Roar of the engine
Top racing driver, businessman and garage boss who lived life in the fast lane
Tributes have been paid to well-known Perth businessman and garage owner Tommy Dickson who died in Craigieknowes Nursing Home on New Year’s Day.
Aged 92, he had a stroke after suffering from vascular dementia for several years.
Tommy was a top racing driver and was number one in the famous Scottish racing stable Ecurie Ecosse.
He drove for Lotus in the 1958 Le Mans 24-hour race, gaining great credit as the only member of the team to finish - and again took part in the endurance event three years later.
The British Racing Drivers’ Club, of which he was a life member, said: “At 5ft. 2ins and wearing thick, rimless glasses - Tommy Dickson did not look too much like a racing driver.
“But in the late 50s and early 60s, he was one of not just Scotland’s but the UK’s outstanding sports car drivers.”
Member Graham Gauld also recalled: “Tommy started out in 1952 with an old Mk4 Cooper 500 but was a great fan of Lotus.
“He and Jim Clark were great friends and rivals in Scotland, Jim with the D type Jaguar and Tommy with his new Lotus 15. Jim always said that Tommy was one of his toughest competitors.”
The British Racing Drivers’ Club is an exclusive invitation-only members club for race car drivers who are judged to have achieved success in the upper levels of motor sport for a number of seasons.
Tommy’s grand-daughter Niki Dickson led almost 300 posts on the Auld Perth Bairns website at the turn of the year to announce: “2021 hasn’t been a great start for my family and it’s with great sadness that I have to inform you that my grandfather, Tommy Dickson, unfortunately passed away peacefully yesterday (January 1).
“He was the founder of our family business, Dicksons of Perth, and also a very talented racing driver back in the late 50s/ early 60s, and I’m sure he will be missed by all those who knew him.”
Among the other tributes posted was one from Colin Young, who said: “My memories of Tommy go back to the early 60s when he owned the Huntingtower Hotel.
“My mum would be in the kitchen on chef’s day off