BTCC's hybrid era kicked off with a bang

Peter Revson

As F1 heads for its first Miami Grand Prix, let’s recall one of the few Americans to have left a mark on the top tier of circuit racing. Peter Revson was a good-looking heir to the Revlon cosmetics empire but shook off the rich playboy tag to prove himself as a genuine F1 front-liner.

He first journeyed to Europe in 1963 to prove his worth and dipped an F1 toe a year later but soon returned to the US, where he paid his dues in Can-Am and Trans-Am. In 1970, he did the lion’s share of work to propel a Porsche 908 to second at the Sebring 12 Hours as celebrity team-mate Steve McQueen took the plaudits.

A McLaren Can-Am seat for ’71 and second in the Indianapolis 500 led him back to F1 and a rash of podiums in ’72. The next year, in the striking new M23, he became an F1 winner, conquering a damp Silverstone and being credited as first in rain-soaked confusion at Mosport. But with Emerson Fittipaldi on his way to McLaren, Revson moved to Don Nichols’ rising Shadow team for 1974.

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That March, while testing at Kyalami in South Africa, a suspected suspension failure pitched the New Yorker into a barrier. He didn’t stand a chance.