John Surtees

John Surtees

Motorcycle Grand Prix Career
Nationality	British
Active years	1952 - 1960
Team(s)	Norton, MV Agusta
Grands Prix	49
Championships	350cc - 1958,1959,1960. 500cc- 1956,1958,1959,1960.
Wins	38
Podium finishes	45
Pole positions	N/A
Fastest laps	N/A
First Grand Prix	1952 500cc Ulster Grand Prix
First win	1955 250cc Ulster Grand Prix
Last win	1960 500cc Nations Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix	1960 500cc Nations Grand Prix

John Surtees

Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1960 - 1972
Teams	Lotus, Cooper, Lola, Ferrari, Honda, BRM, McLaren, Surtees
Entries	113
Championships	1 (1964)
Wins	6
Podiums	24
Pole positions	8
Fastest laps	11
First entry	1960 Monaco Grand Prix
First win	1963 German Grand Prix
Last win	1967 Italian Grand Prix
Last entry	1972 Italian Grand Prix

John Surtees MBE (born February 11 1934) is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula 1 driver from England. He remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels.

Biography

Born in Tatsfield, Surrey, 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 grass track 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. With Norton in financial trouble and uncertain about their racing plans, Surtees accepted an offer to race MV Agustas.

In 1956 Surtees would win the 500cc world championship. In this he was assisted by the FIM's decision to ban Geoff Duke for 6 months because of his support for a rider's strike over more start money. In the 1957 season, the MV Agustas were no match for the Gileras and Surtees battled to a third place finish.

John Surtees (left) and Mauro Forghieri in 1965

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 would win 32 out of 39 races and became the first man to win the Senior Isle of Man TT three years in succession.

At age 26, Surtees switched from motorcycles to cars, full time in 1960 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 in the 1960 Portuguese Grand Prix. After spending the 1961 season with the Cooper racing team and the 1962 season with the Lola team, he moved to Ferrari in 1963 and won the world championship for the Italian team in 1964.

Surtees parted company with Ferrari during the 1966 season after winning the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix, citing excessive pressure as a factor, leaving Jack Brabham to take the Drivers' Championship. In 1967, he joined Honda's Formula 1 team. He stayed with the Japanese team for 1968 before switching to BRM.

John Surtees in 2006

In 1970, he formed his own race team, Surtees Racing Organization and spent nine seasons competing in Formula 5000, Formula 2 and Formula 1 as a constructor. He retired from competition 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.

In 1996, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. The FIM honored him as a Grand Prix "Legend" in 2003. He continues his involvement in motorcycling, participating in classic bike events with bikes from his stable of vintage racing machines. He also remains involved in single-seater racing cars with him holding the seat of chairman of A1 Team Great Britain, in A1 Grand Prix racing series.

Motorcycle Grand Prix Statistics

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6
Points	8	6	4	3	2	1

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

Complete World Championship Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	WDC	Points
1960	Team Lotus	Lotus 18	Coventry Climax	ARG	MON Ret	INDY	NED	BEL	FRA	GBR 2	POR Ret	ITA	USA Ret				14th	6
1961	Yeoman Credit Racing Team	Cooper T53	Coventry Climax	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	Coventry Climax	NED Ret	MON 4	BEL 5	FRA 5	GBR 2	GER 2	ITA Ret	USA Ret	RSA Ret					4th	19
1963	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 156	Ferrari	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	MON Ret	NED 2	BEL Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 3	GER 1	AUT Ret	ITA 1	USA 2	MEX 2				1st	40
1965	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 158	Ferrari	RSA 2	MON 4	BEL Ret	FRA 3										5th	17
		Ferrari 1512	Ferrari					GBR 3	NED 7	GER Ret	ITA Ret	USA DNS	MEX DNS
1966	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 312	Ferrari	MON Ret	BEL 1												2nd	28
	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T81	Maserati			FRA Ret	GBR Ret	NED Ret	GER 2	ITA Ret	USA 3	MEX 1
1967	Honda Racing	Honda RA273	Honda	RSA 3	MON Ret	NED Ret	BEL Ret	FRA DNS	GBR 6	GER 4	CAN DNS						5th	20
		Honda RA300	Honda									ITA 1	USA Ret	MEX 4
1968	Honda Racing	Honda RA301	Honda	RSA 8	ESP Ret	MON Ret	BEL Ret	NED Ret	FRA 2	GBR 5	GER Ret	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA 3	MEX Ret		7th	12
1969	Owen Racing Organisation	BRM P138	BRM	RSA Ret	ESP 5	MON Ret	NED 9	FRA DNS									11th	6
		BRM P139	BRM						GBR Ret	GER DNS	ITA NC	CAN Ret	USA 3	MEX Ret
1970	Team Surtees	McLaren M7C	Ford	RSA Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	BEL DNS	NED 6	FRA DNS								18th	3
		Surtees TS7	Ford							GBR Ret	GER 9	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 5	USA Ret	MEX 8
1971	Team Surtees	Surtees TS9	Ford	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	Ford	ARG	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA Ret	CAN	USA		-	0

References

• 50 Years Of Moto Grand Prix (1st edition). Hazelton Publishing Ltd, 1999. ISBN 1-874557-83-7

External links

• Biography from GrandPrix.com
• Biography from F1db.com
• John Surtees statistics
• Sky Sport video documentary on John Surtees