Peter Douglas Conyers Walker (7 October 1912 – 1 March 1984) was an English racing driver.
He was born in Huby, Yorkshire and died in Newtown, Worcestershire. He proved a strong driver in most disciplines, but was most adept in sports cars, winning the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans race, and the Goodwood Nine-Hours in 1955. He effectively retired after a crash in 1956 left him with serious injuries.
In the inaugural World Championship of Drivers, Walker was present at the very first race, the RAC British Grand Prix at Silverstone. In fact, he was one of the first to enter the event, in his own ERA E-type. After qualifying tenth, he shared the race driving duties with Tony Rolt, pitting after just two laps to hand the car over. Unfortunately, the pace show in qualifying wasn’t matched by its endurance, was Rolt retiring the car on the fifth lap due to gearbox problems. Walker’s inaugural Formula One season ended there, as he did not contest another Grand Prix that season.
A month later his victory at Circuit de la Sarthe, he finished seventh in the RAC British Grand Prix in a supercharged 1.5-litre V16 BRM Type 15, with his teammate Reg Parnell in fifth. Both drivers legs were so badly burnt by heat from the engines and exhaust systems that even walking was painful. Gregor Grant reported: “Parnell and Walker saved the day for British motor racing. Their heroism in sticking to their task whilst suffering from agonising burns will enable the BRM designers to go ahead and modify the cars to make them completely raceworthy.” Sadly, Walker did not race the BRM again.
After four years away, he returned to Formula One, racing twice. The first was aboard Stirling Moss’s Maserati 250F, where he retired from the Grote Prijs van Nederland, with mechanical issues. For the next race of the season, RAC British Grand Prix, at Aintree, he shared a works Connaught Type B with Rolt. In what turned to be his last Grand Prix, the car was retired with a failed throttle after just 19 of the 90 laps. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen latham
Nicknamed ‘Skid’ by friends, Peter Walker was formerly a farmer by profession and enjoyed success in circuit racing and hillclimbing before the War, taking victories with an ERA at Brooklands and Donington Park. He would later contest 4 Grands Prix between 1950 and 1955 though proved most adept in sports cars, winning Le Mans in 1951 and the Goodwood Nine-Hours in 1955.
Peter Douglas Conyers Walker was born on the 7th October 1912 in Huby, Yorkshire and his racing career started in 1935, after linking up with Peter Whitehead and racing his ERA. In the following year he was third at Donington, took two victories on the Brooklands Mountain circuit plus was second in the Brooklands Mountain Handicap and in a Donington scratch race. In one outing that year with an Alta he was second in class at Shelsey Walsh. Continuing with the ERA in 1937 he was second in the Siam Challenge Trophy at Brooklands and third in the Empire Trophy, the Donington Coronation Handicap and Campbell Handicap at Donington. In a shared drive with Peter Whitehead they finished fifth in the RAC International race at Douglas on the Isle of Man.
After the War, he returned to the sport and competed in hillclimbing and Grands Prix and in 1947 was thirteenth at St.Helier in the Jersey road race. He contested the inaugural British GP at Silverstone in 1948, where he was scheduled to drive a new ERA E-Type. However, the car was not ready on time so he raced his older B-Type, alongside other ERA-B Types driven by Raymond Mays, Leslie Johnson Bob Gerard, Geoffrey Ansell, Cuth Harrison, David Hampshire and John Bolster and after a race of attrition he finished eleventh. In other drives that year there were retirements from the British Empire Trophy at Douglas and the Goodwood Trophy, though he was second in the Supercharged race at Goodwood plus took fastest time of the day at Prescott hillclimb and had a class win at Shelsey Walsh.
Races with the ERA in 1949 saw fifth at Silverstone’s International Trophy and the Empire Trophy at Douglas, second at Goodwood in the Woodcote Cup and Goodwood Trophy plus third in a Goodwood Handicap. In hillclimbs there was a second and two class wins at Prescott, second in class at Shelsey Walsh, second overall at Craigantlet and third at Rest and be Thankful. There was also a class win at the Luton Ho speed trials. At that year’s British GP at Silverstone, practice began on the Thursday before the race and he set the fastest time though a number of drivers had not yet arrived. Although the times improved the following day as more of the international drivers were present, Peter still qualified third but retired in the race after fifty laps. His performances brought him to the attention of Lofty England, the Jaguar’s sports car racing team’s manager and he was invited to race the XK120 at its first race at Silverstone in August, along with Prince Bira and Leslie Johnson. With the three cars painted red, white and blue, Bira led for a period until spinning off when a tyre punctured and at the finish Peter went on to finish second to Johnson
In 1950, the F1 World Championship was formed and in May he participated in the first ever GP of the new championship at Silverstone. After qualifying tenth in the ERA, he did two laps before handing over to Tony Rolt, who then drove for a further three laps before retiring with gearbox issues. Although listed for Le Mans he missed the race but in late August he drove the XK120 to victory at Silverstone’s International sports car race, ahead of Tony Rolt’s similar car. He took second in class at Shelsey Walsh though outings with a BRM V16 ended in retirement at the International Trophy and the Gran Premio de Penya Rhin at Pedralbes.
During this time Jaguar began developing an endurance racing version, the XK120C (or C-Type), and embarked on a racing program aimed at winning the 1951 Le Mans 24 Hours. In May, he and Stirling Moss conducted trials with it at the MIRA test track and there were three cars entered at Le Mans, for Stirling Moss/Jack Fairman, Clemente Biondetti/Leslie Johnson with Peter teamed with Peter Whitehead. During the practice session, he completed a best lap of 4 min and 50 sec in the dark, at an average speed of 104 mph, and no other driver, including Stirling Moss, could get below 5 min. In the race they faced strong factory-backed competition from Talbot, Aston Martin and Ferrari, but they held the top three positions for a period though eventually there was only one left running. The Biondetti/Johnson car retired after fifty laps with falling oil pressure and the Moss/Fairman car would also retire on lap ninety two due to the same problem. However, after 24 hours and 267 laps, the third car took the chequered flag nine laps ahead of the second place Talbot-Lago driven by Guy Mairesse and Pierre Meyratto to record Jaguar’s first Le Mans victory. On the Monday following the race, after a celebration lunch given by William Lyons at the Hotel de Paris in Le Mans, Peter and his wife Patsy drove the winning C-type directly to the Jaguar showroom in Piccadilly. Some weeks after this victory, he was seventh in the British GP in a V16 BRM, with teammate Reg Parnell in fifth. This was despite both drivers legs being so badly burnt by heat from the engines and exhaust systems that even walking was painful. The press hailed them as heroes and Gregor Grant reported “Parnell and Walker saved the day for British motor racing. Their heroism in sticking to their task whilst suffering from agonising burns will enable the BRM designers to go ahead and modify the cars to make them completely raceworthy.” He was still nursing his burns in September (dismissing them as little more than “a bit of a nuisance”), when he raced the C-Type in the RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod and finished second to Moss’s similar car. Away from Jaguars, he raced Rob Walker’s Delage in the Ulster Trophy and finished eighth.
He was again part of the Jaguar team in 1952 and reuniting with Moss there was a fifth place result in the Goodwood 9 Hours though they retired early at Le Mans. Further outings produced seventh in the International Trophy sports car race plus class wins and records at Shelsey Walsh (breaking the sports car record with a time of 41.14 sec) and Prescott (with another strong time of 47.53 sec). Racing a Cooper ERA he was second in a Castle Combe Libre race and at the Brighton Speed Trials, fourth at Chartehall plus fourth in the Monza GP in a privately entered Ferrari 125/166.
He and Moss shared a car again in the following year but they were hampered by mechanical problems. At the Goodwood 9 Hours, they led comfortably for the first eight hours until the car retired with engine problems. Contesting the RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, Peter broke the lap record with a time of 5minutes 1second, at an average speed of 88.70 mph, but suffered mechanical issues and Moss eventually brought the car home in third place. At Le Mans they led in the early stages until Moss had to pit, though the problem was only solved after a second stop when the mechanics changed a blocked fuel filter and they finished four laps down on their winning teammates, Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton. During practice for the Silverstone International, Moss had a nasty accident and turned the car over though was able to start the race after the C-type had been hastily repaired. Peter finished fifth, with fellow Jag driver Graham Whitehead sixth and Moss seventh. There were two class win at Prescott hillclimbs while outings with a Cooper ERA produced second in a Thruxton Libre race and there was a second in class at Prescott and third at the Brighton Speed Trials with a Connaught.
Peter remained with Jaguar in 1954 but the season wasn’t as successful. Teamed alongside Moss in a D-Type, they were only fourteenth in the Tourist Trophy and retired from the Reims 12 Hours, while their Le Mans outing ended in the twelfth hour due to brake problems. In solo outings in a C-Type he was third at the Silverstone International and fourth later in the year at Aintree plus drives in an ERA produced third and fourth in class at Brighton and Prescott.
1955 saw a move to Aston Martin and he and Dennis Poore were fourth with the DB3S in the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, the first finisher behind the Mercedes 300SLRs which had finished 1-2-3. At Le Mans, although Peter Collins and Paul Frere finished second in their Aston, the Tony Brooks/John Riseley-Prichard car retired after 9 hours and Peter/Roy Salvadori’s race ended after ten hours. After a four year break he returned to F1 and contested two Grands Prix. The first came piloting Stirling Moss’s Maserati 250F at Zandvoort, where he retired after two laps with mechanical issues. The following round at Aintree saw him in a Connaught Type B with Tony Rolt but, in what proved to be his last GP, their race ended after nineteen laps with a failed throttle. He had several drives with Rob Walker’s Connaught and retired at the Redex Trophy at Snetterton, was classified tenth at Oulton Park’s International Gold Cup, eighth in the Avon Trophy at Castle Combe and won a Snetterton International Libre race.
Peter was teamed with Roy Salvadori in a DB3S in 1956’s World Sportscar Championship but they did not finish the Nurburgring 1000kms due to suspension failure on the forty-first lap. Unfortunately at Le Mans, while running strongly after 16 hours, his car skidded during a sudden downpour and hit the wall, then slid upside down on the track. He suffered concussion and other injuries but though he recovered, it could be said to be a career ending accident as he only had one further race drive after this. After testing for Rob Walker at Goodwood the following spring, he raced the Alta powered Connaught Type B at the Gran Premio di Siracusa and was classified eighth, despite spinning and stalling the car on lap 64.
He then retired and moved away from motorsport and later took up farming and rearing animals with his wife Patsy. Sadly, he suffered personal problems and fell on hard times towards the end of his life and passed away due to pneumonia on the 1st March 1984, at Newtown, Worcestershire. Peter had two children, Angela and Tim, and a grandaughter Joanna and was praised by his peers and loved ones as a charming and a skilful driver. Stirling Moss said of him, “he was fast in the car and easy to get along with-a regular guy-which is why I always preferred him as a co-driver” while Lofty England stated “Peter was a charming bloke and I believe that had he been able to go motor racing full-time instead of four or five times a year, he could have been very good indeed. Quite often, on the fast circuits he was as quick, if not quicker than Moss.”
Info from Autosport 1955
A very fast and safe driver, Peter Walker is one of the most likeable personalities in British motor racing. Although still a young man, Pete is one of the few drivers racing today who has had plenty of experience in pre-war days at Brook lands and Donington. It may be recalled that, often in partnership with his great friend Petcr Whilehead, he was seen at the wheel of Alta and E.R.A. machines. In fact, his remarkable technique with a It-type E.R.A. earned for him the nickname “Skid” Walker. Actually he was an early exponent of the type of cornering which appears to be now known as the “four wheel drift”.
Walker has expended much time and money in attempting to race successfully British-built formula machines. His efforts with thc ill-fated E-type (E.R.A. ended disastrously when the car was destroyed by fire in the Isle of Man. He nearly ended his racing career forever at Silverstone in (he 1951 British Grand Prix, falling victim to severe poisoning from exhaust fumes and being almost roasted alive bringing one of the two B.R.M.s to the finish. His masterly driving of the same machine thrilled the crowds at Barcelona in 1950, mechanical troubles putting him out early on when in fourth place after stalling on the line.
However, world-wide fame arrived when he and Peter Whitehead won the 1951 Le Mans race for Jaguar. Both “Petes” have been of incalculable value to the Coventry- concern since it entered International racing, and Walker has demonstrated his incredible aptitude for setting up lap records on many occasions-even after an absence from racing of several months.
A farmer by profession, Pete Walker may be able to devote more time to racing than has hitherto been possible, and there is tittle doubt that, given the wheel of a raceworthy works car, he would soon be rated amongst the top 10 in Grand Prix racing.
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