Carroll Shelby International will honor Peter Brock’s achievements with the coveted “Carroll Shelby Spirit Award” during the renowned 2022 Monterey Collector Car Week. Mr. Brock will be celebrated at the Team Shelby VIP Experience dinner on Saturday, August 20, 2022, in Carmel Valley.
“An astute judge of talent, Carroll Shelby surrounded himself with brilliant people throughout his life,” said Joe Conway, Co-CEO of Carroll Shelby International and CEO of Shelby American. “Peter Brock was an important part of Shelby’s success both on and off the track during the 1960s. We’re very grateful for his contributions to the company during his tenure at Shelby American and look forward to recognizing him at the dinner later this year.”
Past Carroll Shelby Spirit Award recipients include Ken Miles, Bob Bondurant, Allen Grant, Edsel B. Ford II, Parnelli Jones and Dan Gurney. Ford CEO Jim Farley received the award at the Team Shelby dinner in Monterey last year and Peter Brock will join this pantheon of champions.
“Peter Brock was my grandfather’s first full-time employee at the Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving,” said Aaron Shelby, Board Member of Carroll Shelby International. “From penning the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe to designing Carroll’s iconic race team clothing and improving the Shelby GT350’s performance, he was involved in so many key elements of Shelby American. Peter’s impressive achievements continued after his time at Shelby American and his influence is still felt in the auto industry.”
California native Peter Brock has been designing for 70 years. He made his mark on the automotive design world early and often. At just 19 years old, Brock was part of Bill Mitchell’s General Motors studio team. Within a ten-year period, he penned what would become the Corvette Stingray, the World Championship Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, the Nethercutt Mirage, the Hino Samurai and more.
Peter studied German aerodynamics of the 1930s and 40s. He didn’t speak the language but could understand the drawings. Brock applied those principles to the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe while part of the Shelby American racing team and the car gained 25 miles per hour to hit 200 mph down the straight aways.
“Thanks to films like ‘Ford v Ferrari’, many people know that Shelby American won Le Mans in 1966,” said Neil Cummings, Co-CEO of Carroll Shelby International and CEO of Carroll Shelby Licensing. “However, Shelby American also earned a class win at Le Mans in 1964 with the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. Penned by Peter Brock, built by Ken Miles’s team and driven by Dan Gurney with Bob Bondurant, it almost won the race overall. The next year, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe won the FIA Sportscar World Championship, the only time an American manufacturer has earned the title. Peter’s contribution to those victories, as well as his many other remarkable successes certainly earned him this award.”
After his time with Shelby American, Peter created BRE (Brock Racing Enterprises) and formed a winning Datsun 510 racing team. Working with Shelby licensee Superformance years later, Peter created an evolution of the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe with advanced suspension and better aerodynamics. To transport the car, he created an aerodynamic aluminum trailer that increases the stability of the towing experience. Its immediate success led Peter and his wife and business partner, Gayle to create “Aerovault,” the racecar of trailers.
The Monterey peninsula will be awash in historic cars and celebrities this year as the 100th anniversary of Le Mans is celebrated throughout Collector Car Week. The board will honor Brock during a private dinner in Carmel Valley. Surrounded by performance cars under the stars, he will be toasted by fans and Team Shelby members, as well as racing legends, Ford Motor Company luminaries and auto industry icons. Celebrities scheduled to attend include Peter Miles (son of Shelby driver Ken Miles), 1965 Shelby American team member Jim Marietta and Executive Vice President of Carroll Shelby International, Tracey Smith.
The “Carroll Shelby Spirit” award was designed to kindle a desire for excellence by recognizing people who demonstrate exuberance, character and tenacity in the auto industry. Carroll Shelby International plans to bestow it annually. The award is a stunning bronze statue of a Shelby Cobra designed by Rick Hadley.