TOMMY BYRNE RETURNS

WHERE: SILVERSTONE WHEN: JULY 8 Everybody loves a good motorsport comeback, and one of the best in 2018 was 60-year-old Tommy Byrne.

The sometime F1 driver famed for his rapid pace in his car and his equally high-adrenaline lifestyle, re-emerged in the motorsport spotlight after a movie was released about him, called Crashed and Byrned.

Having been out of competition in the UK for decades, coaching drivers over in the United States, his friend James Hagan invited him to drive his Ensign N177 at the Masters Historic F1 round supporting the British Grand Prix.

Infamously Byrne was rapid in a Mclaren test in 1982 at Silverstone, but the circuit has changed a bit since then…

“I tried to go in a simulator over in the States, and I couldn’t get a lap in without crashing,” Byrne said with a smile.

A broken halfshaft ruined qualifying, he recovered to 16th in the opener while engine trouble ended his second race.

Byrne hasn’t ruled out more outings with “the right deal”.