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Originally Posted by Graz
On the subject of the trees, there is no more haunting a sound than a proper racing engine wailing away in the distance back through the trees. The glorious Formula Atlantics spring to mind...
The Park was the first place I saw an F1 car running in anger - Tom O'Leary's superb Theodore in 1983. It was lashing rain, but I didn't care. Other great memories are Rusty French's Porsche 935 going down the main straight at an impossible speed before the exploding in an orange blaze of turbo flame as he negotiated Dublin corner...any of the FF1600 races...the Formula Opels even, normally so stale in Mondello, were lit up in the Park as they had space to actually race...many a great saloon car race - the team challenges in the 80's were always good fun with he Capri's scything through the slower cars. I can even say I've had the privilege of seeing the great Striling Moss race and win in the Park.
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The heyday of The Park was undoubtedly the 1970s and particularly the Formula Atlantics. There are many people on here who will remember coming through suburban Chapelizod, several miles from The Park, early on Saturday morning to hear the sound of swarms of BDA engines echoing through the trees in the distance. Thinking about it today still gives me goosebumps.
All my best memories are as a young kid being taken there by my dad in the 1970s and the fantastic Hawthorn circuit.
o The Dunlop Saloon handicap races... where as you mentioned Shorthall, Tuite et al would be released in their Ford Capri 3.0S and it was like the Battle of Britain as they screamed their way down to Mountjoy corner in chase of the smaller engined cars.
o Modified and special saloons... gorgeous full race Imps, minis and Mark I Escorts right the way through Vivian Candy's controversial Marlboro Captain America 'Imp'.
o Formula Ford 1600s... tons of them, so many they had heats and a final. The melee into Mountjoy when it seemed kamikazi like behaviour was the norm.
o Celebrities like great train robber Roy James waving to the crowd in his FF1600... Noel Edmonds in a black Ferrari... politicians vs clergy race...
o Crowds of 100,000 +
In the 1980s...
o Roger Eccles Black Mercedes 190E hitting almost 160mph on the run to Ratra and consigning the Capri's to history.
o Millions of Alfasuds and Fiat 128 3Ps in the most competitive saloon series ever.
o The beautifully prepared Metros [Michael Cullen drove one] and the Porsche's from the UK.
o Alan Kelly's gorgeously liveried Zanussi RF84 and the battle of the John Booths - 'Brolly' and 'Butcher'.
o Martin Donnelly's stupendous drive to win the Irish FF2000 championship in 1983.
o Tom O'Leary's Theodore... the first time I'd seen an F1 in action too.
o The Superkarts first [and I think only] visit there when somebody [Austin Bishop ?] did a backwards summersault on the straight at some ungodly speed and learnt the hard way why a rear aerofoil needs a front one as well !
... and there are many more.