Peter Rogers Fatal Crash @ Donington Park 1987 (Aftermath)
- 5 months ago
The elder brother of Lucy Rogers, also a racing driver, Peter Rogers started racing in Formula Ford in 1982, competing with considerable skill and success in the Pre-1974 Championship at the wheel of a Merlyn. Inspired by such positive results with vintage machinery, he decided to try his hands on contemporaneous cars. Rogers found a seat in Howard Drake's team, that campaigned an year-old Van Diemen in the National Formula Ford Novice Championship.
Rogers spectacular display at the Formula Ford Festival was not, though, enough to propel his career to Formula 3. As such, he accepted an offer from Mike Thompson to drive his works Quest MT86 in the British Formula Ford Championship. Although the prospects of another year in Formula Ford 1600 were not the most exciting, "Fast Pete" - as he was called - reckoned that Quest was better structured than Laser, and relished on the fact that two years prior its MT85 model had taken Johnny Herbert to an overall, David-versus-Goliath win at the Festival.
Sadly Rogers' dreams of racing glory came to an end on Sunday, 16 August 1987. During a round of the RAC British Formula Ford 1600 Championship at Donington Park Roger's collided with Alain Menu's Reynard at Redgate Corner. The Quest was launched over the gravel trap and hit a concrete wall head-on. Marshals intervened immediately and attempted to extricate Rogers' from the wreck, but found out that he had been killed upon impact. Pete Rogers was twenty-five year old. In tribute, the 1987 edition of the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch was titled as "Pete Rogers Memorial Trophy.
Rogers was the first fatality at Donington Park since activities at that circuit were resumed, in 1977, after a nearly four-decade hiatus. A few weeks after his death though, a second fatal accident occurred at Donington Park - and at the very following RAC British Formula Ford 1600 Championship race, when race marshal Paul Welch was struck by a flying wheel which came loose from a racing car.
R.I.P
Rogers spectacular display at the Formula Ford Festival was not, though, enough to propel his career to Formula 3. As such, he accepted an offer from Mike Thompson to drive his works Quest MT86 in the British Formula Ford Championship. Although the prospects of another year in Formula Ford 1600 were not the most exciting, "Fast Pete" - as he was called - reckoned that Quest was better structured than Laser, and relished on the fact that two years prior its MT85 model had taken Johnny Herbert to an overall, David-versus-Goliath win at the Festival.
Sadly Rogers' dreams of racing glory came to an end on Sunday, 16 August 1987. During a round of the RAC British Formula Ford 1600 Championship at Donington Park Roger's collided with Alain Menu's Reynard at Redgate Corner. The Quest was launched over the gravel trap and hit a concrete wall head-on. Marshals intervened immediately and attempted to extricate Rogers' from the wreck, but found out that he had been killed upon impact. Pete Rogers was twenty-five year old. In tribute, the 1987 edition of the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch was titled as "Pete Rogers Memorial Trophy.
Rogers was the first fatality at Donington Park since activities at that circuit were resumed, in 1977, after a nearly four-decade hiatus. A few weeks after his death though, a second fatal accident occurred at Donington Park - and at the very following RAC British Formula Ford 1600 Championship race, when race marshal Paul Welch was struck by a flying wheel which came loose from a racing car.
R.I.P