Peter Sutcliffe (race driver)

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For the English serial killer dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, see Peter Sutcliffe.
Aston Martin DP214 replica
A Shelby Daytona Coupe in 2006
Similar to the factory 330P4, but with a detuned engine: customer Ferrari 412P (chassis 0844) at the 2007 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Peter Sutcliffe (born 1 December 1936[1][2] or 1937[3]), a British textile manufacturer from Huddersfield[4], was active in Sports car racing until 1967. Between 1959 and 1967 he won the 1964 Grand Prix de Paris at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, and the 1965 Pietermaritzburg 3 hours[5]. He raced in Aston Martin, Jaguar D-Type and Jaguar E-Type, Shelby Daytona, Ford GT40 and works Ferrari 330P4.[6]

Contents

Racing career


After starting to race in the 1950s, his career was interrupted by National Service in the United Kingdom[7] in 1960/61 before he returned in 1962 to race a Jaguar D-Type[n 1]. From 1963 World Sportscar Championship season to 1967 World Sportscar Championship season, he took part in events that counted towards the World Sportscar Championship, like the 1000km Nürburgring.

In 30 starts[6] between 1959 and 1967 he scored two overall wins, the 1964 Grand Prix de Paris at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry with a Jaguar E-Type, and the 1965 Springbok Series Pietermaritzburg 3 hours[5] with a privately entered Ford GT40.[n 2]

He also took part in the last[n 3] race event at Germany's Solitudering in July 1965, the XIII Grosser Preis der Solitude, were he drove the Formula 2 Brabham BT10 Cosworth of David Prophet Racing. He crashed in his only[8] monoposto race, though.

Sutcliffe was called by the Scuderia Ferrari to share one of the four Ferrari 330P4 (Chassis #0860, #19) with factory driver Günter Klass in the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans.[9] After Lorenzo Bandini had been killed and Mike Parkes had been badly injured in F1 races, the Scuderia had planned that Leo Cella drives the powerful 4-litre, but the Italian rally driver refused to drive the big sportscar after a long test run at Modena circuit. The fine race of Klass and Sutcliffe had an end after 296 laps on the 19th hour due to engine failure.

A week later, Sutcliffe scored his only[10] pole position, at the Trophée d'Auvergne at Louis Rosier Circuit Charade near Clermont-Ferrand, in 3:37,6" with a Ford GT40. He finished 2nd in the race, behind Paul Hawkins (racing driver), and ahead of Jo Schlesser, both also driving GT40s.

Sutcliffe was hired again by Ferrari to drive one of the 330P4 12cyl prototypes at the 6 hours BOAC 500[11][12][13] at Brands Hatch later in the year, finishing 5th, now paired with Ludovico Scarfiotti as Klass had been killed at Mugello the weekend before.

Sutcliffe did not enter a race after Brands Hatch. In autosport, 1967 already had been a killing year[n 4] and Englishman Bob Anderson was killed in August, too. Several of the drivers Sutcliffe had competed with and against in the weeks before, Klass, Hawkins, Schlesser, Scarfiotti, all suffered fatal accidents in the late 1960s.

Races


  • 1963: Sutcliffe crashed[14] a Jaguar D-Type at Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit.
  • 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans, Aston Martin DP214 with Michael Salmon, DQed while 8th on Sunday morning[15]
  • 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans, Scuderia Filipinetti Shelby Daytona with Peter Harper, DNF
  • 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, Scuderia Filipinetti Ford GT40 Mk.I 4.7L V8, DNF
  • 1966 Rothmans 12 Hour International Sports Car Race, Peter Sutcliffe Racing Ford GT40, with Frank Matich, 2nd behind Jackie Stewart

Notes


  1. ↑ The epitome of a great British sports car, the Jaguar D Type. Here, Peter Sutcliffe is doing well over 100mph - Tony Gardiner: Motor Racing at Goodwood in the Sixties, Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2002 ISBN 1903706491 [1]
  2. ↑ Englishman Peter H. Sutcliffe (UK) of Huddersfield owned chassis 1009 and GT112 - Ronnie Spain GT 40: An Individual History and Race Record, Published by MotorBooks/MBI Publishing Company, 2003 ISBN 0760317402 [2]
  3. ↑ In 1965 came the end for Solitude events. For the last time motorcycles, sportscars and Formula 2 cars appeared and the international motorsport said goodbye forever to the Stuttgart game preserve. - http://www.solitude-revival.org/uindex.htm
  4. ↑ AUTOSPORT 1967: One week before the start of the last great endurance race of the season, two young racers are killed at the Spa 24-hours: Holland's Wim Loos (21 years) and Belgium's Eric de Keyn (22 years, dying one week later). The same July 23 Ferrari's factory driver Günther Klass (D) is killed at Mugello on testing the hill-climb Dino. Always the same week-end France's Jean-Claude Bernasconi succumbs from injuries occurred two weeks earlier at a Renault R8 race at Rouen. At a race for saloon cars at the Nürburgring a spectator is killed on August 6 when Roland Cantz left the road with his Mercedes 300SE. Always the same week-end, on July 23, Luki Botha quits the track at a F1 race at Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, killing eight spectators and gravely injuring nine others. And still the same week-end, at a F3-meeting in Denmark, at the Djurslandring, Doug Revson (USA, 26 years), brother of Peter Revson, looses control over his Brabham BT21 and is killed. Another racer, Ray O'Connor, goes into a group of marshals, killing Jans Christian Legarth, the owner of the Djurslandring. Fifteen persons killed during one and the same week-end on tracks in Belgium, Germany, Mozambique and Denmark, it proves at what point there is no substantial security on the race tracks. But it is not the end of the story. The same day as the BOAC Tim Cash (GB) is killed at the Portugal F3 GP. Two weeks after Brands Hatch F1 racer Bob Anderson (GB) will be killed, testing his Brabham BT11 at Silverstone. On September 17 the Alfa Romeo works racer Jean Rolland (F) is killed at Montlhéry, testing his Alfa Rome T33 V8. On October 8 USAC driver Gary Congdon dies as result of a sad crash on dirt-track midget racing in Indiana. Belgium's Jojo Berger will be killed at the Nürburgring during the Marathon. Ian Raby (GB), victim of an accident at Zandvoort in a F3 race of July 30 will fight more than three months for his life, before to die on November 7 in a London hospital. There is no doubt: 1967 is the most killing year in autosport, where at least 20 famous racers lost their life due to unsafe circuits rather than to unsafe cars.[JPVR] - http://www.imca-slotracing.com/1967-PART3.htm

References

  1. ↑ autosport.com [3]
  2. ↑ autosport.com [4]
  3. ↑ "Peter Sutcliffe (GB) °1937" http://www.imca-slotracing.com/LE-MANS1966-FORD-DRIVERS.htm
  4. ↑ Jonathan Wood: Jaguar E-Type: The Complete Story, Crowood, 2001 ISBN 1861261470 [5]
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 IMCA The Springbok Series for sportscars: REVENGE FOR SUTCLIFFE
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Racing database
  7. ↑ http://forix.autosport.com/8w/transporter-picturebook.html
  8. ↑ http://www.racing-database.com/newdriv1.asp?Driver=Peter%20Sutcliffe
  9. ↑ motorsportmemorial.org Günther Klass
  10. ↑ racing-database.com Peter Sutcliffe
  11. ↑ http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Brands_Hatch-1967-07-30-photo.html
  12. ↑ 10 minute film of the first BOAC 500 Sports Car race at Brands Hatch in April 1967 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1393168345775539215
  13. ↑ original facsimili from AUTOSPORT 1967 http://www.imca-slotracing.com/1967-PART3.htm
  14. ↑ http://wsrp.ic.cz/natgb1963.html
  15. ↑ http://www.classicandperformancecar.com/features/octane_features/226422/astons_at_le_mans.html

External links

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