Peter Sutcliffe (racing driver)

Peter Harold Sutcliffe (born December 1, 1936 in Huddersfield ) is a former British racing driver and entrepreneur.

Career

Peter Sutcliffe ran a textile company in his hometown of Huddersfield in the 1960s. He ran racing out of passion and not as a profession. However, Sutcliffe was more than the classic gentleman driver . His talent and professionalism as a driver even earned him factory engagements at Scuderia Ferrari at the end of the 1960s .

Sutcliffe competed almost exclusively in sports car races; only once did he start in a monoposto . At the Grand Prix of Solitude 1965 on the Solitude Racetrack in Stuttgart he drove a Formula 2 - Brabham BT10 from the estate of David Prophet . He ended the race prematurely after an accident.

He drove his first race, a national sports car event, in 1956. He celebrated his first victory a year later in Mallory Park . In the early 1960s, he first used a Jaguar D-Type and later an E-Type . He quickly became known in Great Britain as a sports car driver. In 1963 he won the Scott Brown Memorial Snetterton , 1964 the Grand Prix of Paris and 1965 in a Ford GT40 the Grand Prix of Rhodesia .

Over the course of his career, Sutcliffe won eleven sports car races and finished on the top three podium 35 times. He lost a win due to disqualification. He finished the 1963 6-hour race at Brands Hatch together with Mike Salmon in a Jaguar Mark 2 as a winner, but was disqualified after the race because the cylinder head did not comply with the regulations.

From 1965 onwards, he kept receiving offers from private racing teams such as Scuderia Filipinetti and Scuderia Ferrari to compete for them in the major races of the World Sports Car Championship . He competed four times in the Le Mans 24-hour race , but was never able to classify himself. After Lorenzo Bandini's fatal accident at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1967 and Mike Parkes' serious accident at the Belgian Grand Prix , Leo Cella should have driven the Ferrari 330P4 at Le Mans . When Cella resigned, Sutcliffe joined Günter Klass' s team . In the race he dropped out because of a defective fuel pump. He finished fifth in the 1967 Brands Hatch 6-hour race with partner Ludovico Scarfiotti . It was one of his last races, as he retired from racing in the fall of 1967.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1964	Mike Salmon	Aston Martin DP214	Mike Salmon	Disqualified
1965	Scuderia Filipinetti	Shelby Cobra Daytona	Peter Harper	failure	Cylinder damage
1966	Scuderia Filipinetti	Ford GT40 Mk.I	Dieter Spoerry	failure	accident
1967	Ferrari Sefac SpA	Ferrari 330P4	Günter Klass	failure	fuel pump

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1966	Peter Sutcliffe	Ford GT40	Innes Ireland	failure	Cylinder overheated

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1963	Chris Kerrison	Ferrari 250 GT	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
																		10
1964	Peter Sutcliffe Mike Salmon	Jaguar E-Type Aston Martin DP214	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
							10		DNF		DNF	14th			DNF
1965	Peter Sutcliffe Scuderia Filipinetti	Ferrari 250 GTO Shelby Daytona	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
								5		4th	15th			DNF	DNF
1966	Ford Peter Sutcliffe Red Rose Motors Scuderia Filipinetti	Ford GT40	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
			14th	DNF			4th	6th	DNF
1967	Peter Sutcliffe Scuderia Ferrari	Ford GT40 Ferrari 330P4	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
						6th			DNF			5

Web links

• Peter Sutcliffe at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sports car race Mallory Park 1957
2. ^ Scott-Brown Memorial 1963
3. ↑ Paris Grand Prix 1964
4. ^ Grand Prix of Rhodesia 1965
5. ↑ Brands Hatch 6 Hours 1963
6. ↑ Brands Hatch 6-hour race in 1967