Simon Arron: 1961-2022

Obituaries
- Last updated: November 17th 2022

Remembering Simon Arron, Motor Sport's much respected and loved former editor, who died last week at the age of 61

Simon Arron inspects a picture on his camera at Oulton Park

On the road: Simon Arron trackside at Oulton Park on a typical weekend

Pete Taylor

All of us at Motor Sport are shocked and saddened to report the death last week of our colleague Simon Arron.

Simon was the linchpin of our team, a former editor of the magazine whose vast racing knowledge and wit flowed through the magazine and website before his untimely death last week at the age of 61.

Readers loved following his tireless travels to regional race meetings in his On the road series, accompanied by his own pictures; his revealing interviews with drivers; and his characteristically quirky features that exposed unknown but fascinating areas of racing.

Contributing to the magazine right up to the present issue, Simon was also responsible for unearthing several of the photographs published each month, as well as many amusing captions and headlines.

His loss won’t just be felt by Motor Sport and its readers, but by the racing world in general, where he supported young talent, championed lower-level racing and shared his passion for the sport. Gordon Cruickshank remembers an irrepressible colleague and friend. 

 

Simon Arron bw portraitHe was the first person I met in this business 40 years ago. Simon had joined Motoring News in 1982 one week before I arrived to be assistant editor on Motor Sport, and as the junior he was sent down to usher me into the depths of Standard House, home of both magazines. He was cheerful, friendly and full of funny disparaging comments about the unusual place we were both to work. He remained the same for the rest of those 40 years – always upbeat, relentlessly funny, universally friendly.

Though he went from reporting Snetterton clubbies to interviewing the stars of Formula 1 and WSC, he saw it all through the same eyes – it was motor racing, so it was brilliant. He would set off for sunny Monza or soggy Lydden with the same happy anticipation and get the same delight from both. Every weekend he would pack in three or four different meetings, setting off at 5am to get to the Mallory Park cafe ready for a fried breakfast – often described in his report – and perhaps stopping on the way back to inspect a defunct hillclimb. He had an unstoppable work drive; as well as covering whichever magazine he was attached to he would also be filing some freelance, handling some PR work and translating for French racing titles. What he wrote would be unfailingly well informed, thoughtful and entertaining – and it never came in late.

Simon seemed to retain everything he saw or read on racing; we came to rely on him as our personal Raceopedia. “Who’s in this photo?” “Send it to Simon, he’ll know”. And he always did.  If you suddenly needed Sports 2000 results for 1981, Simon would know the man who kept the records. His circle of contacts seemed endless.  Once he took up racing photography and began adding other libraries his archive could usually turn up that obscure 1977 race you needed, together with a funny story about one of the drivers whom he just happened to have interviewed in 1983. And possibly accompanied by a photo of a greenfinch in his garden – bird photography was another passion.

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It’s completely true that I never heard anyone say a bad word about Simon. He was the same cheerful soul with everyone from Formula 1 prima donna to hopeful amateur snapper at Thruxton, always with time to stop and advise, or just chat about racing. He could do that on camera too, fronting interviews and podcasts with JYS and Damon Hill with the same ease as he could keep a room full of enthusiasts laughing at a club night talk. He was lightning-quick with a funny line, the Lee Mack of our business, and loved writing abstruse headlines referring to obscure music tracks (you had to be of a certain generation to get the BTCC headline ‘Alfa’s Man, Alfa’s Biscuit’). Simon’s was the uncredited hand behind the tortuous pun headings in the Daily Telegraph’s Honest John column, too; when one editor junked them there was an outcry from readers.

For someone who wrote serious, considered, knowledgeable analyses of racing in the broadsheets as well as the specialist press, he loved a wind-up. When an MN rally reporter came back from an event boasting of an amorous conquest, Simon waited three months, then contrived a fake solicitor’s letter stating there was a baby on the way. He let the ‘father’ stew for a morning before he came clean.

Simon Arron interviews Emerson Fittipaldi

Simon interviews Emerson Fittipaldi this summer for Motor Sport

Like me Simon didn’t believe in soft-soaping the bad things of life: he was completely upfront and open about his diabetes, his eye problem, his personal concerns, the sudden sad loss of Michèle his wife two years ago. Bad things happen but they don’t cancel the good things, was his mantra. I never saw him angry, nor ever depressed, just the same cheeky grin, the same bouncing walk and the same bouncy talk. He genuinely did light up the office, and losing such a valued colleague leaves a hole that covers not just Motor Sport but the racing world, not to mention his family and many, many friends.

I know that for months to come I’ll keep thinking “Ha, that’ll amuse Simon”, but no longer will that lead to the ping-pong emails of cheerful insults, avian ID, prog rock and obscure racing facts that used to lighten my day. I’m so happy that the chirpy figure who met me at that door 40 years ago became my friend.

Motor Sport extends its condolences to Simon’s children Tom and Lucy, his sister Clare, father Mike, and wider family and friends.

Read the brilliance of Simon Arron in the Motor Sport Archive

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