Team P R Reilly

[Dan Rear]

Anyone remember this lot, in G8 in 1976 ? They seemed to come from nowhere and disappeared almost straightaway. Was there an Irish connection somewhere ? They ran Shadows and an Ensign that year and had some OK results IIRC.

[allenbrown]

Roger Springett ran the team - my notes say I spoke to him in 1981 but I don't remember the background to the team.

Allen

[davyboy]

Yes, there is an Irish connection. They're an Irish motor parts/accessories business based in North Dublin and have been around for yonks [www.prreilly.ie]. In the 1970s, they seemed to be involved in motorsports at all levels. Lots of drivers in domestic Irish championships were supported by them and even Derek Daly used to carry PR-Reilly logos on his race-suit [and maybe on his car] when he drove for Tyrrell in F1. I'm not sure who the philanthropic individual there was back then and why it all stopped.

While we're on the subject... for such a poor country in the 1970s... Ireland appeared to have an amazingly full motorsport portfolio. Aside from supporting a good grid of F-Atlantics, you had Syd Taylor, John Hynes, Derek McMahon and Frank Nolan all mentoring on a pretty high level.

[rbs]

Roger Springett did run this team from a garage in Kingsthorpe, Northampton. His regular driver was Mike Wilds. Wilds damaged the car at Mallory Park in an accident with Bill Gubelmann if I remember correctly.

Roger later became the local Skoda dealer and ran an ex-works Estelle in the Skoda challenge for Bill Douglas.

[allenbrown]

Hello rbs from Northampton.

So what's Roger doing nowadays?

[rbs]

As far as I know Roger still lives near Northampton and has taken to flying.

[davyboy]

So how did Roger end up running/owning a team synonymous with an Irish motor factors based in Killester North Dublin ?

[Roger Springett]

Originally Posted by davyboy

So how did Roger end up running/owning a team synonymous with an Irish motor factors based in Killester North Dublin ?

Hi - I have just joined - browsing through and saw these questions.The connection with P.R Reilly : I ran their UK operations and we promoted +1 oil treatment as main sponsor on my Shadow DN1 & 3,Drivers Mike Wilds,Lella Lombardi and Richard Scott;also had an Ensign MN02 for Antonio Barnardo to drive - but he never did race it,although Mike Wilds drove it a couple of times
too keep the cobwebs out of it ! Then purchased Dave Purley's Lec Chevron B30 for the following season - again Mike Wilds was the driver.
Then went flying !

Roger Springett