Peter Faulkner

Peter, who has sadly died, aged 69, was a larger than life character who enjoyed his motor sport to the full. During a long and busy career, he tackled many different branches of the sport in a wide variety of cars and was successful in most of them.

Whether or not he was in contention for a top position, one thing is for certain – he enjoyed every minute of every event that he did, and this was plain for all the world to see from his facial expressions as he battled with whichever of his fleet he was using on that particular day.

Peter began by driving an MG Midget in autotests, and rapidly became one of the leading contenders in the sports car class. In subsequent years, he drove, among other things, a very noisy Porsche 911 in rallycross which he steered into the Super Final on quite a few occasions. Finally, he added a season in a Metro 6R4 which brought him the Rallycross title.

He drove an Opel Kadett in Production Car racing, and was part of a Faulkner family onslaught at Mondello one day when brothers Peter, Pat and Roger joined forces with their father Dermot, sharing two cars and getting two races each. He also used an ex-Morgan Dempsey MD GT in the sports car class in circuit racing for a couple of seasons, and a Sierra Cosworth in the Production class.

In recent years, he returned to his first love, MG Midgets, and became a regular in the fast-growing Targa and Lanes rally events in Northern Ireland, with his name often appearing in the upper reaches of results lists. Peter also drove a Toyota MR2 and a Mazda MX5 in these very popular events.

Quite apart from his adventures as a competitor, he served on TDC’s Committee for several years, greatly contributing behind the scenes in the organisation of events.

TDC sends every sympathy to the Faulkner family at this time of their great loss.