DEREK DALY’S RACING SUCCESS BEGAN WITH DRIVE
Writer / Lynda Hedberg Thies Photography / Provided
racing in the streets that night, his father promised to take him to the race.
Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Derek Daly remembers the exact day he found out why he was born. Spoiler alert: He was born to race cars.
“Everything about the race, the colors, the noise, the smells that I experienced that day, I told my father, I am going to become a professional race car driver,” Derek says.
Growing up in Dublin, Ireland, he loved everything about cars, the motors, the wheels, and the mechanics but there was no racetrack in Ireland, so he raced soapbox derby cars. Until the day that changed everything. By the age of 12, a set of circumstances came together that would change the trajectory of his life. While walking home from school, a Sidney Taylor Racing truck was sitting in the driveway of his neighbor. Sidney was the neighbor’s brother. Derek’s father had arranged to take him to see the car. And when he learned Sidney would be
His parents were extremely generous with their love, support and encouraging him to follow his dreams, but they did not have the means to support him financially. But when you have a date with destiny, your objective is simply just to do whatever it takes to make things happen. Derek started with go-karting, moving on to a dirt oval track where they raced demolition derby-jalopy racing. When he turned 16, he built his own car and his Dad would tow him on a rope across town. But to move up to Formula Ford level, the objective was to raise money or make TownePost.com / JULY 2021 / CARMEL MAGAZINE / 21
money. He chose to put his own fate in his own hands and worked for six months in the Australian Iron-Ore Mines and made enough money to buy the car. He returned home racing in Ireland and won the Irish Championship. But with each level of success, there was the next level of financial commitment. He knew that if he wanted to be a professional that he had to move to England. But again, resources were tight, and he says, “I had enough money to race or to live, but not both.” But when you want something badly enough, you don’t make excuses you make plans. Plan B was to buy an old school bus. His mother made curtains and his father made a mattress for him to sleep on. “So, I moved to England with a toolbox, a race car and a school bus. My goal was to make enough money to drive to the next race.” And all he did was win, win, win.
