This year a new event enters the calendar, when the Historic Racing Car Association of Ireland (HRCA) hosts the first running of the Gordon Bennett Reliability Trials over July 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The event is open to any type of pre-1940 vehicle, and the organisers tell us it’s being run “to commemorate and inform about the 1903 Gordon Bennett race held in Co. Kildare on July 2nd, 1903.” Famously this event is considered the race that saved motor racing, as previous races were on open roads and were causing many casualties and deaths to the public; it established the template for modern Grand Prix races, and was the first race in Europe to take place on a closed roads circuit, attracted an estimated one million spectators.
The 2022 reliability trials is an event based at the original race venue of Athy, Co. Kildare, and runs on the original 92-mile, figure-of-eight circuit consisting of the Kilcullen fifty-mile and Carlow forty-mile loops. The 1903 race consisted of four laps of the fifty-mile and three laps of the forty-mile loops, alternating. The final race distance was 328 miles, with a winning average speed of 50mph. The 2022 event gives competitors a choice of any distance from one lap of the forty-mile loop to the full seven-lap original race distance, and any number of drivers can be nominated. The trials will take place on Saturday the 2nd, while the Shackleton Museum in Athy will be putting on a display of 1903 Gordon Bennett memorabilia and talks will be taking place throughout the weekend. A schedule of other ancillary events will be announced nearer the date.
For more information, call 087 1720009, email 1903gordonbennett@mail.com or see the HRCA website at www.hrca.ie.