Tony Dron

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

Tony Dron
Dron in a Mercedes-Benz W125 at Donington Park in 2007
Born	Anthony Middleton Dron (1946-08-29)29 August 1946 Surbiton
Died	16 November 2021(2021-11-16) (aged 75) Cambridge
Nationality	British
Occupation(s)	Racing driver, writer

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
• Ferrari: 330LMB, 246S
• 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
• Porsche: 924, 924GTR, 911RSL, 928S2, 928S4, 930, 934, "935", 911 Carrera 2
• Renault: 5
• Triumph: TR4, Dolomite Sprint
• TVR: Tuscan

In later years, he 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	Pos.	Pts	Class
1974	Team Broadspeed Castrol	Triumph Dolomite Sprint	B	MAL Ret†	BRH DSQ	SIL 9	OUL 7	THR 6	SIL 9	THR 5	BRH 8	ING 5†	BRH 6†	OUL ?	SNE	BRH 5			11th	38	3rd
1975	Penthouse Racing	Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior	A	MAL ?†	BRH 16	OUL 7	THR ?	SIL Ret	BRH	THR ?	SIL	MAL 7†	SNE	SIL ?	ING Ret†	BRH	OUL	BRH	17th	29	5th
1977	British Leyland	Triumph Dolomite Sprint	C	SIL 3	BRH 2	OUL 1†	THR 7	SIL Ret	THR 2	DON 2†	SIL 1	DON 1†	BRH 1	THR 1	BRH 5				2nd	52	1st
1978	British Leyland	Triumph Dolomite Sprint	C	SIL 1	OUL 5†	THR 5	BRH 2†	SIL 5†	DON 6†	MAL 7†	BRH 6	DON DSQ†	BRH ?	THR ?	OUL Ret†				3rd	83	1st
1984	Team Toyota GB / Hughes of Beaconsfield	Toyota Celica Supra	A	DON	SIL 4	OUL	THR	THR	SIL	SNE	BRH	BRH	DON	SIL					24th	3	15th
1987	Chris Hodgetts Motor Sport	Toyota Corolla GT	D	SIL	OUL	THR	THR	SIL	SIL	BRH	SNE	DON 13‡	OUL	DON	SIL				NC	0	NC
Source:

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

‡ Guest driver - Not eligible for points.