In the heart of Dublin - the Phoenix Park: In this week's Great Irish Roads, Bob Montgomery looks at the capital's 'motor racing circuit'
Right on the doorstep of the city of Dublin is the magnificent Phoenix Park, Europe's largest walled park. Down through the years it has secured its place in motoring history, with its main road, Chesterfield Avenue, first being used in 1903 as a venue for a sprint event for cars and motorcycles. Incredibly, on that occasion, a Mors car travelled faster over a flying kilometre than any car had previously, at a speed of 85.9 mph witnessed by some 30,000 people.
There have been no fewer than six circuits used for motor racing in the Park down the years, with the Grand Prix circuit (1929 - 1931 & 1961), the Hawthorn (1959-1960, 1967, 1978-1982 & 1988-1991) and the Oldtown 1950, 1955, 1983-1985 & 1993-2004) being the most significant.
All of them presented significant challenges for the drivers of the day and offer a pleasant day's exploration for the modern driver. To celebrate the return of motoring racing to the Park after a one-year absence, we headed there to see what we could discover of these great circuits.
The Irish Grand Prix Circuit
It was in the mid-1920s that the members of the Royal Irish Automobile Club first considered the Park as a suitable motor racing venue. They wished to run a Grand Prix in Ireland and consulted the greatest Irish racing drivers of the day, Kenelm Lee Guinness and Henry Segrave.
Permission to use the park was granted, and the Irish International Grand Prix took place to much acclaim over the next three years. The circuit chosen was praised as one of the best anywhere by the international motoring media as well as the drivers who took part in the events there.
Four miles and 460 yards in length, it required the removal of the Phoenix Monument from its position in the centre of Chesterfield Avenue to a new site outside the main gate of Áras an Uachtaráin. As the map shows, all of this circuit can still be driven today. One can only marvel at the risks the drivers accepted without question as they raced down the "back straight" between the trees at very high speed. Fastest of all was the great German driver, Rudi Caracciola, who drove his Mercedes SSK at an average speed of 85.88 mph to win the 1930 event - which included a period of torrential rain!
The Hawthorn Circuit
Following some years when the depressed economic climate restricted Irish motor sport, the Irish Motor Racing Club planned a return to the Park in 1959 to coincide with a revival of Irish motor racing's fortunes. World Champion Ferrari driver, Mike Hawthorn, inspected a proposed new circuit during the early part of 1959, just a few weeks before his untimely death in a road accident.
With his death this circuit was named the Hawthorn circuit, and was used in various formats over the coming years. But it was in its original guise that it was most successful and is today fondly remembered by a generation of racing drivers, including the author. Basically a truncated version of the Grand Prix circuit, the Hawthorn Circuit combined two very high speed sections with a very slow 'almost' hairpin corner (Ratra) and a surprisingly fast entry on to the main straight adjacent to the Phoenix Monument. The years spent using this circuit were a golden period for Irish Motor Sport.
The Oldtown Circuit
After a gap of 28 years, the Irish Motor Racing Club returned to the triangular Oldtown circuit in 1983 and this circuit has now been used more than any other for motor racing in the Park.
At 1.73 miles in length, it is the shortest of any of the circuits and had previously been used for a Sprint event in 1950 and a race meeting in 1955.
The only circuit that is practical to use today in the Park, the Oldtown Circuit is a surprisingly difficult track given its seemingly simple triangular nature. But the reality is that Mountjoy, the corner which leads unto Chesterfield Avenue - the main straight - and the reverse camber Furry Glen Corner are real challenges of a type not found on any of Ireland's permanent circuits.
Take the time to visit these circuits, drive them where it's still possible, walk the corners and acquire a new respect for the generations who have raced there. In doing so you will be walking in the tracks of some of the greatest names of Irish Motor Sport. Better still, go along next weekend and see a tradition, which began in 1903, being carried on.