Romeos celebrate enduring affair

Motor Sport Phoenix Park racesMemories of a golden era in Irish motor racing were revived at Phoenix Park yesterday by a wonderful grid of 27 cars in the Irish Ferries 75th Anniversary Grand Prix race, including Boris Ivanowski's 1929 Irish Grand Prix-winning Alfa Romeo 1750 driven by Trish Pilkington.

The race had to be red flagged after only five laps because of an accident, but appropriately Alfa Romeos filled the first five places, headed by Roger Saul, who had over 30 seconds in hand over Richard Pilkington, with Nick Rossi third.

Mrs Pilkington was classified 21st but the hero of the race was 92-year-old Tom Delaney, who finished 19th at the wheel of a 1928 Lea Francis Hyper.

Saul and Richard Pilkington also took the first two places in Saturday's race for pre-war cars.

Alan Dawson in a Stryker was the first race-winner of the weekend. Double race wins were scored by Declan Quigley in Formula Vee, Jim O'Reilly in a Porsche 911, Liam Denning in a Fiat Punto Abarth, Richard Kearney in a Fiat Punto and Leo Nulty in a Fiat Uno.

The closest finish was in yesterday's Formula Vee race, which was led from start to finish by Quigley, but Ray Moore put in a strong finish to claim second, the gap just .023 of a second, with Robbie Parks and Finbarr Murray in close attendance in third and fourth.

The highly experienced Brian Hearty was pushed all the way in the Formula Sheane race by newcomer Garry Newsome, and in the second race Newsome just pipped Hearty on the line to take his first Phoenix Park win.

By comparison with many past Phoenix Park race meetings, the 75th Irish Grand Prix Anniversary meeting did not attract any major sponsors and yesterday's attendance was notably down on previous years of the event.

The organisational and financial difficulties experienced by the Irish Motor Racing Club and Leinster Motor Club, and Motorsport Ireland, in running the Phoenix Park motor races are simply enormous.

With proper support and interest on the part of the Government and the tourism industry, this unique event in the heart of Dublin could be turned into a major sporting attraction with great tourism potential.