Tony Marsh

A great all rounder, Tony Marsh competed in F1, sporting trials, autotests, rally, sprints, GT sports car racing, raced at Le Mans, was a Formula 2 champion and six time British Hillclimb Champion, in 1955, 1956, and 1957 in a Cooper JAP MkVIII then repeated the feat with three more titles in 1965, 1966 and 1967 in his own Marsh Special. Besides his racing career he was was also a pilot and took part in ski-bobbing, hydroplane racing, sailing and shooting plus had commercial interests including farming, running an engineering company and owning a BMW, Mitsubishi and Citroen main dealership.

Anthony Ernest ‘Tony’ Marsh was born on the 20th July 1931 in Stourbridge and after leaving school he attended the Royal Agricultural College and then went into farm management. His interest in racing only started after accidentally attending a ‘mud plugging’ trial, which inspired him to sell both his motorbike and the family car to purchase a Dellow. His plan was to use it for trials, rallies, sprints, races and hill climbs and he won the SUNBAC Trial and was second in class at Prescott with it plus was second racing an Alvis at Silverstone.

1953 saw him with an ex-Peter Collins Cooper JAP and he had two second place finishes at Silverstone, was second in class at Shelsey Walsh and won the Westwood Park Sprint while races at Goodwood with an Alvis 12/50 brought three second place finishes. Several outings with the Dellow in 1954 produced two third places at Silverstone and he won the North versus Midlands driving test while with the Cooper JAP he won at Silverstone and had podiums at Crystal Palace (twice) and at a Libre race at Brands Hatch. Driving a Lotus in sports car races he had podiums at Brands Hatch, Goodwood and Aintree plus a class win at the Wetherfield Speed Trials then third in a Connaught ALSR at Crystal Palace. There was a further drive in a Simca Aronde at the Aintree International meeting and at the end of the year two outings in a Cooper brought a win and second place at Silverstone and Brands Hatch. After purchasing a Cooper Mk8 at the end of the year he was allowed to assemble it at the Cooper work’s premises. His family’s meat business came in useful as he told how “Charlie was very fond of York ham. I’d arrive at the works in my transporter, in which I lived, with a large ham and tell Charlie that I’d brought the ham to live off but he could have what was left when I’d finished my car. My car used to be built very quickly.”

The following year saw the first of three successive Hill Climb Championships, from 1955 to 1957. However, he tied for the first title with Ken Wharton but they awarded it to Tony on the grounds that he had used only one car for the season while Wharton had used an ERA and a supercharged 998 cc Cooper-JAP to suit the differing events. Of the racing he declared “The attraction of hill climbing was always the intimacy between myself, the course and the machine. I’d walk the course, practice and compete, under those conditions you have to get it exactly right by instinct, there’s no time to look at the rev counter, you use your intimacy with the hill to place yourself within an inch of where you should be.” There were also Cooper drives during 1955, entering the 9 Hour Goodwood with Bertie Bradnack and he took a win at Silverstone and podiums at Silverstone and the Lex Trophy at Brands Hatch in a T39. He won the JAP race at Snetterton and in August took fastest time at Great Auclum. Taking his second Hillclimb title he also became the first to break both the overall and sports car records in one day at Prescott and had victories at Rest and be Thankful, Prescott, Great Auclum, Westbrook Hay and three at Shelley Walsh. On one occasion he inadvertently upset Ken Wharton at Shelsley, recalling “he was filming some of the climbs with a cine camera and as I went by I waved at him. He was furious because he said I’d ruined his filming!” In a full schedule with the Cooper T39, despite the season starting with low finishes, in August he had a win and three podiums at Mallory Park and followed this with victory at Silverstone plus further podiums at Mallory Park and two each at Silverstone and Oulton Park.

1957 was a busy, and fruitful, season, and he drove the F2 Cooper to great effect in Libre events at home and abroad, making his debut in the German GP, where he drove strongly and finished fourth in class. He took wins at Silverstone, Oulton Park and Charterhall, five wins and a podium at Mallory Park, two podiums and fourth at Brands Hatch plus third at Reim’s Coupe de Vitesse, the GP de Paris and at Oulton Park’s Gold Cup (after taking pole position). On his way to taking his third hillclimb title, victories included Rest and be Thankful, Bouley Bay, Rhydymwyn (twice), Prescott (three), a number of class wins plus won the Chateau Impney Sprint. At the end of the year he was the Autocar British F2 champion and was third in the RAC Trials Championship (only a single point behind the two drivers who tied for the title).

Racing his Cooper T45 the next season in European F2 his best results were fourth at the Trophy de Auvergne at Clermond Ferrand, fifth in the Prix de Paris at Monthlery, sixth at Brands Hatch and seventh at the Crystal Palace Trophy. In two non championship races at Goodwood he was fifth and seventh in the Lavant Cup and Glover Trophy and returning to Germany for the GP he was eighth and (fourth in class). The T45 took a win at an Oulton Park Formula Libre race and he had wins at Snetterton and Brands Hatch in his Lotus sports. He was fifth in the Hillclimb Championship, taking wins and podiums at Shelsley Walsh and Prescott, a number of sports and single seater class wins plus FTD at Chateau Impney and was a double class winner at Brighton.

He was third in 1959’s Hillclimb Championship though most of the year was spent racing his F2 Cooper, where he won at Zeltweg, was second in the Empire Trophy and at Mallory Park plus second in class at the International Trophy and fourth at Pau. In Libre races he repeated his win at Oulton Park and had a win and podium at Mallory Park and in a shared Lotus 17 drive with Keith Greene in the Tourist Trophy they finished eleventh.

1960 started with the Cooper T45, taking fifth at Pau and Snetterton though it was replaced by a Lotus 18 late in the year. Results with it included sixth at Brands Hatch, fifth at Zeltweg, seventh at Modena, fourth at Innsbruck and then victory in the Lewis Evans Trophy at Brands Hatch plus he achieved the first 100 mph FJunior lap at Silverstone. He took a Formula Junior win at Silverstone with a Lotus, victory at Mallory Park and podiums at Oulton Park, Aintree and Snetterton in a Cooper Monaco sports plus class wins at Prescott in the Cooper and the Elite. Races with a Cooper Monaco produced podiums at Snetterton, Oulton Park and the Aintree 200 and a shared Lotus Elite drive with John Wagstaff at Le Mans saw them take the Performance Index award; during the 24 hour race the Elite’s starter motor had to be changed but they managed the race on one set of tyres and brake pads. Racing the Lotus 18 in Grands Prix he was fifteenth in Germany though retired from the British GP and did not start in Belgium. Non championship races brought third in the London Trophy and Brussels GP at Heysel, behind Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren, then sixth and seventh at Brands Hatch and Aintree. Switching to a BRM saw him take the Lewis Evans Trophy at Brands Hatch plus sixth and seventh at Goodwood and Oulton Park. There were two more wins with the Lotus Elite at Goodwood and Oulton Park plus victory in a Lotus 20 at Oulton Park while in Formula Junior his Lotus 18 won twice at Oulton Park and he was second in the International Trophy support race. He finished third in that year’s Hillclimb Championship with a Lotus, BRM and Cooper; racing the BRM P48 at Shelsley Walsh, despite only sitting in the car for the first time on the morning of practice, he would break the course record four times over the weekend. Besides his racing he also undertook race-preparation of the Lotus 18s of Wolfgang Seidel and Karel de Beaufort and during this time he was farming one of his family’s properties which he rented.

Despite intending to contest the following season with the BRM, after suffering numerous problems and frustrated by its poor reliability, he threatened legal action against the team. He had missed the Monaco, Belgian and German Grands Prix, plus non-championship races at Mallory Park and Reims, as the car was unavailable. In further non-championship races he retired from the Aintree 200 on lap six due to an oil leak and at Solitude due to clutch problems. At the GP de Bruxelles at Heysel he was disqualified in a heat for receiving a push start; though he had beaten Graham Hill to the first corner and later apologised to him, “telling him it had been a typical hill climber’s start.” He finished fourth at Pau (ahead of Bandini’s Ferrari) and seventh at Silverstone’s Daily Express International Trophy but concentrated on hillclimbs for rest of the year and took a number of wins to finish fourth in the Championship and was joint second in the Autosport Sprint Series. In 1963 he took a Libre victory at Mallory Park and a podium at Silverstone with the BRM but the year was mostly spent in speed events and he was third in the Autosport Sprint series. In hillclimbs he was second in the championship, taking a number victories plus podiums and class wins using both the BRM and his Marsh Climax.

Returning to the hills, he went on to take another three hillclimb Championships with his own 4.3-litre Marsh-Oldsmobile Special, whose drivetrain utilised four-wheel-drive while accelerating but then rear wheel drive while cornering. Peter Westbury had been using 4wd on the hills but Tony reasoned 4wd was only an advantage in a straight line when traction was needed though in corners you needed rear-wheel drive. Taking the first of his second trio of titles in 1965 he scored Best Time of the Day at eight of the nine first championship climbs he entered plus set new course records at Shelsley Walsh, Bouley Bay and Longleat.

In 1967 he was hired for a soft drink commercial to be filmed at Goodwood and the plan was for a cameraman to film while perched on the nose of his Marsh Special. Rests were installed for the cameraman’s elbows and Tony suggested a trial run be done without the camera, to check that it was safe. He accelerated away without any problems but at the first corner the cameraman began to slide towards the front wheels. Fortunately Tony was able to reach out and hold him him before he suffered any injury and the shots were eventually taken at lower speed on the straight.

After winning the Championships he contested several hillclimbs in 1968 then left motorsport to concentrate on his engineering and farming interests. Despite a heart attack at the age of 41, he turned his attention to sailing, shooting, flying and ski-bobbing and in the late 80s he returned to hillclimbs and sprints with a March-based Rovercraft. In 1993 he switched to a Toleman and took podiums over the following years, finishing fourth and third in the British Sprint Championship then in 1997 won the Gurston Down Hillclimb with a newly acquired Roman DFL. He continued to compete in hillclimbs well into his seventies, driving on until 2008 and an autobiography was published in 2007, entitled ‘Tony Marsh: The Great All-Rounder. In And Out Of Motorsport.’

Sadly Tony passed away on the 7th May 2009 after having been admitted to hospital with breathing complications and his funeral was held at Chichester Crematorium. His three sons, Paul, Peter, and Simon, all followed in his motor racing footsteps.