Pete was always going to be a racing driver; His father and mentor Bill, was a British Leyland works driver racing Minis. Pete started driving at the age of four, then racing from the age of six, in a Barnard Formula 6 race car in the Midland Junior racing drivers club.
Pete quickly progressed to the ¼ litre and then on to the prototype class. By the age of twelve, he starting to race in Junior Britton in Karts, traveling all over the UK with his father who, alongside mentoring him, also looked after his karts. He won over two hundred races and 4 British championships, beating Johnny Herbert in the process.
At the age of fifteen Pete was offered a Scholarship with Jim Russell Racing School and stopped racing karts to race motorcycles. He began in the junior class and finished in the 750 Expert class, winning many races along the way.
At 17 he was back racing cars, he started racing in a Mini 1380 steel body, then a space framed car, going on to enjoy remarkable success and culminating in his first Welsh Championship.
Having enjoyed significant success with front-wheel-drive cars, he moved on to a rear-wheel-drive Ford Escort V8 Special Saloon, taking it to numerous wins, amongst which were a Class British Champion, two Welsh Championships and the Champion of Champion’s title.
This cemented the fact that Pete is not just a front-wheel-drive expert, but a rear-wheel-drive expert too.
Pete’s Single seaters racing started in F3 in a Ralt RT30 where, with the backing of a new sponsors, he was to compete in F3 class “B” and British Open Single Seaters (BOSS).
The successes continued until a mechanical steering failure almost cost him his life, seriously injuring his back after crashing heavily.
While recovering Pete lost his sponsor but returned to the track in a Group C2 Le Mans type car with a Cosworth 3 ½ litre engine and a Skoda Silhouette lift off fiberglass body. He won a substantial number of races and, again, class British Championships.
Pete’s Father Bill wanted to build the fastest Mini in the world, and Pete was to drive it and assist with the development of the project. They succeeded – and Pete went on to win the World Title 4 times.
Pete returned to racing in a customer’s Thunder saloon MK2 Escort BDG, going on to win the Thunder Saloon/Special Saloon Revival Meeting, lapping up to second place. He enjoyed many successful outings in the car, and it rewarded him with numerous wins.
More recently, another of Pete’s customers asked him to race their car, again with him winning in it. He is about to compete in another one of his friends’ & customer’s ex Production Touring Car Astra VXR and a Porsche Carrera Cup car racing throughout the UK and into Europe. In addition, he successfully races a turbo charged Ligier open top CN and Ferrari F430 Special GT.
Pete is an “S” grade (Super Grade) ARDS Instructor, is on the board of Directors of ARDS and is ARDS Vice Chairman.
He has given tuition to everyone, from complete novices just starting out in track days, novice-racing drivers, experienced racing drivers and on to professional drivers competing in world championships.
He is The Motorsports School’s Chief Instructor and, with over 30 years instructing experience, he knows how to get the best out of his clients, keeping them safe, calm and focused at all times.
Key Personnel
Vice Chairman of ARDS
Results:
Over 300 race wins
8 British Championships
5 Welsh Championships
1 Champion of Champions Title
4 World WFM Special GT Titles
