With deep regret, we announce the sudden death of Tony Fall

With deep regret, we announce the sudden death of Tony Fall

Tony Fall

I have to report the death of a particular friend. Richard Anthony (Tony) Fall, former works rally driver, successful team manager, and lately managing director of Safety Devices, died suddenly in December 2007.

As a salesman with Yorkshire BMC dealer, Appleyards, Tony would borrow the demonstrator Mini Cooper at weekends, go rallying and have it back in the showroom Monday morning. His early driving was spent, he said, “chasing the Morris Minor of Pat Moss over the moors”. His talents were soon spotted, and he was co-opted into the works team alongside Paddy Hopkirk, Rauno Aaltonen, and Timo Makinen.

His first major win came in 1966 on the Circuit of Ireland Rally, and he was to record a further seven international victories before he hung up his helmet professionally. Wins on the Scottish, Polish, and Geneva rallies in the Mini Cooper S, victory on the Danube Rally (Austin 1800), and 4th on the 1968 Monte Carlo (Mini) were high spots of the BMC days.

After BMC, Tony joined Lancia, where he achieved his highest finish on the RAC Rally of Great Britain: 3rd in 1969. Three seasons with Datsun followed, with high finishes on world rallies, at the same time driving for other teams, including BMW, Porsche and VW.

Tony tackled the World Cup Rally from London to Mexico in 1970 in a Ford Escort with a celebrity co-driver, footballer Jimmy Greaves, and finished sixth. Twenty-five years later he competed on the re-run of the event, finishing one place higher.

A long association with General Motors, started in 1974 when Tony established Dealer Opel Team at Tong Park, Bradford. Success with DOT led to his appointment as director of GM Euro Sport, based in Germany. Under his direction, Walter Rohrl became World Rally Champion in 1982, and in the later part of the decade Tony introduced the Opel/Vauxhall-Lotus formula, which launched the careers of many Grand Prix stars, including Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard.

He returned to the UK in 1990, initially as manager then owner of Safety Devices. He was managing director of the Newmarket, Suffolk, based company – famous for the production of roll-over cages – at the time of his death.

Tony, who in recent years had driven a replica of his original Datsun in historic rallies, was in Africa on ‘holiday’ helping with the organisation of the Safari Classic Rally, an event he loved and which had been the scene of many of his triumphs. He died in his sleep of a heart attack.

I have many happy memories of Tony – we worked together for over quarter of a century – but one moment describes him well. At a high-power meeting with GM and tobacco company executives to plan the Rothmans Opel Rally team he closed the agenda with the words, “Now lets go and have some fun”.

It was the rally organisers' fault in specifying the route of a special stage by the issue of what turned out to be a crude map that led to Tony's premature retirement on his last 'works' drive. The event was the 2004 Revival Rally and the car an MGZR. But it was me who examined the map and declared: "There's no serious bends now, you can go flat out!" Unfortunately there was a sharp right with a car-sized rock strategically placed just beyond the apex. We slid into that rock and destroyed the front suspension. Willy Cave

Although I first met Tony when he and David Fawcett were scurrying round the lanes on Motoring News events in the very early sixties (usually leaving mini-shaped holes in hedges, fences and walls) my everlasting memory was of the Gulf London in 1965 when i co-drove for Chris Knowles-Fitton who was in the two car Appleyard/BMC team of Cooper S's with Tony. Both cars were doing extremely well when we arrived at Dovey Forest on this marathon event. Fitton was the first of the two into the woods and dramatically sailed over one of Dovey's notorious blind drops. Our car teetered on logs 20 yards down a virtual precipice so we clambered up the steep embankment and popped our heads over the edge just as our team-mate T.Fall approached at a screaming, scrabbling rate of knots. Fall saw our two little heads, opened his mouth in amazement, let go of the wheel to point at us and - you've guessed it - sailed over the edge and parked it neatly just inches to the side of our car. Pandemonium ensued whilst Fitton decided to winch our car back onto the track. Fall would have none of this and decided to drive DOWN a 1 in 2 hill through the trees for 3/4 of a mile to emerge in the garden of a forester's cottage and proceed to drive through his vegetable garden scattering cabbages in his wake and regain the road thus cutting out a good mile of stage. Against impossible odds he was back in the rally! Tony Mason

I first met Tony Fall on the London-Mexico Rally in 1970. Being a football fan, I kept close to Jimmy Greaves when we arrived in Mexico City and thus got friendly with Tony. Almost four years later, I went to Silverstone to watch an F1 race and bumped into Tony in the paddock. As Woody had just retired he said he needed a co-driver for the forthcoming Welsh Rally - I said he was looking at him - and thus got my first professional drive. Over the next few years we won a few and had some decent results in underpowered cars, but as always you get the best stories from not winning. Scottish Rally 1976, we had terrible problems and lost a lot of time, but only ever in the road sections. TF said we were to treat it as "a test and development exercise", as we were one minute from OTL. At the end of the day i told him he was leading ahead of the likes of Clark, Mikkola, Vatanen etc. he got so excited that on the first stage in the morning he turned left instead of right and hit mountain. Tony as a driver and manager gave me trust and confidence, he also gave me fantastic drivers such as Tony Pond and Walter Rohrl. When Russel and i returned to GM in 1982 there he was the big boss in Germany. He helped with our careers for the next 5/6 years. He had a wonderful balance between taking life seriously and having fun but above all loved cars and motorsport. There is an empty place in my heart. Mike Broad