When one Ulsterman complained to Joan Crawford that the Ulster Grand Prix centennial celebration clashed with the Stafford Classic Bike Show, she gave him a withering look and, in that no-nonsense Northern Irish accent, put him straight. “If the organisers had known in 1922 that October 14, 2022, was going to be a problem for you, I’m sure they would have changed it.”
Harry Ferguson, who would go on to develop the modern agricultural tractor, was the driving force behind the first Ulster GP. It might have been a man’s world 100 years ago, but if he had found a Joan you can be sure he’d have delegated the organisation to her when he went off to America for a chinwag with Henry Ford. Joan is a woman who gets things done. And she’d have made sure that the first Ulster GP got some publicity
