`Hold it with the bicycle please, hold it there." Please, the Porsches were going through and the stewards were trying to clear the entrance.
Here the car is king. Once a year in the Phoenix Park, motorists meet to admire engines, acceleration speeds and alloys (that's wheels). Jacky Breathnach, administrator with the Royal Irish Automobile Club, explains the anonymous nature of the gathering. "The cars are more glamorous than the people," she says. "It's because the drivers are wearing helmets and suits, they could be anybody."
David Dunn, a car restorer from Monkstown, Co Dublin, may not be wearing a helmet but he's got a little black beret sloping rakishly over one ear. He sits in his green 1929 Bentley. Tony Colley, a graphic designer from Clondalkin, sits proudly in the passenger seat, shouting over the exhaust belches.
"It's got a four and a half litre engine," says Tony. They rev past, out the gate and along the track, accelerating up to 95 mph.
Kieran White, a pharmacist from Kilkenny, is in his silver grey 1938 TRS - a Thompson Racing Special to you. His son, Michael (14) is squeezed in beside him for the ride. Robert Bissett, from Coolock, the proud owner of a silver Mazda MX5, his first time at these long-standing races, has just done four laps around the parade track.
It's not all parading and showing off, though. Michelle Graham is there to race in the Italian saloon class. She's the only woman racing in this class. Her boyfriend, Leo Nulty, another amateur racing enthusiast from Dundrum, is there to support her. "She's as mad as a brush," he says, helpfully.