Michele Meyers
primarily in F3, but after being shot at (the shot missed him) the following year by his friend Orchio, he decided to leave Mexico and headed straight back to the US. His career was instantly over. He became a labourer, fell into depression and it wasn’t until some friends got him involved with a local racing school that he managed to start enjoying life again. Today, Byrne works as a driver coach, mentoring young drivers who are trying to climb the same ladder he once did. He’s also back racing, but this time it is different. He isn’t doing it to earn money or prove a point. It’s now a hobby, and he’s achieving some strong results in historic racing having finished third in class in the 2020 Classic Daytona 24 Hours. Byrne’s career could easily be labelled as ‘a nearly made it driver’, however, that would be entirely disrespectful and unfair. He showed on countless occasions that he was one of the fastest drivers in the world, but
unfortunately various circumstances prevented him from ever reaching his full potential.There’s no two-ways about it: had Byrne got an opportunity in a top team or even midfield team in F1 he would have proven that he was capable of mixing it with the best of them. He had done it time and time again in lower categories, but he needed competitive machinery and money to prove that in F1 and he had neither. In the end, Byrne ended up with only minor championship titles recorded on his CV, yet none of that matters to him anymore. He’s now getting more satisfaction out of racing than he has ever had and it’s all because he’s doing it exclusively for fun. It shows that no matter what walk of life you are in, it can be unpredictable, it can be painful and nothing is for certain. That’s just how it goes. You never know what number you are going to roll on the dice. For Byrne that was a pair of fours rather than sixes, but despite that, life has turned out for the better.
THE PIT STOP 43