Martin’s driving prowess recalled
THERE WAS a big turnout at the Martin O’Dwyer Memorial Cup run recently organised by Shelburne United.
The O’Dwyer family have been in the Ballyleigh area since the 1850s and are farming and threshing contractors.
Martin’s twin brother John looked after the farming side of the business.
Back in 1952 Martin senior and Martin Junior opened a garage in Ballywilliam which continued for 54 years.
Simon O’Dwyer continues to run the shop and service station with his family to the present day.
Martin and John were identical twins which led to great fun and games while they were growing up.
All his life Martin was a motor racing enthusiast. Initially he was involved in the early days of go kart racing in Ireland and when hot rod racing came to the New Ross area in the early 1970s with the founding of Sliabh Coillte, Martin set about making a suitable car to go racing. Hot rod racing quickly became very popular and Martin established himself as one of the top sports drivers. He drove car number 2 and as a top-class mechanic he specialised in Volkswagen with a Ford 1,300cc engine. A popular song of the time was readjusted locally to ‘Every man must stay behind O’Dwyer in the number 2’.
The highlight in his hot rod racing career was going to Ballinhassig in Cork and winning the John A Woods cup in the 1972/1973 season.
Celebrations were held in both Cork and Ballywilliam for a number of weeks and legend has it that the cup was filled at least a dozen times!
Martin was the only local driver to bring the cup out of Cork.
He won several inter county competitions and had multiple wins on the local circuit He was one of the founding members of the Wexford Motor Club although he was more interested in hill climbs at the time.
His Jaguar Mar 2 and Mini Marcos, dubbed the plastic bucket, were a regular sight at the various hill climbs around the South East and beyond. After an active life of racing Martin once again changed direction and moved on to classic cars.
Even up to the time of his death on November 18, 2016, Martin was attending car rallys and his last car rally was in May 2016 in Cork with his Mercedes sports car.
He loved his own Rolls Royce but his favourite car to drive was the Pontiac Trans-AM better known as Knight Rider.
There was a great turnout at the memorial run and it is hoped to make the run an annual event.