Robert Anthony Maxwell Reid is a British

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

, born on 17 May 1957 in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. He was educated at

Loretto School Loretto School, founded in 1827, is an independent school (UK), independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18. The campus occupies in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland. History The school was founded by the Reverend Th ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He lives in England.

Formula cars

He spent many years in

Formula Three Formula Three (F3) is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. History Formula Three (adop ...

and other junior single-seater championships, winning the Japanese Formula Three Championship in 1992 and winning Japanese GT championship races, but his success has mostly been with a roof over his head, firstly in sportscars and later in

Touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move a ...

. He received an offer to join the Jordan F1 Team in 1991, but was unable to raise the required £2.5 million sponsorship money after his sponsor, a Japanese property company, went under due to an economic downturn in Japan. The Jordan F1 team instead signed

Bertrand Gachot Bertrand Jean Gachot (; born 23 December 1962) is a Belgian and French former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from to . In endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing, Gachot won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in with ...

, who in turn after being sentenced to six months in prison was replaced with

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to and from to . Schumacher won a record-setting seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, tied by Lewis Hamilton in ...

. He still keeps the letter of acceptance in a frame on his wall in his toilet.

Le Mans

In the 1990

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

, Anthony competed for

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

, driving the Alpha Racing 962C in Group C1. He came third overall and won in the nonworks car. Again in 1991 he drove the 962C but with Konrad motorsport. Later in his career, he drove the

Lister Storm The Lister Storm was a homologated GT racing car manufactured by British low-volume automobile manufacturer Lister Cars with production beginning in 1993. Road car The Storm used the largest V12 engine fitted to a production road car since ...

at the 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans (he also drove for the team at the 1997 Daytona 24 Hours and the Spa round of the 1998 British GT Championship). Racing in the MG Lola in 2001 and 2002, the team achieved pole position in their class however the car was retired due to gearbox problems. In 2005, Reid drove the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari. In Qualifying, Anthony completed three laps with a best time of 4:13.237 which became the team's best time. The car eventually retired at the hands of Anthony's team mate due to a delaminated tyre, leaving the car stranded on the circuit.

Touring Cars

Reid enjoyed a successful stint in Japanese touring cars between 1992 and 1996, driving an ex BTCC

Vauxhall Cavalier The Vauxhall Cavalier is a large family car that was sold primarily in the United Kingdom by Vauxhall Motors, Vauxhall from 1975 to 1995. It was based on a succession of Opel designs throughout its production life, during which it was built in ...

for Team HKS, winning multiple races. He took third place overall in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

against the likes of

Tom Kristensen Tom Kristensen (born 7 July 1967) is a Danish former racing driver. He holds the record for the most wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with nine, six of which were consecutive (from 2000 to 2005). In 1997, he won the race with the Joest Racing te ...

Steve Soper Steven Soper (born 27 September 1951) is a British racing driver. He raced in major sports car racing, sports car and touring car racing, touring car categories in the 1980s and 1990s. He was Japanese Touring Car Championship, Japanese Touring ...

and

Joachim Winkelhock Joachim Winkelhock (born 24 October 1960) is a German motor racing driver. He competed in and won German Formula Three before moving onto Formula One. Winkelhock would compete in the 1989 season of F1 with the Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives ...

. This led to him joining

BMS Scuderia Italia BMS Scuderia Italia SpA (sometimes referred to as simply Scuderia Italia) is an auto racing team founded in 1983 in Brescia by Italian businessman and motorsports enthusiast Giuseppe Lucchini. Originally named Brixia Motor Sport (BMS), the team ...

, who were running the works

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

team in Europe. After a promising

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

season, Reid was picked up by RML who had won the works contract from

to race in 1997 in the

British Touring Car Championship The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

alongside David Leslie. The Primera was brand new and needed development, but the speed he showed in this season was translated into consistent results in 1998, when he fought for the title up to the final round, losing out to Sweden's

Rickard Rydell John Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car ...

. In 1999 he joined

Prodrive Prodrive is an England, English motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire. History Prodrive was founded in 1984 by Ian Parry and David Richards (motorsport executive), David Richards. Prodrive sold its 51% s ...

who had the works Ford contract, to help develop their Mondeo. Again he struggled in his first season while setting up the car. The closest Reid would come to winning the title was in 2000. A collision in the very last round of the season cost him the championship by two points to team-mate

Alain Menu Alain Menu (born 9 August 1963) is a Swiss racing driver who is currently working for Team BMR as a driving coach. He was one of the most successful touring car drivers of the 1990s, winning the prestigious British Touring Car Championship twic ...

For 2001 he joined

West Surrey Racing West Surrey Racing is a UK-based motorsport team run by New Zealander Dick Bennetts. He is responsible for masterminding the careers of such names as Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen, Jonathan Palmer, Rubens Barrichello, Maurício Gugelmin and Eddie ...

(WSR) as they developed an

MG ZS The MG ZS is an automobile nameplate of MG used for two different vehicles: * MG ZS (2001), a small family car manufactured between 2001 and 2005 by MG Rover. * MG ZS (crossover), a subcompact crossover manufactured since 2017 by MG Motor, a subsi ...

, not racing until the end of the season but still finding time to win the final race of the season, although the team was not eligible for points. He drove for the team for the next 3 seasons, although for 2004 MG pulled out and WSR ran the car privately, only finding the funds to run Reid (whose contract was owned by MG rather than WSR) alongside the better-funded

Colin Turkington Colin Henry Turkington (born 21 March 1982) is a British auto racing, racing driver from Northern Ireland who competed in the 2022 British Touring Car Championship, British Touring Car Championship most recently for West Surrey Racing, Team BMW ...

a few days before the season opened. Against all odds this season was the closest he came to winning the title in this car, also winning the Independent's cup ahead of

Matt Neal Matthew Stephen Phillip Neal (born 20 December 1966) is a British motor racing driver. Neal is a triple BTCC Champion having won the British Touring Car Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2011. Neal is also a record 6 time BTCC Independents Champio ...

. For 2005 WSR was unable to find the funds for him to race, and his planned racing with MG in Germany was scrapped when the company folded. Reid later turned to the Argentinian

TC2000 The TC2000 (''Turismo Competición 2000'', formerly ''Súper TC2000'') is a touring car racing series held in Argentina since 1979. Rules Prior to 2012, engines of up to were allowed, with only limited modifications from standard engines ...

series, helping

Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...

Petrobras Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by and Trade name, trading as the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a Brazilian state-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. ...

to develop their

Honda Civic The is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1972. , the Civic is positioned between the Honda Fit/Honda City, City and Honda Accord in Honda's global passenger car line-up. The first-generation Civic was introduced in July 1972 ...

for competition as well as racing it. He won the 200 km de Buenos Aires in 2008 racing with José María 'Pechito' López. Reid returned to the BTCC for the final three rounds of the 2009 season for WSR, entered under the Team RAC banner. He was entered in a third car alongside regular drivers Turkington and

Stephen Jelley Stephen David Jelley (born 12 May 1982) is a British racing driver currently competing in the British Touring Car Championship for One Motorsport. Career Single-seaters Born in Leicester, Jelley moved up from Formula Ford to the National Clas ...

in an attempt to bolster Turkington's championship chances. Reid drove a Chevron GR8 at racing events in the British GT Championship and also Britcar MSA British Endurance championship in 2012 and 2013. Since 2016 Anthony has competed in the FunCup UK Championship with Iron Maiden sponsored Team Trooper.

''Top Gear'' appearances

He had appeared in ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the ori ...

'' series 10 episode 6 driving a nimble Toyota motorhome. In series 12 episode 5 he raced a single tier bus against other touring car drivers. He won both races. Reid was involved in an attempt to speed up airport transport on ''Top Gear'', driving a catering truck against other various Touring Car colleagues. The race culminated with Reid being the only racing driver left against

Hammond Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in Sout ...

, however the vehicle became unbalanced (after Reid ejected his crockery to lose some weight). The truck listed to one side and eventually fell over, allowing Hammond to win. He appeared again in Series 20, Episode 2 when he drove a

Lincoln Town Car The Lincoln Town Car was a model line of full-size luxury sedans that was marketed by the Lincoln division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. Deriving its name from a limousine body style, Lincoln marketed the Town Car from 1981 t ...

stretch limousine in a taxi race. The race ended with the limousine being split in half.

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Japanese Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Japanese Formula 3 results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Japanese Formula 3000 results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete JGTC results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Super Tourenwagen Cup results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded – 1997–2002 all races, 2003–present just for first race) Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded – 2000 onwards all races) * signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap (1 point awarded – 1998–2002 just in feature races, 2003–present all races) † Not eligible for points

Complete 24 Hours of Spa results

Britcar 24 Hour results

Partial British GT results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap in class) † Not eligible for points.

References

External links