Two days after the Race of Champions in 1974, Peter Revson is on his way to Kyalami for testing with his new team, Shadow. Next to him in the plain sits BRM racemanager Tim Parnell, son of Reg Parnell, who helped Peter Revson in his early European race days. He was a bit jealous. Revson came from a wealthy family and his girlfriend Marjorie was Miss World. Peter himself was a bit down. Did his fiancée really wanted him and why did McLaren had no place for him anymore ?
Peter Revson was born on February 27,1939. His family had founded the perfume company Revlon and was indeed wealthy. It would follow him during his whole career, but he did it really with his own money. And in the beginning Peter was on a tight budget. He started racing in a Morgan and in some SCCA events. In 1963 he found enough money to by a new Formula Junior Cooper and set off on his own to Europe. With a Thames Bread van he towed the car all around Europe, sleeping in the van at night, but with the help from mechanic Walter Boyd, he was racing against guys like Denny Hulme, Mike Spence and Jochen Rindt. He got a home base, a flat in Surbiton( London area), which he shared with Chris Amon and Mike Hailwood. They were all under the wings of Reg Parnell.
He got an offer by Parnell to drive a F1 Lotus 24 BRM V8 in 1964. But because Reg died before the season started and with few spare parts, it was disastrous. He ran in four Grands Prix and five non-championship races. His best Grand Prix result was 13th at Monza, but in the non-title races he was fourth at Solitude and sixth at Enna. Revson would not be in F1 for another 7 years.
Instead, he won the 1965 F3 support race in Monaco in a Lotus 35 against a class field and turned to sportscar racing. He raced a Brabham BT8 in the USA in 1965, Ford GT40 in 1966, a Trans-AM Mercury Cougar in 1967, with two wins. In 1968 he did a winless season of Trans-Am in an AMC Javelin and entered the Canam with a McLaren M6B. The following year he did better in the Trans-Am with a Ford Mustang and got a quick car, the Lola T163, in Canam. But he choose also to drive in Indianapolis. He finished fifth driving a Brabham BT25. Remained, he started last and drove a car with an underpowered 4.2L Repco. Later in the year Peter won heat two of the Indy 200.
And then it was 1970. For the 12 hours Sebring, he shared a Porsche 908/2 with his owner, superstar Steve McQueen and….they nearly won ! They were second just 22 seconds behind the winning works Ferrari. Mc Queen took much of the credit because he drove with his clutch food in plaster. The truth is that Revson was massively faster and had done most of the driving. If there was another driver next to Peter Revson, the Ferrari would not have a chance ( said winner Mario Andretti). In Indianapolis, he replaced Chris Amon. In ten laps, he proved himself as a fast Indycar driver.
In 1971, Peter qualified his McLaren M16 on pole for the Indianapolis 500. In the race, he lacked some pace, so Al Unser won and Revson was second. In the Canam, his career took off. In a works McLaren M8F he took four wins and became champion, beating Denny Hulme. He returned to the F1, driving for Tyrrell in Watkins Glen. His race ended in the first lap when oil spilled on the clutch. These results were enough for Teddy Mayer to give him a place in the McLaren F1 team and the M19A machine for 1972.
Revson brought the Yardley sponsorship to the team. Because he was a good-looking man there were always women around him. His image of a playboy was however very wrong. He was a thoughtful, hard-working man who got on top entirely on his own merit.
Peter did well, especially since team-mate Hulme was a former champion and a McLaren man. But on the eight occasions where they both finished, Hulme was ahead on six. Peter got better in qualifying through the season and got pole-position at Mosport. He ended fifth (four podium finishes) in the championship beaten only by three world champions and Jacky Ickx.
Revson also did a full endurance season driving an Alfa 33 prototype at Daytona, Sebring, Brands Hatch, Le Mans and Zeltweg. Add to that nine Canam meetings and three Indycar rounds.
So came 1973. His relationship with Mayer had been brittle at times and got now totally destabilized with the announcement of Jody Scheckter as third driver. His season started poorly. In Argentina he came eight while in Brazil his gearbox broke on lap 3. He was second behind Stewart in South-Africa. For these three races, Revson used the M19A. Fourth in Spain with the brand new M23 was followed by spinning out off the track at Zolder. He then got to the Indy 500 where his race ended in the wall after three laps. There he met Marjorie Wallace, who would become Miss USA, miss World and Revson’s companion.
The 500 meant being late for Monaco. In just one day of qualifying, he was 15th. On a track where you cannot overtake, he ended the race in fifth position. After being seventh in Sweden, he was send to drive at the Pocono 500 and missed the French GP.
The 1973 British GP will always be remembered for the big first lap shunt, which eliminated nine cars. At the restart, Revson worked his way up. Stewart got off track and in lap 39 he passed leading Ronnie Peterson. He finished the race as a winner; his first GP win. The next race in Zandvoort was overshadowed by the death of Roger Williamson; Revson was fourth. After a ninth place at the Nürburgring, he was out with a slipping clutch before the start of the Austrian GP. He then already knew, he would not be a member of the McLaren team in 1974. He would be replaced by Emerson Fittipaldi with money from Marlboro and Texaco. Tho only option at McLaren was a third driver option and he did not wanted that.
He led not down and did what he had to do. At Monza he was third. And there was interest from Maranello and from Don Nicols from Shadow. His money demands were too high for Ferrari and a drive at the Indy 500 was not an option. So Ferrari went for Clay Regazzoni.
In Canada Revson won again a race at the expense of Fittipaldi! He thanked pace-car driver Eppie Wietzes , who came out in front of the wrong car. After the race at Watkins Glen, where he finished fifth, he signed a contract for the “all American “Shadow team.
The first two races of 1974 in the DN3 ended with a DNF, but he qualified in the front. After a sixth in the Race of Champions, he was off to Kyalami for testing. He invited the Shadow crew for a BBQ at the Kyalami Ranch, next to the circuit. The guys had worked on the car, who came directly from Brands Hatch and they had replaced the front suspension.
On Friday, there is a circuit inspection by Denny Hulme, JP Beltoise and owner Alex Blignaut. There is some discussion about the guard rail at Barbeque corner, the second curve after a downhill slope to be taken at full speed. Three hours later, the Shadow left the pits after some adjustments at the front spoiler because of understeering. When Peter started his first flying lap, the front suspension collapsed because a bolt came lose and with 220 km/h the Shadow hits the rail frontal, got stuck under it and made a flip-flop and got on fire.
What happened next is not for real. The fire truck refused to start and the fireman wore short trousers and normal shirts. Hulme, Fittipaldi and Hill stopped at the scene, but could do nothing. They were the ones that put their colleague on the stretcher. It was a total disaster.
His racing biography book: Speed with style is one of the best biography ever written. It is a story about pursuing your passion!
