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Peter Revson enjoyed a successful motorsport career across multiple categories. Sadly, like so many, he would perish behind the wheel.
Peter Revson pushes his Lotus 24 during his debut at the 1964 Belgian Grand Prix (Image Credit: @zdravkost on Twitter)F1 Debut
Revson made his F1 debut in 1964, attracting the attention of Reg Parnell. Parnell was the first British rostrum finisher in F1, as well as a team owner himself. Revson and Parnell would form Parnell-Revson Racing. However, during 1964, Parnell passed away aged only 52 after an appendix operation which went wrong. Revson’s coffers dried up, and he had to quit F1, finishing a best of 13th at the Italian Grand Prix. Revson then competed in Le Mans in 1966, retiring 15 hours in, driving the predecessor to the winning Ford GT40 Mk II.
In 1967 he returned to the US, competing in IndyCar, and touring car races. In IndyCar, Revson competed in three races from 1966-1968. Revson’s true promise was shown in 1969 when he finished fifth at the Indy 500, although 21 cars failed to finish the race. In the same season, he won his first IndyCar race at the Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP). He also finished third in the previous heat.
Return to F1
Peter Revson achieved Pole Position at the 1971 Indianapolis 500 (Image Credit: @IMS on Twitter)From 1966-1971, Revson also raced in the Can-Am series, competing for American teams until 1971. After the death of Bruce McLaren, Mayer took over and hired Revson as a driver for McLaren’s Can-Am team. This proved to be the right decision. He won the Can-Am series in 1971, beating Denny Hulme to the title. During this year he also took the pole for the Indy 500, finishing second to Al Unser Sr.
After this fine form, he returned to F1, driving the US Grand Prix for champions Tyrrell, meaning there was a seven-year gap between his last race and the 1971 US GP. This was a record at the time. He drove the older 001 chassis, which was unreliable and much slower than its successor. This was evidenced by Revson qualifying only 21st and retiring on the opening lap with clutch issues.
Mayer hired Revson to drive alongside Denny Hulme in the 1972 F1 season, He started the season well, out-qualifying Hulme, an F1 Champion, starting third for the Argentine Grand Prix. He started poorly dropping to the bottom of the top ten before retiring on lap 49 with gearbox issues.
Revson would qualify only P12 in South Africa, by lap 16 he was into the top 10 after a poor start which saw him drop to as low as P19 on lap 2. He then moved into the points and would finish in third, overtaking 12 cars. Mike Hailwood, Jackie Stewart, Carlos Reutemann and Tim Schenken had all retired from the race. In the end, he finished behind Emerson Fittipaldi and teammate Hulme who took his sixth victory in F1.
Starting P11 in Spain, he would finish in fifth after retirements from teammates Hulme, Stewart, Mario Andretti, and Chris Amon. He didn’t race in Monaco as he was preparing to compete at the Indy 500. He started second but retired from the race. Brian Redman would fill in for him and finished fifth.
From F1 back to Indycar
From the outside, the Belgian Grand Prix looked like a failure for Revson, until you look at his lap-by-lap progress. In this race, Revson collided with Carlos Reutemann’s Brabham with both falling down the field. Over the 85 laps, Revson made his way up the field, overtaking Peter Gethin, Nanni Galli, Andrea de Adamich, Howden Ganley, Niki Lauda, Rolf Stommelen, Helmut Marko, and Ronnie Peterson to make his way back up to seventh place.
Despite scoring no points, it was a valiant effort nonetheless from the American. After the Belgian Grand Prix, Revson was seventh in the standings whereas teammate Hulme was second after he had finished on each step of the podium once. Meanwhile, McLaren was five points behind Lotus, who had the incredible Lotus 72D.
He missed two of the next three races due to one IndyCar race, which was originally scheduled for the same weekend as the French Grand Prix but was rescheduled to the same weekend as the German Grand Prix due to rain, meaning Revson missed two further rounds.
F1 return picks up pace
Revson’s strong showing in qualifying at Brands Hatch was rewarded, as he out qualified Jackie Stewart by one place, and despite being passed by Stewart, would finish third due to Jacky Ickx’s retirement, which moved him up to fifth in his first full season of F1, behind Jacky Ickx, Hulme, Stewart and Fittipaldi, who would go on to win the title.
Revson followed this qualifying performance up in Austria, qualifying fourth and finishing third after retirements to Regazzoni and Stewart. He did this despite a poor start, which led Hulme to pass him and finish ahead of him in second. Revson moved back up to fifth in the standings after missing the German Grand Prix.
After finishing fourth in Italy, he was only eight points behind Jacky Ickx, could he get fourth? The answer; no. Despite finishing second in Canada, his best result in F1 at the time, he did not beat Ickx in the championship due to retiring in the final race in America. Even if he didn’t retire, he would not have beaten Ickx as he was sixth when he retired, which was one place behind Ickx.
Overall, his first full season in F1 was very good – finishing rookie of the year, having an average qualifying of fifth as well as taking his only pole position in Canada. Could he improve on this form in 1973? In a way, yes.
Revson had a far better year than in 1972. Despite starting poorly in South Africa and Brazil with an average of 11th in qualifying and no points, he would run fourth in the standings until Sweden when Hulme overtook him after taking his seventh Grand Prix win. Despite Ronnie Peterson waking up halfway through the season after five retirements from six races, Revson would finish in the top five of the standings by season’s end.
Maiden Win
Revson in the McLaren M23 en route to his maiden win in F1 at the 1973 British Grand Prix. (Image Credit: @McLarenF1 on Twitter)Heading into the British Grand Prix, the American was sixth in the standings with an average qualifying of only ninth. His average finishing position was fifth. Revson qualified in third for the British Grand Prix. A huge improvement on his previous qualifying performances, starting third would be huge for this race.
At the end of the opening lap, Jody Scheckter spun his McLaren and took out eight other cars. Revson moved back up to third by lap eight after a poor start. Fortunately he avoided the last corner melee. He did get slightly lucky, as second-place Emerson Fittipaldi retired with transmission issues, which would cost him the championship lead.
Revson was now duelling for the lead with Fittipaldi’s teammate Peterson. They would tussle for the lead until the end, with Revson coming out on top after passing Peterson on lap 39. He would take his maiden win by 2.8 seconds from Peterson. Despite his maiden win, Revson was still sixth in the standings but closed up significantly on teammate Denny Hulme.
Revson would then finish fourth in the Netherlands, which helped him jump ahead of Hulme in the standings. Neither McLaren scored in Germany or Austria, and it wasn’t looking great for McLaren. The American qualified second in Italy and finished third which moved him four points ahead of Hulme. Lotus and Tyrrell were in a race of their own, so the two McLarens were in a solo fight for fifth.
Second and Final Win
Revson’s final win was very controversial: he qualified second and was running ninth when the Safety Car came out for the first-ever time following a collision between Scheckter and Francois Cevert, which moved him up to seventh. In an extreme amount of confusion, one that can only be levelled by Napoleon’s coup d’état. Eppie Wietzes thought Howden Ganley, who was ninth, was the race leader and so anyone who was in the top eight benefited from this. Pit stops further created chaos and in all of it, Revson was shown as leading the timing, and so was declared the winner by 32 seconds from Fittipaldi. This would be the final win for an American until the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix, the final win for Revson as well as his final podium.
In his final race for McLaren, he finished fifth, however, the weekend was marred by the passing of future Tyrrell team leader Cevert. Overall, it was his best season in F1, finishing fifth and scoring 38 points, finishing as the “best of the rest” due to the Tyrrell-Lotus juggernaut.
Accident
For 1974, Revson moved to the Shadow team and qualified fourth in Argentina and sixth in Brazil, but a crash in Argentina and reliability issues in Brazil left him pointless after two rounds.
Then tragedy struck in South Africa. Whilst testing his Shadow on the Kyalami circuit, his suspension failed and crashed heavily into the armco barrier, killing him instantly. Tony Southgate, who designed the Shadow Revson drove, stated “Revvie [Peter Revson] was going very well, very happy with the car, and then he [Revson] didn’t come around. We rushed out to the back of the circuit and found the car buried under the Armco on the outside of a quick corner. Peter was already in the ambulance and gone. I phoned the hospital, and they told me I had to go to the morgue and identify him.
Revson was 35 when he died and was engaged at the time to the 1973 Miss World, Marjorie Wallace. He was the second Revson to die in a racing accident after his brother died in an accident in 1967 in Denmark. His parents outlived him, with his father living to 106, dying in 2016, and his mother living to 86, dying in 2000.
Revson took two wins, eight podiums and one pole position in his storied career. He raced a non-works Lotus, Tyrrell, McLaren and finally Shadow. Revson was the 54th F1 driver to die in an accident. One of the finest Americans to drive in F1, and one of the best of the 70s. So many greats died at the wheel, and that has been a common theme throughout this with von Trips, Bandini, Siffert and Revson. Sad this list will continue with the final part of this series. Next time it will be on Gunnar Nilsson and the final part on Patrick Depailler.
Feature Image Credit: @McLarenF1 on Twitter