Gordon Murray
As passionate about bikes as he is cars, Gordon pays tribute to John Surtees – the racer who became world champion on two and four wheels
During my 20 years in the Formula One fast lane, among the ‘ups’ were meeting so many interesting and talented people. Obviously, I had close relationships with our own drivers and most of those developed into friendships, but sometimes it was an opposition driver I got to know.
The Seventies in F1 produced a travelling circus that was more akin to a large family than the huge and secretive teams we have today. Many inter-team friendships evolved and I often found myself chatting to drivers who would become ‘the enemy’ when the flag dropped!
Sadly we recently lost one of our most talented drivers – John Surtees. I feel privileged to have known John and I have a lot of respect for his achievements on both two and four wheels, as I have been a biker all my adult life and I still have equal passion for cars and motorcycles.
My first motorbike was a secondhand two-stroke 50cc Maserati (all of £10-worth) which my father bought me in South Africa when I was 16 years old. I have been a bike enthusiast and rider ever since.
I first met John in 1963 at an F1 race in South Africa when I took a picture of him in the pits, had a chat and asked for an autograph. As the years went by, in the period when I was running the technical side of the Brabham team, I got to know him a lot better. I came close to buying an MV Agusta 750 from his bike collection in the Seventies, but I just couldn’t quite raise the money then and even today I still have those ‘wish I had’ moments.
John was pretty much unbeatable in the late Fifties on the MV and went on to win three world championships. But for me, his results at the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race were even more impressive. I’ve been to the TT 19 times now and I can really appreciate the level of concentration, skill and bravery required to win a race around the 38-mile mountain course. He won consecutive senior TTS on the 500 Agusta in 1958, 1959 and 1960, and in 1958 and 1959 he won the 350cc races. His move to cars was almost accidental because he had very little interest in car racing during his motorcycle years, but when he did eventually switch he was immediately competitive and made a rapid progression from Formula Junior to Formula One with Colin Chapman at Lotus.
His career included sports car racing and F1, culminating in a world championship with Ferrari in 1964, which meant he became the most successful of a small number of riders who switched to car racing, including Tazio Nuvolari, Gary Hocking and Mike Hailwood.
John could be quite fiery and several well-recorded flare-ups probably resulted in reduced opportunities to achieve an even higher level of success – the most famous of these being his walk-out from Ferrari in 1966. But I found him never anything but charming. The last time I met him was at the 2016 Goodwood Revival where I shared my umbrella with him during the Jack Brabham memorial parade.
His passing is a great loss to the motor racing community, but I will always remember that broad smile and how he signed my autograph book back in 1963 – making a teenage racing fan very happy!