John Norman Surtees CBE (11 February 1934 – 10 March 2017) was a British racing driver and motorcycle road racer, who competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1952 to 1960 and in Formula One from 1960 to 1972. Surtees was a seven-time Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion, with four titles in the premier 500cc class with MV Agusta. Surtees won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1964 with Ferrari, and remains the only driver to win World Championships on both two- and four-wheels; he won 38 motorcycle Grands Prix and six Formula One Grands Prix.
John Surtees | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Surtees at the 1964 British Grand Prix | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | John Norman Surtees 11 February 1934 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 10 March 2017 (aged 83) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouses | Patricia Burke
(m. 1962; div. 1979)Janis Sheara
(m. 1979; div. 1982)Jane Sparrow (m. 1987) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 3, including Henry | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Formula One World Championship career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  British | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Active years | 1960–1972 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | Lotus, Parnell, Ferrari, Cooper, Honda, BRM, Surtees | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Entries | 113 (111 starts) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Championships | 1 (1964) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wins | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Podiums | 24 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career points | 180 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pole positions | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fastest laps | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First entry | 1960 Monaco Grand Prix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First win | 1963 German Grand Prix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last win | 1967 Italian Grand Prix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last entry | 1972 Italian Grand Prix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | 1963–1965, 1967 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | Ferrari, Lola | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best finish | 3rd (1964) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class wins | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On his way to become a seven-time Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion, he won his first title in 1956, and followed with three consecutive doubles between 1958 and 1960, winning six World Championships in both the 500 and 350cc classes. Surtees then made the move to the pinnacle of four-wheeled motorsport, the Formula One World Championship, and in 1964 made motor racing history by becoming the Formula One World Champion. He founded the Surtees Racing Organisation team that competed as a constructor in Formula One, Formula 2 and Formula 5000 from 1970 to 1978. He was also the ambassador of the Racing Steps Foundation.
Motorcycle racing career
editSurtees was the son of a south-London motorcycle dealer.[1] His father Jack Surtees was an accomplished grasstrack competitor and in 1948 was the South Eastern Centre Sidecar Champion.[2] He had his first professional outing, which they won, in the sidecar of his father's Vincent at the age of 14.[1] However, when race officials discovered Surtees's age, they were disqualified.[1] He entered his first race at 15 in a grasstrack competition. In 1950, at the age of 16, he went to work for the Vincent factory as an apprentice.[1][3] He first gained prominence in 1951 when he gave Norton star Geoff Duke a strong challenge in an ACU race at the Thruxton Circuit.[1]
In 1955, Norton race chief Joe Craig gave Surtees his first factory-sponsored ride aboard the Nortons.[1] He finished the year by beating reigning world champion Duke at Silverstone and then at Brands Hatch.[1] However, with Norton in financial trouble and uncertain about their racing plans, Surtees accepted an offer to race for the MV Agusta factory racing team, where he soon earned the nickname figlio del vento (son of the wind).[4]
In 1956 Surtees won the 500 cc world championship,[5] MV Agusta's first in the senior class.[4] In this Surtees was assisted by the FIM's decision to ban the defending champion, Geoff Duke, for six months because of his support for a riders' strike for more starting money.[6] In the 1957 season, the MV Agustas were no match for the Gileras and Surtees battled to a third-place finish aboard a 1957 MV Agusta 500 Quattro.[1][5][7]
When Gilera and Moto Guzzi withdrew from Grand Prix racing at the end of 1957, Surtees and MV Agusta went on to dominate the competition in the two larger displacement classes.[1] In 1958, 1959 and 1960, he won 32 out of 39 races and became the first man to win the Senior TT at the Isle of Man TT three years in succession.[5][8]
Auto racing career
edit
While still racing motorcycles full-time, Surtees performed a test drive in Aston Martin's DBR1 sports car in front of team manager Reg Parnell. He however continued on two wheels and did not enter car racing until the following year.
In 1960, at the age of 26, Surtees switched from motorcycles to cars full-time, making his Formula 1 debut racing in the 1960 BRDC International Trophy[9] at Silverstone for Team Lotus.[10] He made an immediate impact with a second-place finish in only his second Formula One World Championship race, at the 1960 British Grand Prix, and a pole position at his third, the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix.[3]
After spending the 1961 season with the Yeoman Credit Racing Team driving a Cooper T53 "Lowline" managed by Reg Parnell and the 1962 season with the Bowmaker Racing Team, still managed by Reg Parnell but now in the V8 Lola Mk4, he moved to Scuderia Ferrari in 1963 and won the World Championship for the Italian team in 1964.[3][11]
On 25 September 1965, Surtees had a life-threatening accident at the Mosport Park Circuit (Ontario, Canada) while practising in a Lola T70 sports racing car.[3] A front upright casting had broken. A.J. Baime in his book Go Like Hell says Surtees came out of the crash with one side of his body four inches shorter than the other.[12] Doctors set most of the breaks nonsurgically, in part by physically stretching his shattered body until the right-left discrepancy was under an inch – and there it stayed.
The 1966 season saw the introduction of new, larger 3-litre engines to Formula One.[13] Surtees's debut with Ferrari's new F1 car was at the 1966 BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone, where he qualified and finished a close second behind Jack Brabham's 3-litre Brabham BT19.[14] A few weeks later, Surtees led the Monaco Grand Prix, pulling away from Jackie Stewart's 2-litre BRM on the straights, before the engine failed. A fortnight later Surtees survived the first lap rainstorm which eliminated half the field and won the Belgian Grand Prix.[15]
Due to perennial strikes in Italy, Ferrari could afford to enter only two cars (Ferrari P3s) for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans instead of its usual entry of three prototypes. Uncertainty and confusion surrounds subsequent events and their consequences, and a number of different explanations have been offered in the decades since. The narrative explained by Ferrari at the time states that under Le Mans rules in 1966 each car was allowed only two drivers.[16] Surtees was omitted from the driver line-up[16] with one works Ferrari to be driven by Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti, and the other by Jean Guichet and Lorenzo Bandini. When Surtees questioned Ferrari team manager Eugenio Dragoni as to why, as the Ferrari team leader, he would not be allowed to compete, Dragoni told Surtees that he did not feel that he was fully fit to drive in a 24-hour endurance race because of the injuries he had sustained in late 1965.[16] However, Surtees himself described things somewhat differently. In his recollection, when the pairings were announced he was to drive alongside Scarfiotti. As the faster driver of the two, Surtees argued that he should take the first stint and "try to break" the Ford opposition by driving "flat out from the start".[17] Dragoni denied Surtees's request and insisted that Scarfiotti take the start, supposedly to please Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli, Scarfiotti's uncle, who was in attendance as a spectator.[17] Either way, the decision and subsequent lack of support from Enzo Ferrari himself were deeply upsetting to Surtees and he immediately quit the team.[16] This decision likely cost both Ferrari and Surtees the Formula 1 Championship in 1966. Ferrari finished second to Brabham-Repco in the Constructors' Championship and Surtees finished second to Jack Brabham in the Drivers' Championship.[3][18] Surtees finished the season driving for the Cooper-Maserati team, winning the last race of the season.[19]
Surtees competed with a T70 in the inaugural 1966 Can-Am season,[20][21] winning three races of six to become champion[22] over other winners Dan Gurney (Lola), Mark Donohue (Lola) and Phil Hill (Chaparral) as well as the likes of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon (both in McLarens).[23]
In December 1966, Surtees signed for Honda.[24] After a promising third place in the first race in South Africa, the Honda RA273 hit a series of mechanical problems. The car was replaced by the Honda RA300 for the Italian Grand Prix, where Surtees slipstreamed Jack Brabham to take Honda's second F1 victory by 0.2 seconds. Surtees finished fourth in the 1967 Drivers' Championship.[11]
The same year, Surtees drove in the Rex Mays 300 at Riverside, near Los Angeles, in a United States Auto Club season-ending road race. This event pitted the best American drivers of the day – normally those who had cut their teeth as professional drivers on oval dirt tracks – against veteran Formula One Grand Prix drivers, including Jim Clark and Dan Gurney.[25]
In 1970, Surtees formed his own race team, the Surtees Racing Organisation, and spent nine seasons competing in Formula 5000, Formula 2 and Formula 1 as a constructor.[3] He retired from competitive driving in 1972, the same year the team had their greatest success when Mike Hailwood won the European Formula 2 Championship.[26] The team was finally disbanded at the end of 1978.[27]
After Formula One
edit
For a while in the 1970s Surtees ran a motorcycle shop in West Wickham, Kent, and a Honda car dealership in Edenbridge, Kent.[28] He continued his involvement in motorcycling, participating in classic events with bikes from his stable of vintage racing machines. He also remained involved in single-seater racing cars and held the position of chairman of A1 Team Great Britain, in the A1 Grand Prix racing series from 2005 to 2007.[29] His son, Henry Surtees, competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, Formula Renault UK Championship and the Formula BMW UK championship for Carlin Motorsport,[30] before he died while racing in the Formula 2 championship at Brands Hatch on 19 July 2009.[31] In 2010,[32] Surtees founded the Henry Surtees Foundation in his son's memory, as a charitable organization to assist victims of accidental brain injuries and to promote safety in driving and motorsport.[33][34]
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1992 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel.[citation needed]
In 1996, Surtees was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.[35] The FIM honoured him as a Grand Prix "Legend" in 2003.[36] Already a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours[37] and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to motorsport.[38][39][40]
In 2013 he was awarded the 2012 Segrave Trophy in recognition of multiple world championships, and being the only person to win world titles on 2 and 4 wheels.[41]
In 2015, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering by Oxford Brookes University.[42][43]
Personal life and death
editSurtees married three times, first to Patricia Burke in 1962; the couple divorced in 1979. His second wife was Janis Sheara, whom he married in 1979 and they divorced in 1982. Jane Sparrow was his third wife, whom he married in 1987, and with whom he had three children, including Henry. Henry would later become a racing driver, but was killed at Brands Hatch in the 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship.[44]
Surtees died of respiratory failure on 10 March 2017 at St George's Hospital in London, at the age of 83.[29][38][45] He was buried, next to his son Henry, at St Peter and St Paul's Church in Lingfield, Surrey.
A tribute to Surtees was held at the Goodwood Members Meeting on 19 March 2017.[46]
Racing record
editMotorcycle Grand Prix results
edit| Position | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Points | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† The 500 cc race was stopped by bad weather, and the FIM excluded the race from the World Championship.
Complete Formula One World Championship results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Non-championship Formula One results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete British Saloon Car Championship results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Pos. | Pts | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Peter Berry Racing Ltd | Jaguar Mk II 3.8 | D | SNE 2 |
GOO | AIN | SIL | CRY | SIL | BRH | OUL | SNE | 27th | 6 | 9th |
Source:[48]
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Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
edit| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 |  Automobili Ferrari S.E.F.A.C.
|
 Willy Mairesse
|
Ferrari 250P | P 3.0 | 252 | DNF | DNF |
| 1964 | SpA Ferrari SEFAC
|
Lorenzo Bandini
|
Ferrari 330P | P 5.0 | 337 | 3rd | 3rd |
| 1965 | SpA Ferrari SEFAC
|
Ludovico Scarfiotti
|
Ferrari 330 P2 | P 5.0 | 225 | DNF | DNF |
| 1967 | Lola Cars
|
David Hobbs
|
Lola T70-Aston Martin | P +5.0 | 3 | DNF | DNF |
Source:[49]
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Complete European Formula Two Championship results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Pos. | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Lola Racing | Lola T100 | Ford | SNE Ret |
SIL 3 |
BRH DNQ |
VAL | NC | 0‡ | ||||||||||
| BMW | NÜR 2 |
HOC | TUL | JAR | ZAN | PER | |||||||||||||
| 1972 | Team Surtees | Surtees TS10 | Ford | MAL | THR Ret |
HOC | PAU | PAL DNQ |
HOC | ROU DNQ |
ÖST | IMO 1 |
MAN | PER | SAL | ALB | HOC | NC | 0‡ |
Source:[47]
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‡ Graded drivers not eligible for European Formula Two Championship points
Complete Canadian-American Challenge Cup results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Pos | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Team Surtees | Lola T70 Mk.2 | Chevrolet | MTR 1 |
BRI Ret |
MOS Ret |
LAG 12 |
RIV 1 |
LVG 1 |
1st | 27 | |||||
| 1967 | Team Surtees | Lola T70 Mk.3 | Chevrolet | ROA 3 |
BRI 4 |
MOS Ret |
LAG Ret |
RIV Ret |
LVG 1 |
3rd | 16 | |||||
| 1969 | Chaparral Cars Inc. | McLaren M12 | Chevrolet | MOS 3 |
MTR Ret |
WGL 12 |
9th | 30 | ||||||||
| Chaparral 2H | EDM 4 |
MDO 5 |
ROA Ret |
BRI Ret |
MCH | LAG DNS |
RIV Ret |
TWS | ||||||||
Source:[50]
| ||||||||||||||||
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i Noyes, Dennis; Scott, Michael (1999), Motocourse: 50 Years of Moto Grand Prix, Hazleton Publishing Ltd, ISBN 1-874557-83-7
- ^ "History | Lydden Hill". lyddenhill.co.uk. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f "Formula 1 Hall of Fame". formula1.com. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ a b Smith, Robert (January–February 2013). "Last of the Breed: MV Agusta 850SS". Motorcycle Classics. 8 (3). Retrieved 31 January 2013.
- ^ a b c d "John Surtees career statistics at MotoGP.com". motogp.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ "Geoff Duke Must Finish Six Months' Suspension". The Bulletin. 18 August 1956. p. 8. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ Alan Cathcart (July–August 2007). "1957 MV Agusta 500 Quattro". Motorcycle Classics. Retrieved 12 August 2009.
- ^ a b "John Surtees Isle of Man TT results at iomtt.com". iomtt.com. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ Adam Cooper, Obituary: John Surtees, 1934–2017, www.motorsport.com Retrieved 12 March 2017
- ^ XII B.R.D.C. Daily Express International Trophy 1960, www.formula2.net Retrieved 12 March 2017
- ^ a b c "John Surtees Formula One statistics". 4mula1.ro. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ Baime, A. J. (2011). Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Random House. p. 262. ISBN 9781446497463.
- ^ Buckland, Damien (2015). Collection Editions: Ferrari in Formula One. Lulu Press, Inc. p. 143. ISBN 9781326174880.
- ^ Masin, Michael. "Of His Own Construction – 1966 Repco Brabham BT19". drivetribe.com. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ Codling, Stuart (2011). Real Racers. MBI Publishing Company. p. 137. ISBN 9781610597395.
- ^ a b c d Benson, Andrew (10 March 2017). "John Surtees: Former F1 world champion was a 'towering figure'". BBC. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
- ^ a b Taylor, Simon (October 2015). "Lunch with... John Surtees". Motor Sport. Vol. 91, no. 10. pp. 68–76. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
- ^ Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. by A.J.Baime Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. ISBN 978-0-618-82219-5
- ^ Complete Encyclopedia of Formula One: Presenting the Drivers, Cars, Circuits and Every. Parragon Publishing India. p. 35. ISBN 9781445405353.
- ^ Dowsey, David (2010). Aston Martin: Power, Beauty and Soul (illustrated ed.). Images Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 9781864704242.
- ^ Davey, Keith (1969). The encyclopaedia of motor racing. D. McKay Co. p. 182. ISBN 9780709107934.
- ^ Orr, Frank (1970). George Eaton: Five Minutes to Green: The Anatomy of a Young Canadian Auto Racer's First Season as a Professional Driver in Competitive Cars. Longman Canada. p. 21.
- ^ Starkey, John (2002). Lola T70: The Racing History and Individual Chassis Record (illustrated ed.). Veloce Publishing Ltd. p. 46. ISBN 9781903706138.
- ^ "Surtees settles for Honda". Auto News (31). Peterborough: Motor Cycle News Ltd. 1 December 1966.
- ^ Auto Driver. Vol. 67. Counterpoint. 1967. p. 123.
- ^ "1972 Formula Two results". formula2.net. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ "John Surtees dead: Former F1 and motorbike world champion dies, aged 83". The Independent. 10 March 2017. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ Surrey racing legend John Surtees who won F1 and world motorcycle championships has died (Archived from the original) Surrey Mirror, 10 March 2017 Retrieved 2 December 2017
- ^ a b "John Surtees: Former F1 world champion dies at 83". BBC. 10 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ "How to become F1 champion". Sarah Holt. BBC. 22 August 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2007.
- ^ "John Surtees' son Henry killed in Formula Two accident". The Telegraph. 19 July 2009. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ "HENRY SURTEES FOUNDATION – Overview (free company information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ^ "Obituary: John Surtees". Sunday Times Driving. 20 March 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ^ "Henry Surtees Foundation". henrysurteesfoundation.com. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
- ^ "John Surtees at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame". motorsportshalloffame.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ "MotoGP Legends". motogp.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ "No. 58729". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2008. p. 13.
- ^ a b "John Surtees, former F1 and motorcycle world champion, dies aged 83". The Guardian. 10 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ "No. 61450". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2015. p. N10.
- ^ "New Year's Honours 2016" (PDF). GOV.UK. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 30 December 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- ^ "Segrave Trophy awarded to John Surtees OBE". INCheshire Magazine. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ "John Surtees Receives Honorary Degree by Oxford Brookes". johnsurtees.com. 23 June 2015. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ "Honorary Graduates". Oxford Brookes University. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017.
- ^ "John Surtees obituary". The Guardian. 10 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ "Motorsport Memorial - John Surtees". Motorsport Memorial. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Goodwood Road & Racing (18 March 2017). "Goodwood Members' Meeting #75MM 18-19th March 2017". Retrieved 20 March 2017 – via YouTube.
- ^ a b c "Profile for racing driver John Surtees". motorsportmagazine.com. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
- ^ de Jong, Frank. "British Saloon Car Championship". History of Touring Car Racing 1952-1993. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
- ^ "All Results of John Surtees". racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
- ^ "Can-Am – final positions and tables". World Sports Racing Prototypes. 2 October 2005. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
External links
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