The Gold Leaf Team Lotus rig is probably kosher as far as Bernie and the Liberty Media money-mob are concerned but the Pete Lovely VW Motors Kombi Ute and old Lotus 49B Ford would have made them choke on their canapés and Bolly.
Your average VW Dealer may have run a sportscar or touring car with his I’ll-gotten gains, not our boy from Fife, Seattle though, this lifelong racer contested US national events with his ex-Team Lotus/Mario Andretti 49B-R11 and took in the odd Grand Prix as well.
The shot above is in the Clermont Ferrand paddock during the 1970 French Grand Prix weekend.
The American took delivery of the car in time for the 1969 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. He was sixth among 12 starters in the March 16 race won by Jackie Stewart’s Matra MS80 Ford, the second of the combos six championship and non-championship F1 wins that season.
Brands was the first of ten meetings Lovely did that year: five F1 races including the Canadian, US and Mexican GPs and five US national meetings. Seventh place in the Canadian GP was impressive.
In 1970-71 – living the dream – Pete, his wife and the Kombi did another eight meetings, all but one were F1 events, but by then the game had moved on, his efforts were littered with DNQ/DNS/UNC.
Canadian GP, Mosport September 1971.
With his Lotus 49 increasingly uncompetitive Pete concocted the brilliant idea of bolting the back of his 49B – the engine, Hewland gearbox and rear suspension wheeled away as one unit – to an ex-Jochen Rindt Racing Lotus 69 F2 car (ex-Hill #69.F2.5).
Whoosh-bonk – in Bruce McLaren’s words – an instant more modern GP car! Lovely raced it in some US L&M F5000 rounds in 1971 and entered it in the 1971 Canadian and US Grands Prix. He was sixth at the Monterey GP (49B), fifth and seventh at the Seafair 200 at Seattle (69/49B). In the Canadian GP he was Q26 and unclassified, and at Watkins Glen Q32 and unclassified in both cases aboard the Lotus 69 Ford DFV as it was described in-period.
Pete historic raced the Lotus 49 later in his life and retained it until his death, at which point it was sold to a Seattle collector.
Obiter…
Pete’s effort in turning his F2 Lotus 69 into a Grand Prix car gives the Lotus 69 a unique title. It is the only racing car model, I think, to ever compete in Formula Ford, F3, F2/Atlantic and F1. Pedants will rightfully point out that the FF and F3 69s used spaceframe chassis not monocoques…but they were still Lotus 69s!
See here for a great bio and obituary: https://www.f1forgottendrivers.com/drivers/pete-lovely/
Credits…
MotorSport Images, Sportography
Finito…
primotipo... 