Dean, Tony

[old man]

May I begin a new thread (or is it file?) on Tony Dean please?

Having looked at in particular the Andy Barton and Geoff Friswell threads I think this character should/will be remembered, certainly by North of England fans as old as me. I went to Tony's funeral yesterday (January 24th) and it really does set you off reminiscing.

For the record Tony was born 23 July 1932, died 17 Jan 2008 and raced from the mid 1960's in all types of machinery. Autosport quotes his finest achievement as winning the Can Am race at Road Atlanta in 1970 in Porsche 908/2 and he raced right up until the 1990s in the end using a F3000 Reynard in American historics.

He will be remembered as much for his F5000 activities as anything perhaps?

My first memory of him was when I went to Rufforth in probably 1969/70 or so. I had not attended a race meeting for about 10 years due to getting married, changing jobs and starting a family and so had never seen cars racing on slick tyres and this change really made an impression. As I recall Tony had a McLaren ex F1 car into which he had fitted a F5000 Chevy and was entered in the Libre race. At the same meeting there was a Formula Atlantic race and Chris Meek was in an Atlantic car, also entered in the Libre race. They were both on the front row and I remember getting very excited at seeing the Mclaren through the left hander that led into the loop at Rufforth it was really quite something to me at the time. Libre races in those days were the last race of the day and usually 10/12 laps and I remember Tony lapped Chris as he won. I know, in these races the machinery was unequal but it made me return to an active interest in the sport that continues to this day.

Tony Dean was a colourful guy and we perhaps do not have many similar people these days