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Cars that seem to fit are larger now, but
the excitement that springs from them is just as fresh. And to
his delight, Pete Lyons has been able to devote the intervening
decades to happily wandering the raceways of the world, writing
about, photographing, and very occasionally being allowed to
drive some of the most beautiful and thrilling machines ever
created by human genius. Even better, he’s been
privileged to know some of the geniuses.
It’s all thanks to his father,
Ozzie Lyons, an engineer, photographer and lifelong automobile
enthusiast who put Pete's feet on this road. Ozzie was long the
USA correspondent for Autosport magazine, and helped his
youngster begin shooting and writing for that British bible
too. Gradually, but inevitably, covering motorsports became a
career.
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For several years Pete reported on the
North American scene for Autosport, regularly attending great
events like the Daytona 24-hour and 500-mile races, the Sebring
12-hour, the Indy 500, and the annual Formula One Grands Prix
in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. A special favorite was the
Can-Am, the Canadian-American Challenge Cup series for
essentially unlimited big sports racing cars. Those glorious
years from 1966 to 1974 are the basis for two of Pete’s
books, CAN-AM and CAN-AM PHOTO HISTORY, both from MBI
Publishing (see BOOKS page).
Pete then went international, and spent
four wonderful years as the F1 correspondent for both Autosport
and and the American publication AutoWeek. From 1973 through
1976, at a time before live television or the internet, when
fans had to wait for their magazine to arrive to learn the
results of a race weekend, Pete tried to put the reader into
his shoes at such exotic locales as Argentina, Brazil, South
Africa, Japan and all the great circuits of Europe.
After several years on-staff as editor of
a US racing monthly, which at first was called Formula and
later renamed Racecar, Pete chose to become a freelancer once
again. Today he contributes to a wide variety of automotive
publications, including AutoWeek, for whom he is now a Senior
Contributing Editor, and Vintage Racecar Journal, which carries
his regular column, "Fast Lines." He also serves as
editor of MilePost, the monthly organ of the Motor Press Guild
(MPG). Other prestigeous publications in which Pete's byline
has appeared include Racer, Road & Track, Corvette
Quarterly, Car and Driver, Vintage Motorsport, Cycle, Cycle
World, Private Pilot and many others.
To date Pete Lyons is the author of six
books. His work has been honored with the Dean Batchelor Award
of the Motor Press Guild, an Award for Journalism given by the
Road Racing Driver's Club, and the International Motor Press
Association's Ken Purdy Award.
The Historic Grand Prix Association
periodically awards its Pete Lyons Cup to owners of vintage F1
cars whom Pete feels best recreate the spirit of the historic
times he remembers so vividly.
To scratch that old F3 itch, Pete has
attended several competition driving schools, including the Bob
Bondurant School, Skip Barber School, British School of Motor
Racing, Jim Russell School and Jim Hall II Kart Racing School.
He has test-driven many high performance cars, including
several Ford GT40s, Lola and Shadow Can-Am machines, a Porsche
935 Turbo, a March-BMW GTP, and a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. He
has competed in Formula Ford open-wheel racing, on go karts,
and as a navigator in rallies (class winner with World Champion
driver Denny Hulme in Tour of Britain, 1976).
No Cooper-Norton has come his way, but
Pete has owned a Norton motorcycle and several other bikes,
including Honda, Suzuki, Triumph, Triton (Triumph-Norton
special) and Vincent, and has ridden all across the United
States, deep into Mexico, and throughout much of Europe. His
most interesting personal car was a 1973 Corvette, a bright red
coupe which he drove from race to race in Europe during his F1
years (see photo above). The flying bug bit, too: he earned his
private pilot's license in 1976, and has owned Cessna, Mooney
and Piper aircraft. At the extremes of the flight envelope, he
has proudly logged pilot time in the Goodyear Blimp and at the
(back seat) stick of a Navy Blue Angels jet.
With his wife, Lorna Fitts Lyons, two
dogs and two cats, Pete is at home today in a small mountain
community in Southern California.
