The Motorsport Ireland Phoenix Park Motor Races, jointly organised by the Irish Motor Racing Club and Leinster Motor Club, are expected to draw a large crowd to the unique Dublin venue. The fastest cars will race in the Lynx Phoenix Europa challenge and the Indigo Crossle sports car races. Vivion Daly, Leslie Wright, Morgan Dempsey Jnr and Noel Roddy will no doubt set a very fast pace in their 2.0 litre Opel-powered Formula Europa cars. Arnie Black, PJ Fallon, Denis McGall, Mark Cullen and Richard Parsons are expected to also be up to speed in their quick Crossle 9S sports-racing cars.
The saloons will be out in force, the quickest being the Dunlop RT2000's driven by John Whelan, Brendan and David Donegan, Mark Turley, David Collier, John Keaney and the two Jonathans - Taylor and Fildes. The biggest entry is in the Esso Ultron Formula Vee races, headed by Brian Hearty, Ray Moore, Enda O'Connor, David Hall, Paul Heavey, Ned Dickenson, and Declan Quigley. Alan Dawson and Des Bruton are the two fancied drivers in the Autotrader Strykers races.
The Phoenix Park will also see a great line-up of pre-1950 sports racing cars and pre-war machinery once again being driven in anger, including a number of Jaguar C and D-types, two Talbot Lago's, a number of Frazer Nash's and the actual car driven to victory in the 1938 Cork Grand Prix by the late Dudley Colley and still being driven competitively by his son Tony.
Sam Stretton will be at the wheel of a 1929 Bentley owned by David Dunn (Dublin). This car competed in the first Irish Grand Prix at the Phoenix Park in 1929. The races for National Historics will bring out the usual mixture of Sunbeam Tiger and MG sports cars, plus some Mini-Cooper and other saloons.
The Oldtown Circuit will also reverberate to the exciting sound of Sarah Kavanagh's e-merge Jordan from the 1993 Formula One World Championship era, Michael Cullen's racing Ferrari 360 Modena, and a gaggle of fantastic historic Gilera, Honda, Norton, Matchless, AJS and Yamaha racing motorcycles. The packed weekend programme starts tomorrow with practice from 9.0 a.m, followed by racing from 1.50 to 6.00 p.m. On Sunday there will be practice at 9.30 a.m, racing from 10.00 to 6.00 p.m.
The 71st International Ulster Grand Prix takes place tomorrow, with six races scheduled for the 7.4 miles Dundrod Circuit. The lap record of 126.858 m.p.h. was set last year by David Jefferies on a Yamaha 1000, and the English rider is tipped to take three wins - the two Open races and the Regal 600. Other expected to challenge include Welshmen Jason Griffiths and Ian Loughter, Iain Duffus (Scotland), Steve Dey (England) and New Zealander Blair Degerholm.
Fastest Irish riders should be Adrian Archibald, Richard Britton, James Courtney, John Donnan and Darren Lindsay. Robert Dunlop is fancied for the 125cc race. Following the death recently of his famous brother Joey Dunlop, it is reckoned that Robert will retire from racing after the Ulster Grand Prix meeting.
