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 |