Perhaps it's the seatbelts in David Bailey's Mini Stock that have brought him such good fortune racing his Mustang this year.

The 30-year old Hagersville resident has been on a tear at Flamboro Speedway, where he presently leads the division's points race. He has also not finished out of the top 10 in the same division at Ohsweken Speedway.

While he has only raced a few years, Bailey has long been involved with motorsport, since selling racing papers at the tracks in his early teens. He also did some crew duty in the ASA (American Speed Association) and NASCAR's Busch series, along with some pit crew work in CASCAR on this side of the border.

While working in North Carolina in the late 1990s, Bailey would occasionally meet up with fellow ex-Canadian Randy Slack, who went to work for Roush Racing after driving Mini Stocks in Ontario and learning his trade with local engine and car builders such as Dale Stroud and Fred Smith.

Earlier this year, Bailey heard from Slack. "He said I had a present coming," said Bailey. "And when I got the package, it was a set of belts from Matt Kenseth's Cup car. The teams there only use them for a couple of races. There's nothing wrong with them, and they look pretty impressive in my car."

The six-point Willans harness setup in the Bailey car almost looks out of place, as it is usually found in F1 or Cup cars, but Bailey's success on the tracks is not looking out of place this year.

With six feature wins at Flamboro, Bailey's car, along with three other top runners, were recently inspected, and his Mustang was the only legal car in the bunch. Bailey did say he has a technique to get around the track faster than others.

"I try to pass on the outside," he stated. "I learned in karting that you don't loose your momentum, so I try to maintain a speed as fast as possible. And you have to be smooth."

And Bailey is just as smooth on the dirt track of Ohsweken as he is on the Flamboro pavement.

"Driving on dirt is a ton of fun," he said. You don't lift. That's the best part."

Bailey said his 1989 Mustang, which is standard fare for the division, has a 90-horsepower four-cylinder engine, and he added he uses the same rear end gear and engine speed range for both track surfaces.

One of the feature wins at Flamboro came after only a marathon session in the garage rebuilding a messed-up race car.

Running in a heat race at Ohsweken on the Friday night, he got clobbered and spent most of the Saturday repairing the car before hitching up the car behind his Jeep and heading off to Flamboro.

"The car got bent up bad," he said. "The front was bent eight to 10 inches. We spent about eight hours with the hammers and the sawzall getting the car ready. And then we won the feature at Flamboro that night."

Bailey, who drives with a very cool demeanor using as much of the track as he needs to, is one of the best examples of a driver who races with his head rather than his right foot. He rarely gets in trouble on the track with other cars, and he picks his times to pass, cleanly overtaking other cars.

He would like to get into a quicker class some day. "I'd like to stay on the pavement," he mentioned. "I know a dirt car is cheaper than asphalt, and a dirt Sportsman may be the way to go. If I had the money I'd love to get into something bigger."

But for now, Bailey and his white Mustang will be a force on the local ovals.

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Bits and Pieces ... The ninth annual Don Biederman Memorial race was held last weekend at Cayuga Speedway, and in a terrific twist of irony, the late Biederman's fiercest adversary, Junior Hanley, drove the restored Biederman Late Model in some pre-race parade laps.

Raceline Radio, which is on Hamilton's 900 CHML Sundays at 8:05 pm, will not only feature a wrap-up of the Steelback Grand Prix in Toronto on the new show, Erik Tomas will be interviewing Sprint Car superstar Danny Lasoski about his upcoming trip to Ohsweken Speedway for the first World of Outlaws race in Canada in more than 25 years.

Hamilton Spectator