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Pete Lovely


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#1 RogerFrench

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 14:32

I received a bit of sad news, Pete Lovely passed away yesterday.

R.I.P.

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#2 David Birchall

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 14:53

Very, very sad to hear that. Pete was a part of the West Coast racing scene for a very long time-both in period and in "Vintage" events in his Ex Clark Lotus 49, Lotus F2 (69?) and more recently in a Lotus Eleven. A gentleman who will be missed. Condolences to his family.

#3 Hieronymus

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 15:00

I received a bit of sad news, Pete Lovely passed away yesterday.

R.I.P.


Sad news.... :(

#4 Nanni Dietrich

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 16:11

I remember an ageing white and blue Lotus 49 - Cosworth in 1970... sad, sad news.
:cry:

#5 barrykm

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 16:17

R.I.P.

#6 jj2728

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 18:54

R.I.P. Pete

#7 sterling49

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 19:03

I saw Pete in the British GP in 1970.............a different age, how good was it that he could compete in F1 as a privateer............R.I.P.

#8 richie

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 20:42

I saw Pete in the British GP in 1970.............a different age, how good was it that he could compete in F1 as a privateer............R.I.P.


I was there aswell. He carried his F1 Lotus 49 on a flatbed VW just like privateer Bob Anderson. RIP

#9 2F-001

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 20:44

Yes, practice for the British GP, 1970, was likely the time I became aware of Pete Lovely. He was right at the back of the grid, a privateer competing amongst the might of the work teams; but even though my, then, schooldays hero, Emerson F was making his GP debut, they were all stars to me just the same. I didn't really know much about Pete then, and still didn't until discovering TNF so many years later. He was clearly a real enthusiast and represented an age we will surely never see again. I don't recall if I saw him drive again or not, but appreciate the part he played in one of the events that firmly cemented my fascination with 'big-time' motorsport and in an era of it that remains an abiding interest for me.

#10 David Birchall

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 20:52

I was there aswell. He carried his F1 Lotus 49 on a flatbed VW just like privateer Bob Anderson. RIP


Pete was still doing this in the eighties.

#11 RA Historian

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 21:06

Just think of it; the years his career spanned. He started in the 1950s and was still driving in historic events up until just a few years ago. Over 60 years! That is amazing. The races he ran, the tracks he saw, the cars he owned and drove, the drivers he competed against and with whom he was friends, my, what a list! I saw him finish seventh, as I recall, in the 1969 GP du Canada at Mosport in his privateer Lotus 49. He was still running that car in historic events not that very long ago.

A very full life indeed.

One is saddened, for sure, but at the same time rejoices in the fullness and richness of his life, a lifetime spent doing what he loved to do. Pete certainly was one of the good guys.

Tom

#12 Gokart Mozart

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 21:08

RIP Pete...

I met him about ten years ago at Road America. He was racing his Lotus 49 and I came up to him with a photo of him racing in 1970 and he recalled the race like it was yesterday. We chatted for around 30 minutes and he treated this then-15-year-old like I was a lost member of his team. Wonderful man, he will be missed.

Respectfully Yours,

Jacques N. Dresang
UMW

#13 Jerry Entin

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 21:10

Posted Image
Pete Lovely and Bob Bondurant next to Pete is Tony Settember
This was from The Legends of Riverside 2009 event. Pete Lovely was a pleasure to be with and he enjoyed seeing his old friends.

RIP

Edited by Jerry Entin, 16 May 2011 - 21:13.


#14 Frank S

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 22:56

Pete Lovely in 1952, at Torrey Pines in the #125 Jag:

Posted Image

2003 at Monterey Historics in the Lotus:

Posted Image

Always the enthusiast, often an innovator. One of the early icons in the Southern California road-racing universe.

Thanks for all he did and for doing it the way he did it.

RIP


#15 wiwlakow

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 23:13

I received a bit of sad news, Pete Lovely passed away yesterday.

R.I.P.




Yes - really sad news - my friend sent him a letter 2 mounths ago, and he requested for signed photos. His douther answered him that Pete is in 3rd step of the Alzheimer's disease. He dead probably in a result of that.

R.I.P. from Poland

#16 Richard Jenkins

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Posted 16 May 2011 - 23:24

Expected news, but still tremendously sad. A hugely enthusiastic, passionate figure - a true credit to the sport and like so many, so much more than his Grand Prix career.
At least, with his grandson racing now, the family link keeps going.

RIP, Pete.

#17 JacnGille

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Posted 17 May 2011 - 00:12

Sad news.

#18 E1pix

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Posted 17 May 2011 - 00:18

One is saddened, for sure, but at the same time rejoices in the fullness and richness of his life, a lifetime spent doing what he loved to do. Pete certainly was one of the good guys.
Tom

This is precisely what I've been thinking.... Thanks, Tom for enunciating it with such eloquence.

While sad for friends and family, what a full life to live, in this manner and admired by so many.

RIP.

Edited by E1pix, 17 May 2011 - 00:58.


#19 Stephen W

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Posted 17 May 2011 - 08:22

I remember an ageing white and blue Lotus 49 - Cosworth in 1970... sad, sad news.
:cry:



I saw Pete in the British GP in 1970.............a different age, how good was it that he could compete in F1 as a privateer............R.I.P.


Pete Lovely was a true character and will be sadly missed. He didn't get interviewed over the Public Address very often but when he did it was a delight. I too remember him from his exploits in European F1 and he must have been one of the last true privateers.

:cry:

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#20 Manfred Cubenoggin

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Posted 17 May 2011 - 10:41

How odd...

As I struck the 'Reply' button to post on the loss of Pete Lovely, the French language flowed into my head. And trust me, I have only a passing acquaintance with the lingo. All I could think of was...

'Adieu, mon ami.' And 'Je me souviens.'

Edited by Manfred Cubenoggin, 17 May 2011 - 10:41.


#21 Gary Davies

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Posted 17 May 2011 - 16:50

Back in 1999, Pete had a wheel to wheel battle with Jack Brabham in Adelaide. I recall at the time noting that the two drivers leading the 'Formula Adelaide' race, as it was dubbed, had a combined age of 146!

Many here will know John Stoneham - 'Stonie' - and he has written this tribute to Pete Lovely together with a couple of pictures taken that day in April 1999.

-----------------------------------------

TRIBUTE TO A LOVELY BLOKE.

Vale Pete Lovely 1926 -2011

“The Australian connection” - John Stoneham

In 1999 the South Australian State Government led by Premier John Olson wanted to celebrate the re-opening of the Adelaide F1 street circuit to the Australian V8 Supercar Championship. They backed an historic Formula One race for 1966-1968 F1 cars with Sir Jack Brabham returning to a Grand Prix grid for the first time since he retired in 1970.

With the help of British racing journalist Doug Nye, director/organiser Dean Rainsford sourced cars from England and America and this saw a bloke called Pete Lovely from Seattle make the extraordinary trip across the Pacific with his historic Formula 1 Lotus 49B in the classic Gold Leaf livery.

Clive Chapman and Classic Lotus Team sent an identical 49B and two Lotus mechanics for Adelaide hero Vern Schuppan to drive. The betting odds were that this American former privateer F1 driver, Pete Lovely and Schuppan were going to be fastest in the field.

Sir Jack was the focus of the event because this was a truly historic moment when he slid his bum into a McLaren-BRM V12 from Pac-West Indy Car owner Bruce McCaw’s collection.

However for true-blue F1 nuts another controversy surfaced upon the arrival of Pete Lovely and his ex-Graham Hill Gold Leaf Lotus 49B-Cosworth DFV.

The story started at a previous historic meeting at Watkins Glen when a former New Zealand mechanic observed something interesting while curiously looking over the Lovely 49. Pete had bought the car from Colin Chapman in 1969 to run in the North American F1 Grands Prix and chose this particular car because his friend Graham Hill had raced this chassis.

“Chunky” Chapman was not known for religiously maintaining proper records of his chassis and in fact Pete Lovely thought he was buying chassis R5 and Chapman offered to stamp the chassis with any number he liked. The number eleven features large in Pete’s life: born April 11, 1926, and his wife Nevele’s name was “Eleven” spelled backwards . So it was that the chassis stamp R11 was applied to Pete Lovely’s newly refurbished Lotus 49B.

Enter the unknown NZ mechanic who is eyeballing the Pete Lovely Gold Leaf car at Watkins Glen. He recognises he had worked on the car by the pop-rivet pattern on the monocoque but there were more relevations to come.

Legendary F1 Journalist Eoin Young was drawn to this story when the mechanic began to reveal that this Lovely car was in fact one raced by Jim Clark because Jimmy had the throttle linkages altered to give him a more progressive feel with the DFV’s amazing power and also because no seat belts were worn, Jim had this mechanic devise a brace fitted across the back of the seat to stop him sliding up under braking.

The NZ spanner then proclaimed that this car must have started life as the Lotus 49 that had won the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort - chassis R2, achieving the first win for the 49B and the new Cosworth Ford DFV V8 engine.

Eoin Young brought the story to Adelaide with him for the inaugural Adelaide 500 historic support races to the new V8 Supercar Championship.

When Pete Lovely was told his car was now extremely historic, Pete was very sad. “I really didn’t know Jim Clark, Graham Hill was my friend,” he said in his soft drawl. It didn’t make any difference even when it was suggested that his original investment had instantly trebled in value.

Scottish F1 journalist, Stuart Sykes was also in Adelaide and when told this was Jimmy’s inaugural winning Lotus 49 he seemed to have some sort of sexual experience while stroking the bodywork.

The modifications ordered by Clark were indeed quite visible on Lovely’s car but Pete was left totally unmoved by these revelations.

Of the three races for the historic pre-winged Formula cars from 1966-1968, Pete Lovely snatched a hard fought win from Schuppan in the offical factory Lotus 49. Pete happily returned to Adelaide in 2000 as guest of the South Australian government to enjoy the chance to race on the former Grand Prix street circuit again.

To Nevele and the family in their time of loss, Adelaide pays tribute to a great competitor and humble human being; we are all better for knowing a really lovely bloke.

Posted Image
Bespectacled Pete Lovely (centre) listens to Dean Rainsford giving the driver’s briefing with Sir Jack.


Posted Image
Pete's beloved 49 in the paddock at Adelaide.






#22 David M. Kane

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Posted 28 May 2011 - 00:05

I think the Lotus 49 is now owned by Bob Baker.

#23 WDH74

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Posted 28 May 2011 - 04:48

I met him about ten years ago at Road America.


I believe I met him at the same event! I only saw him the one time. He was quite nice-I was photographing the Lotus from outside the rope barrier, and he noticed and stepped out of shot! We spoke for a couple of minutes about the car, although I no longer remember the exact conversation. A real gentleman.

-WDH

#24 raceannouncer2003

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Posted 28 May 2011 - 06:03

I think the Lotus 49 is now owned by Bob Baker.


I believe Chris MacAllister now owns it, and has converted it to the original Clark/'67 Dutch GP livery.

Here are links to the Art Evans article, plus the article and obit from the Tacoma Tribune:

http://www.sportscar...=1dKVPuA4Sus.C0

http://www.thenewstr...rylink=misearch

http://www.legacy.co...p;pid=151186245

Vince H.




#25 Michael Oliver

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Posted 28 May 2011 - 11:08

Sad news indeed. I did not know Pete before I began researching my Lotus 49 book but he was immediately friendly and spoke to me on the phone for quite some time. He also spent a while taking lots of detailed shots of his car for me so that I could verify its identity. When I rang him back to tell him that I had conclusive proof that he owned the ex-Clark Zandvoort-winning car he was surprised to say the least, although he did say that Allan McCall had said the same thing several years back when he looked at Pete's car but that he had dismissed it as nonsense, since he had agreed with Colin Chapman to buy the ex-Graham Hill '68 Championship winner!

I had hoped to keep a lid on the story until my book came out but Pete, liking to chat - and understandably proud of the newly-discovered history of his car - mentioned it to a journalist on a New York paper, who wrote a story about it and before I knew what was happening, I had Marcus Pye of Motor Sport on the phone, wanting to know the details, as they had picked up on the New York story!

More discomfort followed, as I had to go and tell Clive Chapman - who at this point I had never met - that his car wasn't the Zandvoort winner... After a slightly prickly beginning to the meeting Clive, to his great credit, realised that I had done my research thoroughly, and the upshot of it was that he and Pete revised the FIA papers for their respective cars.

Pete later sold his car to Bob Baker, who sold it to Chris MacAllister who, to my great regret, commissioned Classic Team Lotus to 'unconvert' the very original Lotus 49B that Pete had maintained since 1969 back to a Mark 1 Lotus 49.

Above all, I shall remember Pete as a talented, natural raconteur. If phone calls weren't so costly to the US, I could have listened to his stories for more hours than I did. The self-deprecating humour with which he described a number of situations he found himself in on his trips to Europe was just priceless.

Another link to Team Lotus history is gone in what has been a grim 18 months in this respect...

RIP Pete

Michael

#26 Giraffe

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Posted 28 May 2011 - 11:52

I was fortunate enough to witness Pete race in his immaculate white Lotus 49 amongst some illustrious company in the 1970 British GP at Brands Hatch where he registered a 10th place finish. Was this the only time Pete ever raced in Britain?

Posted Image
By giraffe138 at 2011-05-28

#27 Tim Murray

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Posted 28 May 2011 - 12:19

Was this the only time Pete ever raced in Britain?

He took part in the 1970 Race of Champions and International Trophy in the 49. He crashed out of the RoC at Paddock on lap 12, and very honestly admitted 'Reason for accident: brain fade'. He was 13th on aggregate in the International Trophy. He also raced a works-entered Lotus 15 in the sports car race supporting the 1958 British GP.

http://wsrp.ic.cz/intgb1958.html#10

I don't know if he did any other UK races.

#28 David McKinney

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Posted 28 May 2011 - 14:31

1959 International Trophy in a works F1 Lotus 16, having failed to start both the Glover Trophy and the Aintree 200

The previous year he had won his class in the Rheims 12hr (with Ireland in a Lotus XI) but retired at Le Mans

#29 David M. Kane

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Posted 28 May 2011 - 15:49

I think Chris McAllister did what he thought was right in the historic context. Trust me he is one of the good guys. Wonder what Bob Baker thinks now?

Somewhere up there Pete Lovely is smiling that wry smile he was so famous for...what a great guy, what a great racer.

Edited by David M. Kane, 28 May 2011 - 15:50.


#30 Stephen W

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Posted 29 May 2011 - 08:47

He took part in the 1970 Race of Champions and International Trophy in the 49. He crashed out of the RoC at Paddock on lap 12, and very honestly admitted 'Reason for accident: brain fade'.


My father & I heard the interview mentioned by Tim and forever after Pete Lovely was referred to as "Brain Fade".

:up:

#31 Michael Oliver

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Posted 29 May 2011 - 14:54

I think Chris McAllister did what he thought was right in the historic context. Trust me he is one of the good guys. Wonder what Bob Baker thinks now?

Somewhere up there Pete Lovely is smiling that wry smile he was so famous for...what a great guy, what a great racer.

Chris M may be one of the good guys to you but - trust me - he sought my advice and guidance on this and ignored it and also went against the principles of maintaining originality that had been drummed into him at seminars he has personally attended which were organised by historians and authors (and, indeed, forum members) far more esteemed than me...

Getting back to Pete, he told me that the first time that he took delivery of the 49, at Brands Hatch for the Race of Champions, that he had terrible trouble starting the DFV, and was being towed round and round the paddock by Nevele in their hire car, without success. It was only when Ken Tyrrell came up to them and asked if he had the engine set to full rich or not, that they realised they hadn't and doing this enabled them to get it started. A good example of a top team man helping out the little guy, which is hard to imagine happening today.

#32 David M. Kane

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Posted 29 May 2011 - 20:03

Michael thank you for the clarification. :up:

#33 raceannouncer2003

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Posted 20 June 2011 - 22:32

This from Martin Rudow:

"Hi Vince...You may have heard that I am doing a book on Pete Lovely and am under a very tight schedule because I want to have it at the Monterey Historics(!) Would it be appropriate to ask you to use your Atlas FI forum connections to help with some aspects of the material I need for the book?...A major part of the book and frankly almost not possible if I go all the way back to the oval races, so I will leave them out with a mention. I am asking for everyone out there to get this information to me. Plus any photos and stories they have of Pete...I have the family's cooperation...I am looking for stories and photos especially from the European F1 tour, the CanAm days with Gary Gove, and the vintage years. I have plenty of photos and stories from the 40s, 50s, and 60s (although a few more good ones are always welcome)....One thing I am hoping to do is to have as complete a list of places of Pete's races, with results, and a complete list of the cars he raced. Quite a job and I need to round this information up quickly. With vintage, a list of the events he participated in would be sufficient..."

Here is Martin's email address rsp@eschelon.com

Vince H.

#34 RA Historian

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Posted 21 June 2011 - 01:39

Good luck to him, but the time frame of far less than two months makes me think that the task is facing impossible deadlines.

#35 gchristopher

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Posted 21 June 2011 - 14:02

Chris M may be one of the good guys to you but - trust me - he sought my advice and guidance on this and ignored it and also went against the principles of maintaining originality that had been drummed into him at seminars he has personally attended which were organised by historians and authors (and, indeed, forum members) far more esteemed than me...

Getting back to Pete, he told me that the first time that he took delivery of the 49, at Brands Hatch for the Race of Champions, that he had terrible trouble starting the DFV, and was being towed round and round the paddock by Nevele in their hire car, without success. It was only when Ken Tyrrell came up to them and asked if he had the engine set to full rich or not, that they realised they hadn't and doing this enabled them to get it started. A good example of a top team man helping out the little guy, which is hard to imagine happening today.


Michael
The way I recall the story Ken Tyrrell asked about the full rich setting and found that they did not know about it, Ken looked up and called over to a passing mechanic,said you there show them how to set this metering unit. It did not matter that the mechanic did not work for Ken. There was a time the F1 padock was a very different place.
chris