time as a full-time driver in the category.

From 2006 he stayed on for endurance events with WPS Racing, partnering Jason Bargwanna, and the pair had good results at the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000. He also deputised for the injured Paul Radisich at a Tasmanian round for Team Kiwi Racing. After that his V8 Supercars work was limited to endurance co-driving for teams including the Holden Racing Team, HSV Dealer Team, Stone Brothers Racing and Erebus Motorsport.

His last race in the category came in the 2016 endurance events, when he finished 20th in the second race at Surfers Paradise alongside David Reynolds.

What did he win in New Zealand's V8 and sports car series?

From 2008 Baird ran a full-time programme with Pedersen Sheehan Racing in New Zealand's V8 series, which he combined with Porsche racing at home. He finished third overall that season with four wins. He won the title over John McIntyre, but McIntyre took it back the following season, with Baird narrowly missing out after trouble in the final rounds.

He also took part in the inaugural running of the V8SuperTourer series with PSR Racing. At Ruapuna he collected two podiums in the sprint championship and a third place in the endurance round, and he came back the following year with comparable results. In 2014-15 he drove in the TL class for Team Kiwi Racing on a limited programme of six starts, with two wins and seventh place in the final standings. In 2015-16 he was back with the same team in Class One and recorded two wins, at Taupo and Pukekohe.

Sports car racing ran alongside his touring car work. At the end of 1997 he competed in the TraNZam Championship Series. The series used Trans-Am cars and ran across New Zealand over the summer, from late 1997 into early 1998, and he finished second overall to series champion Shane Drake. He was second again after his 1998 return, and on his third attempt he won the 1999-2000 championship.

He also made one-off appearances in several international sports car championships. In 1998 he drove in the United States Road Racing Championship for Storm Racing in the GT category, and in 2000 he raced in the Trans-Am Series for Alan Ferguson Racing. In 2001 he competed in the Australian Nations Cup Championship for Prancing Horse Racing and collected a number of podiums.

How did his Porsche career and honours develop?

Baird first raced Porsche machinery in the 2003 GT3 Cup Trans-Tasman, held over the summer break at the end of that year. He was a consistent front-runner and finished third overall. He then made his Australian Carrera Cup debut in 2004 for Team VIP Petfoods, while still racing in V8 Supercars.

After his full-time V8 Supercars career ended, he committed to the Australian Carrera Cup Championship. He took nine wins from 24 races and won the overall title ahead of Alex Davison. In total he won five Australian Carrera Cup titles and six New Zealand Porsche GT3 Championship titles, and Porsche Germany recognised him as the most successful Porsche Cup driver in the world.

The 2010 New Year Honours list recognised him with membership of the New Zealand Order of Merit, citing his services to motorsport. He has since been appointed to the Motorsport New Zealand board, and he now works as driving standards observer for the Supercars Championship.

Career summary by category

Baird's record spans single-seaters, touring cars, sports cars and Porsche racing, which is why he is regarded as one of New Zealand's most successful drivers.