0:00:02 > 0:00:06This programme contains strong language
0:00:06 > 0:00:08My old treasure chest.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12A couple of bits and pieces here.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17This is...
0:00:17 > 0:00:20This actually is, it hasn't been cleaned for a while
0:00:20 > 0:00:23because I really don't go in here that often
0:00:23 > 0:00:27but it's the Sports Star of the Year 1981, Ireland.
0:00:29 > 0:00:30Look at that.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32That's first place.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35That's disgusting. Naked.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40If you don't make it, nobody gives a shit.
0:00:40 > 0:00:41That's how I feel now.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44But 20 years ago, yes, I would have felt, you know,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47like, "Oh, shit, those guys screwed me over and they did this and they did that."
0:00:47 > 0:00:48This album here,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52I think my sister might have put this one together for me.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55When I was racing I didn't think I was the best driver in the world,
0:00:55 > 0:00:57I knew I was the best driver in the world.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01That's one of mine, I remember that suit, that's one of my first ones.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05I just got, I got beat, I got beat by the system.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17There are lots of hard luck stories in Formula 1.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19Tommy is the defining case study
0:01:19 > 0:01:23because there's never been anybody quite that good that's never made it.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26True talent really stands out,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Fernando Alonso,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Michael Schumacher, and Tommy had the talent of these guys, for sure.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35He just had that natural feel for a car.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Tommy Byrne was wild.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Some of the things that he did were so unorthodox that only Tommy Byrne
0:01:43 > 0:01:45ever could have done it
0:01:45 > 0:01:47or will have ever done it.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50The problem is, he may have gone just too far.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03What you saw was what you got with him.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Some people might think it, Tommy would say it,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and I think it hurt him at the top end where there's
0:02:08 > 0:02:11sponsors, where there's major manufacturers involved and they don't what
0:02:11 > 0:02:14people that are a little bit wild like that.
0:02:14 > 0:02:15GUNSHOT
0:02:17 > 0:02:23He got from nothing to Formula 1 in little more than four years.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25We may never see a similar story ever again.
0:02:35 > 0:02:36Hey, Sonny.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40We will get going. My name is Brian Till.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42I'll be your lead instructor for the day.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44That just means that I talk more than the other guys do,
0:02:44 > 0:02:46but you've got a great group of guys back there in the back.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Tommy Byrne down at the end, very accomplished open wheel driver,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53- six, seven...- Seven.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57..Formula car championships over in Europe before he came to the United States, a little time in Formula 1.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02Tommy's been here at the school I think since '93, '94, '95.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05'94, 21 years now. You've been here what, 22?
0:03:06 > 0:03:08- Yeah.- Scary.- Long time, long time.
0:03:08 > 0:03:10So, Tommy and I used to race together a little bit.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13I crashed Tommy in Detroit one year.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15- No, you ran into me.- Did I?
0:03:15 > 0:03:17LAUGHTER
0:03:17 > 0:03:19Of course my car was broken.
0:03:19 > 0:03:20- Yeah.- I had to walk back.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26- Through the streets of, the downtown streets of Detroit.- Through the streets of Detroit, yeah.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32'Here's a guy who had come within fingertip reach of the pinnacle of
0:03:32 > 0:03:35'the sport and it slid down the other side of the mountain
0:03:35 > 0:03:38'when it just slipped from his grasp.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41'Some of us ended our careers on our own terms.
0:03:41 > 0:03:42'Tommy didn't.'
0:03:42 > 0:03:48But for the longest time, Tommy went to sleep, woke up,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51and thought, "This isn't fair.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53"I should have, I would have, I could have."
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Good job, P2.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57Mike and Carl, on deck.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59'To carry that with you when the door closes'
0:03:59 > 0:04:02and you're the only person in the room.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05How loud are those voices?
0:04:10 > 0:04:13Obviously, I wasn't the nicest guy in the world.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15There's just when you don't make it, people, you know,
0:04:15 > 0:04:20they try to say, well, you did this, you did that. But do you know what?
0:04:20 > 0:04:22I just couldn't have anybody telling me what to do.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27There are various theories on Tommy Byrne the racing driver.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30One is that he royally messed up a potentially great career.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33The other one is that he wasn't given a fair shot
0:04:33 > 0:04:38and I think Tommy's truth is always somewhere in that shade of grey
0:04:38 > 0:04:40between those two extreme viewpoints.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45At the start of the '80s, the two hotshots were Tommy Byrne and Ayrton Senna.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Had it not been for Senna arriving at around the same time,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Tommy's talent would have been enough to carry him through.
0:04:52 > 0:04:54It would have been irresistible.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Obviously, when you're trying to go racing and you're completely broke
0:05:00 > 0:05:04all the time, and you're racing against people like Senna and the Brazilians
0:05:04 > 0:05:07with all the money and you haven't got a pot to piss in,
0:05:07 > 0:05:08it does make a difference.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11I mean, you don't get the same respect.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13I think anybody would have a chip on their shoulder if they were treated
0:05:13 > 0:05:15like shit after they win races, so many races.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19I'd win the exact same race that Senna won, I'd win it first,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23he'd win it the year after, and suddenly it's like, you know,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26"Who's Tommy Byrne?" And when Senna won it's like the second coming of Christ.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30And that's just the way life is, you know?
0:05:30 > 0:05:33People treat you different when you're broke and when you're rich.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38What could I change? Be born a millionaire with a silver fucking spoon up my ass.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58It's a little overgrown since the last time I was here, that's for sure.
0:05:58 > 0:05:59Yeah.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03Oh, man, look at this.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08So, I used to ride my motorcycle all the way through here at night when
0:06:08 > 0:06:11I'd come home at 15 years of age.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14Drive through there, drive all the way through here,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16drive up and drive in the door.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19'I just couldn't control myself with speed.
0:06:19 > 0:06:20'I had to be flat-out everywhere.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22'And I worked at the gas station across the road,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25'everybody was talking about the day they would go there and I wouldn't
0:06:25 > 0:06:28'be there any more because I'd be dead. Because everywhere they went I was flying.'
0:06:28 > 0:06:32Flying down the roads. Flat-out.
0:06:32 > 0:06:33Couldn't slow down.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39That's what happens when you're born in the back of the car on the way to the hospital.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47INDISTINCT SINGING AND CONVERSATION
0:06:57 > 0:07:00"Tommy Byrne away to a flying start."
0:07:02 > 0:07:04"Three firsts for Irish."
0:07:05 > 0:07:07"Sports star of the week."
0:07:07 > 0:07:10'Whatever chance they had of controlling me when I was
0:07:10 > 0:07:14'nine or ten or 11, they had no chance at all when I was 15,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17'16 years of age. I just didn't listen.'
0:07:24 > 0:07:27When he was a child,
0:07:27 > 0:07:32he was a nuisance to everybody around him.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36- How's it's going, Maurice? - Oh, I'm humbled.- How's it going?
0:07:36 > 0:07:37Yeah, very good.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40'Now I thought he was a little bastard at that stage.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42'He was just a little brat.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48'Tommy would have had a rough childhood brought on mainly by himself,'
0:07:48 > 0:07:53by his attitude and by the way he carried on and no law was written
0:07:53 > 0:07:55for Tommy Byrne.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59'He just had that cockiness in him that he would have to do it
0:07:59 > 0:08:00'his own way.'
0:08:00 > 0:08:04You see, that's really as little as I thought of you over the last number of years,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Tommy. They're up there.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08Thanks, Maurice.
0:08:08 > 0:08:09Show me,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13- show me what you've got there.- That would be quite an important one.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Is that the British Grand Prix one?
0:08:15 > 0:08:17That's the British Grand Prix one.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19Look at that.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22Is this the Championship one, Maurice?
0:08:22 > 0:08:26You think it would be maybe a little bit looked after better than that.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28- Well, look at this.- You didn't even know where to wear it to.
0:08:28 > 0:08:29No, I didn't, you're right.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32I think that's an old shell from World War II or something.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35But they've been lying up there for...
0:08:35 > 0:08:37It's the same in my own house back in Florida, the same thing.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40- You tell me.- Trophies in boxes. Look at that.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42See if you can clean that one.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44We had the annual Tommy Byrne Dinner Dance to make me money and I think I
0:08:44 > 0:08:47earned £300,
0:08:47 > 0:08:52that was as much money that was collected for that one particular dance.
0:08:52 > 0:08:53Enough money to get me some clothes.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55We needed 300,000.
0:08:55 > 0:08:56Yes!
0:08:57 > 0:09:00When he came on the scene in Mondello, I was quite surprised.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05Here was this small guy, very cocky.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08No-one could quite understand him, he spoke so quickly,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12and he had a very pronounced Dundalk accent.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16I wouldn't say he was like a fish out of water but he came from a
0:09:16 > 0:09:18background that normally motor-racing people
0:09:18 > 0:09:19wouldn't be part of.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22So he was a big surprise to that element.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Tommy's face, his personality,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30his background was always going to be a difficult fit.
0:09:30 > 0:09:35It's a very elitist sport, whereas Tommy was from a very,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38very poor working-class background
0:09:38 > 0:09:41and so the odds of him succeeding were very slim.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45I think '77 is when I talked my mum into getting a loan from
0:09:45 > 0:09:49the bank and I think we told the bank manager my sister was pregnant
0:09:49 > 0:09:52and we had to build an extension on the house, which was true,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56my sister was pregnant, but there was no extension going on the house.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00The extension was going into Formula Ford 1600 Crossle.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05It was £1,250 and then we went to Mondello for the first race, and just
0:10:05 > 0:10:10rednecks, out of sync with everything.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14There was this kid, looked like a 13-year-old that fell out of the back of a bus
0:10:14 > 0:10:18and he was just flinging the car around with complete abandon and I
0:10:18 > 0:10:22thought, "This kid is good, this kid is exceptional."
0:10:22 > 0:10:25But I figured I was passing cars so I must be doing something right.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28It turns out they were just scared because a crazy bastard's coming up
0:10:28 > 0:10:31behind them and he's either going to run into them or not so they would
0:10:31 > 0:10:35just let me by. But I learned my craft by crashing.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37I crashed all year in that car.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40The car was always coming home in more than one piece.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43It left in one piece and came home in two, three,
0:10:43 > 0:10:49sometimes 50 pieces, and my mum, she'd come out and take a look at it and she'd go,
0:10:49 > 0:10:52"When are you going to quit this nonsense and get a real job?"
0:10:52 > 0:10:55And then I'd just be completely depressed,
0:10:55 > 0:11:00go to bed, wake up next morning with a completely different attitude and start again.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08At that time Bernard Devaney, Derek Daly,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12David Kennedy and Eddie Jordan were all in England.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15So I read about those guys and I'd seen pictures of them, you know,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18so obviously I thought, "If they can do it then I can do it."
0:11:19 > 0:11:22So I left Ireland at the end of '78, and that was it.
0:11:22 > 0:11:23Never looked back.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30The kid that came over from Ireland to England in '78,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33was raw, ragamuffin, chancer.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Full of hope, massive talent,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38total self-belief, but that was all he had.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44So, the way the junior categories work is that you have professional teams
0:11:44 > 0:11:47building the cars, creating the cars, fielding the cars.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49That all costs money.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52By and large, the teams don't go and get drivers.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56What happens is the drivers bring the money to the team to run them.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Whether that's commercial sponsorship or family money or whatever,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04it's that that sustains the junior categories in motor racing.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07It's very, very rare that anyone gets a drive for free
0:12:07 > 0:12:10but Tommy managed to get a drive for free.
0:12:11 > 0:12:16- ARCHIVE:- Ralph Firman started his own firm, Van Diemen, in the early '70s.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20Van Diemen has won every major Formula Ford championship in England
0:12:20 > 0:12:25since 1977, and for that you need drivers with talent and nerve.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30If we feel that we haven't got such a driver then we will sponsor one
0:12:30 > 0:12:32ourselves.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36Van Diemen have been very successful over the years because, A,
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Ralph picks winners and, B,
0:12:38 > 0:12:40he didn't want that winner in someone else's car,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43so he certainly recognised Tommy's talents early.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47He knew Tommy didn't have any money so you could hardly ask him for money.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52If you wanted him in the car he was going to have to give him the drive for free.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54- MURRAY WALKER:- And there is the man to watch.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58It is 21-year-old Tommy Byrne from Dundalk in Ireland
0:12:58 > 0:13:01who has already won three Formula Ford races this year.
0:13:03 > 0:13:04When he came from Ireland,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07initially he was quick in the Formula Ford car,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09like lightning-quick.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14Tommy Byrne is in a class of his own in Formula Ford racing this year.
0:13:14 > 0:13:15A string of wins,
0:13:15 > 0:13:19he just has to get into the car and he seems to be on his own.
0:13:20 > 0:13:26That was quite impressive for a guy straight over from a regional
0:13:26 > 0:13:28championship to being at that level immediately.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31He was winning national Formula Ford races.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35I could learn tracks very fast.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38I was pretty good at reading how good the other guys were and how good I was.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41I just knew I had something different.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44He instinctively knew what to do.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49He would get the best out of the car no matter what it was doing.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53Tommy was the only person that I knew that was working on his own car.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55He had no other support.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Everybody else was coming over, paying for a ride,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02expecting to get a full-time mechanic on the car.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Tommy was his own mechanic and then getting in the car and racing.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08He did things with the car that you just...they weren't possible,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10you know, I know about racing cars,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13I watch racing cars and you watched this car going round the track with
0:14:13 > 0:14:17this bloke in it and he just, that shouldn't be possible.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20Byrne has won race after race this year.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24He has really stamped his mark on Formula Ford racing.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28It was quite clear he had speed and he didn't succumb to any pressure, that's for sure.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30So that confidence went into the car.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34It wasn't a fake, showy thing, he just had that self-belief.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37Jumped in the car, delivered and won the Championship.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41There, appropriately enough, is brilliant Tommy Byrne,
0:14:41 > 0:14:49the 1980 P&O Ferries and RAC Formula Ford Championships champion of 1980.
0:14:49 > 0:14:55Tommy arrived in the UK as a fully formed rebel and you knew he
0:14:55 > 0:14:57was going to go places because of his prestigious talent.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00You just didn't know how high that elevator was going to go because of
0:15:00 > 0:15:05his personality. You could see that it would be a limiting factor.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13He lived off everybody and he could smile doing it.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17He'd order a meal in a restaurant long before he'd tell you,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19"I've no money, will you pay for that?"
0:15:19 > 0:15:23He had no place to stay, he had no car, he had no money for petrol,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25he had no money for food.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29How could you make a living unless you're supported by family and friends?
0:15:29 > 0:15:31The family wasn't in a position to support him.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34So he was dependent on the goodwill of others.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40We'd go maybe out and have a few beers and he'd get up the next morning
0:15:40 > 0:15:44and you'd see him walking around with a pair of trousers that you knew were yours.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46You need to get your jacket.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50- Jacket's down in the truck. - 'Tommy loved a drink.'
0:15:50 > 0:15:53He'd get himself into trouble now and again, but that was Tommy.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56People wanted to be part of Tommy's world.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58You'd be out in a bar somewhere and a girl would be drunk and say,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02"Tommy, you're so handsome," and he'd say, "There's no way I'm handsome.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04"I might be cute, but I'm certainly not handsome."
0:16:05 > 0:16:07There was something that Tommy had
0:16:07 > 0:16:11which enabled him to, on the one hand,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14be blindingly quick, but he also had, on the other hand,
0:16:14 > 0:16:19another God-given gift, for which, if there was a gold medal for shagging,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21he'd have won it time and time again.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29As well as the driving,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32on a Sunday morning you had to do the partying on a Saturday night.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37Girls and parties, that was all part of the rollercoaster.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42He spent more time with girls - when other men were sitting at home studying
0:16:42 > 0:16:46every corner and ever gear change that they had done on their day's practice,
0:16:46 > 0:16:52Tommy was out that night to see, could he get a girl? Maybe two.
0:16:53 > 0:16:59You didn't get stability with Tommy Byrne, you got chaos, confusion.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Fun, the best fun you could imagine, but chaos.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08I acted a little bit different than the other guys getting in the car.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10I would just get excited, like I was high or something.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12I'd just go...
0:17:12 > 0:17:14And people just talk, "What the heck is he doing?
0:17:14 > 0:17:16"He's like all over the place."
0:17:16 > 0:17:19I could jump in the car last minute and still win the race.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Some people were frightened of him, of what he could do.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29It was the way he walked through the paddock, it was the way...
0:17:29 > 0:17:33He had a very quick step and everything about him was bang, bang, bang.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39The persona he projected to the outside world was of
0:17:39 > 0:17:43"I'm the best. I'm the bollocks."
0:17:44 > 0:17:47That obviously rubbed some people up the wrong way,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50but that was just his persona, that was how he was.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54He absolutely believed that he was the best driver in the world.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01- ARCHIVE:- Ralph Firman's eagle-eyed talent-spotting produced Brazilian Ayrton da Silva.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06Now the motor-racing world is tipping him as a future world champion.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08With the case of Ayrton and Tommy,
0:18:08 > 0:18:10they couldn't have been from more different backgrounds.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12One was a millionaire's son,
0:18:12 > 0:18:17with all the social graces that come from a privileged background,
0:18:17 > 0:18:19very at ease in that world.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25Whereas, Tommy came over from Ireland with nothing.
0:18:43 > 0:18:47So, '81, I was Senna's mechanic in the Formula Ford,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49working at Van Diemen still.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51And then I go home and I was living with Tommy.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55So they both had very, very good seasons.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57But Senna always had his eye on him.
0:18:57 > 0:18:58I'm not going to say he was afraid of Tommy,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01he was afraid that he wasn't going to do as well as Tommy had done the
0:19:01 > 0:19:03year before.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07In 1981, he had these two junior categories.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11The entry level, which is Ford 1600, which was what Senna was doing.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13And he was blitzing the opposition there.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15Also operating from the Van Diemen factory,
0:19:15 > 0:19:19Tommy was doing the same in the next category up, which was Ford 2000.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21He won the two major championships.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23There's a British Championship
0:19:23 > 0:19:25and there's a European Championship and he blitzed them both.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29Ayrton would come along and do the exact same thing one year later.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33It's unusual that you get two talents of that calibre come along
0:19:33 > 0:19:36at the same time. They don't normally come along like that.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38And that was a problem for both of them.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Senna's nickname was Fast Man because Ralph would talk about,
0:19:45 > 0:19:47"There's a fast guy coming from Brazil."
0:19:49 > 0:19:54That's what pissed me off, because they should have been talking about me, I was a fast man, too.
0:19:54 > 0:19:55You know?
0:19:55 > 0:20:00I don't think I got the same respect that the guys with the money got,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02because, you know, people can smell when you're broke.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06They just know it, you know,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09they just smell it and they know and they just want to fuck with you and
0:20:09 > 0:20:12treat you a little bit different. But nobody messes with people with money.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16You're coming over, you're paying, you better do it like you asked.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18How much money do you need to find every year?
0:20:19 > 0:20:24Well, in '81, I would say around £20,000, £30,000,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28which is always very difficult to get, even with good results.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Wins and records, it's very difficult to get sponsorship.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36It caused particular resentment from Ayrton Senna,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39who was bringing significant backing to Van Diemen,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42that Tommy was just hopping from one free drive to the next,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46just sort of skipping up the ladder, seemingly for free.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Senna didn't like the way I conducted myself.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53Cos we were driving for the same team.
0:20:53 > 0:20:54He was doing everything right.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57I was cocky, he was arrogant.
0:20:57 > 0:20:58That was his personality.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00He must have had long weeks.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02At least I was out having fun during my week waiting to race.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06We didn't hit each other, until...
0:21:08 > 0:21:10The festival, when I drove his car.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13After that, that's when it went wrong.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18We move to Brands Hatch for the most important Formula Ford event anywhere in the world.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23The Marlboro Formula Ford Festival and Formula Ford World Cup.
0:21:23 > 0:21:24Before the festival,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27Senna announced he was retiring from motor racing and he was going to go
0:21:27 > 0:21:29back home to Brazil. That was it.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34He said he was disenchanted with a sport that required drivers to pay
0:21:34 > 0:21:39and I'm sure Tommy getting his drives for free initiated that niggle in him.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Ralph at Van Diemen was left in a bit of a spot.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45He needed, for the good of the company, to win that festival.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48So he called Tommy up and said,
0:21:48 > 0:21:49"Can you come and win the festival for me?"
0:21:49 > 0:21:52And Tommy being Tommy, "Yeah, 'course I can."
0:21:52 > 0:21:54And did, in Ayrton's own car.
0:21:55 > 0:22:00I won 100 bottles of champagne and I got 50 of them from Ralph after
0:22:00 > 0:22:04arguing with him, I tried to tell him I needed 100 because I won them.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06He says, "It's my car." I says, "It's my win."
0:22:06 > 0:22:10So we ended up with 50 each, and I did exactly what I wanted to do.
0:22:10 > 0:22:12I wanted to spray the shit everywhere and just waste it,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16and that's we did. And drank as much as we needed to get drunk.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20That created an opportunity for Tommy to progress to Formula 3,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23that he probably wouldn't have got otherwise.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26An opportunity that Senna was originally going to have.
0:22:26 > 0:22:32So Ayrton had inadvertently created an opportunity for Tommy that actually
0:22:32 > 0:22:38hurt Ayrton because it spoiled his plans for doing F3 the following season.
0:22:38 > 0:22:39After the festival,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43I was still living up in Norfolk at the time and Senna's car was sitting
0:22:43 > 0:22:46there from the year before, after he left it there.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48And my car would get punctured every now and then.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50So instead of fixing the puncture,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54I'd just take my wheel off my car and swap it with Senna's car that
0:22:54 > 0:22:58was sitting there. I guess he came back in 1982.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00He wasn't supposed to come back, he was supposed to retire.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04But he came back and he just burst in there and started screaming at me
0:23:04 > 0:23:06for stealing his wheels.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10"You fucking Irish thief," and screaming and shouting and I'm screaming and
0:23:10 > 0:23:13shouting back to him. We didn't come to blows because somebody came and
0:23:13 > 0:23:16stopped it, but he was very, very angry.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19If Senna didn't go home, my career would have been done.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Two championships, I probably wouldn't have got Formula 3.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24I just got lucky, I guess.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28Oh, shit, look there.
0:23:28 > 0:23:29That's my old car. Holy smoke.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Hey, guys, what's up?
0:23:31 > 0:23:34- Hey, Tom, how's it going, buddy? - Hiya.- Good.- Nice to meet you.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37- How long have you had that?- I think we've had it four years now.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39You got my name on it. Look at that.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43I think I had the nicest seat.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45It's... Yeah,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48I'm probably a couple of pounds heavier than you were back in the day.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51Back in the day, I was like Mick Jagger, I was tiny.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53INDISTINCT SHOUTS
0:23:57 > 0:24:02Formula 3 would be the last step, at the time, before Formula 1.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07It was where the F1 team owners and team sponsors were all looking for the next talent.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14My thought in 1982 was, because I was struggling for money,
0:24:14 > 0:24:20"I need to just blitz these guys. I need to beat them so bad that
0:24:20 > 0:24:23"it's not just good enough winning the race, I need to win by a mile,
0:24:23 > 0:24:25"so it'll be easy to get the money to get into Formula 1."
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Winning just wasn't good enough.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29I had to show them how great I was.
0:24:32 > 0:24:33Tommy Byrne knows this race is his now.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37Tommy Byrne wins the...
0:24:37 > 0:24:40So that's what he did, he dominated the early races.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46This man heading for a 33-point lead in the championship.
0:24:46 > 0:24:47Tommy stepped up with Murray Taylor,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49who was running a Formula 3 team at the time,
0:24:49 > 0:24:53and this was a category in which the budgets were much higher.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56For someone in Tommy's circumstances,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59the prize money for winning each race would fund the following race.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02So he absolutely had to win those early races.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Literally, the prize money was keeping the team's head above the water.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08That's an unusually intense degree of pressure.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13The fact that Tommy kept winning and leading the championship really gave
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Murray Taylor no option but to keep supporting him,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20finding the money from somewhere to get the car back to the race track
0:25:20 > 0:25:21for the next weekend.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26Everybody was running round looking for money, but we never got any money.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28Yeah, a couple of grand here and there.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32But Murray got some money from Shell and then he got some from General Electric.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Murray, so many different times, says,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38"Tommy, we can't move, we can't go on from here, we need to get money."
0:25:38 > 0:25:43Now, when I was going round Dundalk, getting £200 off somebody
0:25:43 > 0:25:47and £300 off somebody for Tommy to go racing,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51those figures were going from a few hundred quid to the level, eventually,
0:25:51 > 0:25:56where he was being asked for 100,000, 200,000.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Then reality started to kick in.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Unlike other drivers, his friends put together the pennies,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19not the pounds, to facilitate his onward step.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22And as that entourage grew,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25some of it attracted probably unsavoury elements.
0:26:27 > 0:26:33Businessmen, people from all sorts of hazy backgrounds were intoxicated
0:26:33 > 0:26:35by the world that Tommy was in.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39They latched onto Tommy and Tommy enjoyed their company.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42The racing world can get a bit sniffy about that sort of thing as well.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46He was hustling, he was doing it in the car on his talent,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50and out of the car he was just taking...
0:26:50 > 0:26:52help from wherever he could find it.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58He was attracted to London and, I suppose, the nightlife, parties.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02It's very easy to get sucked into that direction and still believe
0:27:02 > 0:27:05that you're doing the right thing for your career in racing,
0:27:05 > 0:27:06because why should they be connected?
0:27:06 > 0:27:08But they are.
0:27:08 > 0:27:14He was out partying with the people who were helping him pay for some of his expenses.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19So he felt he didn't have a choice but to play with these people as they were playing.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25They were enabling the drugs and the alcohol,
0:27:25 > 0:27:27and he knew it wasn't helping,
0:27:27 > 0:27:32but it was the only thing he could do to get to the next race,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35pay the rent, buy his next cup of coffee, perhaps.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43He was winning well in the first part of the '82 season and then it
0:27:43 > 0:27:48all started going wrong when the team took on a paying driver to help pay the bills
0:27:48 > 0:27:52and they'd given Tommy's old car to the paid driver.
0:27:55 > 0:27:56Murray gave me a different car.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59I never even came close to winning a race after that.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Six races in a row, I just was nowhere.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06So, of course, their answer to the whole thing was, "Tommy's lost it."
0:28:07 > 0:28:10And they'd just think, "Oh, Tommy, yeah, he must have had a beer last night,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13"mustn't be feeling too good today." Nothing like the way it was.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15I was still leading the Championship,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18but why should Murray Taylor even continue to run me even more if I'm
0:28:18 > 0:28:20not going to win the Championship?
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Cos the only thing he's getting out of it is winning the Championship.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27He had to win the Championship to be able to continue and show that he's a great team.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31So it went on and on and then it came to a head.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35I said, "Listen, I'm leaving unless I get a different car."
0:28:35 > 0:28:39And I quit the team with nothing to fall back on.
0:28:39 > 0:28:44And Murray did call me back and, eventually, I got a new chassis.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48I fought back. Some drivers are fucked, they can't fight back,
0:28:48 > 0:28:52because they actually start believing what these guys are telling them.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54You start thinking, "Well, maybe they're right."
0:28:54 > 0:28:56That was never a problem for me.
0:28:57 > 0:29:03They must have hated me. But I went to Brands Hatch and absolutely back to normal again.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06Pole position and just took off and nobody even came close to me.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09Tommy Byrne leading into Paddock for the first time.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11I think Brundle was in second place.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13All the heavy hitters, the Formula 1 guys were there,
0:29:13 > 0:29:17so this was the one - every Formula 3 driver wants to win the British Grand Prix.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21And I didn't just win the race, I won it by a lot.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26I needed that win, I needed it to happen at that time, which it did.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28It was one of my best performances ever, I would say.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34By winning that race, and to win it that well, by over 20 seconds,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37created a lot of interest in Formula 1.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41That's not quite as... That was fun.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43That was a laugh.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47There was one team in particular that took an interest,
0:29:47 > 0:29:48and that was Theodore.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54They wanted me to drive in Formula 1.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57For the last six races of the year.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01There are usually ten to 12 teams on the grid in the world.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04If you get an opportunity to show your talent, you take it.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12Just over four years since coming over from Ireland with nothing,
0:30:12 > 0:30:13and now in a Grand Prix.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Which is an amazing feat. That's how far he had come,
0:30:17 > 0:30:21and that was all down to Tommy and his talent, nothing else.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26That he could do that without any funding, virtually,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29except the pocket money from fans and friends,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33that could tell you everything you needed to know about Tommy's talent.
0:30:35 > 0:30:36I was excited.
0:30:37 > 0:30:38Very excited.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43But it all went to shit fairly quick.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50The car was a piece of shit.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52I wasn't the only driver that said that.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55The other two drivers before me couldn't qualify.
0:30:55 > 0:30:56Nobody qualified the car.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59I qualified it, I think twice out of five times.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03I tried to qualify for Dijon, did not, Hockenheim, did not,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07just a couple of tenths off, Monza, same thing.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13When I qualified for a race in Austria I was the last person to get
0:31:13 > 0:31:16in the car because I was starting last.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19I really wasn't impressed at starting last.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24I know I should have said I've been looking forward to this for so long.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27I was kind of looking forward to it, but maybe somewhere up the grid,
0:31:27 > 0:31:29in a better car. So...
0:31:31 > 0:31:33I just wasn't
0:31:33 > 0:31:36as excited as some people might have been.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39It was nothing fun. I didn't like the whole situation.
0:31:39 > 0:31:40Nobody spoke to me in Formula 1.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Niki Lauda said hello and Nelson Piquet said hi, that was it.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Keke Rosberg used to come up and hit me on the head every now and again
0:31:47 > 0:31:50cos I got in his way or something, just a complete dick.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55For three years I won everything, everything,
0:31:55 > 0:31:59and I had everybody behind me to help me win.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Now I get in a Formula 1 car and I am last.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Not only am I last, when I speak to the duty manager he tells me if
0:32:05 > 0:32:07Keke Rosberg was in my car he would be first.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Any suggestion I give the team, they didn't listen to me at all.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16For the first time, my ability was being questioned by these guys.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20I was 14th-quickest on the Friday practice.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23I thought I might have heard something pop I at the end.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25I wasn't too sure but I did mention to one of the guys,
0:32:25 > 0:32:27"Could you just check on something?"
0:32:27 > 0:32:31Then I did qualifying and I qualified last.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33The Theodore guys, their answer was,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36they brought Jackie Stewart up and sent him over to me to tell me how
0:32:36 > 0:32:39to drive round the track. Instead of listening to what I said early on that I
0:32:39 > 0:32:41think I might have heard something pop or something,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44obviously something happened. I was pissed.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48Can you imagine somebody coming up to Senna and telling him how to drive,
0:32:48 > 0:32:50how to take a line round the track?
0:32:51 > 0:32:53But I was as nice as could be.
0:32:53 > 0:32:54I did go back to Jo Ramirez and said,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58"Don't you ever, ever fucking send somebody over to me and tell me how to drive again."
0:33:06 > 0:33:11What happened to Tommy in his younger years informed him to behave
0:33:11 > 0:33:15in a certain way. When he ran in Formula Ford 2000,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17he had a bad car and he had to
0:33:17 > 0:33:19really work with the team and he had to put it to the team,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22I'm not driving for you, are you changing the car?
0:33:22 > 0:33:25And they changed the car and he became British champion and European champion.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28He then went into Formula 3 and a similar situation happened.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31The car was not performing well.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33And he put it to them, it's not me, it's the car,
0:33:33 > 0:33:39you've got to change the car. But what he didn't realise is you can't use those same techniques,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42you cannot bludgeon an F1 team into submitting your way.
0:33:42 > 0:33:43Tommy clearly didn't see that.
0:33:45 > 0:33:46The team manager,
0:33:46 > 0:33:48he pissed me off so bad.
0:33:49 > 0:33:55First off, actually I did talk to somebody about getting him bumped off
0:33:55 > 0:33:58early on after the first couple of races.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02Maybe I wasn't serious about it but I actually did talk to one of my
0:34:02 > 0:34:07friends in London who kind of, possibly, could have done something.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11It was just driving home one day, having a couple of beers, going, "I wish the fucking guy was gone.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13That is how I was thinking at the time.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20So at the end of the year in Vegas I had a few drinks after the race and
0:34:20 > 0:34:22I was fucking pissed and him, he was still yapping on,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25about, you know, just always, he was just this...
0:34:25 > 0:34:27It was just a bad time for me.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30So I told him to go stick it up his ass and threw a chair at him and
0:34:30 > 0:34:33stormed out of there, and that was it. So I was done.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37I was probably done anyway. But I didn't get fired.
0:34:37 > 0:34:39I just left. I did have a three-year contract.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43I'd rather not be doing Formula 1 than doing it like that.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46Especially if you haven't got a car that moves forward.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50Basically, you're just hanging on to see how many cars drop out.
0:34:50 > 0:34:51I knew I had something.
0:34:51 > 0:34:52I knew I had a talent
0:34:52 > 0:34:55and I could have taken that talent to another team.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02He came back from Las Vegas, from the Grand Prix there,
0:35:02 > 0:35:05to try to win his Formula 3 Championship,
0:35:05 > 0:35:11and the prize for winning that Championship was a Formula 1 test with McLaren.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13He felt that it could be the
0:35:13 > 0:35:17make-or-break opportunity of getting into Formula 1 in a top team.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21- MURRAY WALKER:- That's how close it is. First, second, and third. One, two, three.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23Mansilla, Scott...
0:35:23 > 0:35:26Into and out of the chicane together.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30I had to finish in front of Quique Mansilla
0:35:30 > 0:35:31to win the Championship.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35Dave's car, every time I got alongside him, he just run into me and put me on the grass.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38He did that sometimes three times per lap.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41In different areas. Nobody did anything about it.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44..Probably to get out of the car and walk away...
0:35:44 > 0:35:47The number-one guy was not even getting away so I still knew there was a
0:35:47 > 0:35:50chance, I just had to get by him and I still could win the race.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53Scott has got the inside line, banging wheels,
0:35:53 > 0:35:55and Tommy Byrne is he's waving him aside.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59"Move over," he's saying, "let me through." "Not likely," says Dave Scott,
0:35:59 > 0:36:01"I'm second and I'm staying there."
0:36:01 > 0:36:03And, ooh, Dave Scott locked up his rear wheel.
0:36:03 > 0:36:05Where is Tommy Byrne? I thought that would happen.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07He's gone through. This is it.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09This is the last lap.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11These are the two championship leaders,
0:36:11 > 0:36:13Quique Mansilla leads the race and the Championship.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16Now Byrne goes through... Magnificent!
0:36:16 > 0:36:18Within half a lap after I passed the other guy,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21I was two seconds a lap quicker on the last lap.
0:36:21 > 0:36:22They were holding me up that much.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27We won the Championship with a very small budget.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30It was huge deal. Big, big deal.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Now I'm going to get to drive for McLaren.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46HE SIGHS
0:36:48 > 0:36:51We've got VHSes.
0:36:52 > 0:36:53This one?
0:36:58 > 0:37:01That was probably the most important day of my racing career.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04That's the day I tested the McLaren.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06It was a race-winning Formula 1 car.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10It would be like driving a Mercedes today for a young rookie.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14So it was huge. A big, big day.
0:37:14 > 0:37:15Right there I was shitting myself.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18That particular time, right there,
0:37:18 > 0:37:20I definitely was getting worried about the whole thing.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22Could I do it?
0:37:22 > 0:37:24It's expensive to run a Formula 1 car.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26It always has been, always will be,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29so when a team puts a car on track for the day they are serious about it.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31It's costing them a huge amount of money.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35They're risking their car with a young driver that he is not going to stick it in the wall.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37The spotlight's on you. There are no excuses.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42It is a fast, competitive, well proven car from a top team.
0:37:42 > 0:37:43You've got to show your mettle.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57The car was just unbelievable.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01It was so easy to drive and just so fast.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03And I was only just getting started.
0:38:06 > 0:38:11The footage of that test shows a car being driven beautifully on the
0:38:11 > 0:38:13limit using every inch of track.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21He's turning in sharply and aggressively but absolutely right on the edge of
0:38:21 > 0:38:23the car's limits.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25That's what the stopwatch confirmed.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31Tommy's times were quicker than the drivers at the time,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33who were John Watson, a multiple Formula 1 winner,
0:38:33 > 0:38:36and three-times world champion Niki Lauda.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39It just doesn't get any better than that.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43What was impressive was he jumped into a car which he had never seen
0:38:43 > 0:38:48before he did the test, did a phenomenal lap time.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52I did a time that would have put me on the front row of the British Grand Prix
0:38:52 > 0:38:55and with my other car I was last.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02The fact I did a 110.1 three times in a row,
0:39:02 > 0:39:06which is pretty impossible to do, that is really consistent,
0:39:06 > 0:39:09certainly people would've been talking about it. Certainly.
0:39:11 > 0:39:12He did a 110.1.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14I couldn't believe it. I was there.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17Now, his next job was not to post a better time,
0:39:17 > 0:39:22his next job was to make sure that everything around that 10.1 was amazing.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24But that wasn't Tommy.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28I wasn't there in the aftermath of when he got out of the cockpit and
0:39:28 > 0:39:31who was listening to him, what he said to the team.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33I think a story went around that
0:39:33 > 0:39:37he said if they can go faster than that they can take their cucumber sandwiches and
0:39:37 > 0:39:40stick them up their arse or something, so that sounds about right.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Tommy insists he never said it.
0:39:43 > 0:39:44Of course I didn't say any of that.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47But at this stage the rumour mill was going.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51I only had to open my mouth and somebody would add what they wanted onto it.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56He did all he had to do from within the cockpit.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58That is all he was required to do.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00He passed with A-star.
0:40:00 > 0:40:06But it is the out of the car performance that sealed Tommy's fate.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12The management of McLaren wiped their hands of him.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17His cocky nature did not quite sit well with a very English-minded
0:40:17 > 0:40:19set-up of Ron Dennis and McLaren,
0:40:19 > 0:40:23which was ultra-corporate, ultra-professional.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27He was far too big a risk.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37Autosport comes out Thursday morning and the Motoring News comes out
0:40:37 > 0:40:39Wednesday night and I looked at it and it was like,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42basically a couple of words in one of the magazines
0:40:42 > 0:40:44and the other one said "Byrne fast but too cocky."
0:40:46 > 0:40:49I went, "Shit." For once I didn't say a word.
0:40:50 > 0:40:51That was a bit of a let-down.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54I wasn't expecting it, actually.
0:40:56 > 0:41:02Ron Dennis' quotes played down the level of Tommy's performance and he
0:41:02 > 0:41:07felt that just confirmed that he was never going to get an opportunity from Ron Dennis.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09He felt he had blown his chances.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12When it didn't happen he threw himself to the wind.
0:41:12 > 0:41:13That was it.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17I tried hard for four or five years to get to Formula 1 and I did
0:41:17 > 0:41:19but after that it was all over.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Then obviously the drinking and drugs got a little bit more.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25I'm lucky to be alive, I guess.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28I was just going through life like there was no tomorrow.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39European racing is today or nothing.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Americans seem to be, I hate to say this about Americans,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45but generally Americans are all about the second chance.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53So here I am in America in 1985, starting a whole new career
0:41:53 > 0:41:54again at the bottom.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57He's still got no money when he went to America.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00He is still scratching about,
0:42:00 > 0:42:04but he is a gun for hire, so he gets opportunities.
0:42:04 > 0:42:10He still thought he would probably end up making his millions in motor racing somehow.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16This time I wasn't quite as serious, maybe a little bit more partying.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19Actually, I started to enjoy racing a little bit.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21The feeder series to IndyCar,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24Indy Lights, or ARS, as it was initially called,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27Tommy did very well and wasn't in the best cars,
0:42:27 > 0:42:29wasn't in the best teams.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33He takes pretty much any opportunity that anybody offers him and he
0:42:33 > 0:42:35makes good use of them and he does well.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37In turn number 11, his final pass,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40this is the man who is going to win the race,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43Tommy Byrne charges the line and takes the chequered flag.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45It's going to be fun. I'm used to that.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49Tommy enjoyed the American adventure,
0:42:49 > 0:42:51the parties and the lifestyle.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54I won a bunch of races hung over in America.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56It was just a matter of, you know,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59having a bit of fun and winning some races at the same time.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01He just hung it out there.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04He wasn't afraid to tell you what he thought.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Guess what? That is what I liked about Tommy from the very first day.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12I didn't get it. I thought it was a big mistake.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14I think he should have stayed in Europe.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19For me, there is no way you can come from there and go back to Formula 1.
0:43:20 > 0:43:25If you are good enough, fast enough, and certainly Tommy was,
0:43:25 > 0:43:29a little window of opportunity will always open, it always does.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36By the time Ayrton Senna left Lotus, he actually put a word in to
0:43:36 > 0:43:40the Lotus boss Peter Warr that he should look at Tommy,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43but Tommy's exploits in America didn't even register.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46Eddie Jordan kind of half convinced me there was
0:43:46 > 0:43:48a chance of me still getting into a Formula 1 car.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52I think we talked to one team, Tyrrell, and I think they wanted a couple of million pounds,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55so, I mean, it just wasn't going to happen.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00I went over and back to Tommy a lot in America.
0:44:00 > 0:44:01He was enjoying himself.
0:44:01 > 0:44:07He would talk about the dreams that he still would have and after Tommy didn't make
0:44:07 > 0:44:11it in Formula 1 his dreams went into other things.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14Different things that he would say, "I am going to do in life."
0:44:22 > 0:44:24This is my old house.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26Got married and I bought this '87.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29When I came back from racing,
0:44:29 > 0:44:30this was my haven. I loved it.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45Well, this place hasn't changed much.
0:44:49 > 0:44:5115 years, huh?
0:44:52 > 0:44:54Last time I was here.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59Spent a lot of good years here, ten good years, you know.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02Kind of sad. Sad and happy.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Happy and sad. Look at that.
0:45:17 > 0:45:18Vroom, vroom,
0:45:21 > 0:45:22Vroom!
0:45:26 > 0:45:29'This is my home. It was just, it was perfect.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33'It presents what I always wanted in America.'
0:45:34 > 0:45:39When I was doing really well, we had parties here, down here on the beach,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41and this was the life.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43I just went racing and came back to this.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Can't get much better than that, it was brilliant.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55In America, I only made half the effort.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57Half my effort was OK.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59You always think you're going to get 1 million,
0:45:59 > 0:46:01there's still always a chance, you know.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04I was only one deal away from the big time.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09Are we ever going to see Tommy Byrne in an IndyCar in the near future?
0:46:09 > 0:46:12I hope so. I'd like to get into a IndyCar and maybe do well,
0:46:12 > 0:46:15rather than just get into a car just to say, "Hi, I drive IndyCars."
0:46:15 > 0:46:20I'd like to do well, it would be nice to get into a good IndyCar team.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24You think about any category of major motor sports in the world today,
0:46:24 > 0:46:29you have IndyCar, 24 seats, you have Formula 1, 22 seats right now.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Sports car racing, eight to ten seats.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37The total amount of that is less than 50 drives available globally at
0:46:37 > 0:46:40any point in time, no matter what generation it is.
0:46:41 > 0:46:42That's not very many.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51There's only a small number of teams in IndyCar that have the finance to
0:46:51 > 0:46:55take on a driver, and Tommy would have come with a name.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02Other young kids in America that were coming through were dedicating
0:47:02 > 0:47:05their life to it, but for Tommy, it was something he did at the weekend.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08Not from Monday morning at eight o'clock when you got up,
0:47:08 > 0:47:10"How do I be a better racing driver?"
0:47:10 > 0:47:14That was a question he probably didn't ask himself, ever.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20Tommy was always running at the front, he'd always win two, three, four races a year.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Tommy was always a factor every weekend,
0:47:23 > 0:47:28but winning the Championship would have been the leap that he needed to
0:47:28 > 0:47:29get into IndyCar.
0:47:29 > 0:47:31..Within an hour
0:47:31 > 0:47:34we'll know who the new ARS champion is.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37In the three years I did full-time ARS was '87, '88 and '89,
0:47:37 > 0:47:41and I was going into the last race every time with a chance of
0:47:41 > 0:47:43winning the Championship.
0:47:43 > 0:47:44Tommy Byrne is really Mr ARS.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46He's run every year of ARS
0:47:46 > 0:47:50and he has done just about everything that you
0:47:50 > 0:47:53can do. He knows he has a chance to really go and win the Championship,
0:47:53 > 0:47:55he's been trying for it for four years.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01I was leading the race, the last race of the year in California,
0:48:01 > 0:48:03I was driving the shit out of it.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06This is the battle that's been joined since the drop of the green flag.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09Barry, something has happened directly behind you.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12It looks as if one car has gone off the course out of turn number 11.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14Now, does it involve Byrne, maybe?
0:48:14 > 0:48:17I think something's wrong with Byrne.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19I don't know how the car got over on that part of the...
0:48:19 > 0:48:21Oh, Tommy Byrne has nowhere to go.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Your thoughts at that point when you realised you were about to lose the Championship?
0:48:26 > 0:48:28I don't think I can say it on TV.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30Oh, bleep!
0:48:30 > 0:48:34'So that day I lost the Championship and 80,000'
0:48:34 > 0:48:38and the Triple Crown. I lost a lot, and the chance to get into IndyCar.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41So I lost it all in one day.
0:48:41 > 0:48:42It just wasn't to be.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50I should have stopped in '89 and got a job.
0:48:50 > 0:48:55It just wasn't to be. And at that stage now, '90, '91,
0:48:55 > 0:48:57I do a couple of half-assed races
0:48:57 > 0:49:01and when I was lapped by my team-mate,
0:49:01 > 0:49:03Vince Neil from Motley Crue,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06I knew it was kind of all over at that point.
0:49:06 > 0:49:07And then that was it.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Probably started drinking a little bit too much at that stage.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Smoking the pot.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19I would say at the end, I was just worn down at that stage.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23Things weren't going too good at home, you know, with my wife.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31There was some issues. I was coming to the end.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36It was just... That was always hanging over your head, you know.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39And no money whatsoever. Hadn't got a pot to piss in.
0:49:40 > 0:49:41So I had to do something.
0:49:43 > 0:49:44Different categories across the globe,
0:49:44 > 0:49:48you would have Formula 1 at the epicentre of world motorsport.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52You'd have IndyCar in America and then as you come down the ladder to
0:49:52 > 0:49:58the different categories that you would parachute out to and you,
0:49:58 > 0:50:00then drop down to another level and then another level
0:50:00 > 0:50:05and then somewhere below all those levels was racing in Mexico.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15I got a phone call from Alberto Lozano, my team owner.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19He kind of invited me down and ended up giving me 2,000 a race and the
0:50:19 > 0:50:21full mini bar and all expenses.
0:50:21 > 0:50:23So, I mean, I was making decent money.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25Took a very dark turn in Mexico
0:50:25 > 0:50:29because the sort of characters that
0:50:29 > 0:50:33were able to fund Tommy's racing were...unusual.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35I was in New Mexico.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38The first visit, I met this guy, Orchio.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43But I would just mention to him, "If we had an Italian engine,
0:50:43 > 0:50:44"I think we'd go win that next race."
0:50:44 > 0:50:49So then he would go to my team owner and buy the 30,000 engine.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51So he put a lot of money into the team that way.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56Don't ask where the money came from and don't ask about the lifestyle
0:50:56 > 0:50:59round it, but Tommy had to fit in
0:50:59 > 0:51:03with that in order to continue getting drives,
0:51:03 > 0:51:07which he happily did until it got too crazy even for Tommy.
0:51:07 > 0:51:08GUN COCKS
0:51:08 > 0:51:10GUNSHOTS
0:51:13 > 0:51:14Pretty good.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18Mexico, it was just a total mess.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21It was just partying and whores.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23That's all Mexico was.
0:51:23 > 0:51:25He wasn't paying for whores, I can assure you.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28Somebody else was.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31It was very, very crazy.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36It was a lot of drinking down there, a lot of partying down there.
0:51:36 > 0:51:38Just lots of it.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42And they're very wealthy. I just went along with what I was supposed to do.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46There was a room that you nearly could not get into
0:51:46 > 0:51:52because of boxes of beer in the house, all got to do with his sponsorship.
0:51:53 > 0:51:58The guy was living an oblivious life at that point.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02Where he thought he should be was world champion, and here he was,
0:52:02 > 0:52:06he was stuck in a rut with a drug baron in Mexico,
0:52:06 > 0:52:07not really a nice place to be.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11His contemporaries, who he'd completely blown away,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14were now F1 drivers, earning vast fortunes.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18So that would have hurt and that kept the wounds alive.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23I can't think of a driver that was at Tommy's level that's ever ended
0:52:23 > 0:52:26up on the margins of racing like that.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28He fell probably further than anybody's fallen.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37Probably could have stayed in Mexico longer, except Orchio had...
0:52:37 > 0:52:42We had a bunch of girls in the house and next thing is we hear gunshots
0:52:42 > 0:52:47upstairs. And then Orchio comes to the top of the stairway,
0:52:47 > 0:52:51fucking completely naked, and he's got a gun in his hand.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54I'm going, "Jesus, Orchio, que pasa? You crazy..."
0:52:54 > 0:52:58He goes... And he shoots at me and missed.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01And the girls are running down the stairway, naked,
0:53:01 > 0:53:02tits are flying everywhere.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04And they're running past me, "Tommy, help me, help me!
0:53:04 > 0:53:07"He's loco!"
0:53:07 > 0:53:08I said, "To hell with this."
0:53:08 > 0:53:11I turned round back in the room and locked the door.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14That's when I left and I didn't go back.
0:53:14 > 0:53:19And Alberto called me two weeks later and he said Orchio was dead.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22He drowned in a swimming pool.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34When I came back from Mexico, it was over, I didn't race again.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40Most of your life's behind you and it didn't work out
0:53:40 > 0:53:41the way it should have.
0:53:43 > 0:53:44There's no more racing,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48there's no more winning and our relationship was gone to shit.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54We were done. And it all fell apart here.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59People get fed up, you're complaining, you're calling people, boo-hoo.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01Lost my wife, she left me.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04And I didn't have the kids for a while because they were with their mum, and it was hard.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07Just lying there on the couch with my beer and you'd look
0:54:07 > 0:54:10over and they weren't there any more.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12That was probably the worst part for me.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18I went out to visit him and he was living in a caravan beside a lake,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21and he didn't want me to come with him cos he didn't want me to see
0:54:21 > 0:54:25what he was doing and he was gathering ferns, he was working as a labourer.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29I just couldn't get going.
0:54:29 > 0:54:30I just couldn't get going.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33It was easier to drink and smoke pot and do my
0:54:33 > 0:54:37work out in the woods than it was to, you know,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40to go back looking for racing jobs, go back on the road.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44He says to me, "You probably think I'm a failure.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47"You probably think I'm a terrible failure."
0:54:47 > 0:54:51And I said, "Tommy, we've all got things that haven't worked out for us in
0:54:51 > 0:54:53"our lives, the dice might not have rolled well.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55"But everybody respects the talent you have,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59"everybody respects what you've done, and more than that,
0:54:59 > 0:55:02"it's you that you like, not the fact that you drove a bloody Formula 1 car."
0:55:05 > 0:55:06He was very low.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11I don't know how he really got himself back together.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13I just really don't know.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20I was losing my kids, you know.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24Even though I ended up, in the end, getting custody of the kids,
0:55:24 > 0:55:26but it was rough.
0:55:26 > 0:55:31It was nothing... That's when I needed some stability, job-wise.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38'94, when I started working with Ohio,
0:55:38 > 0:55:40sometimes I would do... I think
0:55:40 > 0:55:44I did 120 days one year and then I was starting to do a little
0:55:44 > 0:55:47bit of coaching on the side. '94, '95,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50things were getting better and the house was gone, renting and stuff,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53so things were, for sure, picking up.
0:55:54 > 0:55:56And then, of course, I met Michelle.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01And that was my old girlfriend of mine from '84.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05I met her again and then things obviously got a lot better.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08The boys were there, growing up, it was kind of cool.
0:56:08 > 0:56:14In 1998, we met again and he was more serious, Tommy, still joked around.
0:56:16 > 0:56:22But there was an underlying seriousness, maybe a sadness.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26But I don't think that that sadness is following him around now.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29I'll wear it tonight.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31'As time went on,
0:56:31 > 0:56:32'I think he started realising'
0:56:32 > 0:56:35maybe how he should have handled his career,
0:56:35 > 0:56:36what he should have done.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38But I think he's able to let that go.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43But you know what? I personally don't think he's ever going to get away from it.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45It will always be part of him.
0:56:45 > 0:56:46I don't think he can ever...
0:56:46 > 0:56:50He cannot box it up and put it away like memorabilia.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52'It's part of him.'
0:56:52 > 0:56:54A lot of people think I'm a millionaire.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56Aren't you a millionaire?
0:56:56 > 0:57:00No. Not really. I'm just giving an example of what it's like sometimes
0:57:00 > 0:57:01being sort of a superstar.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03But I don't think I am alone.
0:57:03 > 0:57:05Yet.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20It's very easy to be critical of the things around Tommy that didn't
0:57:20 > 0:57:25give Tommy what he needed, but certainly, in my experience,
0:57:25 > 0:57:30Tommy Byrne deprived himself of the opportunity to be a world champion.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37Sometimes you just have to play the game.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41I often ask, "Did Tommy ever play the game well enough?"
0:57:55 > 0:57:58I did chase. I just didn't chase their way.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00I had my way of doing it.
0:58:01 > 0:58:06Every day I thought about getting to the next level, every fucking day.
0:58:06 > 0:58:07I just did it a different way.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11I do know one thing. Nobody gives a shit.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14I was pissed off too long.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17I'm worn out, it's time to move on, because I'm not pissed off any more.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23I met a lot of people on my way and I made a lot of friends.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27It hasn't been a terrible life.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29I just lost out on about 100 million.
0:58:30 > 0:58:31That's all.