Tony Fall, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetTony Fall
British racing driver
Date of Birth: 23-Mar-1940
Place of Birth: Bradford, England, United Kingdom
Date of Death: 01-Dec-2007
Profession: rally driver
Nationality: United Kingdom
Zodiac Sign: Aries 
About Tony Fall
- Richard Anthony Fall (23 March 1940 – 1 December 2007) was a British rally driver.
- He was born in Bradford.
- He began his rallying career as a club rally driver in a Mini.
- He was considerably better than his peers, however, and was soon spotted by the BMC team; this led to a drive in their works team alongside Paddy Hopkirk, Timo Mäkinen and Rauno Aaltonen.
- His first major international victory in the Mini was the 1966 Circuit of Ireland, where his co-driver was Henry Liddon. Fall worked as Salesman for Appleyards Bradford, a BMC dealership which sold Austin and Morris Mini Coopers.
- At that time, Appleyards supported the privateer rally drivers and employed ex BMC Competitions Manager Marcus Chambers in their Service Department.
- Fall gained permission from Appleyards to use one of their Cooper 'S' demonstrator cars AAK 500C to use as his rally car in the 1965 season.
- It was at this time that Fall was discovered by the BMC Competitions Department in Abingdon.
- The Competitions Manager at the time was Stuart Turner and he offered Fall a drive with the BMC Team.
- Fall accepted and became one of the most celebrated BMC Works drivers. Fall drove a Leyland (Austin) 1800, with co-driver Denis Johnson, in the 1968 Canadian Shell 4000 Rally, which ran from Calgary to Halifax, finishing 7th overall.
- Fall also drove for British Leyland Cars in an Austin 1800 in the 1968 London to Sydney Rally. In the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally, he participated with a celebrity co-driver, the footballer Jimmy Greaves - they finished 6th overall.
- He also won the famous Peruvian Rally "Caminos del Inca", in 1969, driving a Ford Escort. After he stopped driving, he became founder of the British Dealer Opel Team (DOT) as well as the self-willed but successful director of the Opel Motorsport Team in Germany, for which Walter Röhrl won the World Rally Championship for Drivers in 1982 with an Opel Ascona 400.
- Returning to England in the late 1980s, Fall formed the company Opel Classics, with Steve Thompson Cars (UK Irmscher Car Dealership) and Tom May (Director of Irmscher UK).
- The company became responsible for restoring and maintaining ex Opel competition cars and they also built a small number of fully re-commissioned classics Opels's using the Opel GT model, cars being from California and also an Opel GT purchased by Fall from an Opel Dealership during the 1982 San Remo Rally.
- After this venture, Fall became first the manager and later the owner/director of the Safety Devices company.
- Fall's last major outing was the 2003 Historic Rally Championship with co-driver Jonathan Hall-Smith, where he competed with his Datsun 240Z. Fall died after a heart attack on 1 December 2007 while a member of the organisation team of the East African Safari Classic Rally in his hotel room at Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge in Tanzania, leaving his wife Pat and two sons from a previous marriage.
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