Tuesday, October 15, 2019

"Canadian Motorsport Hall Of Famer" Al Pease Born - October 15, 1921

October 15, 1921
Al Pease
(Photo; en.espn.co.uk)
Born in Darlington, England.
He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on August 27, 1967. He holds the unfortunate distinction of being the only competitor ever to be disqualified from a World Championship race, the 1969 Canadian Grand Prix, for being too slow. Pease was black-flagged after a series of on-track incidents, the last involving Matra driver Jackie Stewart. In response, Matra owner Ken Tyrrell protested to the officials and had Pease disqualified. At the time, Pease completed 22 laps in an uncompetitive car while the leaders finished 46. Pease's F1 history happened during the Canadian Grand Prix, where his career consisted of a NC (1967, finishing 43 laps behind the leaders), DNS (engine trouble in 1968), and DSQ (1969).

Despite the brief duration of his Formula One career, Pease was highly successful in domestic Canadian motor sport competitions, winning a steady stream of regional and national championships in a variety of cars for almost 30 years and was inducted as a member of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1998.

He was also instrumental in getting the CASC to allow sponsors’ names on the side of racing cars, paving the way for a whole new generation of professional Canadian racing drivers.

Al Pease died on May 4th 2014, at his home in Tennessee.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have a suspicion Al was my first teacher at Nelson's Driver's School in '77.

Dave Wheeler said...

Very interesting Randy!