Pete Lovett

Peter Charles Lovett (born 6 March 1950) is a retired British racing driver and businessman. He is perhaps best known for his racing exploits in the TWR run Rover SD1 in the early 1980s.

Racing career Lovett's debut in racing was in 1976 driving a Porsche, and then contested sportscar endurance events. He competed five times at the Le Mans 24 Hour between 1978 and 1982, but failed to finish any of the events due to mechanical difficulties.

Lovett made the switch to saloon car racing and made his debut in the British Touring Car Championship driving a Triumph Dolomite, before being picked up by the factory Austin Rover team. The Rover SD1 was the class of the field and Lovett took several wins between 1981 and 84, winning his class in 1981, and then finishing runner up in class to his team mate Jeff Allam in 1982. In 1983, he was in contention for the title alongside his team mates Allam and Steve Soper. Soper just pipped him to the championship, but then the Rover team was disqualified from the results for technical infringements. As well as racing in Britain Lovett drove for TWR in Europe, driving in the ETCC and also contesting the Spa 24 Hours race alongside his regular team mates.

Lovett made his final appearance in the BTCC in 1986 before retiring from motorsport to concentrate solely on his business interests.

Later career Lovett's father founded his first car dealership in 1966. When he retired, Peter became chairman of Dick Lovett Cars, and owns a string of car dealerships across the south of England, catering for marques such as Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.) Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Pts Class 1977 Martin Thomas Triumph Dolomite Sprint SIL BRH OUL THR SIL THR DON SIL DON BRH THR BRH? NC 0 NC 1978 Dick Lovett Specialist Cars Triumph Dolomite Sprint SIL7 OUL THR? BRH8† SIL?† DON?† MAL BRH10 DON BRH THR OUL8† 11th 30 3rd 1980 TWR Pentax Mazda RX-7 MAL OUL THR SIL SIL< BRH MAL BRH8 THR8 SIL9 19th 16 4th 1981 TWR - Daily Express Rover 3500S MAL5† SIL OUL THR BRH4† SIL1 SIL1 DON2† BRH3 THR3 SIL2 6th 52 1st 1982 Team Sanyo Racing with Esso Rover 3500S SIL MAL OUL THR THR7 SIL9 DON4 BRH1 DON5 BRH10 SIL1 16th 27 5th 1983 Team Sanyo Racing with Esso Rover Vitesse SIL3 OUL2 THR1 BRHRet THR1 SIL2 DON1 SIL2 DONRet BRH1 SIL4 DSQ 63 DSQ 1984 Team Sanyo Racing with Esso Rover Vitesse DON4 SIL2 OUL3 THR3 THR SIL SNE BRH BRH DON SIL NC 0 NC 1986 Hughes of Beaconsfield Toyota Celica Supra SIL4 THR SIL DON BRH SNE BRH DON SIL 27th 3 11th

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.