Born in west London in 1945, Pond started out as an independent before being offered a factory role at British Leyland in 1976, with future motor sport mogul David Richards as co-driver. The Brit was just as popular off the special stages as he was on them, as Davenport remembers.
“The first impression one got of Tony was that of a playboy, always ready with a quip,” he says. “His appearances at motor sport forums were very popular. One before the 1985 RAC drained the audience from a performance by Gilbert O’Sullivan and created massive overcrowding in the local Austin Rover dealership.”
Pond embodied a gung-ho British attitude when interviewed on the 1983 Tour de Corse Rally. In contrast to some WRC divas fainting and lying down in front of worried physios after one particularly gruelling stage, Pond exclaims to the camera: “I’m having a cup of tea – no one’s giving me a massage!”
Behind the joking façade was a steely determination, demonstrated by a number of impressive WRC drives in the early ’80s with inferior Datsuns and Vauxhalls (permitted by British Leyland as it cooked up the 6R4).
While the Metro was in testing, Pond took the Rover brand racing. He claimed pole on his BTCC debut at Donington in 1984, then won his second race at Silverstone.
Pond finally had his day of WRC days a year later at Rally GB, finishing third behind the Lancias of Henri Toivonen and Markku Alén on the 6R4’s international debut.
“He was a technical sort of driver,” says one former co-driver Ian Grindrod. “In many respects, he was before his time.”
On this month… NYE advice, rally vs football and Colin’s ire
Power game
January 1963
Coventry-Climax has U-turned in its decision to quit F1. “It lasted two months,” Motor Sport reports, “and resembles Enzo Ferrari’s annual retirement.” Later in the mag there’s a photo of a truck with DRINKWATER on its rear: “A sound New Year’s resolution for road users,” we quip.
Pump it up
January 1975
“We were told oil would soon cease,” we opine in the first paragraph of the new year. “But it hasn’t, to the disgust of the Media and other Jeremiahs.” Rally is booming: we reckon five million saw the RAC: “By comparison football and horse racing are minority sports – that is a fact.”
RIP burns
January 2006
WRC driver Richard Burns has died at 34: “His style required the Subaru to go sideways, like an old-time rally car.” Designer Tony Southgate sits In The Hot Seat. On Colin Chapman he says, “He was a great one for losing his temper – if he knew people were watching.”