It started with juddering engines and glorified pram wheels . Michael McAleer vrooms through 100 years of Phoenix Park motor races

For all its popularity with attending pop stars, presidents and pontiffs, the Phoenix Park has possibly a greater claim to fame. It is now the world's oldest motor racing venue still in use and this weekend is due to host a centenary celebration of Irish motorsport.

Loud music and fast cars were probably not in the Earl of Ormond's blueprints for the Park back in the 17th century. Yet his wish that it "provide a recreation ground for the citizens" seems to have been fulfilled, as the smell of sweaty youths who thronged the park for Robbie Williams last weekend gives way to the pungent odour of racing oil.

The park has played host to a land speed record, three international grands prix and once so grabbed the public's attention that English motoring journal Auto described the 1930 Irish Grand Prix as "the greatest race of all time".

According to Auto, the most noticeable feature was "the amazing pitch to which the public's anticipation and excitement has reached, even taking into account the normal highly strung characteristics of the lads and lasses of this fair isle. They are just craving to be thrilled and to give vent to their pent-up feelings."

Irish motorsport's official centenary was July 2nd, marking 100 years since the Irish Automobile Club took it upon themselves to host the 1903 Gordon Bennett Race. Back then, a route was chosen near Athy, but with such strong public interest in these new fangled contraptions it was decided to run other events and extend activities over a two-week period, known as Automobile Fortnight in Ireland.

Within the programme of events, Motor Speed Trials were organised for July 4th in the Phoenix Park. Goggled drivers raced through the park, atop large juddering engines and connected to the road by glorified pram wheels. They pointed their chariots down the long straight at Chesterfield Avenue and tore along, veering slightly to avoid the Phoenix statue, with Frenchman Baron de Forest setting the world land speed record at 85.9 m.p.h. in the process.

Yet, for all the excitement generated in 1903, there was to be no more racing in the Park until 1929 when the first Irish International Grand Prix was run over a D-shaped circuit of four miles 460 yards. Among the prizes on offer was The Irish Times Cup for the driver of the winning Grand Prix car which was won by Boris Ivanowski in his Alfa Romeo who took home most of the prizes that year.

Bob Montgomery, motor historian and author of Racing in the Park, a new book on the history of the Phoenix Park racing, quotes various journals at the time lauding the success of the event. The decision to retain the race in Ireland for the following two years suggests both organisers and racers were more than happy with arrangements.

However, politics and the world economic downturn were to put pay to any further international events there. A change of government removed the supportive W.T. Cosgrave from office, replaced by de Valera who quickly made it clear he would not continue to support "a rich man's game".

Since then, racing in the park has had a rather chequered history and was cancelled last year due to lack of funding. This year's event was in doubt at one stage. Yet after grands prix heydays, it stills attracted a sprinkling of international stars; from Siamese prince B Bira in the mid-1930s to more modern-day Formula One drivers such as Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

This year the cars are the star attraction, with Ferrari presenting a considerable presence with a €1 million Enzo on show and demonstration laps by one of Michael Schumacher's Formula One cars.

However, Dermot Quigley, one of the race co-ordinators, says despite motor racing's tag as a costly pursuit only for the wealthy, the park races represent the diversity and variety of both cost and competition on offer. "Take the Formula Vee racers, for example. Single seaters powered by old Volkswagen Beetle 1,600cc engines and built in Ireland by David Sheane, these are a low-cost way to get involved in racing. They offer lots of fun and you could have a year's racing including the cost of buying the car for about €10,000.

"Of course, you have the other end of the scale at the park as well. On both days there are races for full-racing models of Porsches, all driven by Irish drivers. You wouldn't want to be racing these while on the dole."

For all the modern day cars on show, the future of racing in the park is in the past. According to Cecil Sparks, president of Motorsport Ireland, the aim is to build up the event over the next five years, ultimately on a par with the Goodwood festival of speed in England. This year two historic races will offer a taste of what the future may hold. With more than 50 competitors coming from England alone for these events, it shows the potential appeal. Among 20 entrants is an Irish-built Crossle 22F, driven by James Ledamon, originally raced in 1972 by Irish racing driver Ken Fildes, one of the most prominent drivers of his era.

Also contending for first place will be another Crossle, an 18F, driven by Tommy Reid, a septuagenarian from Tandragee, Co Armagh, who still holds the lap record for the Dunboyne road circuit.

In the historic sports and saloon cars category, racing along with Jaguar XK120s from the early to mid-1950s, is a 1963 Jaguar Mark II, similar to the one featured in Inspector Morse. There's also an Irish entry in the form of Gabriel Konig from Drogheda in her 1970 Vauxhall Viva. With large parts of the route resurfaced for this weekend's racing, we can expect the thrills and spills of bumper-to-bumper action in the 28 races taking place.

Some of the Irish motorsport fraternity still hope for glory days in the future, pointing to Australian Grand Prix that takes place in a venue similar to the Phoenix Park. However, organisers of Irish motorsport are concentrating on more realistic goals.

In any event, given Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone's fondness for tobacco sponsorship, there's little chance he will support a new Irish Grand Prix in a city where a ban on smoking in pubs seems imminent.

Racing in the Park by Bob Montgomery will be on sale in the park this weekend and from the Motorsport Ireland offices, 34 Dawson Street, Dublin 2 - €10 in soft-back .

Admission to the races is free. The main Phoenix Park road will be closed from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days. Entrance is via North Circular Road gate, with parking on nearby streets or at the Papal Cross.