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Peter Bolton
IN the 1950s and 60s, Peter Bolton, who then lived in Wetherby and worked in Leeds, competed in many rallies and races including 20 Monte Carlo rallies and 10 24-hour Le Mans – best remembered as team leader for AC Cobra with co-drivers Ninian Sanderson and Jack Sears.
Peter, who has died aged 88, was one of the oldest surviving members of the British Racing Drivers' Club.
He started his racing career with motorcycles, entering grass track and trial events with considerable success. Then an ex-Novolari K-type MG came through his first garage business and in it he won a 20-mile race at Redcar.
In the Monte Carlo rallies of 1958 and 1959 he was sponsored by the Yorkshire Evening Post, his co-driver being motoring correspondent Peter Craven.
He moved to the Isle of Man 22 years ago, and there, together with the late Earl of Northesk, he was the co-founder of the Manx Motor Racing Club which reintroduced car racing on part of the TT course.
He was their president and introduced John Surtess who became the club's patron.
Peter attended Leeds Central High School, but in his own words hated school and left at 14 and trained to be a dental technician but cars interested him more than teeth and he started and ran the Bolton group of companies with – at its peak – 14 filling stations and six car showrooms in the Leeds area, holding dealerships for Fiat, Citroen, Volvo and Morgan, this last explained by his friendship with fellow rallying enthusiast, Peter Morgan. He retained the Morgan franchise at his Otley Motors until 20 years ago.
A man with a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous charm, he made the front page of a Sunday newspaper – complete with picture – when in June 1964 he drove up the completed section of the M1 at 190mph. In the House of Commons the MP for one of the constituencies he passed through asked Ernest Marples, the then Minister of Transport, if the new road had been built for test driving racing cars. Coincidence or not, shortly afterwards Marples introduced the 70mph maximum speed limit on all roads.
Serving in the Royal Navy during the war, Peter was mesmerised by the sight of RAF fighters flying overhead, and at the war's end, joined the RAF, learning to fly in Canada. He held a pilot's licence into his 70s.
At the end of the war he met Peggy Hickman in the Harewood Arms, and later they were married.
A great friend of Donald Campbell, on June 15,1966, he drove Bluebird at RAF Debden in Essex, but not without incident. He and the car, travelling at 150, hit a bank, took off – clearing the main road at the end of the runway 10 feet in the air – and landed in a ploughed field on the other side. Campbell had been booked to drive his record-breaking car for a charity event, but became unwell, and Peter took his place at the wheel.
Peter was the first chairman of the Leeds committee of the Variety Club of Great Britain.
He is survived by Peggy and their two sons Stephen and Graham and four grandchildren. The funeral will be held at Marown Parish Church, Glen Vine, Isle of Man, at 11am on Friday, September 5.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
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