John Surtees, the only man to win the World Championship on both two wheels and four, has passed away at the age of 83.
The son of a motorcycle dealer and amateur racer, Surtees began his career in grass track racing at the age of 15. He scored his first World Championship race victory at 250cc level in 1954, and earned his first 500cc title with MV Agusta just two years later. He went on to win the 500cc title again in 1958, 1959 and 1960, while also taking the 350cc championship in all three seasons, leaving him with a career total of seven titles.
Surtees had ambitions to move to car racing and, after tests with a works Aston Martin sports car and Vanwall GP car in 1959, he made the move in 1960. Following some exploratory outings in Formula Junior (he was second in his first race) and F2, he made his Grand Prix debut with Team Lotus at Monaco. He then took an impressive second place on only his second outing at Silverstone and pole at his third race in Portugal.
He drove a Cooper for Reg Parnell in 1961, before switching to a Lola the following year, with which he scored two further second places. That helped to attract the attention of Enzo Ferrari, who offered him a seat for 1963. He earned his first GP win at the Nurburgring that year, and the following season victories in Germany and Italy helped to propel him to the World Championship.
A huge CanAm accident at Mosport in September 1965 was a major setback, but he returned in 1966 to score a famous wet GP win at Spa. However, his relationship with Ferrari had soured and he left the team early in the season to join Cooper, for whom he would win in Mexico. He also won the inaugural CanAm title that year, with a Lola T70.
In 1967 he joined Honda, scoring a memorable final career GP victory at Monza. The Japanese company withdrew at the end of 1968, and Surtees spent a year at BRM before entering his McLaren under the Team Surtees banner for the early races of 1970, while his own chassis was being built. The TS7 made its debut at Brands Hatch.
Surtees raced the TS9 the following year but gave up racing F1 himself at the end of the 1971 season, although he would make one final appearance at the 1972 Italian GP. He kept his hand in in F2 that year, winning two races.
He continued to run Team Surtees – giving early opportunities to the likes of Carlos Pace, Jochen Mass, John Watson and Alan Jones – but financial pressures forced him to pull out of the sport at the end of 1978.
He remained close to the sport and, after his son Henry was born in 1991, began to support his career. Tragically the youngster was to lose his life in a F2 race at Brands Hatch in 2009, aged just 18.
His father subsequently set up the Henry Surtees Foundation, devoting the last eight years to raising funds.
