Tony Dron

Anthony Middleton Dron (29 August 1946 – 16 November 2021) was a British racing driver, motoring author, and journalist.

Racing history Dron was best known for racing Touring Cars in the 1970s (Triumph Dolomites for the works BL/Broadspeed team) and for competing in Porsches at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the early-to-mid-1980s, including a class win at Le Mans in 1982 in a Porsche 934, and driving a Group C (Kremer CK-5) in 1983. He was a full-time professional race driver from 1974 to 1979, for teams that included British Leyland, Unipart and Alfa UK, but his career as a racer first began in May 1968 and continued for a full 43 years.

Dron achieved a remarkable range of victories, winning events in 24 makes and 41 models of car. (These are actual wins, not all the makes and models in which he competed.) The total number of wins is not known, but is well into the hundreds.

Race wins have been recorded in: Alfa Romeo: 1600GT Junior, TZ1 Allard: JR Aston Martin: DB4 Austin: Metro Austin-Healey: 3000, 100/4 Bentley: 3-litre BMW: Counties 3 Series, M3 Caterham: Seven (two types) Chevrolet: Camaro Datsun: 240Z Fiat: 128 1300GT Coupé Ford: Escort Mexico, Falcon, Zephyr Mk II, fwd RS2000 Jaguar: Mk 1, Mk 2, D-type Lister: Jaguar "Knobbly" Lotus: Mk 9 Lola: Mk6GT Mazda: 323 MG: Maestro, MGB Morgan: Plus 8 Renault: 5 Triumph: TR4, Dolomite Sprint TVR: Tuscan

In later years, Dron was also seen racing (and winning in) an enormous variety of historic cars, including the Le Mans-winning 1959 Aston Martin DBR1 and the 1960 Ferrari 246S Dino. In the Ferrari, Dron won the Sussex Trophy at the Goodwood Revival for three consecutive years. Having competed numerous times in the modern Nürburgring 24 Hours, he was known to be a highly experienced competitor on the old Nordschleife, where historic racing victories include an outright win in the 1996 Eifel Klassik in a 1963 Ferrari 330LMB, from pole position in a field of 180 cars.

Dron retired from race driving in 2011, although he still worked as a motoring journalist and test driver for Octane magazine.

Publications Dron wrote a regular column in Octane. He was the author of several books, including Porsche: Engineering for Excellence (2008) and Alan Mann – A Life of Chance (2012, with Alan Mann), and was editor of the monthly magazine "Classic Cars" during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon / Touring Car Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Pts Class 1974 Team Broadspeed Castrol Triumph Dolomite Sprint MALRet† BRHDSQ SILovr:9cls:2 OULovr:7cls:2 THRovr:6cls:3 SILovr:9cls:3 THRovr:5cls:3 BRHovr:8cls:3 INGovr:5†cls:5† BRHovr:6†cls:6† OULovr:?cls:3 SNE BRHovr:5cls:2 11th 38 3rd 1975 Penthouse Racing Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior MALovr:?†cls:3† BRHovr:16cls:3 OULovr:7†cls:4† THRovr:?cls:3 SILRet BRH THRovr:?cls:3 SIL MALovr:7†cls:3† SNE SILovr:?cls:2 INGRet† BRH OUL BRH 17th 29 5th 1977 British Leyland Triumph Dolomite Sprint SILovr:3cls:1 BRHovr:2cls:1 OULovr:1†cls:1† THRovr:7cls:1 SILRet THRovr:2cls:1 DONovr:2†cls:1† SILovr:1cls:1 DONovr:1†cls:1† BRHovr:1cls:1 THRovr:1cls:1 BRHovr:5cls:2 2nd 52 1st 1978 British Leyland Triumph Dolomite Sprint SILovr:1cls:1 OULovr:5†cls:1† THRovr:5cls:1 BRHovr:2†cls:1† SILovr:5†cls:1† DONovr:6†cls:1† MALovr:7†cls:1† BRHovr:6cls:1 DONDSQ† BRHovr:?cls:4 THRovr:?cls:3 OULRet† 3rd 83 1st 1984 Team Toyota GB / Hughes of Beaconsfield Toyota Celica Supra DON SILovr:4cls:4 OUL THR THR SIL SNE BRH BRH DON SIL 24th 3 15th 1987 Chris Hodgetts Motor Sport Toyota Corolla GT SIL OUL THR THR SIL SIL BRH SNE DONovr:13‡cls:3‡ OUL DON SIL NC 0 NC † Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

‡ Guest driver - Not eligible for points.