19 John Surtess

John Surtees was born 11:02:1934 the son of a South London motorcycle dealer

He was 500cc motorcycle World Champion in 1956 and 1958–60, Formula One World Champion in 1964, and remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels.
His first entry into motorsport ended in a glorious disqualification when he rode passenger to his father in a sidecar race which they won, but John was only 14 and the pair were disqualified due him being to young to compete.
He entered his first race at 15 in a grass track competition. In 1950, at the age of 16, he went to work for the Vincent factory as an apprentice.
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 for the MV Agusta factory racing team.
In 1956 Surtees won the 500cc world championship
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 larger displacement 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.
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 the following race the British GP he finished second and claimed pole position in his third race the Portuguese Grand Prix
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
Surtees sustained life threatening injuries in 1965 while practicing in a Lola T70 for the Mosport Can-Am series sportscar race, when a casting broke on his car. He returned to the Can-Am series in a Lola T70 for 1966, winning three of the six races to become champion.
He won the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix for Ferrari after disappointment at the Monaco GP where he was forced to retire while leading with engine failure. In the Ferrari team for the 1966 Le Mans 24 hour, Ferrari were forced to reduce their entry from three to two cars and with Le Mans regulations at the time only allowing two drivers for each car, he was left without a drive. Ferrari claiming they doubted his fitness after the 1965 Can-Am accident. After a row Surtess quit his Ferrari contract, a decision that probably cost himself and Ferrari the 1966 World Championships, and saw Ferrari finish second behind Brabham-Repco.
Surtees moved to the new Japanese Honda team for the 1967 season.[2] 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 Jack Brabham to take Honda’s second F1 victory by 0.2 seconds. Surtees finished fourth in the 1967 drivers’ championship.
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.
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.
Shot Mallory Park, April 2011 Ref 71-019

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Posted by robertknight16 on 2012-04-17 14:25:42

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