TOMMY BYRNE COULD have been one of the all-time greats of Formula One racing, but instead the Dundalk native’s life spiralled out of control.
Instead of rubbing shoulders with legends on the track, Byrne, as he says himself, “lost out on a hundred million dollars.”
A prodigious young driver, Byrne’s rise was rapid and he went from being a penniless kid to acting as pace setter for the iconic Ayrton Senna. Tipped as a future McLaren driver, Byrne’s career took a dramatic twist and he ventured down a dangerous path of alcohol and drug abuse.
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“Forget Schuey and Senna. Tommy Byrne was the best of them all,” former team-owner Eddie Jordan once said about the Irishman.
His rise and spectacular fall is the subject of the documentary, Crash and Burn, an Irish film airing at the UK’s biggest documentary festival in Sheffield on 11 June.
“Formula One is an elitest sport and they don’t react well when you get this scallywag from Ireland coming in and rubbing a lot of people up the wrong way.”
Byrne has since managed to was able to rebuild his life and he now works as a successful driving coach in the US.
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TOMMY BYRNE COULD have been one of the all-time greats of Formula One racing, but instead the Dundalk native’s life spiralled out of control.
Instead of rubbing shoulders with legends on the track, Byrne, as he says himself, “lost out on a hundred million dollars.”
A prodigious young driver, Byrne’s rise was rapid and he went from being a penniless kid to acting as pace setter for the iconic Ayrton Senna. Tipped as a future McLaren driver, Byrne’s career took a dramatic twist and he ventured down a dangerous path of alcohol and drug abuse.
“Forget Schuey and Senna. Tommy Byrne was the best of them all,” former team-owner Eddie Jordan once said about the Irishman.
His rise and spectacular fall is the subject of the documentary, Crash and Burn, an Irish film airing at the UK’s biggest documentary festival in Sheffield on 11 June.
“Tommy always worked around the edges and some would say that Tommy was all edge,” the documentary’s producer David Burke told The42 in an interview last June.
“Formula One is an elitest sport and they don’t react well when you get this scallywag from Ireland coming in and rubbing a lot of people up the wrong way.”
Byrne has since managed to was able to rebuild his life and he now works as a successful driving coach in the US.
Take a look at the trailer below:
‘Better than Senna’ – Tommy Byrne was the greatest racing driver you’ve probably never heard of
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Ayrton Senna Crash and Byrne David Burke documentary Formula One