Tony Dron b.1946
MOTORING LOST one of its towering figures – literally – on 16 November, when racing driver and journalist Tony Dron passed away.
At 6ft 5in, Tony’s lanky figure was unmistakable and contributed to a commanding presence that could, at times, be intimidating. His former colleague Paul Clark summed it up perfectly in his 2018 interview for Octane 185: ‘He retains the same wit and gimlet eye that could wither at a dozen paces.’
Tony gave me my first job in motoring journalism in 1989, while he was editor of
Thoroughbred & Classic Cars (later Classic Cars), and I still vividly recall being summoned into the office library for a dressing-down, after booking an expensive photographer for two days without authorisation. It was a lesson about budgetary control that I’ve never forgotten.
That’s not to say that Tony was a difficult boss. Far from it. He was always fair and open to suggestions, with a wicked sense of humour and a seemingly endless supply of anecdotes from a youth not so much misspent as well spent. Given his striking looks and the force of his personality, Tony was always popular with the opposite sex. He had many girlfriends and remained friends with most of them, which is a tribute in itself.
The consummate journalist, always meticulous and impeccably accurate in his assessment of a car, Tony was definitely a racing driver first and a journalist second. His rare talent was that he was equally good at both. He started in Formula Ford in 1968, a contemporary of James Hunt – ‘we were always in and out of each other’s houses’ – but the age-old problem of attracting sufficient sponsorship caused him to make a sideways move into motoring journalism. He joined the
Motor road test team in 1971 and two years later was promoted to sports editor – ‘but it was absolutely not what I wanted to do’. Tony wanted to be doing the racing, not reporting on it.
By then, Tony had realised that his height was always going to rule him out of many singleseaters and he decided to focus on saloons. His works drives for the Broadspeed/British Leyland team of Triumph Dolomite Sprints in the British Saloon Car Championship, 1974 and 1977/78, made him famous to the extent that he was once pulled over in his Sprint road car by a policeman who uttered the immortal words: ‘Who do you think you are – Tony Dron?’
In 1978 Tony won the Porsche 924 Challenge – he came first in six out of nine races, with Andy Rouse taking the other three – and in the early ’80s he successfully competed twice in Porsches at Le Mans, scoring a class win with a 934. A further attempt in a Porsche-Kremer CK-5 was ended by a blown engine in qualifying, though not before Tony had got it flat-out through the Mulsanne kink at 221mph.
Meanwhile, to keep the wolf from the door, Tony had spells as a salesman for Saab and Porsche before returning to journalism as features editor of T&CC in 1982, and then editor later the same year. Needless to say, he wrote plenty of road tests during his 11-year stint at the helm and his authoritative reports were the most respected of his era.
As Historic rallying and racing took off, Tony competed enthusiastically in both disciplines: the former in his much-loved 1959 Ford Zephyr, the latter as a pro driver for owners of machinery such as the Ferrari 246S Dino with which he won the Goodwood Revival’s Sussex Trophy three years in succession. During his competition career, he reckoned he’d won – not competed in – races in 24 makes and 44 models of car.
In the 2000s, Tony became a regular contributor to and columnist for Octane, before being forced to hang up his racing boots due to an ongoing struggle with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Despite being severely incapacitated, he enjoyed the occasions when he was able to drive his 1932 Austin Seven, and recently bought a Royal Enfield motorcycle. His widow Charis says that riding it was the only time he felt truly liberated from his condition.
Tony was married three times, first to Diana and then to Karen, before becoming partner and then husband of Charis; they were together 22 years. Our condolences go to them, his son and daughters by his previous marriages – Will, Amy and Katy – and his grandchildren.
In 2018, Tony underwent an operation at Papworth Hospital that initially seemed to give him a new lease of life: he bought an e-bike and emailed his surgeon a photo of himself with it at the top of a hill, raising a pint of beer. That, to me, sums up Tony’s indomitable spirit perfectly. Here’s to you, Tony.