Ten years have passed since the last Dundalk Road Races meeting.
The loved Richard Britton in Dundalk (ph:?)
Like the Munster 100, the National Road Races of Dundalk were held on different courses about 100 km north of Dublin, near the border with Northern Ireland.
During its eighteen editions, the Dundalk Road Races moved from the Cooley Course (1990) to Louth (until 1996), then to Togher and finally to the beautiful Darven Course (from 2000 to 2007), a narrow and bumpy track famous for its “monster jumps”.
On all those different courses, of about 3 miles respectively, great names of Irish Road Racing battled each other in front of thousands of enthusiasts. Some of them are nowadays “big” names that we only see in the International Road Races, but back in the days they didn’t use to deny a pure road race in the muddy Irish paddocks. From Joey and Robert Dunlop to the young Michael and William, from fans’ favourite Richard Britton to Owen McNally, and then Darran Lindsay, Victor Gilmore, Davy Morgan, Trevor Ferguson, Adrian Archibald, Martin Finnegan, Ryan Farquhar, Guy Martin.
The last Dundalk Road Race meeting was held in 2007 and a young Conor Cummins took a fantastic double on his real first year of road racing, winning also the prestigious Grand Final.
Guy Martin was also protagonist of a spectacular high-side in 2004, crashing on his 250cc in front of Ryan Farquhar:
Due to logistics problems, new buildings around the course and the difficulty of finding a new track, the Dundalk Road Races were abandoned after 2007.
What else is the summer for?