Irish Film Institute -Matt Cooper to host Q&A with motor racing Legend Tommy Byrne following Crash & Burn screening on Dec 2nd.

Matt Cooper to host Q&A with motor racing Legend Tommy Byrne following Crash & Burn screening on Dec 2nd.

Matt Cooper, the host of Today FM’s popular radio show The Last Word will interview the motor racing legend Tommy Byrne in a post-screening Q&A at the IFI’s special opening night screening of Crash and Burn at 6.30pm next Friday, December 2nd. The film’s award-winning director Seán Ó Cualáin will also take part in the live interview where audience members will have the opportunity to ask Tommy and Sean questions too.

Tommy was the equivalent of George Best and Muhammad Ali of the 80’s motor racing scene and Crash and Burn charts how he went from driving a Mini Cooper in stock-car racing to the big-time in Formula One in a little over four years and shows that for a fleeting moment was the best driver in the world and a serious rival of Ayrton Senna’s.  Eddie Jordan the former team-owner, who worked with both Senna and Michael Schumacher has said:  ‘Forget Schumacher and Senna. Tommy Byrne was the best of them all.’

Tommy’s rise was meteoric and his fall spectacular.  He was a cocky, aggressive driver from humble roots and the F1 glitterati simply didn’t like the mix. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Seán Ó Cualáin, the documentary shines a light on one of professional racing’s most dashing and charismatic talents and a glittering career that was doomed before it ever began.  It is the story of the greatest F1 driver never to emerge.

The film opens in the IFI on Friday 2nd December. Tickets for the Q&A are available now here. 

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