RAC Rally Action!

About Tony Gardiner

Tony Gardiner is a highly experienced professional illustrator who has maintained a lifelong interest in motor sport including club events rallies sprints and hillclimbs as a spectator official and competitor. Tony first became interested in motorsports in 1957 when the Ecurie Ecosse team of D Type Jaguars won at Le Mans. Other forms of motorsports including rallies like the Monte Carlo and Liege-Rome-Liege with competitors driving over Europe's mountain roads and snow-covered goat tracks at high speed captured Tony's imagination. He quickly became aware of Britain's own RAC International Rally which covered some 2000 miles of British roads each November. As The RAC became more and more competitive with new forest stages his interest grew. In 1964 he was a spectator at the RAC Rally's start at the Chelsea Barracks in London and decided he would follow the Rally around its entire route. This started some 14 further such ventures covering thousands of miles in a Mini Cooper Vauxhall Magnum and a Leyland 1800. Tony even persuaded the Press Office of the Royal Automobile Club to issue him with passes and rally plates which helped him immensely getting in and out of stages quickly. The result of Tony's passion for the RAC Rally is that he amassed between 1964 and 1983 over 1000 photographs in black and white and color plus a large collection of RAC Rally memorabilia much of which is reproduced in this book. Tony is based in Worthing West Sussex and has published several other books including RAC Rally Action! How to Draw & Paint Cars Motor Racing at Goodwood in the Sixties and The Brighton National Speed Trials.