Anthony Middleton Dron (29 August 1946 – 16 November 2021) was a British

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

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 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 ...

in the early-to-mid-1980s, including a class win at Le Mans in 1982 in a

Porsche 934 The Porsche 934 is a racing version of the Porsche 911 Turbo, prepared to FIA Group 4 rules, similar to the Porsche 935 which was prepared to FIA Group 5 rules. History The Porsche 934 was introduced for the 1976 racing season. It was manufact ...

, 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 Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian carmaker known for its sports-oriented vehicles, strong auto racing heritage, and iconic design. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, it is a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe and one of 14 brands of mu ...

: 1600GT Junior, TZ1 * Allard: JR *

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...

DB4 The Aston Martin DB4 is a grand tourer that was produced by Aston Martin from 1958 until 1963. The "DB" designation came from Sir David Brown (entrepreneur), David Brown, who built up the company from 1947 onwards. Technically the DB4 was not a ...

* Austin: Metro *

Austin-Healey Austin-Healey was a British sports car maker established in 1952 through a joint venture between the Austin division of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and the Donald Healey Motor Company (Healey), a renowned automotive engineering and des ...

: 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 Octane is a hydrocarbon and also an alkane with the chemical formula C8H18, and the condensed structural formula CH3(CH2)6CH3. Octane has many structural isomers that differ by the location of branching in the carbon chain. One of these isomers ...

''. 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.) † Events with 2 races staged for the different classes. ‡ Guest driver - Not eligible for points.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dron, Tony 1946 births 2021 deaths People from Surbiton Sportspeople from the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames British Touring Car Championship drivers FIA GT Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers World Sportscar Championship drivers Porsche Motorsports drivers