Peter Ashdown
British racing driver (born 1934)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peter Hawthorn Ashdown (born 16 October 1934)[1] is a former motor racing driver. He drove in a single Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, racing a Cooper.
| Born | 16 October 1934 Danbury, Essex, England |
|---|---|
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Nationality |  British |
| Active years | 1959 |
| Teams | non-works Cooper |
| Entries | 1 |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Career points | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First entry | 1959 British Grand Prix |
Ashdown had trained as a vehicle mechanic, and had been a few years in the Royal Air Force when he started racing. First seen in a Dellow with a Ford 10 engine,[2] he continued around 1955 to race in a Lotus Mark IX as a privateer, not being part of any particular racing team.[3]
Prior to Formula One, Ashtown was one of the leaders of the British Formula Junior scene, but an accident at Rouen-Les-Essarts in 1958, in which he broke his collarbone, considerably hampered his career.[4]
Ashtown continued racing, and competed in a Formula Two (F2) Cooper-Climax entered by Alan Brown at the 1959 British Grand Prix at Aintree. He finished in 12th position, third of the F2 cars and six laps down.[5]
From there, Ashtown drove a Formula Junior Lola and many small-engined sports cars, winning his class in the 1960 and 1962 1000km of Nürburgring. On the latter occasion at the Nordschleife, he and the co-driver Bruce Johnstone scored the debut win for Lotus 23 in the 1L Sportscar class with a 997cc Cosworth Mk.III as a semi-works entry (Ian Walker Racing), while the other semi-works (Essex Racing Stable) Lotus 23 of Jim Clark crashed on lap 12 of the 44 lap race.[6][7]
Ashtown retired in 1962 and focused his efforts on a Vauxhall dealership in Essex.[3]
