Bakkerud began his single-seater career in Formula BMW, competing in the German series from 2002 to 2004 before moving to the British version for the 2004 season.
He progressed to British Formula 3 in 2005, finishing seventh in the championship, and improved to sixth in 2006. His first series win came at Mugello in 2006 while driving for Carlin, and is described as arguably his career highlight. He also participated in the Macau Grand Prix and the Ultimate Masters of Formula Three during this period.
Bakkerud entered the 2007 GP2 Series with the DPR team alongside Andy Soucek, but failed to score any points throughout the season. He suffered back injuries on two separate occasions, trapping nerves while racing. In 2008, he joined Super Nova for the GP2 Asia Series, retiring from all but three races. He continued with Super Nova for the 2008 GP2 Series, but a recurrence of his back injury after a collision with Ben Hanley in the first race led to him being replaced by Soucek. He returned to the cockpit at Monaco after missing the Istanbul round, but crashed at the start of the sprint race, briefly becoming airborne after contact with Kamui Kobayashi. Despite a heavy landing, his back injury did not reappear, but it flared up again following a testing session, causing him to withdraw from the remainder of the season and again being replaced by Soucek.
In 2009, Bakkerud raced in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) driving a two-year-old Audi A4 for Futurecom-TME. He also made his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009, driving an Audi R10 TDI entered by Colin Kolles’s team, finishing ninth overall and in class with Christijan Albers and Giorgio Mondini. He returned to Le Mans in 2010 with the same team and car, but the trio of Bakkerud, Albers and Oliver Jarvis failed to finish.
Bakkerud retired from racing after the 2010 Le Mans race. In the year before his death, he worked as an import manager at a shipping company.
On 10 September 2011, Bakkerud was involved in a fatal car crash at Tibbet's Corner roundabout on Putney Heath, near Wimbledon Common. He died the following day at St George's Hospital from his injuries. He was driving an Audi RS6 at the time of the accident, and a police investigation followed. The car failed to negotiate a left turn at the roundabout, hitting a concrete barrier, becoming airborne, and ultimately coming to rest after impacting a fence separating a bridleway and pedestrian underpass. Following the accident, a large number of flower bouquets were left at the crash site, and police appealed for witnesses. HRT, led by Colin Kolles, paid tribute to Bakkerud by adding a tribute to their cars during the 2011 Singapore Grand Prix weekend, and Lewis Hamilton honoured him by wearing a helmet featuring Bakkerud’s initials.
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