Peter Walker began his motorsport career in Brooklands , then the hub of British motorsport, in the 1930s in an ERA he drove with friend Peter Whitehead . After the Second World War , he won mostly hill climbs before the Jaguar and BRM teams noticed him in 1950 . Walker competed in four Formula 1 races, with the British GP in 1951 deserving special attention: Due to the extraordinary heat of the engine of his BRM P15 , he and his teammate Reg Parnell suffered severe burns on his feet due to insufficient insulation of the exhaust was intended. During the race, both drivers avoided full throttle because their feet came too close to the hot exhaust when the accelerator was depressed. Walker still reached seventh place. He achieved his greatest motorsport success in the same year together with Peter Whitehead when he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Jaguar .
In the following years he concentrated mainly on sports car races and achieved further successes with Aston Martin . After a serious accident during the Le Mans race in 1956 , he retired from racing.
After motorsport
After the end of his motor sport involvement, Walker took over a chinchilla farm in England, but was unable to draw any lasting profit from it. In the last years of his life he was addicted to alcohol and lived at times homeless in London . He died in 1984 of complications from pneumonia , which he developed after smoke inhalation.
↑ Mike Lawrence: Grand Prix Cars 1945-1965. Motor Racing Publications, 1998, ISBN 1-899870-39-3 .
^ Raymond Mays, Peter Roberts: BRM. Cassell & Company, London 1962, p. 49.
↑ a b L.M .: Forgotten Hero: Peter Walker. In: Motorsport Magazine. Issue 2/1996, p. 52.
^ Doug Nye, Tony Rudd: BRM The Saga of British Racing Motors. Volume I: Front Engined Cars 1945-1960. Motor Racing Publications, Croydon 1994, ISBN 0-947981-37-3 , p. 119.
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