Van Peter Hanson

One of the men behind the machine, Peter is the head of research and development for DECH Motorsports, he brings his vast and detailed knowledge of vehicle handling charecteristics to the development team. Evaluating each component as to it's effect on traction, cornering ability, braking and overall ride comfort, is critical to developing a product that will satisfy a very broad range of customer needs. Peter's extensive and on-going participation in racing and advanced driver training courses, gives him an edge in evaluating parts, since he has developed a fine tuned 'sense' for testing all of the different aspects of vehicle performance, and knows exactly what a car needs to be able to do, in order to efficently navigate any track, street or road course.

Peter's racing heritage was inspired by his father Derek Hanson, and following in his footsteps, he exhibited an interest in auto racing , that intrest would soon lead to him to racing at the early age of fourteen. Even more incredibly, he became the youngest ever Advanced Driving School Instructor at the age of sixteen, and has continued as such untill this day. A brief summary of Peter's driving history is outlined below:

1997 -- Van Peter Hanson and the DECH Racing Corvette Team exploded on the Motorolla Cup scene with a win, and were championship contenders till the very last weekend. The Motorolla Cup is the leading component in Canadian motorsports, and is the exlusive national championship series for production based vehicles.

1996 -- Drove for the Bimmer Haus BMW team in the Enduro Series, taking the team to a string of podium finishes, the best results ever for this team. He was also hired by Rael Racing to develop and build a Corvette for the Enduro Series, the car achieved the pole position at the Toronto Molson Indy Race Weekend.

1995 -- Peter drove for Europe Auto at selected events in the Enduro Series in a Camaro Z28. The team had consistant top-five qualifying and finishing postions through out most of the season, but after qualifying with the pole position at Mosport for the final three hour event, the team did not finish due to mechanical problems.

1994 -- Peter faced off with former IMSA champion Peter Uria, while driving an Oldsmobile GTS at Sebring. He was the lead driver of a four man team, and averaged six seconds faster than his teammates while battling with Mr Uria, who termed him as "an aggressive little bugger".

1993 -- Competed in the Ginsana Honda Prelude at the Walkins Glen Firehawk series, where he was asked to replace one of the regular drivers. With co-pilot Pepe Pombo, he qualified last due to an ignition malfunction, but worked up through the field to fourth place when a blown tire forced a disappointing thirteenth place finish.

1992 -- Won the Mosport 24 hour World Challenge race driving a Corvette ZR-1 for Bakerracing, and qualified with a four second advantage over his fellow teammates.

1991 -- competed in the Mosport 24 Hour World Challenge race for the Bakerracing team, he competed in both team cars, placing second and fourth. Prior to his World Challenge series debut he drove for Team Honda in the Firehawk Series, finishing third at the Meadowlands Grand Prix, and second at Mosport.

1990 -- Competed in the World Karting Championships with the suport of the C.R.G. and I.A.M.E. factories, where he was the highest placing North American driver.

1989 -- Won an all expenses paid trip to the Spenard/David Racing School, complements of Castrol Canada, where he was chosen as top student and attended the school's run off event.

Currently Peter is continuing research on the SN-95 Mustang looking for any further refinements, ( such as the recently introduced ASG rear suspension system ), to imporve performance and preparring for the release of the restyled and refined 1999 Mustang, that promises to be the best overall production Mustang to date. He also was the author of an in-depth article on how to drive the Mosport race course, that was featured in the program for the 1998 Ferrari Club of America Internaional meet at Toronto ( June 10-14 1998 ) . He also held the Mosport lap record as of the fall of 1997, at 1 min 35 seconds, a real accomplishment for this challenging track.

return to DECH Main page

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws