Tommy Byrne (racing driver)

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Template other Thomas Byrne (born 6 May 1958) is a former racing driver from Ireland. He participated in two Formula One Grands Prix in 1982 with the backmarker Theodore team, failing to qualify for another three. He failed to finish in either of the Grands Prix he started and scored no Formula One championship points.

After performing well in the Irish Formula Ford Championship in 1981, Byrne won the 1982 British Formula 3 Championship even though he missed some races while he competed in Formula One. At that time, he also tested a McLaren MP4/1 Formula One car in October 1982 against Marlboro-backed Spirit Racing's European F2 drivers like Stefan Johansson and Thierry Boutsen. During this test, he set a time quicker than the works drivers, Watson and Lauda, despite the car being specifically detuned for him and not the other drivers at the test. After a brief return to Formula Three in 1983, where he raced for Eddie Jordan, Byrne moved to the United States and began racing in the American Racing Series in 1986, where he won ten races in 55 starts, both second place in the series record books. He also was the championship runner-up in 1988 and 1989. He raced in the series until 1992 and then retired. Despite his extended career in the States, Byrne never made a Champ Car start. He lives in Florida, and teaches Honda Teen/Adult Defensive Driving, Advanced Defensive Driving, Acura High Performance and Acura Advanced Performance Driving during the race season at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. He was also a driver coach for Indy Lights team Brian Stewart Racing.

Byrne co-authored a book with Mark Hughes which was released in the UK on 8 August 2008, titled Crashed and Byrned: The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw. The book won the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year for 2009.

Byrne was the subject of Seán Ó Cualáin's documentary Crash and Burn in 2016.

Racing record

Career summary

Year	Series	Pos.
1982	Formula One	NC
	British Formula Three	1st
1983	British Formula Three	NC
	European Formula Three	4th
	1983 Macau Grand Prix	NC
	Formula Mondial North American Cup	15th
1984	European Formula Three	6th
	1984 Macau Grand Prix	8th
	Formula Super Vee	13th
1985	Formula Super Vee	NC
1986	Formula 3000	NC
	GT	24th
	Indy Lights	7th
1987	Indy Lights	3rd
1988	Indy Lights	2nd
1989	HFC American Racing Series Championship	2nd
1990	Firestone American Racing Series Championship	13th
1991	Firestone Indy Lights Championship	12th
1992	Firestone Indy Lights Championship	10th
2001	Grand American Road Racing	13th
	American Le Mans	NC
2002	Grand American Road Racing	3rd

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1982	Theodore Racing Team	Theodore TY02	Cosworth V8	RSA	BRA	USW	SMR	BEL	MON	DET	CAN	NED	GBR	FRA	GER DNQ	AUT Ret	SUI DNQ	ITA DNQ	CPL Ret	NC	0

External links

• Crash and Burn (a documentary about Byrne) at IMDb
• Profile at grandprix.com
• "Tommy Byrne, TNFer & award-winning author" on the Autosport's The Nostalgia Forum