John Surtees will go down in the history books as the only man to win World Championships on two wheels and four, a record that may never be matched. Following his very successful career in motorcycling Surtees switched to cars in 1960, making his debut at the Monaco GP driving a Lotus. He joined Cooper for the 1961 season and moved on to Reg Parnell racing in 1962 before moving on to drive for Ferrari in 1963. It was to be a good move for 'Big John' as he is affectionately known and he went on to win the World Drivers title for the Scuderia in 1964. His career almost came to a premature end in 1965 when he crashed heavily at Mosport Park in Canada while practicing in a Lola T70 sports car. The crash was caused by mechanical failure and although badly injured Surtees made a full recovery and went on to win the inaugural Can Am series title in 1966. Surtees left Ferrari after a disagreement at Le Mans in mid 1966 and moved over to Cooper Maserati for the remainder of the season before switching to Honda for the 1967 and '68 seasons. The highlight was a win in the 1967 Italian GP but in the main lack of reliability thwarted further success. The Honda team took a body blow in 1968 with the death of Jo Schlesser in the revolutionary air cooled car at the French GP. Surtees had declined to drive the car as he felt it was not yet race ready. He drove for BRM in 1969 again badly hampered by reliability issues and set up and ran his own team from 1970 - 1973. The team met with limited success and was effectively destroyed wholesale in the 1973 British GP pile up caused by Jody Scheckter where all three of Surtees cars were written off. Surtees remained linked with Motorsport and worked closely with his son Henry who was himself showing great potential as a driver when he was tragically killed by a flying wheel in a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch in 2009 at the tender age of 18yrs.
Nationality - British
Born 11 Feb 1934
First GP Monaco 1960
Total GP's 111
Wins 6
Poles 8
Fastest laps 11
Total points 180
Teams
BRM
Cooper
Ferrari
Honda
Lotus
Claim to fame
World Champion
1964
Only world champion on 2 wheels and four
