The Grand Marshall

For any of us who are interested in motorsport in whatever part of the world that we may find ourselves in, we think of the next event we will be soon attending or tuning into on tv, be it F1, Moto GP, WRC or the local national race at the nearest track.

We think of which competitor will win, which will loose, who will cause trouble and who will be victorious on the day- or will there be an upset? We look at the machinery about to be put through its paces yet again and of course we try and find out any paddock gossip going round. We look at how the track looks, how many people have turned up to watch the event and if there is a decent size entry for it. At the start of the season we see new liveries brought out for the year and even new classes. All these things get noticed but one job that hasn’t chnaged and is the most crucial of all other than the medical crews is that of the motor racing marshal.

The most expensive, hightech and popular forms of motorsports on either two or four wheels would not take place without these dedicated and hardy breed of people, who use their free time to let the motor racing show of any level take place. They have to withstand some atrocious weather conditions from early morning to late evening and sometimes all night if it’s a 24 hour event.
They are the unsung heros of this sport and one of these unsung heroes in Ireland is Ollie Donegan, a native of Castleknock in Dublin, but living for the majority of his life on the Navan Road. Ollie has to date put in an incredible forty seven year shift as a motor racing marshal. He has donned the orange overalls on the banks of Mondello Park, Bishopscourt and Kirkistown,  the hedges of motorbike road races such as the Skerries 100, the streets of Dundalk and Dun Laoghaire and the one he loves most- the Phoenix Park, which is where it all began.
Even at the age of seventy five years young, Ollie remembers well the day he got off the bus as an eleven year old at the Phoenix Park to go and watch the famous motor racing event in the centre of Dublin-  a place where he later would work for fifty years for the Office of Public Works.

So where did it all begin for Ollie as a marshal? “I went down to Mondello for the first race held there in 1968 as a spectator when it had the original layout with no extensions and I liked it. Then in 1970 I was in the RDS at a motorshow where the Motor Racing Marshals Club had a stand so I joined the club there and I have been doing it ever since!”
When you think of how long Ollie has marshalled, you cannot but be in awe of the amount of the legends of the sport, be it on two wheels or four, that he has seen compete around Mondello Park. Motorbike greats such as Joey Dunlop, Carl Fogarty, Max Biaggi to the four wheel gods of Mika Hakkinen, Ayrton Senna, to our home grown drivers like Tommy Byrne and Joey Greenan to name but a few. A favourite of Ollie’s was “Mr. Rallycross” as he was known, Martin Schanche. Ollie recalls in the late 1980s when Schanche competed in the round of the European Rallycross championship in Mondello and in the Le Mans 24hr race on the same weekend. “To have that here was fantastic and I remember marshalling at the final corner where I saw him (Schanche) getting picked up by his helicopter to bring him to his plane to get to Le Mans and then get dropped back here the following morning and getting into his Ford RS200 and going out in that, it was fantastic. He was some driver!”
What comes across so evidently is Ollie’s love and passion for the sport and he has loved every minute of it from the early days of Ford Escorts and Capris racing around through to today and the current cars that are out on track. During our conversation, he thinks of the many friends he has made along the way and of his good pal Al Caffrey, who along with Ollie is another long serving member of the Motor Racing Marshals Club and who is also another well known character within the sport “ Al is not able to get down to that many events anymore as he sadly has fallem into poor helath in recent years but he and myself are probably the longest serving to date”.
Ollie has no preference for two or four wheels but is delighted to see the karts back in Mondello again. As for his favourite meeting of the year, that goes to the Leinster Trophy, but he enjoyed the rounds of the BTCC and BSB when they came over “It’s great to see the changes here in Mondello with the extensions over the years which brought events like the British Touring Cars and Superbikes here.” But the Leinster Trophy meeting is and has been his stand out event. “They (the Leinster Motor Club) have been very good to us over the years and have looked after us well.”
If there was one event he would like to see back what would it be? “ I’d love to see the (Phoenix) Park come back. Its tradition and histort goes back to the 1900s. I remember marshalling out there when it was on a big big track which took them down the main road round by the monument and back by the Embassy and up the main road again. I remember Tony Brise and Alan Jones racing Formula Atlantics there, it was great!”
As I mentioned earlier, racing marshals have to put up with all sorts of weather from the good to the bad but this doesn’t seem to bother Ollie much although he is glad of the huts Mondello Park have installed over the last couple of years, “We had to fight for them a but we got them and they are great, you do need them to get out of the rain for a bit when it is a very bad day.” Laughingly he says “Mondello has a climate of its own, and there have been some very very bad days down here but you climatise to it, you have to! I’m used to it though. from working in the OPW and I like being outdoors, it keeps me healthy.”
While people who compete owe a lot to marshals, do they know what really is involved and has the practice changed much over the years ? Surprisingly, I learned that standards have always been good, right back to Ollie’s early days. “Marshal training has always been quite good. You had to know your own safety on the track and you had your own crew which included a flag marshal, and twice a year you would come down to Mondello and go through your fire training, setting up different incidents around the track and learning how to take people out of cars and that.”
While the grid numbers go up and down, the marshals club numbers are quite good according to Ollie, but with race meetings now being packed into two days meetings now does this cause problems for them? “Yes when the International (circuit) is on it can be very hard to get people to come down, and also a lot of people are working on a Saturday now too so your hoping you have enough to cover all the posts”.
While talking to Ollie and seeing him hopping up and down from the bank during the day he certainly does not show his age, putting younger ones (including myself!) to shame. I hope to have his energy if I make it to his age so I wondered how much longer would he carry on manning the banks of Mondello and does he ever get tired of it. When you think of the hours, days, weeks, years he spent doing it, surely its become a chore now?? His laugh to my question immediately ended any suggestions of it being a chore! “Haha, ah as long as I can, as long as I’m able to put me feet out of the bed in the morning!”

Well I hope he is able to keep putting his feet out of the bed in the mornings for years to come, because they don’t make them like Ollie anymore!!

Barry Cregg
Photographs: Barry Cregg

A Formula For Females

As we come closer to the end of another motor racing season (which seems to have gone by quicker than previous years maybe due to the rounds being compacted into double header race weekends than single events,) there hasn’t been much to be excited or intrigued about that is new for the current season. This changed when only a mere twelve weeks ago a concept of having an all female race team was born out of many motor racing conversations had between two great friends- both of whom come from serious racing pedigree backgrounds.

Emma Dempsey and Nicci Daly who are only a week apart in age and both grew up literally in race paddocks up and down the country and across the water. Whether they liked it or not, this wasn’t going to change but luckily for their parents they both fell in love with the noise, the smells, the different array of cars and characters they came across every weekend during their summers growing up.

Both of their families were deeply involved in motorsport  and it was that sport which would bring both girls together in a fun but poignant reason as they aimed to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society. This is  a cause which has direct personal meaning for Nicci, as she sadly lost her father Vivion to the terrible disease on 15th November 2002. Vivion dominated the fiercely competitive Formula Ford 1600 championships throughout the 1980s, winning all the main titles and Formula Ford 1600 Dun Laoghaire Grand Prix in 1987. He moved on to the Formula Opel championship where he gained further titles in the following years. The racing tradition doesn’t stop there, her uncle Derek was also a professional racing driver who reached the pinnacle of the sport that is Formula 1 and her cousin Conor currently competes in the IndyCar series in America.  Nicci works as a Data Analyst for Juncos Racing in the same series so even though she lost her father at a young age her love for the sport remained.  After graduating from college as an engineer, she decided to marry her passion for motorsport and her skills as an engineer to seek work within the world of motorsport.

Nicci’s dad Vivion in his iconic Abrakebabra/2FM Formula Opel

Emma had no escape when she was growing up as her father Cliff, another successful driver in the 1980s himself, ran his own race team running drivers in Formula Ford and Formula Opel with much success winning Irish championships in both categories with the likes of Donal Loughrey, Wayne Douglas, Morgan Dempsey, Dave Collier and Michael Edgar to name but a few. As well as running his customers cars, he ran his two sons also with Keith and Peter who enjoyed success at home and for Peter in America. All this time Emma didn’t mind getting her hands dirty helping out her dad with getting cars ready for races and working in the team on race weekends. Asking her why she never went into racing herself she just laughingly admits to being “too much of a messer”. But her brothers came first as they were progressing through the ranks at the time so the effort was on them which she totally understood. She did enjoy the odd spin out in a Formula Ford on a quiet test day though. She now works for JL Gore Materials as a purchaser and is busy raising her 13 month old Ruby with her partner Lauren.

Both girls earliest memories of growing up in the world of motorsport was how big the scale of it was with flags everywhere, especially in the Formula Opel days. Big weekends such as the Phoenix Park races in the centre of the country’s capital or the Leinster Trophy weekend in Mondello Park when our English and European neighbours would come over to visit us. Sadly one shows no sign of coming back anytime soon and the other is only a mere shadow of its former self, but at the time theses races only added to the Emma and Nicci’s awe of this world of motorsport, admittedly a lot of this being down to the fact they were only young and everything would look so big to them at that age anyway. Nicci also recalls how on St. Patrick’s Day each year her dad would take her and his Formula Opel race car to be part of a parade in some town in the country and she would wave to the crowd sitting on the sidepod of the car! They also brought the car to the opening of many Abrakebabra restaurants as they were a big sponsor for her father at the time!

Fast forward to the present and the love and passion for racing still exists as it did back when they were younger. Discussions centred on how both wanted to get into some sort of racing this year and how also it could help the need Nicci has had for a long time to do something in the memory of her father. Over one of many cups of tea the idea of getting a car between them and doing a race at the upcoming Mondello 50th Anniversary event could be the answer and certainly the goal to aim for, as both girls knew they would be both in the country at the same time. They didn’t want this idea to be a one off gesture it was going to be the start of a brand they would call Formula Females and to seriously attract more women into the sport.

The small matter of a Hockey World Cup would have to be taken care of first though. So while Nicci packed her bags for England and the World Cup, Emma was in charge of getting the ball rolling on their idea. Brought into help the girls was Darren Farrell who used to be a mechanic for Vivion in his Formula Opel days. Both Emma and Nicci regard Darren as the backbone of this venture and without him it would not have got off the ground.

A Rover 25 was purchased from ITTC stalwart Brian Sexton and with the plan to enter in the Future Classics class. It was resprayed in the infamous black and yellow colours that Vivian used on his helmets throughout his career. Some of Vivian’s old sponsors came on board like Abrakebabra and also Emma’s employers JL Gore to help out with costs. Suits, boots, helmets, Hans devices, awnings were scrambled together for the big day which was fast approaching and with the Irish team doing so well in the hockey it was leaving less time for Nicci to get all that was needed let alone time in the car. It would prove to be a very busy and successful final couple of weeks for Nicci with the hockey team finishing in the silver medal position a fantastic achievement which drew up brilliant exposure for her and Emma’s idea and also for the Irish Cancer society cause they wanted to help.

Now back from her hockey exploits Nicci and Emma took up the campaigns promotion of their new brand- Formula Female.  They hope they can generate awareness for women who might not know about the sport and to those in other disciplines of motorsport, kart racing for example, to change to circuit racing in cars. They are also aware it will not happen overnight and it will be a long term project and to get rid of the inferiority some women may have for racing against men. Both differ however, when asked would a “ladies only” class attract and help more women into the sport! Nicci agrees, while Emma doesn’t but did say maybe to start off with and if numbers grow then let women race against the men. They are also both of the social media generation where they know its importance to get a new project and brand off the ground- something which they have had great success in doing to date.

Finally all the hard work by all paid off and they made it to Mondello Park last weekend with testing Saturday and two races on Sunday- each doing a race. Testing went well until a thermostat problem occurred which looked to put the whole project in jeopardy. Thankfully the paddock came to the rescue and a replacement part was found and the girls would be on the grid Sunday. Nerves and excitement built up as Emma took to the track in a field of 37 cars and showed the racing skills were not confined to her brothers as she came home in a very credible 7th place in her first race and in a car new to her. Next up was Nicci again in a field of 37 cars which has to be said is a brilliant turnout for any class and also makes one wonder where were these cars all year? But that was far from Nicci’s mind as she set off for her first ever race.  Clearly she has inherited the Daly racing genes as she came home in a fantastic 8thposition to cap off a whirlwind journey from an idea to a reality in the space of a few weeks.

It is great to see people like Emma and Nicci getting involved and genuinely trying to get new people into our sport which is going through a hard time for all sorts of reasons at the moment. Many people talk about doing things but it’s rare it gets past that stage and those people could do with taking a leaf out of the girls book as it can be done with help of course but it can be done. They are already planning on next year and working on getting a budget to do a full season in Future Classics while also bringing on a few more females with them, which cannot be a bad thing at all. Time will tell, but in my brief meeting with them at the weekend I am sure that it will.

Barry Cregg
Photographs : Barry Cregg
Header and Article Photographs : Michael Chester