Despite the weather, Ireland's answer to the Goodwood festival of historic racing cars saw 10,000 in Adare, writes BOB MONTGOMERY
WHEN LORD Inchiquin and his team came up with the idea of creating Ireland’s version of the famous Goodwood Festival, little did they realise the tremendous obstacles they would have to overcome in bringing the event to fruition.
Some 10,000 spectators turned out at Adare Manor on an overcast bank holiday Sunday to witness a somewhat curtailed programme of events with the loss of the intended air display as well as several of the other planned items through circumstances beyond the organisers’ control.
As things turned out, they need not have worried as the large crowd revelled in an exciting day’s racing activity on a course laid out on the roads of the manor. But there was far more to the event than the racing, with sideshows everywhere to interest even the most discerning motoring fan.
Marque club displays, supercars and exotic sports cars, cars from the glory days of 1930s street racing, and the actual MG PB supercharged racer that won the exciting 1936 Limerick Grand Prix were all present.
The highlight of the event was undoubtedly seeing so many historic Irish racing cars take to the track including Kieran White’s TRS and the famous original Iona Special MG, driven for several demonstration laps by the man who made it famous and now in his 90s, Pearse Cahill.
Overall, it was a worthwhile addition to the Irish motorsport calendar which will hopefully go from strength in future years.
