Impressive young Palmerston North driver Ryan Bailey will be back behind the wheel of a MINI Challenge car this weekend, contesting the inaugural Altherm 1000 endurance race at the new Hampton Downs circuit with Auckland driver James Kirkpatrick.

Bailey, 21, who with Team Kiwi teammate Matthew Hamilton dominated the 2009/10 New Zealand MINI Challenge championship, is one of a number of top level national class competitors who have entered the four-hour Altherm endurance event.

He's bullish about where he and experienced MINI campaigner Kirkpatrick can finish to.

"Top 10 would be nice, and I think it's definitely possible, particularly if it rains. I know there are a lot of other bigger, quicker cars entered but we've got a good little car and one of the best teams in the country running us."

It was a case of 'close but no cigar' for young Auckland-based Palmerston North racing driver Ryan Bailey at the final round of the 2009/10 MINI Challenge in Taupo over the weekend.

After leading the championship title chase all season the 21-year-old kart-turned-car-racer was literally pipped at the post by his TKR teammate Matt Hamilton, the latter qualifying quickest and winning two of the three races to take the 2009/10 title from Bailey by 16 points.

On-going issues with his car's ABS braking system, ironically eventually sorted out this weekend, have blighted Bailey's campaign since the second round and they again had him on the back foot in testing on Friday and qualifying on Saturday - where he could only manage the sixth fastest lap time.

Desperate measures overnight - where the car's braking system was completely stripped and re-built - helped, allowing Bailey to work his way from sixth to fourth in the first race and sixth to third in the second.

They'll be nothing left 'on the park' when long-time New Zealand MINI Challenge points leader Ryan Bailey crosses the finish line in the last race at the final round of this season's championship at Taupo on Sunday.

"All or nothing, that's the plan," the 21-year-old kart-turned-rising-car-star said this morning as he heads into the weekend locked in a battle for the 2009/10 title with Team Kiwi Racing teammate Matthew Hamilton.

Bailey - who has won three of the five series rounds so far - was set to tie up the 2009/10 title at the penultimate round at his home track, Manfeild, last month only to be slowed in the crucial final race by a problem with his car's ABS brake system, allowing Hamilton to whittle down his points advantage to just 13 points.

That means the title fight could well go down to the final race at Taupo this weekend, a prospect Bailey has been readying himself for the past month.

Team Kiwi Racing’s Matthew Hamilton set a storming pace in MINI Challenge when
the series visited the historic Teretonga Park circuit near Invercargill last weekend.

The former kart racing champion and Toyota Racing Series ace won all three of the MINI Challenge races, earning plaudits from team boss David John who said that Hamilton had done his chances of running in TKR’s proposed V8 Supercar development series programme this year “no harm at all.’’

By contrast, Hamilton’s team mate Ryan Bailey had an unusually low key meeting as he battled a virus and a mysterious lack of horsepower that cost him as much as five car lengths on the long straight at Teretonga.

In the battle for top privateer, David Grigor emerged on top, taking two second places on his way to second overall for the weekend.