Thomas Byrne (born 6 May 1958 in Drogheda, but grew up outside Dundalk County Louth) 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. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Tommy’s early racing started with a Mini and then a Crosslé 20F Formula Ford but while at Mondello Park’s Racing Driver School, his talent was noted by John Murphy. He entered him into the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in 1977 and despite a spin stopping him reaching the final, Tommy’s driving had impressed.
In 1978 he continued in Formula Ford with a Hawke DL17/19 but after he switched to the PRS team he put the RH01/78F on pole and won. He had a works drive for PRS the following year but it proved to be a disappointing season. 1980 saw Tommy racing at the front with a Van Diemen RF81 and he finished second in the Formula Ford Festival.
In 1981 he moved to FF2000, winning the British and European titles, and while standing in for Ayrton Senna at the Formula Ford Festival, he won the event.
He then moved to British F3 with Murray Taylor Racing and in the Ralt-Toyota RT3 he took seven wins and was F3 Champion. He won, despite missing three races, and he missed these was due to the fact that during the year he also raced for the Theodore Formula 1 team. Tommy had been offered the role of test driver with McLaren, but turned it down to take the race seat at Theodore but it was a frustrating season for him. While at the team, other drivers were amazed to see Tommy working on his own car while they themselves had teams of mechanics supporting them.
A prize for winning the F3 championship was a test with McLaren and he set the third fastest ground-effect time ever recorded at Silverstone, though unfortunately, a race seat with McLaren didn’t happen.
He then drove for Eddie Jordan Racing in the European F3 championship, where he won two races and finished fourth in the championship. There would be another change of teams and the next year saw him racing the Anson team’s Alfa Romeo SA4B1984, finishing 6th in the Championship.
He described how the period 1983/84 was when they had fun; one time Gerhard Berger took Tommy’s clothes and threw them in the hotel pool so in response he took the wheels, spare wheel, windscreen wipers, and anything he could take off, from Berger’s BMW and threw them in the pool!
Tommy then turned to the USA and the American Racing Series, where he was a race winner for four seasons, (only beaten to the 1988 title by three points) and was runner-up again in 1989.
From there, he decided to race in Mexico in 1992, which would some hair raising moments. On one occasion, his wealthy boss started shooting a gun off and chased some naked girls downstairs. Tommy tried to calm him but he took a shot at him, though fortunately missed.
After Mexican F3 Tommy retired though he would later race a Porsche 911 GT3-R in the 2002 Grand-Am series.
Living in Florida, he became a racing instructor, teaching Honda Teen/Adult Defensive Driving, Advanced Defensive Driving, Acura High Performance and Acura Advanced Performance Driving at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course plus a driver coach for Indy Lights team Brian Stewart Racing.
Tommy’s book, ‘Crashed and Byrned: The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw’ was published in 2008 and in 2009 it won the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year.
Describing Tommy, driver Calvin Fish said ‘he was in the mould of Hurricane Higgins and George Best, a little irreverent but super talented and liked a beer.’ Eddie Jordan said, ’Tommy Byrne was wild and some of the things he did were so unorthodox that only Tommy Byrne could have done them or will ever have done them’ and of his talent, said “Tommy Byrne was the best of them all.”
There is so much that could be added here but I would recommend people read Tommy’s book as it’s an entertaining read.
Tommy Byrne – Irish in the ARS – from 
