John Surtees 1934-2017

The greatest motoring sportsman was the eldest child of a bike-mad family living in South London. Dad ‘Jack’ was a burly bus driver-turned-motorcycle repairman/ dealer who excelled at sidecar racing either side of WWII; and mum Dorothy, an expert rider herself, was occasionally his brave passenger.

 

- Paul Fearnley

Both were supportive presences – enabling rather than forcing, protecting without cosseting – for their shy but determined son who excelled on two wheels, three (he won on his sidecar debut in ‘the chair’ in 1948, only to be disqualified for being underage) and four.

An eight-time world champion, seven on bikes, once in cars (1964), John Surtees Jr won: six Isle of Man TTs; six Ulster Grands Prix at Dundrod; six Dutch TTs at Assen; seven GPs at Monza (five on bikes, two in cars); seven at Spa (six and one); and four at the Nurburgring – two apiece.

He won: on his debut in a sports – prototype – even though his own Ferrari team protested the result of 1963’s Sebring 12 Hours; four Oulton Park Gold Cups – twice in a Formula 1 car bearing his name; a brace of Nurburgring 1000Km and Syracuse GPs; 1962’s South Pacific Trophy at Tasmania’s Longford; 1963’s New Zealand GP and Lakeside International Trophy in a Lola, and the Mediterranean GP at Enna and Kyalami’s Rand GP for Ferrari; the inaugural Can-Am series of 1966 – in a Lola that he developed; consecutive 1967 Formula 2 races – at Mallory Park and Zolder – in a Lola; and, during his final (partial) season as a racing driver, aged 38, the Japanese and Imola GPs of 1972 – in an F2 car bearing his name.

He: ‘handed’ Jim Clark the only second place of a 72-start GP career; scored Lola’s only ‘official’ F1 victory – the 1962 International 2000 Guineas at Mallory – having put the car on pole for its world championship debut at Zandvoort; and won the 1966 Monza 1000Km (in the pouring rain and without windscreen wipers) on his comeback from serious injury. But for those injuries he would have driven the two best Ferrari single-seaters of his era – the F1 1512 and 246T (for Tasman) – and also for the Lola-Ford team that won Indy in 1966.