Dick Irish
Richard Harold "Dick" Irish (* 1930 ; † March 9, 2015 in Oklahoma City ) was an American racing car driver .
Racing career
Dick Irish, who served in the United States Army during the Korean War , was a successful racing driver in North America in the 1950s . Irish was well connected in American sports car racing and was close friends with sports car importer Tony Pompeo , BS Cunningham factory driver Sherwood Johnston and racing car maker Hal Ullrich . He was given a special honor when Enzo Ferrari invited him to Maranello to watch the production of the Ferrari 275 GTB he had ordered .
He achieved his first successes with a Kieft CK52 and a Siata 1400 Gran Sport, with which he was third overall in the 1952 Sebring 12-hour race . Several times he won the Brynfan Tyddyn hill climb , where a curve, the Irish Corner , had his last name. In the 1950s he started mainly in the SCCA championship and ended his driving career after the 2000 km race in Daytona in 1965 .
statistics
Sebring results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 |
 Robert Fergus
|
Siata 1400 GS |
Robert Fergus
|
Rank 3 | |
| 1953 |
Brooks Stevens
|
Excalibur J. |
Hal Ullrich
|
Rank 33 | |
| 1954 |
Brooks Stevens
|
Excalibur J. |
Ralph Knudson
|
failure | Engine failure |
| 1955 |
Isabelle Haskell
|
Bandini |
Isabelle Haskell
|
failure | Engine failure |
Individual results in the sports car world championship
| season | team | race car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14th | 15th | 16 | 17th | 18th | 19th | 20th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Brooks Stevens | Excalibur J. |
 SEB
|
 MIM
|
 LEM
|
 SPA
|
 ONLY
|
 RTT
|
 CAP
|
|||||||||||||
| 33 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1954 | Brooks Stevens | Excalibur J. |
 BUA
|
SEB
|
MIM
|
LEM
|
RTT
|
CAP
|
||||||||||||||
| DNF | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1955 | Isabelle Haskell | Bandini |
BUA
|
SEB
|
MIM
|
LEM
|
RTT
|
TAR
|
||||||||||||||
| DNF | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1965 | Anatoly Arutunoff | Lancia Flaminia |
DAY
|
SEB
|
BOL
|
MON
|
MON
|
RTT
|
TAR
|
SPA
|
ONLY
|
MUG
|
ROS
|
LEM
|
REI
|
BOZ
|
FRE
|
CCE
|
 OVI
|
ONLY
|
BRI
|
BRI
|
| DNF |
literature
- Ken Breslauer: Sebring - The Official History of America's Great Sports Car Race David Bull, ISBN 0-9649722-0-4 .
Web links
- Dick Irish at Racing Sports Cars
- About Dick Irish (English)
- Dick Irish talks about his race (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Irish, Dick |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Irish, Richard Harold |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American racing car driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1930 |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 9, 2015 |
| Place of death | Oklahoma City |