Notes:
While in Africa helping with the organisation of the Classic Safari rally, Britain's rally legend Tony Fall was taken ill in Tanzania and passed away on Saturday night, 01 December 2007, after suffering a heart attack in his sleep. He was 67 years old. Although long retired from active racing, he occasionally drove a replica of his original Datsun 240Z in historic rallies with Yvonne Pratt Mehta, former rally co-driver to her late husband Shekhar Mehta.
Richard Anthony Fall started his rallying career in the early 1960s, driving a Mini, while working as a car salesman. He was soon signed up by BMC Competitions team manager Stuart Turner, and taken into the works rally team alongside Timo Mäkinen, Paddy Hopkirk and Rauno Aaltonen. His first major international victory for the Mini Cooper Armada was the 1966 Circuit of Ireland, with Henry Liddon as co-driver.
He went on with the BMC works team for three seasons, in the Mini Cooper S. In 1966 he obtained wins in the Scottish Rally with Wood and in the Rally of Poland, with Atis Krauklis. A second place overall in the Rallye de Genève with Liddon followed, then a fifth place in the RAC Rally, once again with Wood. In 1967 he finished tenth in the Rallye de Monte-Carlo with Raymond Joss, and fourth in the Rallye dei Fiori at Sanremo with Wood. That same year, he surprisingly finished runner-up in the long-distance "Marathon de la Route - Nürburgring 84 Hours", sharing a 1-litre Mini Cooper with British fellow Andrew Hedges and Belgian Julien Vernaeve.
In 1968 Fall scored a fourth place in the Rallye de Monte-Carlo with his friend Wood and also competed in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon, finishing in 23rd place, in a Morris 1800, with Wood and Brian Culcheth as third crew member. Tony Fall-Mike Wood won the Danube Rally, this becoming the best result ever achieved by an unusual rally-car such as the Morris 1800. During the year he participated in sportscar races, sharing a MG-B with Peter Brown, the duo finishing second in class, 24th place overall, in the Targa Florio, and 15th in the Circuito del Mugello road race. Again at the Nürburgring for the "Marathon de la Route - 84 Hours", Fall with mates Hedges and Vernaeve finished fourth, at the wheel of a MG-C GT. And in the RAC Rally, at the end of the season Fall-Wood drove a private Porsche 911T, retired due to transmission failure.
In 1968 Fall joined the Squadra Corse HF Lancia. In his first outing with his new team with Wood, Fall dominated the TAP Rally in Portugal, driving a Lancia Fulvia HF 1300, from their old team mates Paddy Hopkirk-Tony Nash in a Mini Cooper S. The next year, Fall once again dominated the TAP Rally in Portugal, this time with Liddon, until he arrived to the final control a few minutes too early and stopped just short of the control area, being immediately mobbed by spectators. Fall's wife was in the crowd, and he allowed her to get in the car. She was still in there when they clocked in, Fall driving the last 50 meters of the stage with her sitting on his lap. But the stewards invoked the "unauthorised passenger rule", Fall-Liddon were disqualified and local stars Francisco Romãozinho-"Jocames" in a Citroën DS21 were declared the winners.
During the 1969 season he participated once again in the 84 Hours of the Nürburgring, winning outright with Sergio Barbasio and Harry Källström in a Lancia Fulvia HF 1600. He won his class, 18th place overall, in the Targa Florio, sharing a Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato with the Spaniard Alberto Ruiz-Jimenez. Then he went to Peru to win the Los Caminos del Incas, driving a works Ford Escort GT with Gunnar Palm as co-driver. The tough Andean rally was part of the Ford testing program in sight of the World Cup Rally, scheduled to be held in May of 1970. By the end of the year, Fall achieved his best ever finish in the RAC Rally, third place overall, again with Liddon in a Lancia Fulvia HF 1600.
In 1970 Tony Fall participated in World Cup Rally London - Mexico City, the 16,000-mile (25,750-kilometer) gruelling marathon from the Wembley Stadium in London to the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City, sharing a Ford Escort GT with a celebrity co-driver, footballer Jimmy Greaves. They managed to finish a respectable sixth place overall. In that same year he was signed up by team Datsun for a three seasons contract, achieving a tenth place in the Rallye de Monte-Carlo at the wheel of a Datsun 240Z, not a small car such as the Mini Cooper or the Lancia Fulvia HF he had previously driven, but a big, powerful, heavy car. With Mike Wood from his side, he became one of the front-runners in international rallies. He scored ten World Rally Championship starts with a best finish of fourth in the 1973 Safari Rally, in a Datsun 1800SSS with his faithful co-driver Wood.
In the early 1970s Tony Fall drove also for other factory teams, including Peugeot, Volkswagen - he drove with remarkable skill and knowledge, an astonishing Beetle 1303S tuned by Team Salzburg in 1973 - and above all BMW. At the wheel of a BMW 2002TI, Fall scored two fifth places, in the 1971 Österreichische Alpenfahrt and in the 1972 Rally Acropolis and a sixth place in the 1971 Tour de France Automobile.
During his two decades career that included World’s classic rallies and long distance marathons, Fall raced alongside talented co-drivers such as Liddon, Nash, Geraint Phillips, Ron Crellin, John Davenport, Raymond Joss, Robin Turvey, Mike Broad, Atis Krauklis, Gunnar Palm, but he spent most of his long career in the company of fellow Yorkshireman Mike Wood. Once he acted as a co-driver himself, to Rauno Aaltonen in a Datsun 240Z in the 1972 Safari Rally, finishing sixth overall.
Fall ended his professional racing activity in the late 1970s, driving for the UK Dealer Opel Team, before moving to Russelsheim, Germany to take responsibility for GM Euro Sport, employing talented driverd such as Shekhar Mehta, Ari Vatanen, Jimmy McRae, Anders Kulläng, Henri Toivonen and Tony Pond. He was the boss of the Rothmans Opel Rally Team which guided Walter Röhrl to win the 1982 World Rally Championship, and in 1988 Fall introduced the Opel-Vauxhall Lotus Formula, a new European series for small single-seaters, which launched the careers of a number of Grand Prix stars, such as Mika Häkkinen, Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard as well as sportscar aces Allan McNish and Pedro Lamy. In recent years Fall became the managing director of motorsport safety equipment manufacturer Safety Devices, famous for the production of roll-over cages.
Tony Fall was survived by his wife Pat and his sons Richard and Oliver from a previous marriage, and grandchildren Louis, aged 8, Charles, 6 and Mia, 4. |
