THE CROWDS turned up in their thousands - 80,000 was the official estimate - at a sun-drenched Phoenix Park yesterday to see world champion-elect, Damon Hill, driving the Renault Spider in demonstration laps.
This was a busman's holiday for Killiney resident Hill, before he competes in the final four Formula One races of the year, starting with next Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix. Away from the pressures of the World Championship chase, Hill was in relaxed and cheerful mood as he mingled with the masses, signing countless autographs and winning new fans.
Wayne Douglas dominated the Formula Opel Championship race, scoring an impressive win over Vivion Daly, while Michael Edgar held off a strong challenge from Derek Cunneely to finish third. Edgar extended his championship lead over Cunneely 93 points to 79.
The Historic Grand Prix cars revived memories of racing days of old, with Burkhard von Schenk reversing Saturday's results by beating Ludovic Lindsay, the two Maserati 250F's of the late 1950s followed by David Morris in his 1936 ERA, who held off the more modern Cooper-Bristols of Allan Miles and Gregor Fisken in a great display of motoring.
Raymond Knox won the Formula Ford final, the last race of a busy day. Following a first-lap pile-up at Dublin corner, which saw Colm Barrable aviating out of the race, the red flag was brought out to stop proceedings. Mark McKenna lost his early lead through a missed gear change, but he was unable to challenge Know and Alan Kelly over the remaining 10 laps.
Formula Vee race winner Philip Kehoe of New Ross was awarded the Driver of The Meeting.
Brian Ward beat Joe Foley to win the Dunlop Touring Car race, and Mark burley (Fiat Uno) and Alan Byrne (Fiat Ritmo) repeated their Saturday race wins.
Racing conditions were ideal on Saturday and a very big crowd turned out to see the much publicised Historic Grand Prix cars in action. And they were not disappointed for there was action galore in the 10-lap race. The lead was swopped several times between Ludovic Lindsay of London and the German driver Burkhard von Schenk in Maserati 250F's, similar to the car that the great Juan Manuel Fangio drove to his record fifth World Championship title in 1957. Lindsay opened a small gap on the last lap to win by half a second. Third placed David Pennell, in another Maserati 250F, set the fastest lap at 80.22 mph.
Of the pre-war cars the highest placed was the super-charged 1936 ERA of David Morris who finished fourth, ahead of the Cooper-Bristol of Allan Miles and the Maserati 250F of Swedish driver Gunnar Elmgren.
For the first six laps of the Classic Challenge, Jackie Cochrane had the mighty Chevrolet Camaro of Lancashire driver Trevor Pritchard literally on the rear bumper of his Sunbeam Tiger. Locking brakes caused Pritchard to spin wildly on to the grass at the Dublin corner. With Pritchard off his back, Cochrane coasted to an easy win over Maurice Cassidy in an MGB V8.
The fastest race of the day was the UK Formula Vee Challenge, won by London-based Andres Serrano at a speed of 79.83 mph.
