I've just heard that Pete Lovely of the Seattle area passed away yesterday.

Pete, as real old-timers will know, raced many times at Westwood in a variety of cars, including his own Lotus 49-Ford, a Cooper-Ferrari and Lotus 11 and 15.

Pete was a terrific driver (the last North American F1 privateer, I believe) and a very nice person.

I'll post to obituary when I have it.

Ah yes, master of the "Pooper Cooper"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimculp/3711320819/

Also interesting story of him winning a race I believe was at Pebble Beach when they actually had a road race there through the forest. Story was his throttle cable broke and drove the last part of the race with one hand on the wheel and the other reaching back to the motor and pulling the throttle open.

Back when tires were skinny and drivers were fat :)

LoCo,  it was different Cooper-Porsche . Also, in his case both the driver and the tyres were skinny.

I met Pete Lovely on  my first time at Westwood.  April, 1961 , I was flagging at Turn 2 and he parked it there for a bit in his Cooper-Ferrari F.One car while leading to let the others go past
then passed them all to win that race.

He and his pal Pat Piggott ( later killed in a Lotus 23 at Riverside, Calif.) came to Westwood many times in the very early days.

He was a great racer and a nice man.

I am sure that many of us "older" folk have been thinking of him and happy times in the past during this sad day.

Lawrence Green

From RACER magazine:

http://www.racer.com/pete-lovely-1926-2011/article/203040/?DCMP=EMC-RACER_DAILY