Obituary: Mini racing legend Peter Baldwin dies aged 82
Britain’s greatest Mini racer, Peter Baldwin, died in Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital last Saturday aged 82, COVID-19 having weakened his lungs.
He had competed in Sir Alec Issigonis’s mighty machines from 1967 to 2021, winning several hundred races and many titles.
Newmarket-born Baldwin’s phenomenal success was underpinned by immaculate preparation and supreme driving skill.
He won the National Mini Miglia Championship seven times between 2000 and 2013, aged 59-72.
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Heading Marshall of Cambridge’s special tuning division for years, Peter became the revered master of rolling road work.
On his retirement from the group, he provided the best service for customers independently, focusing the same expertise and energy on their engines as he did his own.
From debuting an 850cc Mini in November 1967, Baldwin soon tasted success, winning the 1969 Janspeed series and, with a 1000cc engine, TEAC and Llandow titles in 1970.
An ex-works/John Rhodes Group 2 car frustrated, but the popular Special Saloons category subsequently provided rich pickings.
Baby B2, with eight-port head fed by four Amal carburettors, was superseded by ever more advanced giant-slayers powered by 1000cc Ford and 1300cc Gordon Allen BDA engines.
His ultimate spaceframe BB6 is immortalised in the 1984 BBC TV series Driving Ambition, in which he stunt-doubled for housewife star Donna Hewitt!
Baldwin won countless races in Minis over several decades
Photo by: Ollie Read
A switch to lucrative MG Metro and Rover series brought the 1986 European Metro Turbo crown, further rewarded with British Racing Drivers’ Club membership.
In recent years, Peter won in historic racing, sharing Graham Churchill’s FIA Appendix K Cooper S. He also lent his famous Miglia to Shayne Deegan, mentoring him to the 2016 title.
Nick Cooke, chairman of the Mini 7 Racing Club that organises the Miglia series, described Baldwin as “a true gentleman and a motor racing legend”, adding: “His style of driving was something to behold and in all the years I have seen him race and with all the wins he has achieved, there was never an inkling of pomposity.
“When interviewed, he just smiled at his success, calmly spoke about the race and that was it.”
Our thoughts are with Peter’s wife and rock June, son Gareth, daughter Jacqui and racer Martin Short, whose remarkable Martlet kit car to Le Mans journey he nurtured.
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