FEATURE: PETER MCLEOD – LATE BLOOMER

Peter McLeod – Late Bloomer

The latest instalment of Auto Action’s Privateer features series focuses on one of Australia’s underrated drivers in the form of 1983 Australian Endurance Champion and 1987 Bathurst 1000 winner Peter McLeod.

By HEATH McALPINE

The following snippet, which details of how McLeod got his start at age 32. You can read the full feature in the Auto Action 1786.

It may come as a surprise to many that when Peter McLeod secured the 1983 Australian Endurance Championship … it was only his third full season of competition!

It all began with the sight of the then new RX-7 in his dealership showroom and encouragement from mechanic John Cleary inspired McLeod to build one of the new coupes into a race car.

Although he failed his License Observation test at Amaroo Park due to a flat tyre, he was so determined to get it so drove to Winton overnight to secure it the following day.

“It got serious the first time I put a helmet on,” Peter McLeod told Auto Action.

Racing hadn’t impressed McLeod during his youth, but cars did.

He holds fond memories of tearing around his grandparent’s yard in a pedal car and sitting on his grandfather’s knee steering his Austin.

Even when he witnessed practice for the Tasman Series at Warwick Farm, he failed to catch the racing bug.

Creating a successful car dealership, marriage, building a house and raising seven kids meant McLeod had his hands full.

But things changed when Cleary, who had worked with the Geoghegans, built the RX-7 after hours. It was a very basic build even for its time, the car still containing its air conditioning, radio, KMAC suspension and a roll cage.

Things progressed quickly, such that he lined up on the grid for that year’s Bathurst 1000 partnered by Mal Brewster. Sadly this was without Cleary, who suffered a heart attack mid-season.

These early results encouraged McLeod to expand his racing program for 1981 as he could see the potential, having known little about motor sport a year earlier.

By this stage, leading rotary guru Barry Jones was involved on the engine side and the 12A peripheral port engine was approved by CAMS.

A failed clutch at Bathurst prevented the McLeod and Peter Dane combination from getting a strong result, and then worse was to come at Surfers Paradise when a monumental accident could have had dire consequences.

To read the rest of the story, pick up Auto Action #1786. Out now.

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