News in brief, September 2005

(see also page 101)

Former Le Mans winner Jurgen Barth has retired from Porsche after 42 years. The 57-year-old followed his father Edgar into the Stuttgart sportscar manufacturer, joining as an apprentice in 1963. He took charge of customer sport at the beginning of the 956 era and remained in the role until his retirement at the end of July.

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The future of the Phoenix Park motor races is again in doubt. The annual event, held in the inner city park in Dublin, was cancelled for the second time in three years due to a lack of funding. The organisers are trying to reorganise the fixture, which dates back to 1903, as a sprint.

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The founding father of the Daren sportscar marque, John Green, has died aged 74. After apprenticeship at Daimler and a stint at Fairthorpe, where he was involved in designing the Electron Minor, he built the first Daren in 1967. Green’s cars proved successful in the hands of drivers such as Martin Raymond and Jeremy Richardson, until a serious accident at Thruxton in the early ’70s put an end to Green’s racing and the Daren marque. The name was revived in the late ’90s after son David started racing in a Mk2, and a new car, the rotary-engined Mk7 was built. A successor was about to run at the time of John Green’s death.