The Most Famous

RACING DRIVERS from Ireland

Icon of occuation in country

This page contains a list of the greatest Irish Racing Drivers. The pantheon dataset contains 1,080 Racing Drivers, 6 of which were born in Ireland. This makes Ireland the birth place of the 23rd most number of Racing Drivers behind Denmark, and Portugal.

Top 7

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Irish Racing Drivers of all time. This list of famous Irish Racing Drivers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Joe Kelly

1. Joe Kelly (1913 - 1993)

With an HPI of 47.51, Joe Kelly is the most famous Irish Racing Driver.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages on wikipedia.

Joseph Michael Kelly (13 March 1913 – 28 November 1993) was an Irish racing driver and businessman, who entered into the 1950 and 1951 British Grand Prix.

Photo of Derek Daly

2. Derek Daly (b. 1953)

With an HPI of 45.60, Derek Daly is the 2nd most famous Irish Racing Driver.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Derek Patrick Daly (born 11 March 1953) is an Irish former racing driver, businessman and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1978 to 1982. Born and raised in Dublin, Daly won the British Formula Three Championship in 1977, before participating in 64 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting at the 1978 United States Grand Prix West. His 15 championship points made him the first Irish driver to score in Formula One, and remains the highest scoring; he also participated in several non-championship races. After Formula One, Daly moved to the United States to compete in CART and IMSA, where he led Nissan to the IMSA GTP Championship in 1990.

Photo of Brian Shawe-Taylor

3. Brian Shawe-Taylor (1915 - 1999)

With an HPI of 43.95, Brian Shawe-Taylor is the 3rd most famous Irish Racing Driver.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Brian Newton Shawe-Taylor (28 January 1915 – 1 May 1999) was a British racing driver. He participated in 3 World Championship Grands Prix and numerous non-Championship Formula One races. He scored no World Championship points.

Photo of Duncan Hamilton

4. Duncan Hamilton (1920 - 1994)

With an HPI of 42.71, Duncan Hamilton is the 4th most famous Irish Racing Driver.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

James Duncan Hamilton (30 April 1920 in Cork, County Cork, Ireland – 13 May 1994 in Sherborne, Dorset, England) was a British racing driver. He was known for his colourful and extroverted personality. After fighting in the Second World War, he took up motorsport. Although adept in single-seaters, he was more successful in sportscars, winning the 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans, two Coupe de Paris events, and the 12 heures internationals Reims race in 1956. He retired in 1958 and ran a garage in Byfleet, Surrey for many years. He died of lung cancer in 1994.

Photo of David Kennedy

5. David Kennedy (b. 1953)

With an HPI of 37.14, David Kennedy is the 5th most famous Irish Racing Driver.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

David Paul Kennedy (born 15 January 1953) is a former racing driver from the Republic of Ireland. He was one of his country's first Grand Prix drivers, and is widely seen as having helped pioneer the Irish move into international racing. Kennedy has been a prominent driver manager, a popular Formula One TV analyst, a shareholder with championship-winning single seater race teams and a board member at Ireland's Mondello Park Race Circuit.

Photo of Craig Breen

6. Craig Breen (1990 - 2023)

With an HPI of 36.20, Craig Breen is the 6th most famous Irish Racing Driver.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Craig Breen (2 February 1990 – 13 April 2023) was an Irish rally driver who last competed part time for the Hyundai team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). He won the 2012 Super 2000 WRC, scoring class wins in the Monte Carlo Rally, Wales Rally GB, Rally France and the Rally of Spain. Breen won the WRC Academy Cup in 2011, winning his first event at the 2011 Rallye Deutschland and sealing the championship with a win at Wales Rally GB. The Academy title going down to the last stage, with Breen and Estonian rally driver Egon Kaur ending the season, both on 111 points, Breen then won the title on count back of stage wins, 39 to 14. Breen won the 2021 Rentokil Historic Rally in Killarney, Kerry, Ireland in his BMW M3 E30. Breen died on 13 April 2023 after a collision with a post puncturing the cabin of the Hyundai i20 during a pre-event test ahead of the 2023 Croatia Rally.

Photo of Tommy Byrne

7. Tommy Byrne (b. 1958)

With an HPI of 35.08, Tommy Byrne is the 7th most famous Irish Racing Driver.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

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 is also a driver coach for Indy Lights team Brian Stewart Racing. He 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.

People

Pantheon has 7 people classified as Irish racing drivers born between 1913 and 1990. Of these 7, 3 (42.86%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Irish racing drivers include Derek Daly, David Kennedy, and Tommy Byrne. The most famous deceased Irish racing drivers include Joe Kelly, Brian Shawe-Taylor, and Duncan Hamilton. As of April 2024, 1 new Irish racing drivers have been added to Pantheon including Craig Breen.

Living Irish Racing Drivers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Deceased Irish Racing Drivers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Newly Added Irish Racing Drivers (2024)

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Overlapping Lives

Which Racing Drivers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Racing Drivers since 1700.