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Crash & Burn - Tommy Byrne


Cuprabob
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Watched on iPlayer - what a brilliant little documentary from the BBC. I would love to know what he got up to, particularly with women, booze and drugs but suspect they didn't cover that out of respect to him and his family. He must have been a right party animal to have not been given a drive at McLaren considering his test drive times! I'd rather have a night on the lash with Tommy than James Hunt :)

Edited by theduisbergkid
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Thanks for the heads up on this and the Racing Legends on John Surtees before it. Great television!

I'd almost forgotten about Tommy Byrne. Makes you wonder if he would still have had the mercurial talent if he'd been a bit more ... er ... "corporate". Also brings into focus the elitism of motorsport on four wheels compared to bike racing, where he'd have been among people much more like him. But maybe that wouldn't have appealed to him, I get the feeling he liked being the outsider, even if in the end it killed his career.

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Just watched the last 15 minutes of this (grabbed chunks of it when I've had time).

Stupidly talented driver, but I get why he didn't get on in F1.  It's actually quite a sad story, but the guy is bitter - really, really bitter about things.

Bet he's a brilliant track driving instructor though :)

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4 hours ago, garcon magnifique said:

Thanks for the heads up on this and the Racing Legends on John Surtees before it. Great television!

I'd almost forgotten about Tommy Byrne. Makes you wonder if he would still have had the mercurial talent if he'd been a bit more ... er ... "corporate". Also brings into focus the elitism of motorsport on four wheels compared to bike racing, where he'd have been among people much more like him. But maybe that wouldn't have appealed to him, I get the feeling he liked being the outsider, even if in the end it killed his career.

...and people complain today about rich kids like Lance Stroll only getting their seat because of the money they bring whereas in fact it's been the case in F1.

I'm sure Tommy would bring Ron Dennis out in a rash if he was in the same room as him:-) 

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