Author: Racing Daydreams

Racing Daydreams - Lautenschlager 1914 ACF

Bill Mason’s Finest – Racing Mercedes

How lucky we are that film-maker Bill Mason shared our passion, and used his talent & time to leave a legacy for future generations. From the outset, that first Shell film of the 1949 British Grand Prix, Bill’s work attracted & inspired followers of motor racing. Increasingly, as the decades have passed, the films have […]

Northern Ireland Rallying Uncategorised

25 Good Fridays

Early morning, car packed with coats, and boots, and maps “Any word?” CB turned down to hear the morning news No word. Laughs, and songs, and cigarettes And roads, and friends, and craic Tape, and crowds, and whistles And the cars. King Fisher Blue No word. Break it down, pack it up and enroute, FAST, […]

Featured Grands Prix Ireland

The Road to Ballyshannon – Gordon Bennett

It’s not so much raining as there’s more humidity than the sky can bear. It pattered down most of the night. Now it hangs in the air – spritzes as you walk. I quietly leave the rooms, grab a cap from the car, and walk to the town square. Past the memorial plaque, and the […]

Featured Ireland Myths & Curios

Chasing the Ghosts – Gordon Bennett

I’ve always considered ‘Racing Daydreams’ to be an attitude. The willingness to look beyond presented information, armed with some knowledge and an empathy for times & people past. How better to explore and take joy from our sport? Similarly approached, locations too can rattle the senses. Standing in silence at the top of Dundrod. Inhale […]

Grands Prix

40 Years of Daydreams

This Sunday, Ferrari will line-up a pair of turbocharged, ground-effect Grand Prix cars on the Imola grid for their two, young hot-shoes. And I will smile, perhaps raise a glass. Think about what motorsport has given me, and those no longer with us. The day after the 2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, Monday 25 April, will […]

Myths & Curios

Video: ‘The Mercedes-Benz Story 1886 – 1992’

It’s no secret that I think many things were better in the nineties – not least your humble correspondent! But surely you would agree that documentaries were better when they had time & space to breathe? To make the best of the available footage – to inform through a simple intelligent script, calmly delivered. If […]

Featured Sports Car Racing

Sascha and The Ace of Clubs

Small cars hold an attraction – I would imagine since les Frères Renault first took-on the Edwardian giants – and the idea of a smaller car as a generally more efficient machine has held sway. An efficient use of resources, or merely a more stressed & stressful way of covering the same distance? I suppose […]

Grands Prix

The Best, or Nothing – A New Grand Prix Formula for 2022

Director Sailer, who was in great form at the Mercedes dinner, made a most amusing speech concerning his early motor-racing career, and ended up by saying, “Some people think that motor-racing is no longer interesting, because Mercedes-Benz always win – we cannot help this, as we have been winning races for forty years, and do […]

Grands Prix Myths & Curios

The Buck Stopped Here – Original BRM Body Jig Found After 70 Years

I’m sure anyone who reads ‘Racing Daydreams’ will be aware that ‘British Racing Motors’ are producing new V16 BRM Grand Prix cars. Quite the thing they are too… perhaps more effective as glorious nostalgia than they were as Formula One cars. All the same, it’s a hell of a project that has just received a […]

Racing Daydreams - Caracciola, 1930 Irish Grand Prix

Featured Myths & Curios Northern Ireland Sports Car Racing

Caracciola’s Over-Blown 1930

H.M.S. Catherwood’s central works, Donegall Road, Belfast. Friday, 22 August 1930 The driver retrieved a half Woodbine from his top pocket. “You still here, cub?” “Aye… til the death. Told me to stand here til I got somethin’.” “Wha? Like pleurisy?.. don’t think that would make the morning paper.” The Bo Peep flared on first […]