Peter Harry Sutcliffe (born 1 December 1936), was a textile manufacturer from Huddersfield. Between 1959 and 1967 he won the 1964 Prix de Paris and the 1965 Pietermaritzburg 3 hours. He raced in Aston Martins, Jaguar D Types and E Types, Shelby Cobra Daytona, Ford GT40’s and works Ferrari 330 P4’s.
Peters interest in motorsport began in 1952 when he came across a copy of Motor Sport magazine at school. It inspired him to move away from his main interest at the time, horses and into cars.
He started to drive a 1951 series 1 Landrover around the garden of the family home, Peter came from a wealthy textile family and so the grounds were probably substantial. Once bitten by the driving bug he became addicted and was even allowed to drive his mum and dads 2.6 litre Lagondas (they had one each).
On leaving school he commuted to Leeds University in a well worn MGTD which he credits with teaching him car control. It was also the first car he raced coming third at Aintree behind fellow Yorkshireman, Innes Ireland who won.
Peter upgraded to a Frazer Nash, pursuading his parents to pay for it as a 21st birthday present.
Peter did some racing in 1959 while doing his national service and on leaving the army he purchased the ex Ecurie Ecosse spare factory team car for Le Mans 1955. The E-Type suffered a major accident at Snetterton and following a rebuild it was sold.
Next Peter was offered a Lightweight E-Type and he was racing in Europe almost every weekend.
Peter was unable to beat the Ferrari 250 GTO in the E-Type and so he purchased a Ferrari from David Piper. Success with the Ferrari led to interest from The Ferrari race team and Peter drove for them in the 1957 at Le Mans. Sadly mechanical maladies meant that the car failed to finish.
Peter then did some racing in the early Shelby Cobras, a car he particularly disliked. But this led to a drive in the GT40 for Le Mans in 1966. Peter went on to own two GT40’s for his own race programme. When Peter gave up racing to head to South Africa his parents insisted he get rid of the remaining GT40. Unfortunately no one wanted to buy it so he gave it away.
Following his success in Europe Peter was approached by David Piper, who was looking for drivers to compete in the Kyalami 9 hours and the Springbok Series. He enjoyed it so much that he gave up all thoughts of working in the family firm and moved to South Africa in 1967. He got a job in engineering and gave up his racing career.
Peters career spanned 10 years and would be the envy of any racing enthusiast given the cars he drove and races he competed in. What a great Yorkshire racing driver.