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Tony Pond 1945 - 2002

On February 7, Britain lost one of its best-loved rally heroes, Tony Pond, to cancer. It was Pond's gloriously sideways style that endeared him to the fans, and while he never won the British title, he always gave 100 per cent, whether driving TR7 V8s, Chevettes, Nissan 240s or the Metro 6R4.

By John Barker

06th March 2002

In the TR he won Ypres and the Manx twice, he scored third in Corsica and fourth on the Safari driving for Datsun, and won the Scottish Rally in a Vauxhall. And of course no recollection of Pond would be complete without mention of his trip into the lions' feeding trough at Longleat whilst driving a TR7 V8 on the 1980 RAC.

One of his greatest results came on the RAC five years later when a typically gritty and crowd-pleasing drive in the 6R4 netted third place, the Metro's best world championship result.

We reunited Pond with his 6R4 for a pre-Rally of Great Britain feature in issue 2 of evo. It was a pleasure to work with him and an honour to meet and ride alongside a personal hero.