John Surtees

John Surtees
Nationality	British
Years	1952 - 1960
Teams	Norton, MV Agusta
Races	49
Championships	350cc - 1958,1959,1960 500cc- 1956,1958,1959,1960
Wins	38
Podiums	45
Points
Poles	N/A
Fastest laps	34
First race	1952 500cc Ulster Grand Prix
First win	1955 250cc Ulster Grand Prix
Last win	1960 500cc Nations Grand Prix
Last race	1960 500cc Nations Grand Prix
F1 Years	F1 1960 - F1 1972
Team(s)	Lotus, Cooper, Lola, Ferrari, Honda, BRM, McLaren, Surtees
Races	113 (111 starts)
Championships	1 (1964)
Wins	6
Podiums	24
Points	180
Poles	8
Fastest laps	10
First race	1960 Monaco Grand Prix
First win	1963 German Grand Prix
Last win	1967 Italian Grand Prix
Last race	1972 Italian Grand Prix
Le Mans Years	24hLM 1963 – 24hLM 1965, 24hLM 1967
Team(s)	Scuderia Ferrari Lola Cars/Team Surtees
Best Finish	3rd (24hLM 1964)
Class Wins	0

John Surtees, OBE (born 11 February 1934 in Tatsfield, Surrey) is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver from England. He remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels. He is also the ambassador of the Racing Steps Foundation.

Motorcycle racing career

Surtees was the son of a south London motorcycle dealer. He had his first professional outing in the sidecar of his father's Vincent, which they won. However, when race officials discovered Surtees' age, they were disqualified. He entered his first race at 15 in a grasstrack competition. In 1950, when he was 16, he joined Vincent as an apprentice whilst with them he bought his first car, a Jowett Jupiter. He made his first headlines in 1951 when he gave Norton star Geoff Duke a strong challenge in an ACU race at the Thruxton Circuit.

In 1955, Norton race chief Joe Craig gave Surtees his first factory sponsored ride aboard the Nortons. He finished the year by beating reigning world champion Duke at Silverstone and then at Brands Hatch. However, with Norton in financial trouble and uncertain about their racing plans, Surtees accepted an offer to race MV Agustas.

In 1956 Surtees won the 500cc world championship. In this he was assisted by the FIM's decision to ban Geoff Duke for six months because of his support for a riders' strike for more starting money. 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.

When Gilera and Moto Guzzi pulled out of Grand Prix racing at the end of 1957, Surtees and MV Agusta went on to dominate the competition in the two big classes. 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.

John Surtees at the 1965 1000 km Nürburgring.

John Surtees (left) and Mauro Forghieri in 1965

Racing car career

In 1960, at the age of 26, Surtees switched from motorcycles to cars full time, making his Formula 1 debut racing for Lotus in the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo. He made an immediate impact with a second place finish in only his second Formula One race, at the 1960 British Grand Prix, and a pole position at his third race, the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix. After spending the 1961 season with the Cooper racing team and the 1962 season with Reg Parnell Racing, he moved to Scuderia Ferrari in 1963 and won the World Championship for the Italian team in 1964.

On September 25, 1965, Surtees had a life-threatening accident at the Mosport Circuit (Ontario, Canada) whilst practicing a Lola T70 sports racing car. A front upright casting had broken. Surtees made a full recovery and competed with a T70 in the inaugural Can Am series in 1966, winning three races of six to become champion 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).

The 1966 season saw the introduction of new, larger 3-litre engines to Formula One. Surtees' 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. 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.

Surtees arrived at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans expecting to be partnered with Mike Parkes, instead Ferrari team manager Eugenio Dragoni had put "big John" with Ludovico Scarfiotti. Surtees was not happy and quit Ferrari. Surtees finished the season driving for the Cooper-Maserati team, winning the last race of the season and finishing second in the drivers' championship, 14 points behind Brabham.

Surtees moved to the new Japanese Honda team for the 1967 season. He took pole position for the non-championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, but the car's V12 engine suffered from reliability problems in the race. At the Italian Grand Prix Surtees slipstreamed Denny Hulme to take Honda's second F1 victory by 0.2 seconds. Surtees finished fourth in the 1967 drivers' championship.

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.

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. 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. The team was finally disbanded at the end of 1978.

After Formula One

John Surtees in 2006

For a while in the 1970s Surtees ran a motorcycle shop in West Wickham, Kent. He continues his involvement in motorcycling, participating in classic events with bikes from his stable of vintage racing machines. He also remains 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 2005-7. His son, Henry competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, Formula Renault UK Championship and the Formula BMW UK championship for Carlin Motorsport, before he died whilst racing in the Formula 2 championship at Brands Hatch on 19 July 2009.

In 1996, John Surtees was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. The FIM honoured him as a Grand Prix "Legend" in 2003. Already a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.

Motorcycle Grand Prix results

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)

Year	Class	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Points	Rank	Wins
1952	500cc	Norton	SUI -	IOM -	NED -	BEL -	GER -	ULS 6	NAT -	ESP -		1	18th	0
1954	350cc	Norton	FRA -	IOM 11	ULS -	BEL -	NED -	GER -	SUI -	NAT -	ESP -	0	-	0
	500cc	Norton	FRA -	IOM 15	ULS -	BEL -	NED -	GER -	SUI -	NAT -	ESP -	0	-	0
1955	250cc	NSU	FRA -	IOM -	GER -	BEL -	NED -	ULS 1	NAT -			8	7th	1
	350cc	Norton		IOM 4	GER 3	BEL -	NED -	ULS 3	NAT -			11	6th	0
	500cc	Norton	ESP -	FRA -	IOM 29	GER -	BEL -	NED -	ULS -	NAT -		0	-	0
1956	350cc	MV Agusta	IOM -	NED 2	BEL 1	GER -	ULS -	NAT -				14	4th	1
	500cc	MV Agusta	IOM 1	NED 1	BEL 1	GER -	ULS -	NAT -				24	1st	3
1957	350cc	MV Agusta	GER -	IOM 4	NED -	BEL -	ULS -	NAT -				3	10th	0
	500cc	MV Agusta	GER -	IOM 2	NED 1	BEL -	ULS -	NAT 4				17	3rd	1
1958	350cc	MV Agusta	IOM 1	NED 1	BEL 1	GER 1	SWE -	ULS 1	NAT 1			48	1st	6
	500cc	MV Agusta	IOM 1	NED 1	BEL 1	GER 1	SWE -	ULS 1	NAT 1			48	1st	6
1959	350cc	MV Agusta	FRA 1	IOM 1	GER 1			SWE 1	ULS 1	NAT 1		48	1st	6
	500cc	MV Agusta	FRA 1	IOM 1	GER 1	NED 1	BEL 1		ULS 1	NAT 1		56	1st	7
1960	350cc	MV Agusta	FRA 3	IOM 2	NED 1			ULS 1	NAT -			26	1st	2
	500cc	MV Agusta	FRA 1	IOM 1	NED -	BEL 1	GER 1	ULS 2	NAT 1			46	1st	5

Complete World Championship Formula One results

(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	WDC	Points
1960	Team Lotus	Lotus 18	Climax Straight-4	ARG	MON Ret	500	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR 2	POR Ret	ITA	USA Ret				14th	6
1961	Yeoman Credit Racing Team	Cooper T53	Climax Straight-4	MON Ret	NED 7	BEL 5	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 5	ITA Ret	USA Ret						12th	4
1962	Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team	Lola Mk4	Climax V8	NED Ret	MON 4	BEL 5	FRA 5	GBR 2	GER 2		USA Ret	RSA Ret					4th	19
		Lola Mk4A								ITA Ret
1963	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 156	Ferrari V6	MON 4	BEL Ret	NED 3	FRA Ret	GBR 2	GER 1	ITA Ret	USA Ret	MEX DSQ	RSA Ret				4th	22
1964	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 158	Ferrari V8	MON Ret	NED 2	BEL Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 3	GER 1	AUT Ret	ITA 1						1st	40
	North American Racing Team											USA 2	MEX 2
1965	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 158	Ferrari V8	RSA 2	MON 4	BEL Ret	FRA 3										5th	17
		Ferrari 1512	Ferrari Flat-12					GBR 3	NED 7	GER Ret	ITA Ret	USA	MEX
1966	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 312/66	Ferrari V12	MON Ret	BEL 1												2nd	28
	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T81	Maserati V12			FRA Ret	GBR Ret	NED Ret	GER 2	ITA Ret	USA 3	MEX 1
1967	Honda Racing	Honda RA273	Honda V12	RSA 3	MON Ret	NED Ret	BEL Ret	FRA	GBR 6	GER 4	CAN						4th	20
		Honda RA300										ITA 1	USA Ret	MEX 4
1968	Honda Racing	Honda RA300	Honda V12	RSA 8													7th	12
		Honda RA301			ESP Ret	MON Ret	BEL Ret	NED Ret	FRA 2	GBR 5	GER Ret	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA 3	MEX Ret
1969	Owen Racing Organisation	BRM P138	BRM V12	RSA Ret	ESP 5	MON Ret	NED 9	FRA									11th	6
		BRM P139							GBR Ret	GER DNS	ITA NC	CAN Ret	USA 3	MEX Ret
1970	Team Surtees	McLaren M7C	Cosworth V8	RSA Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	BEL	NED 6	FRA								18th	3
		Surtees TS7								GBR Ret	GER 9	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 5	USA Ret	MEX 8
1971	Brooke Bond Oxo / Team Surtees	Surtees TS9	Cosworth V8	RSA Ret	ESP 11	MON 7	NED 5	FRA 8	GBR 6	GER 7	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 11	USA 17			19th	3
1972	Team Surtees	Surtees TS14	Cosworth V8	ARG	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA Ret	CAN	USA DNS		NC	0

External links

• John Surtees official web site
• Biography from GrandPrix.com
• Biography from F1db.com
• Sky Sport video documentary on John Surtees
• John Surtees Isle of Man TT statistics at iomtt.com

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