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Topic: Crashed and Byrned
batter burger (1,950 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 15:17	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
batter burger (1,950 Posts)	I read this book during the week, it was poor enough to be honest but very easy to read so that's not a bad thing. Does anybody remember or know anything about Tommy Byrne outside of the book. Was he as good as they were queuing up to tell us he was in his book. It was strongly suggested in the book that Ayrton Senna was afraid of his life to race against Tommy in evenly matched cars knowing that he didn't have a chance. Seems to have been a mad thing and was forever in touble over women, he claims to have been innocent of almost all his supposed indiscretions but i'd imagine the book is almost a work of fiction. What'd ye think?
carryharry (4,804 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 15:27	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
carryharry (4,804 Posts)	Great read i thought.
inbetweeners (413 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 15:29	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
inbetweeners (413 Posts)	Originally posted by carryharry: Great read i thought. I agree excellent read.
batter burger (1,950 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 15:39	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
batter burger (1,950 Posts)	Senna comes across quite badly in the book. I saw the Senna documentary a few weeks ago also, it is very good particularly on the Prost rivalry, thing is it certainly didn't enhance my opinion of Senna, he seemed like a giant egotist.
South Limerick Referee (16,613 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 15:53	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
South Limerick Referee (16,613 Posts)	Read it a couple of years ago and thought it was a great read. That said a few people I know who read it were put off by his tales of encounters with women. Put it like this, I'd prefer to have read it than not to have read it. You wonder if he was as good as he was, are his racing exploits as exaggerated as his female conquests.
carryharry (4,804 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 15:55	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
carryharry (4,804 Posts)	Would tend to agree.Although extremely quick and with a F1 pole record to be proud of Senna was essentially always in the quicker cars. Before landing the Mclaren drive Senna only real stand out drives were in the rain. As regards his tussles with Byrne, Tommy was seen to be as quick in lesser machinery back in the F1600 and F3 days. When Tommy earned the Mclaren test by winning a series it was plain to see that he didn't fit into Ron Dennis's idea's of a model F1 driver. Engineer's involved in that test later claimed the throttle on the test car was not opened fully yet Byrne was as quick as Senna. We will never know but many within F1 and Indy circles claim Byrne when focussed was as quick as many who went onto F1 proper. A real shame his career did not reach higher standards but he still seemed to live a full life. He still works in the Mid Ohio raceway tutoring young drivers, he's a top bloke imo.
batter burger (1,950 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 16:01	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
batter burger (1,950 Posts)	Whatever about McLaren surely if he was that good he would have gotten an F1 drive, he seems completely focussed on dennis and his team in the book, there were surely other teams paying drivers who couldn't ignore that talent and his success, is there more to it than meets the eye, ie:that he was too rough around the edges, he was setting lap records all over the place. To clarify, i thought it was an enjoyable book also but closer to Perry Groves autobiography than Andre Agassi's.
carryharry (4,804 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 17:39	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
carryharry (4,804 Posts)	Yeah, rough around the edges was probably an accurate way to describe him alright. His reputation as a party boy did not help his chances either i would think. I suppose his age and lack of funding was probably the biggest barrier in him achieving his real potential. Ye would be all glad to know im sure that life is good for Tommy these days anyway. A forgotten Irish motorsport legend?
theface2010 (3,490 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 19:08	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
theface2010 (3,490 Posts)	Enjoyed the book-read it about 3 weeks ago although I thought it was fairly poorly written. I'd say he did himself no favours in trying to get into F1 although he obviously had a tough upbringing. Did everybody else buy it for €2.99 in HMV:)
formosa (695 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 22:06	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
formosa (695 Posts)	I read it and he struck me as a loser, always the hard luck story and an excuse. The records speak for themselves and he won fcuk all, all the "only for" stories in the world won't change that.
batter burger (1,950 Posts)	Posted: 21-Apr-2012 22:31	Quote Edit Delete Report Post Post Reply
batter burger (1,950 Posts)	Originally posted by formosa: I read it and he struck me as a loser, always the hard luck story and an excuse. The records speak for themselves and he won fcuk all, all the "only for" stories in the world won't change that. That's a bit unfair really. If you read the book you would realise that he won almost every competition he ever entered into, I presume he's not lying about that, the facts are out there. The hard luck stories seemed a bit strange really, the reason i started this thread was to get an understanding of just why he never got a chance in F1, why did he assume that because McLaren didn't want him he was finished, it's like a 20 year old soccer player who wanted to sign for Barcelona and gave up because they didn't want him.

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