Peter Gethin

Peter Kenneth Gethin (21 February 1940 in Ewell, Surrey, United Kingdom – 5 December 2011) was a British racing driver from England. He participated in 31 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 21 June 1970. He won the 1971 Italian Grand Prix in the fastest average speed in Formula One history, but this was his only podium finish. Gethin also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races, winning the 1971 World Championship Victory Race and the 1973 Race of Champions.

Gethin also raced for Team McLaren in the 1970 Canadian-American Challenge Cup series, driving the McLaren M8D that had been driven by Dan Gurney in the first three races of the season. Gethin won one race and finished third in the 1970 championship. In 1974 Gethin won the Tasman Series, a Formula 5000 series held in Australia and New Zealand. Gethin drove a Chevron B24 Chevrolet. Gethin later ran a Formula 3000 team.

Career

McLaren driver

1970

Gethin made his debut in F1 for McLaren at the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix, replacing the team's founder, Bruce McLaren, who had been killed at the Goodwood Circuit earlier in the month. He joined a three car team which also included Andrea de Adamich and Dan Gurney. He qualified strongly at Zandvoort, taking 11th, 2.110s behind Jochen Rindt's pole time for Lotus. He was nine-tenths of a second ahead of his more illustrious but ageing team mate Gurney. He engaged in a good fight early in the race with Henri Pescarolo's Matra, but soon got the better of the Frenchman and was still running in 10th when he had an accident on lap 19.

Blue Peter

Blue Peter is a British children's television programme, shown on the CBBC television channel. It first aired in 1958 and is the longest-running children's TV show in the world. Although the show has a nautical title and theme, its current format takes the form of a magazine/entertainment show containing viewer and presenter challenges, as well as the famous arts and crafts "makes".

During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time. The current presenters are Barney Harwood, Lindsey Russell and Radzi Chinyanganya. The show uses a studio for the main format of the presenting; there is also a garden, often referred to as the Blue Peter Garden, which is used during the summer months or for outdoor activities. The programme also features a number of pets, currently a trainee guide dog named Iggy and a tortoise called Shelly.

Content

Italian Grand Prix

The Italian Grand Prix (Gran Premio d'Italia) is one of the longest running events on the Formula One calendar. The Italian Grand Prix was also one of the inaugural Formula One championship races in 1950, and has been held every year since then. The only other championship race for which this is true is the British Grand Prix, and the only other inaugural F1 races that are still on the calendar are the Monaco Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix.

Every Formula One Italian Grand Prix since 1950 has been held at Monza except in 1980, when it was held at Imola. The Italian Grand Prix counted toward the European Championship from 1935 to 1938. It was designated the European Grand Prix seven times between 1923 and 1967, when this title was an honorary designation given each year to one grand prix race in Europe.

History

Origins

Motor racing has always been extremely popular in Italy, the first Italian Grand Prix motor racing championship took place on 4 September 1921 at a 10.7 mile (17.3 km) circuit near Brescia. However, the race is more closely associated with the course at Monza, a racing facility just outside the northern city of Milan, which was built in 1922 in time for that year's race, and has been the location for most of the races over the years.

Gethin Jones

Gethin Clifford Jones (born 12 February 1978) is a Welsh television presenter. An active rugby union player while at Manchester Metropolitan University and, for a time, after graduation, Jones began his television career on Welsh language channel S4C as a presenter of children's programmes such as Popty, Mas Draw and the flagship children's entertainment show Uned 5 (Unit 5, 2002–05).

In 2005, he became the 31st presenter of BBC children's programme Blue Peter.

Early life and education

Jones was born on 12 February 1978 in Cardiff, the son of Sylvia (née Groskop), a violin teacher, and Goronwy Jones, headteacher of Baden Powell Primary School. He has an older sister, Mererid. One of his maternal great-grandfathers was a Polish Jewish immigrant. With Welsh as his first language, he attended Ysgol Gynradd Coed-y-Gof and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf (in Llandaff North, Cardiff) for his primary and secondary school education, respectively. Jones has Grade 8 violin and Grade 6 piano qualifications, and took part in school musicals and school and county orchestras. He took Biology, Geography and Economics at A-Levels.