Al Pease

15/10/1921 - 4/5/2014

Record updated 15-Oct-21

Pease has the distinction of being the only F1 driver to be black flagged for being too slow when in the 1969 Canadian GP at Mosport though he enjoyed some success at club level.

Born in Darlington, England, Pease enlisted in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, serving as a pilot. After the war, he moved to Toronto, where he worked as a commercial artist for four decades.

An amateur racer who had been on the Canadian racing scene from the early fifties with a Riley, Pease returned to the circuits in the early sixties with a Lotus 23 sports car, taking eighth place in the 1963 Canadian GP.

He had the backing to enable him to enter the original Eagle - hopelessly, as it turned out - in three successive Canadian GPs (1967-69).

In the 1967 Canadian GP run in heavy rain, he had to replace his battery when he stalled at the far end of the circuit. He ran back to the pits to get a new battery and return to replace it himself all in the pouring rain. He got his car going again, crossing the finish line only seconds behind the winner, Jack Brabham. By then, however, he was 43 laps behind him!, an achievement of sorts in a race lasting only 90 laps.

He has the distinction of being the only F1 driver to be black flagged for being too slow when in the 1969 Canadian GP at Mosport, he was disqualified for dangerously not allowing drivers to lap him despite being many laps down. He was so slow that he was over 12 laps down when he was black flagged midway through the race.

However his checkered Formula One performances overshadowed an otherwise quite successful racing career.

A sometime racer in Formula A, Pease handled a Lola T140-Chevrolet and a Brabham BT23B-Climax 4 with some success during 1969 and 1970.

He finally hung up his helmet in 1988, at which time he was racing historics in Ontario.

historicracing.com