Qui Me Comitat Vincebit
PHOENIX PARK MOTOR RACES
Celebrating the 75th
Anniversary of the first Irish Grand Prix
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picture by Gerard Hanley (ghanley26@eircom.net)
If anyone can tell me how to make my pictures show now I am using XP and Office 2000 I would be grateful!
With Trisha Pilkington away touring and racing
around Europe, some of us were given a taste of the organisational aggro that
she probably has to put up with every day!
This was mostly to do with a change of
ferry company and then having to alter hotel arrangements. Actually, it wasn’t a problem for anyone but
yours truly, who had to attune to the vagaries of e-mail and typing.
Anyway, many thanks to Dimity Powell of Irish Motorsport, who was doing most of the work over there and whose name we saw quite a lot in our in-box.
We were due to leave on Thursday morning, and by Wednesday no ferry booking reference had arrived – of course we needn’t have worried. As we arrived at ticket control, I said I was going to the same place as the chap in front (Geoff Stamper in his 3 litre Bentley). The ticket man looked at my Alfa, said “nice car” and waved me on. Could this happen in DOVER, I wonder? But I’m ahead of myself. Jackie and I (Peter Shaw) met up with Barry and Helen Cannell with their Alfa near Nottingham and had a fairly easy drive to Chester where we put our hood down. This, of course, ensured that we were thoroughly soaked by the time we reached Holyhead. Soon arriving were Peter and Anna Mann with their Monza, which I was pleased to see as I’d been involved with the pre-race fettling (something I thought I’d given up).
Next was Dave White looking soaked to the skin, with a Bugatti 35T. He greeted us with “hoods are for wimps” type comments and we were jolly impressed until we realised he’d trailered the car and only driven the last nine yards! Then, just before they raised the gangplank, came Julian Majzub – SSK Mercedes 7.1 litres – very thin head gasket. He’d driven it over with a dodgy engine so had kept it down to 80 mph (about 1000revs, I suppose) in company with Ewen Getley with his 3-41/2 Bentley.
The Irish Sea was like a millpond (whatever that is) – this couldn’t be right – isn’t the stretch of water to Dublin the roughest anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Ah Dublin! Fair city, etc. Well, docks and traffic jams and rush hour as we made our way to the hotel just up the coast. Here, we met up with the Pilks, Paul Grist and Colin and Tina Warrington. Just before midnight, Julia de Baldanza arrived, having trailered the 1750 Alfa and just missed the boat only to be transferred via sea-cat.
Friday was a free day with scrutineering set for 5 til 9pm. This meant we had to organise ourselves which turned out to be very difficult! After at least an hour of discussion in the hotel carpark we all decided to tackle the problem in different ways! We drove the Alfa to Phoenix Park several miles away where Chris and Sandy Wilson with the Big Red Lorry had already arrived. He seemed to have disgorged another 20 Alfa Romeos, this, of course, to counteract the sea of green which was to be more Bentleys than should be allowed out together.
Colin, Tina, Paul, Jackie and I decided to stroll down the main straight towards town and see if we could hail a cab. The road was lined with magnificent trees and there were real gas lamps protected by round straw bales. The marshals would eventually live in strategically placed builders’ skips. Armco? Safety?…. We hailed one cab who refused to take five people but soon a smaller cab arrived who assured us that five wasn’t a problem so in we piled. 3 heads in the paddock, if you get my drift. I said, that’s nothing – there are 22 of my bonnet catches here! We didn’t ask Paul G anything. This is all sounding like an Alfa section report but I am biased. Anyhow the parade The driver said he’d just brought from the airport a girl with red hair -–oh, Alex Pilkington, we said! Lunch was most pleasant – best meal we had. TOPS members like their food and drink but there was little talk of great meals.
I’d asked Colin Warrington to drive my car in
the races but had somehow forgotten to tell anybody – there’s always one, I
hear you cry – but, as a friend of mine used to say, where’s the fun if you
can’t blag your way in for free?
Anyway, it’s Ireland and they are all very laid back and delighted that
we are there. We were scrutineered
under one number, ran in the race with another and had a transponder from
another class altogether, which made for some amusement!
Back in the paddock, I saw Bill Ainscough’s 26M Maserati, the ex Birkin/Whitney Straight car and just for a minute I really wanted mine back. Then I remembered about the way it boiled one minute after starting-up. I introduced myself to Bill and we chatted about this problem of overheating. I expect he wishes I hadn’t, because I believe he had trouble in that department just getting to the assembly area.
Another arrival was Nick Rossi with his 1750 sporting newly rebuilt engine. This car is too fast !!!
The tally of Alfas rose to 10 by midnight on Friday with the arrival of Jim Stokes (looking pretty worn-out) with Roger Saul’s P3. This is the ex Rodney Felton/John Llewellyn car now sporting a new 2-seater body section. It has had an extensive rebuild and, a week before the event, was a chassis with axles attached.
Saturday morning was warm, cold, cloudy, raining and bright in any order you like. Our practice was delayed to clear deer from the track. Someone said they used a stun gun, which seems excessive, but deer are one of the animals you should not run into with a car. The mess is dreadful.
Most people had signed-on on Friday but those who hadn’t were given their envelopes of instructions with the words – “these include an invitation to last night’s drinks party”!
Tina and Jackie had been persuaded to organise a TOPS buffet lunch for both days, which everyone enjoyed and which was obviously gauged to perfection as, by Sunday evening there was really nothing left. A big thankyou to them.
Race One was a bit of a walkover for Roger Saul, who led from start to finish. Second was Richard Pilkington in the Monza and Ewen Getley was third in his Bentley. Rossi and Mann were having a good tussle, Peter trying out the Monza for the first time.
Julian’s SSK Mercedes completed 5 laps. He was worried about the head gasket but he did give us the delight of the blower being engaged as he passed the start/finish line. Unfortunately the head gasket expired during Sunday’s race giving a fair impression of an exploding steam car. Paul Grist’s 1750, which ran in the 1929 Irish GP, was having strange fuel-starvation problems and had started last but managed to overtake about 10 people on the grass as the flag dropped. Everyone else had a good steady run and I was pleased my car could be driven back to the hotel. There was some confusion about the length of the race. We were told that it would probably be eight laps but it could be ten – a delightful way of carrying-on.
The TOPS people were interspersed with some of the aforementioned Bentleys and the amazing Tom Delaney in one of his Lea Francis. He is 93 or so now and came home in the middle of the field – his father raced in the 1903 Paris Madrid and Tom was certainly at Phoenix Park to see Richard Pilk’s 1750 win the 1st Irish GP in 1929.
Sunday was much brighter and afforded a more leisurely start from the hotel. Julia asked a few of us to listen to the knock in her engine, which, we informed her, was the supercharger rotors hitting each other! Sadly, this malady is not self-healing, so that was the end of her runs for the day. Ewen’s Bentley had also acquired the misfiring syndrome and he was off in search of a new coil – looking at the race results later, I don’t think he cured the problem.
Eleven cars were listed for the demonstration run including Michael and Andy Johnson in their 1750 Alfa. They had driven down from Belfast, running-in their new cylinder head. Jim Stokes had was supposed to be for helmet and overall wearing drivers with no passengers but this turned into no helmets, wear what you like and take a passenger and oh about 20 other cars. It was run behind a pace car at a fairly good pace with no overtaking !!
Race 2 was much of a repeat of Race 1 except that third place was taken by Nick Rossi (big wings and a trolley jack for ballast next time, please!). Mind you, the race was red-flagged after 5 laps due to the chicane having been altered by the Maserati nudging the bollards. As this was being rectified the deer came back to see what was going on and I expect there was a call for marksmen or something. Stephen Curtis ran quietly round in the middle of the field in his Talbot 105 and Chris Wilson – TOPS and HGPCA Trucker of the Year – had a good run in Trisha’s 1929 winning car along with my car and the Bugatti 35T.
7am on Monday saw a few of us beating the traffic to the docks for the journey home. Altogether a fun weekend, very low key and very friendly people. Perhaps a line to thank the organisers wouldn’t go amiss. After all the gestapo-like features of some other race circuits we all moan about, a reliving of the motorsport of 50 years ago needs preserving.
P.S.
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