It’s highly likely that I wouldn’t be writing this article were it not for Tony Moy who passed away this week at the all too young age of 77 years old.
Leicester-based Page and Moy were THE company providing motorsport-themed travel back in the day and enabled countless race fans, including this one, to travel to events far and wide that otherwise they would only have experienced on TV, or on the printed page.
Initially established back in 1961 by Tony and his friend Leon Page it grew from a notion that others would enjoy the adventure that they had undertaken in 1959 to travel to see the Le Mans 24 Hours ‘live’.
That grew by 1963 to an enterprise offering multiple tours to European Formula One Grand Prix as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours, success there led to both men, then living miles apart (Page in Leicester, Moy in London, and meeting together regularly in Newport Pagnell) to leave their jobs and form the Page & Moy Ltd. company.
The company’s reach expanded rapidly to include not only motorsport but also cycling, gymnastics and judo meetings and charter flights were soon added to the land-based tours.
Tours out of Europe came rapidly too with 1966 seeing a group taken to the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, taking in a tour of the Ford factory in Detroit.
By 1968 they had an exclusively-chartered 1000 passenger ship, sailing from Newhaven to Dieppe, serviced by two charter trains at one end, and 50 coaches at the other for Le Mans.
the growth of long distance air travel saw new horizons opened including charter flights to the Watkins Glen and Kyalami F1 Grand Prix and by 1975 the Monaco GP tour saw a pair of British Airways Boeing 747s chartered, the first time a Boeing 747 had arrived at Nice Airport.
Further expansion into corporate events and other specialist ares of the travel business followed but for motorsport enthusiasts the company remained a major player until it was sold in 1998.
Amongst the company’s customers in the final years under Tony’s ownership were a young dad and his super-keen (and then very young) son, taking their first steps to experience motorsport outside of the UK. Without the hugely accessible, and remarkably cost-effective tours that were offered it is highly unlikely that DSC as we know it would exist today.
For that I will always be grateful to Tony and his colleagues.
Our profound condolences to his family, daughter Jenny, his grand-daughter and from DSC in particular to our friend and motorsport colleague, Tony’s son James.
(with thanks to Motorsport Magazine’s review of the company’s history by the late lamented Bill Boddy)
