A world champion in both car and motorcycle racing, Tatsfield born John Surtees tells Michael Steward about his remarkable career
Lewis Hamilton, fresh from his reconquest of Formula One, has let it be known that he would love a go at MotoGP.
A world championship on the bikes, he believes, would sit nicely alongside his two F1 crowns.
But does he have what it takes to do the double of four wheels and two? Probably not, says John Surtees OBE, the only man in history to have accomplished it.
“Somebody might do it, I suppose, if they start young and have the right opportunity,” muses the Surrey-born legend of the track. “But it’s more likely that Marc Marquez [current MotoGP champion] will cross over into F1 than that Lewis will go the other way. What’s important to me is that no one else can do the double first.”
Being first, of course, is something with which Surtees is well and truly familiar. A man who boasts eight world titles – seven on a motorcycle and one in a car – it is hardly surprising that he is held in such high regard. And not just by the motor racing community.
Last May, in rural Kent – not a million miles from where Surtees was born, just across the Surrey border at Tatsfield – the town of Edenbridge turned out in force to watch John race some of his rarely glimpsed F1 cars through the streets, including his 1964 World Championship-winning Ferrari 158.
“It was great to be back in the overalls,” he crows down the phone.
We are speaking shortly after the Beaujolais Run, held annually in November. Originally a private race to bring the first bottle of the new vintage back to English shores, the madcap motoring event has now evolved into a structured navigational challenge, ending in Burgundy just as the new batch of Beaujolais is released.
For 2014 the race began at the Royal Automobile Club in Epsom. It was, as ever, an important date on the Surtees calendar, as all sponsorship money raised by competitors goes directly to the Henry Surtees Foundation (HSF). This was set up in honour of John’s late son, who died tragically in a Formula Two accident at Brands Hatch in 2009, when the wheel of a car came loose and struck him on the head. He was only 18 years old.
Irony wears a pitiless face. Having played roulette and won throughout motorsport’s most dangerous decades, John saw his son perish in an era of unprecedented safety while his young life was still revving up. Understandably, it made him question his love of the sport that had brought him such fame and success.
John and Henry Surtees
“Initially, I wanted to walk away from it entirely and do other things with my life,” he admits. “That was certainly how my family saw it. But at the service we raised £34,000 for Headway, a Tunbridge Wells head injury charity, and that made me want to keep working with Henry. So that’s what I did.”
Following discussions with his second wife Jane, and daughters Leonora and Edwina, John duly founded the HSF to assist people with brain or physical injuries caused by accidents. The Foundation holds many and various fundraising events during the course of the year, including the Brooklands Team Challenge, a team karting competition held in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz World and Brooklands Museum in Weybridge.
In addition, the HSF is now beginning to branch out into education, providing training through motorsport-related programmes in technology, engineering and road safety.
“The idea is to fire youngsters’ enthusiasm and get them into a career. There are so many trades and skills associated with motorsport,” enthuses John.
Accidents, however, remain at the heart of the HSF project. One of the Foundation’s greatest triumphs was the donation of £75,000 to the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Trust for simulation training manikins – another poignant and unambiguous nod in the direction of John’s late son. As John himself has written:
“Henry lives on with us doing things that I know would have brought that rather catching smile to his face.”
Away from the HSF, 2014 proved a busy year for Surtees, who celebrated the 50th anniversary of his F1 World Championship success with a photographic memoir chronicling his life and career.
There was also his annual appearance at the popular Goodwood Festival of Speed, showcasing the dream machines of his dazzling heyday in the 50s and 60s.
But from a sporting career that spanned three decades and embraced both cars and bikes, what does Surtees himself regard as the highlight of his competitive life?
“I would have to say winning my first race,” he says fondly. “Having built the bike myself from scratch, I went to a race meeting down at Aberdare, in Wales, and it all came together.
Musicians often talk about being at one with their instruments, and that was exactly how I felt – completely in tune with the machine. It was talking to me and I was talking right back.”
That race was the starting grid; the green light for a prodigiously successful career. From 1956-60 John bagged seven motorcycle world championships – a mix of 350 and 500cc titles – before lifting the F1 trophy in 1964.
But for all the roars of triumph, the material rewards were few. In 1958, with titles already on tap, John opened a motorcycle shop at West Wickham, Kent, with his parents – simply to make ends meet. It was a world away from the multimillion pound deals that Hamilton and co attract from the sport today.
“Riders didn’t earn a pot of gold in those days, and I had to consider my future,” recalls Surtees in his memoir. “There wasn’t the throwaway attitude back then, and we reused everything we could.”
Even today, John the mechanic continues to work on the machines that have been such an integral part of his life.
“Henry’s foundation has given me a reason to breathe new life into the various cars and motorcycles that I have been able to retain and rebuild. They go out to events to raise funds,” he explains.
After a whole life spent around speed, one might assume that even a motorsport legend would eventually want to slow down a bit. But having just turned 81, John Surtees shows no sign at all of taking his foot off the gas.
Signed copies of John’s book are available at evropublishing.com, with all proceeds given to the Henry Surtees Foundation. To donate, visit henrysurteesfoundation.com; @HSF_Foundation
BBC Pictures
