Dundalk racing genius on RTE1 documentary

The critically acclaimed documentary about Dundalk Formula 1 racing driver, Tommy Byrne, and how he almost made it to the top of the cut-throat sport, will be aired on RTE1 later this week.

For a fleeting moment in the early 80’s Tommy, who lived in Blackrock, was the world’s greatest driver, the motor racing equivalent of George Best and Muhammad Ali all rolled into one.

His rise was meteoric and his fall spectacular. In a little over four years Byrne went from driving a Mini Cooper in stock car racing to the big-time in Formula One. Eddie Jordan the former team-owner, who worked with both Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, will tell you: ‘Forget Schuey and Senna. Tommy Byrne was the best of them all’.

While Senna was winning his first F1 race, Byrne’s career was already on a downward slope. A procession of clowns, lunatics and gangsters flitted in and out of his life before he finally followed his dream to settle in America after a turbulent stint on the Mexican F3 circuit.

Thirteen years into their respective careers as the two brightest future stars of Formula One – Ayrton Senna was in his grave, deified like no other driver. Byrne was a depressed, drunk, labourer. Byrne’s rise to F1 was prodigious, but the longer fight – to accept how everything turned out and how he rebuilt his life – is the real struggle.

The film, which was made in Blackrock and Dundalk, as well as parts of County Meath, features Tommy and was filmed over three months in 2016. Tommy now lives in the USA.

Directed by the award-winning Seán Ó Cualáin and produced by David Burke Crash and Burn airs on RTE1 on Thursday at 10.15pm. Advertorial