No Ordinary Flagman

Harry Havelin during practice for the Skerries 100 Road Races. Photo: Barry Cregg

When we go to any annual events be it sporting, musical, social or otherwise, we often come across people that you can guarantee will be there. On my trip to the recent Skerries 100 road races just outside the town itself in north county Dublin, I came across one such person.

Harry Havelin in no stranger to any motorsport event in Ireland, be it two wheels or four and his knowledge of the sport in particular in this country  is unfathomable! Even others that have attended the same meetings and for as long as Harry, will often ask him the answer to who won a certain race there? or what was the name of the guy that drove that car? Etc etc… Not only will they get the name of the race, they will get the make and model of machine, lap times, lap speeds,  the date and anything else remotely connected to the answer. It truly is amazing when you see this first hand.

     

Like so many things in life, faith has a funny way of carving a path or giving someone a direction in life that can lead to a long lasting love of a particular thing. Faith had it that on a summers day in 1965. Ireland at that time was not the fast and closely connected country as it is now and Dublin city, itself would have been more like a sleep village compared to the busy fast paced multicultural place it is today.

Harry Havelin during practice for the Skerries 100 Road Races. Photo: Barry Cregg.

While out with a group of friends it became clear after a couple of hours, that the event they were at was not going to get any better and a plan was formed to find something more exciting. By jumping on the back of a friends Honda 50 they set off for the village of Dunboyne in county Meath. When they arrived and witnessed what was taking place there, would spark an interest for Harry that remains as strong for him today as it did back then.

“It all began on a beautiful sunny summers day on the 29th of May 1965. Myself and a few mates after an hour or two were bored out of our brains at a printer sports day in the Iveagh Grounds in Crumlin. We decided to head off for a spin which took us through the Phoenix Park out through Mulhuddart, which was all country back then. On to Blanchardstown and then Clonee where we found the road blocked. We asked a policeman what was going on and he told us that there was motorcycle racing on in Dunboyne. After showing us the route round via the back roads we arrived in the village. I never saw anything like it before, the colour, the banners, the speed, the noise, the massive crowds and actual racing motorcyles! I was hooked!!”

Originally from Phibsborough in Dublin, but has been a resident of nearby Glasnevin for the majority of his life. After finishing school Harry worked in the Irish Press newspaper as a compositor and in later years in the civil service after the Irish Press was closed in 1995.

While in the Irish Press he also wrote for them, which would stand to him in later years. In race programmes from Cookstown in April to Killalane in September you are sure to find articles of his, which have been enjoyed by many a race fan sitting in the hedgerows over the years.

“When I was in the Irish press it was very hard to organize Saturdays off as at the time it was the biggest newspaper in the country and it also had two other papers, the Evening Press and Sunday Press. I did deals with others and swapped shifts with them to at least get to the big events like the North West 200, Ulster Grand Prix, Skerries, Phoenix Park and Isle of Man TT races. There were many times though as we also worked nightshifts, that I would be dreaming of being at the Carrowdore or Mid Antrim races etc.”

Harry Havelin during practice for the Skerries 100 Road Races. Photo: Barry Cregg.

When you think about it, Harry’s introduction to motorsport was at a time that was pre-Mondello Park, so other than the Dunboyne and Phoenix Park races it would have been a long wait to get your fix of racing each year. That changed in 1968 when Mondello Park opened its gates for the first time. Sometimes you think the world and its mother were there that day, as every once and while you meet someone who say “I was there the day Mondello had its first race” but it is true for Harry.

“ I was one of those people who was reluctant to see Dunboyne races going as we knew when Mondello opened it meant that Dunboyne would never come back, but I went down to the first meeting which was a car meeting ran by the M.E.C on the 12th of May 1968. It was a miserable day and the place was a sea of muck but twenty-five thousand went there that day and there were traffic jams everywhere. I had only passed my driving test a the previous month but I was back again on the 25th of may for the first bike meeting.”

Motorcylce racing and in particular pure road racing, is Harry’s first love and he has seen them all from Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Barry Sheene,Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson to home grown heros like the Ryan Farquhar, Eddie Laycock and Joey Dunlop to name a few. He has seen all the riders come up through the ranks and a lot of circuits too.

“I have to been to all the races here, some races in the UK and the continant where I saw Barry Sheene in 1977 on his RG500 Suzuki, lap the old 8.4 mile SPA circuit in Belgium which was a closed roads course back then, at over 137 mph and is a record that still stands today. I saw Hailwood rider the Honda 6 at Dundrod. Joey Dunlop was a great rider as he could ride any type of bike, Ian Lougher also, he was the same and could ride anything and get the best out of them. One of my abiding memories was seeing Ryan Farquhar and Keith Amor riding side by side going down school house road at Killalane and not an inch given.”

The sport as a whole has changed so much from the Dunboyne days but pure road racing still holds the same etos where the sense of ‘lets make a race track here for the weekend’ still exits and while you have to consider the danger side it is still nice that we are able to have events like Tandragee and Skerries still going. I wondered what Harry thought of todays sport and events compared to the events of the sixties ?

“ I don’t bother watching Moto GP at all now or F1 its all too corporate and there is too much money involved in it. Over here it has become more and more expensive to do and to run road races. Take the Skerries 100 it cost the club €120,000 to put it on, that’s an awful lot of money and to find aswell. There is also a lack of northern riders coming through the likes of Archibald, McCallen, Dunlop, etc arent filtering through each year , it seems the young riders want to go straight to BSB. Car racing is sadly dying for the last number of years, you go down to Mondello now and there is hardly anyone there and there is no buzz at the events. One time you had Rathdrum, Dunboyne, Phoneix Park and all the other races built up to them but they are gone now.”

Harry Havelin at his flag post during practice at the Skerries 100 Road Races. Photo: Barry Cregg.

While he can easily get to the races now and know when they begin it wasn’t so straight forward on his first trip to the North West 200.

“ I remember myself and a couple of pals decided to go to the North West 200 in 1967, but for some reason we weren't in a rush and we knew nothing about road closure times. We piled into our friends Renault Dauphine to head north, and remember this was before the motorways or dual carriageways! We even stopped for chips on the way up somewhere I recall, but when we did get to Portrush it had taken us eight hours to get there! By that time I had just managed to buy a programme at metropole and see the last lap of the 500cc race before it was all over and time to go home again! We didn’t make it home until the 3am !”

He hasn’t just watched, he has been a flag and radio marshal on all the road races for over 44 years. Along the way he has gathered a vast collection of memorabilia in forms of programmes and books which he has had to give much of to the National Library in Dublin, and some to the local recycling centre which is such a shame!

Thankfully he is back to full health again, after an illness early last year and that he can man his post at each race during the summer for years to come as they don’t make them like Harry anymore!

Harry Havelin mans his flag post during the Junior Classic race at the Skerries 100 Road Races. Photo: Barry Cregg.