Peter Knight followed his father into powerboat racing and he carried on the family tradition of winning.

In 1974, aged just 17 years, he took the New Zealand 6 litre title at Dunedin. He progressed through the classes winning 50 South Island and New Zealand titles. The Masport Cup was to become Peter’s property on four occasions, in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990. Between he and his father the Knight’s held the Masport Cup 18 times.

In 1988 Knight was second in the World Championship in CRC Latimer Lodge, a boat he built himself, at Valleyfield near Montreal in a sensational race. Knight had to finish in the top two in his heat to advance to the final. Having qualified seventh he raced to second place. His effort saw him awarded the international Super Achiever Award by the American Power Boat Association and the Canadian Boating Federation.

P.G. Knight also won the prestigious Griffiths Cup in 1989, bringing the trophy back from Australia after it had resided on the other side of the Tasman for 27 years. Knight’s victory came at Lake Eppalock, near Melbourne and was secured against the might of the Australians in their 9.2 metre thunderboats with enormous V12 engines.

He successfully defended it the following year.

During his time in powerboats Knight built his own boats. He pushed the technical envelope using materials such as kevlar as his Christchurch workshop turned out boats that were competitive with the best.

After becoming disillusioned with the sport Knight spent the next five years developing the hotel. However he had always wanted to race cars and with prominent competitors such as Red Dawson and Paul Fahey staying at the Latimer Hotel he was soon satisfying his need for speed on land.

However getting his start in motorsport when he was “40 and not 14” led to him become a team owner. He ran several prominent kiwi drivers in Australia where Shane Drake gained a third place at Sandown and John McIntyre won at Phillip Island.

Now his motorsport focus has changed to his son Andy’s career. Peter has been instrumental in Andy’s successful beginning to his own motor racing career.