Al Pease

Victor " Al " Pease (* October 15, 1921 in Darlington ) is a former Canadian race car driver.

The Canadian amateur racer denied in the late 1950s sports car racing on a Riley in his home country. Then there was silence suddenly appeared to the Canadians in the mid- 1960s with a Lotus 23 back on the racetracks. Pease is regarded as one of the worst Formula 1 racer and is the only formula 1 driver ever to be disqualified because he was driving too slow.

Life and career

Al Pease was born in the UK. After the Second World War he moved to Canada. Here he began to participate in club racing and sports car racing; often he drove modified cars from MG or Riley. In the 1960s Pease sat increasingly seaters, but remained primarily in Canada and the United States. About the racing successes of this period little concrete information is available. The Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, in the Al Pease was introduced in 1998 as an honorary member, quoted to him: " It is doubtful whether any other driver has collected more trophies in the history of Canadian Motorsports as Al Pease, continuously in almost 30 years regional and national championships won in a variety of vehicles. " This contrasts with several failures in Formula 1.

Race in Formula 1

Pease enlisted in the three races of the Formula 1, a racing series that was far beyond most observers, about his circumstances. Pease put each one an Eagle T1G, which was powered by a 2.7 -liter four- cylinder engine from Coventry Climax (Series FPF).

Al Pease 1967 debuted at the age of 45 years at his home race in Mosport Park. He qualified as 16th of 19 participants; be behind the pole time of Jim Clark was 7.7 seconds. Pease started late from the side strips after six laps of the race were already gone. The reason for the delay were difficulties when changing the battery, which could not be completed on time. After 22 rounds, Pease turned in heavy rain. The engine died and could not be restarted because the battery had drained during the race. Pease ran on foot in the box, took a spare battery, returned to the car and built the battery by hand. He continued the race and crossed the finish line. Since, however, he had 43 laps behind the winner Jack Brabham, Pease was not considered.

A second announcement was made for the Grand Prix of Canada 1968. Pease qualified 15 seconds behind in 22nd and last. Before the race, Pease took the Coventry Climax engine apart to inspect it for possible sources of error. There he did not succeed until the start of the race to assemble the engine again. Pease could therefore not participate in the Grand Prix of Canada.

The third and final message to a Formula 1 race joined a year later: 1969 Pease took part in the Grand Prix of Canada in 1969. The announcement was made by the team John Maryon Racing, for the 1969 Pease drove into the Gulf Canada Series. Pease went with the now yellow, green and red painted Eagle - Climax than 17 at the start. He moved the car extremely slow in this race. When he had completed 22 laps, the leading driver was already in its 45th round. Despite its residue resisted Pease overhauls and lapping. When he finally Jackie Stewart in an attempt to ward off further lapping, endangered, put Ken Tyrrell, Stewart's team boss at the race organizers protest. Pease was subsequently disqualified on the grounds that he was going too slow. Al Pease is the only racing driver in Formula 1 history, has been disqualified because of slow driving.

More race

After the end of his Formula 1 career Pease took up in the 1970s to race in Formula A and Formula 5000 in part until in the 1980s he became involved with vintage racing in Canada.