In June1902, Britain's Selwyn Edge shocked enthusiasts of motor sport by winning the 351-mile Gordon Bennett Cup motor race from Paris to Innsbruck. Edge's success marked a turning point in international racing, which had previously been dominated by France. It also introduced motor racing to Britain, which had the honour of staging the following year's race. Brendan Lynch writes
But Britain's opportunity to stage the race, defend the Cup and revitalise its backward automobile business seemed to face insurmountable obstacles. The English had developed canals and railways at the expense of their roads, which featured few of the long stretches available on the Continent. With a rigidly enforced speed limit, no race-track and public hostility to the automobile, where could the event be held?
The secretary of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, Claude Johnson, suggested Ireland as a suitable venue. He asked Richard Mecredy, editor of the Dublin-published Motor News, if he could suggest a suitable course which could be lapped seven times to make a race distance of 350 miles. Having known Selwyn Edge and fellow driver Charles Jarrott from their cycle-racing days, Mecredy responded enthusiastically and in November 1902, English and Irish officials inspected suggested areas to the south and west of Dublin.
Count Zborowski
As well as Selwyn Edge, the English group included the Polish-born Mercedes racer, Count Eliot Zborowski, who had earlier lived in Ireland, hunted with the Wards and the Kildares, and had led in winning steeplechasers at Fairyhouse and Punchestown. The Irish included the Waterford motoring pioneers Bill Peare and Sir William Goff. As well as potential circuits near Finglas and Mulhuddart, they studied a route from Tallaght to Dunlavin and Timolin, but concluded that its winding roads were unsuitable for racing cars.
They eventually favoured a circuit based on Athy, which was well served by road and railway and was close to Dublin. The race would begin half-a-mile south-west of Ballyshannon Crossroads; competitors would race north to Kilcullen, then down through Timolin, Moone and Castledermot to Carlow.
The racers would return along the Barrow to Athy, before re-crossing the start line to complete the shorter, 40-mile eastern loop. Reaching Kilcullen for a second time, they would head west across the Curragh to Kildare, Monasterevin and Maryboro, before returning to Athy and the finish line via Stradbally and Windy Gap. This section measured 51.87 miles. The race would consist of three laps of the shorter circuit and four of the longer western route, a total distance of 327.5 miles.
An Act of Parliament was required before the Gordon Bennett Cup event could be staged on Irish roads. The Light Locomotives (Ireland) Act 1903 exempted cars from any statutory speed limits on the day of the race and also absolved local councils from all road improvement expenses. Supporters of the legislation included such fiercely divided MPs as John Redmond, Tim Healy, and Sir Edward Carson. The Northern Whig commented: "We see a wonderful blending of the Orange and Green. There is about this matter a unanimity of which some people considered Irishmen to be incapable." The Bill was passed in record time and received the Royal Assent on March 27th, 1903.
Newspaper comment
The Irish Times was quick to welcome the Gordon Bennett event - the first international motor race to be held in Britain or Ireland. It commented: "The race is now one of the chief topics of conversation in Dublin. There is not a dissentient voice. Everybody is anxious to see the modern marvels perform their wonderful feats of speed under the control of the champion motorists of the world. It is not too much to say that Ireland is hungry for the race."
The nationalist Irish People, however, did not concur. It countered: "The advent of these flittering crowds of vulgar, irreligious and soul-less foreigners among our people produces no lasting good, and is responsible for much permanent demoralisation.
"The real truth is that no English county council would undertake the responsibility of keeping a clear road for the potential suicidals and murderers, who are to risk their own lives and imperil the lives of others in order to advantage the output of the English, French, German and American manufacturing firms. . .Happily, the landlords of past generations have seen to it that the country selected has been almost depopulated, so that if the people who remain are wise enough to keep a civil distance from the roads which they maintain, the casualties may be restricted to the visitors!"
Motor sport heritage
The July 1903 race - which, to the disappointment of the British contingent, was won by the Belgian "Red Devil" Camille Jenatzy - marked a watershed. As well as stimulating the British motor industry, it bequeathed a rich motor sport heritage which led to the Irish Grand Prix series of the 1920s and 1930s, and the Tourist Trophy races at Ards and Dundrod circuits, where Stirling Moss scored his first major success in 1950 at the age of 20. The great British driver has written the foreword to my book about the 1903 event - the first comprehensive, lap-by-lap account.
As it happened, Count Eliot Zborowski never saw the event which he had done so much to promote. On his November 1902 reconnaissance trip to Ireland, he met a decidedly under-impressed Kildare man, who insisted: "I don't think I'd care to go through the world so quick. My old donkey will carry me quickly enough into the next world, and what's the use in hurrying when you can't come back?"
Ironically, Zborowski beat the man to the next world. He was killed early in 1903 at the La Turbie hill-climb near Monte Carlo. Not long before, he had suggested that the British team cars use green for the Irish race as a gesture to the host country. Green has been the official British racing colour ever since.
Triumph of the Red Devil - the 1903 Irish Gordon Bennett Cup Race by Brendan Lynch, is published by Portobello at €24.99.