Carson Baird

Carson Baird contested his first car races with a racing version of the MG Midget

Carson Baird (born March 10, 1938 ) is a retired American racing car driver .

Racing career

Carson Baird began his driving career in the first half of the 1960s. He drove his first races on an MG Midget in 1963 in a local division of the SCCA Sports Car Championship. He celebrated his first overall victory in 1966 at a national sports car race in Riverside . Here, too, the emergency car was an MG Midget.

In 1967 he made his debut in the Sebring 12-hour race . Baird was registered on an Austin-Healey Sprite of the Donald Healey Motor Company and finished the race with his partners Roger Enever and Alec Poole in 18th place overall. Between 1967 and 1984 he started eight times in this endurance race. He celebrated his greatest success in 1976 when he and John Gunn finished second overall in a Porsche Carrera RSR . He was similarly successful at the Daytona 24-hour race, where he finished third overall in 1975 and finished on the podium of the top three. His only outing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans was 1982 , when he finished sixth overall.

In 1968 he drove a few races in Formula A , the North American variant of Formula 5000, on a Brabham BT18 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1982	Prancing Horse Farm Racing	Ferrari 512BB LM	Pierre Dieudonné	Jean-Paul Libert	Rank 6

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1967	Donald Healey Motor Co.	Austin-Healey Sprite	Roger Enever	Alec Poole	Rank 18
1975	Armorall Racing Team	Porsche Carrera RSR	Charlie Kemp		failure	accident
1976	Dallas Heyser SL-1	Porsche Carrera RSR	John Gunn		Rank 2
1979	Kemp Motoracing	Ford Cobra II	Charlie Kemp	Kees Nierop	failure	Engine failure
1982	Prancing Horse Farm Racing	Ferrari 512BB / LM	Tom Pumpelly	Chip Mead	failure	malfunction
1984	Alderman Datsun	Datsun 280ZX	George Alderman	Lew Price	Rank 10
1985	Lee Racing	Chevrolet Corvette GTP	Billy Hagan	Terry Labonte	failure	Engine failure
1986	Lee Racing	Chevrolet Corvette GTP	Jim Mullen	Lew Price	failure	Wagon fire

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th
1967	Healey engine	Austin-Healey Sprite	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
				18th
1969	Flem-Cor Ent. Jacques Bienvenue	Chevrolet Camaro Porsche 911	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
			13								DNF
1975	Armor All Racing Consultants	Porsche Carrera RSR	DAY	MUG	DIJ	MON	SPA	BY	ONLY	ZEL	WAT
			3								DNF
1976	Racing Consultants	Porsche Carrera RSR	MUG	VAL	ONLY	MON	SIL	IMO	ONLY	ZEL	BY	WAT	MOS	DIJ	DIJ	SAL
												DNF
1978	Randy Blue	AMC Gremlin	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	SIL	ONLY	LEM	MIS	DAY	WAT	VAL	ROD
												35
1979	Charlie Kemp Joe Armato	Ford Mustang AMC Gremlin AMC Spirit	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	BRH	ROA	VAL	ELS
			44	DNF		10							6th
1982	Farm Racing	Ferrari 512 BB	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	MUG	FUJ	BRH
						6th

Web links

Commons : Carson Baird  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Carson Baird at the Driver Database
• Carson Baird at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sports car race in Riverside 1966
2. ↑ 1975 Daytona 24 Hours