Obituary: Special Saloons star Tony Sugden dies aged 91

In a stellar four-wheeled career spanning 1965-2003, the Doncaster auto electrician won towards 220 races outright – mainly Special Saloons/GT events – plus dozens of class victories and several championships in cars fettled by himself, family and friends.

Using Yorkshire nous, nobody stretched meagre finances further as Sugden’s extraordinary determination and spirit made him the most formidable adversary, yet kindest to rivals needing help.

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“We’re just humble people, privileged to race against some of the best, with budgets which really didn’t exist,” he said.

With his devoted wife Rose – they married when Sugden was 21, but had no children – omnipresent as organiser/timer/record keeper/caterer, results were earned together.

'Suggy' competed initially on motorcycles, grass-tracking and scrambling a Triumph Twin in his teens.
Following national service in the army, he road-raced nationwide in 1955, on a BSA Gold Star prepared with mechanic cousin Bert Morris.

After contesting Manx GPs in 1958 and 1960, and raced wheel-to-wheel with Mike Hailwood at Cadwell Park in 1959, his final season on two wheels was 1962, on AJSs. With 30 plus wins and records to his name, a switch to cars followed.

Hillclimbs and sprints in Ford Cortina GT and Sunbeam Alpines led to racing a Lotus Cortina, but Suggy became synonymous with an Escort built from a crashed shell.

Over nine seasons, with twin-cam, BDE and BDX power, they won 47 races, 25 in Brook Hire colours, Peter Brook having sponsored its rebuild following a hefty Oulton Park shunt.

Sugden raced an Escort successfully in the 1970s

Photo by: Alan Cox

With the BDX in Alan Minshaw’s ex-Tony Hazlewood DAF V8, rebadged as a Volvo 66, a Thruxton victory in 1978 flattered to deceive.

After selling the Escort shell to Jim Price, Suggy bounced back with Price’s Chevron B23, rebodied as a Skoda coupe, winning 29 races over two seasons.

The ex-Jim Evans Lotus Esprit proved trying, with various turbo engines, and an open body, before the John Leek chassis was reconfigured with a 3.4-litre Ford GAA V6 for clubbies and Thundersports.

A Skoda body made it into a winner in 1988, but the chassis’s successor, with two-litre Cosworth YB turbo (Sierra RS500) power was a stunner.

Sugden was 1997 British Automobile Racing Club North West Sports/Saloons champion at 65 and kept winning until he retired in 2003.

Following Rose’s passing, BRDC member Suggy drove the Classic Sports Car Club’s safety car until his mid-eighties.

He remained close to nephew Gary, to whom he was a lifelong hero, and was immensely proud of Gary’s son Ryan, whose motor engineering career he inspired.