A fully-qualified big guy

Benjamin Bailly has taken less than a month to race his way into the ranks of the world’s best karting drivers – the sort who can win at the very highest level. The young Belgian coolly took the KF1 honours at Sarno, near Naples. In the first race of the Italian Open Masters, the highest-profile of the national championships in Europe. His brother Sébastien also showed his mettle with an impressive fight-back to finish 5th in the KF3 (Junior).

Benjamin Bailly is making an extraordinary start to the season. “My 4th place in the famous Andrea Margutti Trophy at the beginning of March really fired up my motivation. The fact that one of the biggest karting works had enough faith to put me in its official team was very important for me. I don’t want to let my team down, so I do everything I can to give myself every chance of achieving the best possible results”. Intent on improving in every way, the young driver always listens carefully to his team mates. And at the tender age of 16, he certainly made it count over a weekend that started awkwardly on 24 and 25 March. “At Sarno the weather forecast was very variable,” said the Kosmic-Vortex driver. “In the rain the drivers running Vega’s tyres did a lot better than drivers like me who were running Dunlops. So I had to make do with the 18th fastest time”. He made the best of the heats to improve his position, managing to finish one of them in 2nd place. That enabled him to start Race 1 from the 4th inside marker. “I immediately felt that I had a really great machine in my hands. Olivier Maréchal’s preparation work on the new Vortex engines is still paying off handsomely. I really enjoyed overtaking some of the big guys like Cesetti, Calado and Croxford before I set my sights on the leader, Gary Catt. First of all I analysed his behaviour and his weak spots. Then I decided to take him on the bendy stretch rather than on the straight so that I could squeeze him onto the outside and get a few extra metres on the acceleration”. A few laps later, victory was his for the taking. Having achieved success with such aplomb and intelligence, Benjamin Bailly was all keyed up to defend his leading position in Race 2. Unfortunately the rain came back and mucked up his plans. “But the team and I still managed to find a way of making some compromise adjustments. I scored among the best times of the drivers running Dunlops. I was battling for 6th place with Cesetti et Davide when I came off the track and did a 360° in the grass. I got back on but only in 15th place.” But he left Italy knowing for sure that he had done a good job. “With one win under my belt and 2nd place in the Open Masters provisional ranking, I’ve already achieved more than I was aiming for. It bodes well for what comes next…”

Thanks
After the excellent results they scored at Sarno, Benjamin et Sébastien Bailly had some special words of thanks for the people who enable them to climb so high. They’re keen to express their thanks to Roberto Robazzi for the confidence he has shown in them for 2007, to their mechanics Guy De Nies (Benjamin) et Philippe Xhonneux (Sébastien) for their great work and to the Kosmic team manager Olivier Maréchal. Not only is he constantly striving to improve the equipment, Olivier Maréchal is also actively involved in making sure that the racing careers of the drivers stay firmly on course.

Sébastien in the top 5
They say that happiness never comes alone. And sure enough the Bailly family also had the pleasure of seeing a great performance from Benjamin’s younger brother Sébastien at the opening of the Italian Open Masters. He was already fired up by the 2nd place he scored two weeks earlier at the Belgian championships in Genk (on the track where the semi-final of the European championship will be held). And at Sarno, the KF3 (ex Junior) driver fought back to secure 5th place in Race 2. “Our category had to handle a track that was soaked for almost all the races. But I quickly felt okay with the conditions. I pulled myself up to 5th and 6th places in the heats but a flooded spark plug in one of the others meant I had to go through repechage to qualify. I managed to win that one by more than six seconds”. From 29th place on the starting grid, the young man from Liege put on a sparkling display of overtaking. After finishing 15th he kept up the pressure in Race 2. Sébastien’s maturity is racing ahead and he proved it by crossing the line in 5th place. It was a high-flying performance and Sébastien is already keen to follow it up at his next events.