Mark Baker has been working in automotive PR and communications for more than two decades. For much longer than that he has been a motorsport journalist, photographer and competitor, witness to most of the most exciting and significant motorsport trends and events of the mid-late 20th Century. His earliest memories of motorsport were trips to races at Ohakea in the early 1960s, and later of annual summer pilgrimages to watch Shellsport racers and Mini 7s at Bay Park and winter sorties into forests around Kawerau and Rotorua to see the likes of Russell Brookes, Ari Vatanen and Mike Marshall ply their trade in group 4 Escorts. Together with Murray Taylor and TV producer/director Dave Hedge he has been responsible for helping to build New Zealand’s unique Toyota Racing Series into a globally recognized event brand under category managers Barrie and Louise Thomlinson. Now working for a variety of automotive and mainstream commercial clients, Mark has a unique perspective on recent motor racing history and the future career paths of our best and brightest young racers.

Latest Posts:

Mind games are the best games…aren’t they?

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The gloves are off, the jokes have an edge to them, and the wind is faintly overlaid with the reek…

Hartley was right, it’s not over till it’s over

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He teased us, cryptically, with the Twitter post. “Little blog to sign off last year. My 2019 calendar is filling…

A slick performance

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It’s hot. It’s dusty. The wind is blowing the cars around, making it hard to line up a clean piece…

Always finish what you start

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Too quick by half, a tad hungry and the Corner That Eats Cars has another victim. It’s not overstating the…

Armstrong in control at Toyota Racing Series midpoint

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Christchurch teen race driver Marcus Armstrong has taken a 5-point lead in the 2019 Castrol Toyota Racing Series. After two…

Just for the record

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A lap record is a nice thing. A sweet lolly of affirmation that says ‘this driver knows their stuff, and…

Armstrong joins the winner’s list at Teretonga

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With two rounds and four races locked away, Christchurch driver Marcus Armstrong has clawed his way back to the front…

Marcus Armstrong joins the winner’s list at Teretonga

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Christchurch driver Marcus Armstrong has won the first race at round two of the 2019 Castrol Toyota Racing Series, maintaining…

Going back to the future – slowly

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The slow rise of TCR is seen by many as a death knell for the current V8 category. Others look…

Remembering Dorothy

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She was pretty cool. For so many years, the sight of this diminutive lady in the paddock was a sure…