On Tommy - you're exactly right Chris, today Tommy would struggle to get out of Ireland. In fact he'd probably struggle in Ireland too such has the sport become so much more professional right the way down the order. Back then a driver often had some relatively rich guy throw a bit of money behind them purely from a fan-philanthropic perspective and that would propel the driver a surprising distance. Decorum and presentability didn't really matter in the lower classes. Dublin builder Frank Nolan got Martin Donnelly practically all the way to Formula One ! Note, I have to say Martin Donnelly's a lot more down to earth than Tommy though.
On Derek Daly's debut, it has to be one of the greatest of all time. On the face of that performance, and the seasons of FF1600, F3 and the bit of F2 that led up to it, you'd imagine he'd have been a multiple world champion... not so. The start's very funny alright, but that kind of thing was quite commonplace back then. Its how I learnt to start races and I've been doing it ever since... well that's my excuse anyways :-)
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