From the left: Gordon Yeldham, Ray Gibbs, Pete Drewell and Derek Allen.
Martin Radcliffe (who flew for Gordon for about 5 years from around 1995) adds:
"Pete was a great monoline flyer, the best in the UK at the time, who died at the young age of 30 (see obituary in next image). Some people have said that contributing factor might have been the after effects of brewing fuel based on Tetra-Nitromethane in the early 60's although I have no confirmation of this and 'Flu is also mentioned.
Tetra would destroy the central nervous system if ingested, and could be absorbed via the skin. The US Team (Wisniewski, Lauderdale and Nightingale) used tetra at the 1960 World Championships. Unfortunately the motors couldn't survive the explosive power of tetra (I'm told it had a quarter of the explosive power of TNT, but unlike TNT was stable) and the piston crowns caved in. On one flight Wisniewski was timed at 163mph for the first few laps (20mph faster than Ugo Rossi's eventual winning speed) before going off and averaging 140 over the kilometre. The fuel was mixed on the circle, used and then thrown way, as it didn't stay usable for long after being mixed and went a funny colour. (I got these details from Kevin Lindsey who had been there at the 1960 World Championships. Kevin lived near me in Surbiton in the late 1960s and I spent some time picking his brains).
I was at a speed comp at RAF Debden around 1963 where Pete got into problems and collapsed and let go the handle of his monoline .60 which buried itself in the radiator of a car belonging to a Clacton club member. Pete blamed it on the tightness of his socks restricting his blood flow and making him feel faint. But we all thought it was more than that as Pete wasn't slim by then and it could well have been part of a bigger health problem. Pete was a tailor by trade incidentally.
It was partly as a result of Pete letting go of the handle, and partly as a result of a .60 being wrenched out of a flier's hand at the 1964 Nats, that the SMAE brought in a rule making wrist straps compulsory for speed flying."
