‘Aberdare win was the most important’ RACING
JOHN Surtees holds a unique place in motor sport as the only man to be world champion on both two and four wheels.
But he says a race meeting at Aberdare Park 67 years ago, where he recorded his first win at the age of just 16, was probably the most important of his life.
Surtees, now 82, won seven motor cycling world championships between 1956 and 1960 in the 350cc and 500cc categories and followed that up by winning the Formula 1 motor racing championship in 1964 with Ferrari.
But he says a race meeting at Aberdare in 1950 played a key role in making him the champion he was.
In a letter to a motor cycling magazine this month, Surtees says Aberdare, and race organisers Marion and Dai Pryce, played a very special part in his career.
He says: “I remember with great fondness the way they were so helpful to me as a youngster.”
Surtees opened his career with races at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, and then travelled to Aberdare with his parents to ride a Vincent Grey Flash bike he had helped put together “out of pieces in a corner.”
He says Aberdare was a long way to go, but he wanted to race.
He recalls: “I went off with the Grey Flash in my father’s Austin van, joined by my mother, with me sleeping in the back along with the bike.
“We got to Aberdare, and Marion and Dai were fantastic and found us a place to stay.
“It was probably the most important race meeting of my life as on race day I didn’t just ride the bike but actually became part of it as we got to know each other so well – something with machinery that has stood me in good stead for the rest of my life.
“That first win, going down to the start line for the presentation, and the crowd all breaking into song, left a lasting memory.
“I went back to Aberd- are when I could, taking Nortons, and I always had a super back-up mechanic in those early years as well as a truck driver in my mother. Aberdare and the Pryces were very special.”
Surtees went on to enjoy a stellar career on both two and four wheels. He has been awarded the CBE and in 1959 was the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.