Rosemary Smith is a famous face in Irish motorsport, and in recent years became the oldest person to ever drive a Formula 1 car.
Smith has had a storied career - including competing in the sixties when there weren't many women driving rally cars around the world.
The Dubliner won The Tulip Rally in the Netherlands outright in 1965 - a race that took place in conditions so tough that only 45 of the 180 cars that started managed to finish the race.
In May 2017 Smith made history - getting behind the wheel of a Renault Formula 1 car at Circuit Paul Ricard in France. The event was filmed by helicopters, drones, and a large film crew as part of an advertising campaign.
In a wide-ranging career interview with Off The Ball's Shane Hannon, she explains just how the experience came about.
"Paddy Magee, who is the Head of Renault Ireland... he rang me up and said 'Would you like to drive a Formula 1 car?'
"'Ah yeah, sure why not!' It didn't cross my mind to [ask] what, why, when, where - it just didn't! That was that. I didn't tell anybody, they would have just laughed at me because I was 79 at that stage.
"Letters started to arrive from PR people in London and so on, and I thought 'I think they're serious about this!' I got a call to say it was on a certain date and I could bring somebody with me.
"So I rang my friend June and asked if she wanted to go to France for three days and she said yes, thinking of going wine-tasting or something!
"We flew out on one of those those of those red-eye flights to Marseille... I had to go and be fitted for a suit, and they were filming the whole time - and here I am trying to get into my undies!
"It was all great fun, [but] then I started to get nervous. And I really got nervous. June kept saying 'Don't worry about it, you're well able to do it.'
"Alain Prost turned up by my side and he was chatting away and saying to not worry about it."
Impressed by the turn-out of crew there to ensure her drive went smoothly, Smith says the attention to detail was (in some ways) too good to be true.
"I said to the PR man 'You know they really went to a lot of trouble for me, just for a few laps around here!' Everything had [my initials] RS written on it, my overalls had RS, the car had RS, the tyres had RS.
"[I was thinking] 'This is just incredible.' He was a lovely, English man and he looked at me with pity and said 'RS is for Renault Sport.' Did you ever feel as stupid!?"
Laps of the track followed to give Rosemary a better idea of the ins and outs of the course, and then she was ready to go.
"Now I'm slim, but it [the car] was even slimmer. I was thinking 'If I go down into it any further my toes will be out the front of the car!'
"Then this mechanic said 'Do you see the red button down there?' I couldn't see anything, I couldn't bend my head. He said 'Don't touch it. If you crash and burst into flames pull the button.' That is very encouraging just as they're pushing me out of the pit!
"Once I started off, it wasn't that I was frightened about it. I was frightened of making an absolute idiot out of myself. Who would give a woman 79 years of age a Formula 1 car to drive?
"I went round and round. When I finished I burst into tears... I had done it, I was so pleased to have done it. Even though it wouldn't have been fast, it was an interesting thing to have done.
"Because they said 'No, she'll never do it', unfortunately they didn't send anyone out from the Guinness Book of Records, which I was very sad about at the time. I thought it would have been great!
"I don't think anyone my age has done it since. I'd like to do it again now, having done it and knowing more about the car, but not to be I don't think."
'Golden Mondello - From Grass to Glory' is a documentary that tells the story of Mondello Park - the County Kildare track that is the home of Irish racing. Find out more about track and watch the documentary on the Mondello Park website.
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