Vincent Fagan

Reminiscences about “The Vin”

It was just an ordinary weekend in Knocklyon in the late 70s. A new family had moved into the estate. On Sunday morning Vincent was out taking a stroll and noticed that the new neighbour’s car was absolutely filthy - it had been spotless the previous day. He waited until the owner came out to wash the car and engaged him in conversation. Michael Herbert was the culprit and when he explained how he had acquired the dirt Vincent thought “that sounds like fun” and so “The Vin” legend began.

My first recollection is of him sitting with Stan Gibson in night navigation events. We both did these for quite a few years. I moved on to Retros and while Vincent competed in these very successfully, particularly with Conor Falvey, his motorsport involvement was more comprehensive than mine.

He took up autotesting and shared a Starlet with Joe Doran. I mentioned to Noel Broderick that I had never seen Vincent doing a test and he said “you didn’t miss much - it wasn’t a pretty sight!”. They had to get Ronnie Griffin to fit a clutch from a diesel Carina into the car for it to have a hope of lasting the event.

Always looking for new experiences, he did events in the UK - both navigation and retros. It was on one of these where Peter Scott came looking to borrow a pencil. Vincent obliged but Peter asked had he something thicker, whereupon Vincent suggested that Peter go and have a look in a mirror! He also did a "continental" event - the Classic Marathon with Bernard Bradley.

He co-drove in the odd stage event (his highlight, Rally Ireland in 2007 with Peter McCullagh in a Gp N Mitsubishi Evo) and was one of the first to venture north to the Lanes rallies up there. He also, of course, was on the TDC committee for many years and was involved in helping with, and organising, events, particularly the TDC Retro.

I will miss him.

Very sad to hear of Vincents untimely passing. I have nothing only fond memores of him on the good old days of the retros, he always brought a smile to me with his quick wit and humour. A great sportsman and competitior - will be sadly missed.
Sincere sypathies to his family, friends and fellow motorsport enthusiasts.
Lloyd Cochrane Armagh

The first time I met Vincent was in 2009 at my first multi-venue, It happened to be JJ’s event and Vincent was marshalling at a test start, the one around the little triangle and throws into the bays. As it was my (and Trish’s) first event, we got very lost between tests in the gold Starlet, had a little issue with filling it with diesel and couldn’t find the test. We somehow got Vincent’s mobile number, from Frank I think. Vincent, who we didn’t know at the time, patiently talked us through the directions many times along the way and kept us calm by saying that he’d wait for us even though we were two hours late. Not only this but Vincent duly brought our jerry can full of the diesel / petrol mixture back to JJ's and then nominated us for the bogie prize of the day, two cans of oil…

We will miss you Vincent..

It's hard to put into words and condense all the banter and craic that has been had over the last 6 or 7 years since I got to know The Vin. Like has been said numerous times recently The Vin had a comment (or 2 or 3) for everyone....whether he knew the person or not. My two most outstanding memories are the speech he gave after he guided Hard Luck Kevin to victory on the TDC Trial a couple of years ago and also the craic that was had on the Classic Marathon last year when he navigated Bernard Bradley.

In Vincents memory and with the consent of the family i have put together an album of photos from events The Vin took part in from the
TDC Classic Retro in 2008

to the Midland MVAT in 2013

The photos show Vincent sitting with Declan Hendrick, Joe Reynolds, Bernard Bradley, Kevin Fitzgerald, Ronnie Griffin and Owen Murray and can be found on http://public.fotki.com/speedy/the-vin/

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Peespeed Photography