SHELSLEY WALSH PETER COLLINS CELEBRATION MEETING

The Midland Automobile Club is planning to make their August 2008 Shelsley Walsh event The Peter Collins Celebration Meeting.

Peter, whose family ran Kidderminster Motors, started his career in a Cooper 500 and competed at Shelsley Walsh. His career then blossomed with works drives for HWM in Grands Prix and Aston Martin in International Sports Car racing. In 1953 he drove a few Formula One races for Tony Vandervell in the Thinwall Special, and in 1955, driving brilliantly with Stirling Moss, he won the Targa Florio for Mercedes.

All this caught the eye of Enzo Ferrari who invited Peter to join Ferrari to drive in both Grand Prix and Sports Car races. He won two Grands Prix that year, and showed immense sportsmanship by handing his car over to Fangio in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Fangio went on to win the World Championship, but Enzo Ferrari was intensely moved by Peter's gesture.

Peter and his friend and teammate Mike Hawthorn brought a great deal of boyish fun into the Ferrari team, but sometimes this caught them out, most notably in the 1957 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, where Fangio, throwing caution to the winds, caught them napping and won the race.

Tragically, it was here, just a year later, during a season in which he won the British Grand Prix, that Peter Collins died at the wheel of his Ferrari on the 3^rd of August 1958. He was buried in the chuchyard at Stone near to Kidderminster.

So it is fitting that, 50 years later, the M.A.C. should celebrate the life of this brilliant young Midlander. The plan is to assemble as many cars as possible that represent Peter's career, as well as family members, friends and contemporaries at the August 2008 Championship meeting at Shelsley Walsh.

The M.A.C. would like to hear from anyone with Peter Collins connections or recollections of Peter's life. Email here…..

Cars that the M.A.C. would particularly like to source (at least an example if not Peter's actual car include:

1951 Dyna Panhard, 1952 Aston Martin DB3, 1953 HWM and Aston Martin DB3S, 1954 Aston Martin DB2 competition, 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4, 1956 Ferrari 410s, Ferrari 850 Monza, Ferrari 200TR, 1957 Ferrari 290s and ferrari 315s, 1958 Ferrari Testa Rossa and Ferrari 196s. If you can help with any of these cars please contact Chris Drewett by e-mailing here.......