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Home / Sport

Motorsport: John Surtees unrivalled whatever the wheels

5 Feb, 2004 01:45 PM5 mins to read

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By BOB PEARCE

For 40 years John Surtees has carried the distinction of being the only man to have won world championships on two wheels and four.

Many observers believe it is a record for all time. But the man himself believes it could still be equalled and he nominates Italian motorcycle
star Valentino Rossi as someone who could achieve the double.

"If someone applied themselves and changed before they were over the hill, they could do it.

"When I changed from bikes to cars I was still getting better. I probably hadn't really peaked. I was still coming up to 25 years of age.

"If someone like Rossi comes along and applies himself and likes it, it might happen. Nothing is forever."

Never flamboyant, Surtees involved himself fully in whatever was his project of the moment.

This led from racing bikes and cars, developing cars and running his own racing team in a variety of categories, including Formula One.

This weekend, on the eve of his 70th birthday, he will be riding a couple of his favourite bikes at the classic motorcycle festival at Pukekohe, where he won the New Zealand Grand Prix on four wheels in 1963.

As he checks out his MV Agusta and prototype Norton at Ken McIntosh's Mt Wellington workshop, the wiry Englishman retains the enthusiasm which saw him "tag along" as a child to race meetings with his father, a sidecar champion.

At the age of 12 he had put together a single-speed speedway bike, which he used to ride around the cinder path beside the Brands Hatch racing circuit. His first race was on a B14 Excelsior JAP 500cc machine. He was 15, it was wet and he fell off at almost every corner.

In 1950 he raced a more manageable 250cc Triumph and had his first win at the end of the year on a Vincent. He became British champion on a Norton and joined the works Norton team in 1955.

If the British team had followed their original plans, he would have ridden the horizontal-engined machine, which he has brought to Auckland. But the world championship programme was shelved and he was forced to join the Italian MV Agusta team for which he won his world championships.

In 1956 he won the 500cc world title and in 1958-59-60 he won both the 500cc and 350cc championships.

So why did he leave the Italian team for four-wheel racing?

"I'd won everything I could win in the categories I was in," he says. "I wanted to race in 250cc as well. I had been racing in non-championship events on my own Norton but the Italians stopped that.

"That meant I would only do perhaps ten 500cc races and ten 350cc races. So I wasn't very happy about that. I'd had offers about trying cars and decided to see how I went."

He had his first race for Ken Tyrrell and, after good results in a Formula Two car, he was asked by Colin Chapman to drive for Lotus in Formula One.

Juggling car drives with his motorcycle commitments, Surtees was quickly on the pace finishing second in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and missing the chance to win the Portuguese Grand Prix when he made a mistake when lapping Stirling Moss.

By 1962 he was involved in the development of a new car, the Lola, in which he was fourth in the world championship. He joined Ferrari the following year and won the German Grand Prix. The next year he won the world championship by one point from Graham Hill after winning the German and Italian Grand Prix.

Surtees competed in 111 Formula One races for six wins, the last in Italy for Honda in 1967. He also raced in numerous sportscar, CanAm and Formula Two events.

He ran his own Surtees team in Formula One and elsewhere with considerable success, driving himself until the pressures of management moved him to the pits in 1972. He also gave another world motorcycle champion, Mike Hailwood, the chance to excel on four wheels.

Surtees bowed out on a winning note, winning the Formula Two Japanese Grand Prix and Imola Gold Cup.

He finds it difficult to nominate favourite machines from his motorcycle days, though the prototype Norton, for which he hunted down the parts, clearly gives him pride.

His choice of favourite cars is interesting: Top of the list is the rear-engined Vanwall built specially for him but which he raced only once. Then comes the Lola 1 1/2 litre GP car, which he helped to develop with Reg Parnell.

Ferraris gave him success in both sportscars and Formula One and he nominates the 12-cylinder Ferrari 512 as a fantastic car.

Surtees flies back home with wife Jane on Monday to be with his young family for his 70th birthday on February 11. His two teenage daughters are into horses not horsepower but 12-year-old son Henry races karts as a third generation of Surtees takes to the track.

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