Tributes to Welsh driver who pioneered overseas participation in Kerry rallies
TRIBUTES have been paid to Welsh rally driver John Price who died last week following a long fight with an illness.
The Herefordshire-based driver was one the first overseas drivers to contest the Circuit of Kerry Rally in 1979 and to this day Welsh drivers support Kerry Motor Club’s flagship event.
From that event, 41 years ago, until the mid-1990s, Price was a regular entrant on all major rallies in the country including winning the Circuit of Kerry in 1991.
JP, as he was universally known, always appeared in exotic rally machinery, cars that were never seen in Kerry until he started his long association with the county.
His maiden appearance in 1979 was made at the wheel of a Porsche 911 SC when he finished third overall. He returned over the years with different versions of the Renault 5 Turbo, a Renault 21 Turbo and a range of different MG Metro 6r4s.
While he won the 1991 Circuit of Kerry driving a Metro it is the flamboyant Renault 5 Turbo he will be best remembered for.
In 1989 he drove an ex-factory Tour de Corse Renault 5 turbo
- a car so rare that the Renault factory only built 20 of them and promptly scrapped ten.
His co-driver on the 1987 Circuit of Kerry was Kerry Motor Club’s John Crone and he is still in touch with the Price family.
“The Tour de Corse car was one of only 20 built - for homologation purposes. They immediately scrapped 10 of the cars, put one in a museum and used the rest in competition” said Crone. “John purchased the car from Renault after Jean Ragnotti won the Tour de France Rallye in it. The Tour de Corse title was to commemorate Ragnotti’s win in Corsica the previous year in the earlier Renault 5 Turbo.”
His made his Rally of the Lakes debut in 1982 in the earlier version of the R5 turbo and continued to support the Killarney-based event up until 1994.
In 1989 he drove a Renault 21 Turbo, another rare sight on Irish rally stages, on the Rally of the Lakes.
His final appearance in County Kerry was 26 years ago when he drove his famous Duckhams Oils liveried Metro, on the Rally of the Lakes, but a down-onpower engine hindered progress on that occasion.
During his time in Kerry, he amassed a loyal band of local supporters who formed part of his Irish team when he rallied on this side of the Irish Sea.
They included Tim Hartnett of Hartnett Brothers’ Renault dealership in Tralee and Castleisland, Mike Moriarty of Centra Farranfore and Mike Murphy a mechanic who served his apprenticeship with Hartnett Brothers.