Surtees a the wheel of the Ferrari F1. Surtees died on March 10, 2017 at St George’s Hospital in London of respiratory failure at the age of 83. Graham Gauld photo.
Gauld, Sitz, Sharp and Vanhoolandt Remember John Surtees
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Graham Gauld
I have known John Surtees since he first started car racing in 1960. He was always a good and helpful friend who would answer your questions probably more honestly than most racing drivers.
I first met him with Jim Clark, when Jim and John were racing in Formula Junior and Formula 1 in 1960. It was John’s first racing season and, remember, he was still racing motorcycles. Indeed thanks to John, Jim Clark had his first Formula 1 Grand Prix drive with Lotus at the Dutch Grand Prix of 1960, when Surtees was away racing his MV Agusta.
In 1962 Surtees married Pat Burke, who was daughter of a Porsche enthusiast in England, and Jim Clark was his best man. However, the marriage ended in divorce.
However, John then met his second wife, Jane, when he was recuperating from one of his racing accidents. It was a very happy marriage and Jane brought a sense of balance and family life to him. I remember visiting him at his home to talk about the great racing driver Reg Parnell, whose biography I was writing. We were in his study when the door was pushed open and his toddler son Henry crawled into the room. John smiled and gently lifted Henry and took him back to his mother then came back and restarted the story.
At the time it demonstrated the calm that had come into his life. It was a calm shattered some years later when Henry, at the age of 18, was killed in a freak accident at Brands Hatch. It was a Formula 2 race and another competitor hit the banking. A wheel was torn off the car which bounced back on to the track and hit young Henry and he died on arrival at hospital. John then set up the Henry Surtees Foundation.
Back in the 1980s after John had retired from active racing I was helping a group in Scotland setting up a small racing car show in Glasgow. They were looking for a personality to open it so I rang John and he immediately agreed to come to Scotland and open the show. It was a typical gesture of John and, if I remember correctly, he accepted just his hotel accommodation and an air fare for he knew that having a racing car show in Scotland at that time was a labor of love rather than a commercial adventure.
John Surtees at his first Formula 1 British Grand Prix, in 1960, when he was driving for Lotus. Graham Gauld photo.
Last year the Grand Prix Drivers Club held their Annual General Meeting in Maranello, and many of the members of the club who had driven for Ferrari or had raced Ferraris were there. On the afternoon we arrived there was the sound of a Ferrari approaching and John and his wife Jane arrived having driven close on 1000 miles from his home at Edenbridge to Maranello at the age of 82. That was the kind of man John Surtees was. He could be prickly at times but was essentially a kind and honest man and those of us who had the privilege of knowing him will never forget him.
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Jim Sitz
In the paddock at Dutch Grand Prix in 1970 I encountered John Surtees, whose motorcycle career I had admired years before. Told him that I had been exchanging letters with his secretary Gloria Dollar in reference the new Surtees Grand Prix car. John then told me that I was most welcome to come by their shop in Edenbridge, Kent, when I pleased to.
I had seen him ride the MV 4 at the Dutch GP at the old street course. I was especially thrilled when it became known Surtees would enter car racing in 1960 and show his talent. That initial ride in the Cooper Formula Jr. prove just how good he was. This photo was taken in 1960 at Riverside. Jim Sitz photo
A few days later I was winding my way through the country lanes in my freshly restored MG TC and arrived to find a keen crew who were busy getting the Surtees TS7 ready for debut. Their business man had worked at RAC, and had color samples of red paint to consider for the Grand Prix car’s final coat. He actually came over to me and politely asked my opinion. I chose one the shade of my beloved red MG. Just imagine British Racing RED.!
Everyone was very nice and it was evident Surtees was that same hands-on man that I had seen during his Can-Am racing. They asked if I was living and working in the UK, but I told them I was flying home and had to get going to crate the MG TC up for safe voyage on the ship. For this Yank it was some vacation in England, and that day with Surtees and crew was very special to me.
New boy on the Lotus Team 1960 with Colin Chapman at Riverside and me trying to stay out of the way. I’m shooting with a Hasselblad 1000F with 150 mm lens. Jim Sitz photo.
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Jonathan Sharp
I only met John Surtees much later in his life, usually in the paddock at Goodwood, or as a guest of honor at a car show. John was seriously affected by the death of his son Henry in 2009. Even talking about him would reduce John to tears, and often we who were listening to him as well. John established the Henry Surtees Foundation in his memory. More information can be found at the end of this article. Jonathan Sharp photo.
John Surtees was one of very few drivers that Mercedes would allow to demonstrate their historic race cars. This is John at the Festival of speed driving the W165 1.5 liter Tripoli Grand Prix car in 2011. Jonathan Sharp photo.
Goodwood Revival 2014, John in a Lola T70, likely the one he raced in period. Jonathan Sharp photo.
The car that Jim Sitz went to see in 1970 was the Surtees TS7, which made its debut at the British Grand Prix, later won the Gold Cup at Oulton Park, and finished 6th in the US Grand Prix with Derek Bell driving. Jonathan Sharp photo.
Assembly area at the 2014 Festival of Speed; I remember the day, It was boiling hot and John and the rest of us had to wait over an hour for Kimi Räikkönen to arrive. John just waited, gave interviews, signed autographs and never complained once. Jonathan Sharp photo.
In May 2014 I had the pleasure to attend a celebration of the 50th anniversary of John’s F1 World Championship. The event was based around what had once been the Team Surtees factory in Edenbridge, Kent. It was raining but that did not stop John chatting with or posing to have his photograph taken with his fans and many of the locals for several hours. Jonathan Sharp photo.
When it came time to warm the Ferrari 158 up for the Edenbridge parade, it was John who was working the throttle. But before the run began, Surtees got a call from his daughter who was trying to start the MV Agusta-gifted BMW 507. He quickly walked across the park and found the mechanics who had been looking after the Ferrari peering in and tinkering without success. John strolls over, pops his head under the BMW’s bonnet, fiddles for a bit and the car starts the first time. Jonathan Sharp photo.
Stirling Moss and Surtees share a moment at Goodwood. Jonathan Sharp photo.
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Hugues Vanhoolandt
Surtees at Goodwood in 2010. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.
John Surtees did some demonstration laps at the wheel of the Ferrari 158 he drove to victory in the 1964 Italian Grand Prix and that contributed to his World Championship title the same year. This was at Goodwood, 2014. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.
The first Formula 1 car built by Surtees was this Cosworth TS7. John took it to 5th place in the 1970 Canadian Grand Prix. Engine problems plagued the new car throughout the season. Goodwood 2010. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.
Two Surtees F2 cars: Number 5 is a Surtees Hart TS10. With this car John won the 1972 Japanese Grand Prix. Number 3 is a Surtees TS 15 Formula 2 car driven in the period by Carlos Pace and Jochen Mass. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.
John Surtees and Jean Alesi, September, 2016 at the Goodwood Revival. This is one of the last pictures I took of him. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.
John’s son Henry Surtees at the Spa F2 race, June 2009, three weeks before his fatal accident. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo.
A bit about the Henry Surtees Foundation:
In the first twelve months of the new HSF-supported service, Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance have performed 69 emergency blood transfusions. Please help HSF to save more lives, by working with the Air Ambulance service across England and Wales.
Henry Surtees was killed in a freak accident, through no fault of his own, at Brands Hatch on 19 July 2009. He was just 18, and one of the best young drivers of his era.
Inspired by Henry, his experience, and in celebration of his life; with your support HSF will:
– support accident care, with particular emphasis on head injuries
– assist people with brain or physical injuries caused by accident to return to community living through the provision of equipment and facilities;
– provide opportunity to be involved in education and training programmes for young people to help them find a career path and to participate in society as independent, mature and responsible individuals
Donate to the Henry Surtees Foundation