Anthony Reid

17/5/1957

Record updated 17-May-07

Top touring car driver, Reid almost made into F1 after being offered a drive by the Jordan F1 Team. Unfortunately he couldn't get the budget together but continued to carve out a good career in sports cars and saloons.

Anthony Reid was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Although Scottish he has a very upper-class-English sounding voice.

He spent many years in Formula Three and other junior single-seater championships, winning Japanese Formula Three Championship. Three titles in 1992, and winning Japanese GT championship races but his success has mostly been with a roof over his head, firstly in sportscars and later in Touring car racing.

He actually passed a test drive with Jordan F1 Team in 1992 and would have competed in the following season but he couldn't raise sufficient sponsorship money, he still keeps the letter of acceptance in a frame on his wall.

In 1997 he first raced in the British Touring Car Championship, with Nissan. The speed he showed in this season was translated into consistent results in 1998, when he fought for the title up to the final round, losing out to Sweden's Rickard Rydell. In 1999 he joined Ford to help develop their Mondeo, again struggling in his first season before challenging for the championship in 2000.

For 2001 he joined West Surrey Racing (WSR) as they developed an MG, not racing until the end of the season but still finding time to win the final race of the season, although the team was not eligible for points. He drove for the team for the next 3 seasons, although for 2004 MG pulled out and WSR ran the car privately, only finding the funds to run Reid (whose contract was owned by MG rather than WSR) alongside the better-funded Colin Turkington a few days before the season opened. Against all odds this season was the closest he came to the title, also winning the Independent's cup ahead of Matt Neal.

For 2005 WSR was unable to find the funds for him to race, and his planned racing with MG was scrapped when the company folded, leaving his racing future uncertain.



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