John Surtees, the only man yet to win World Championships on both two and four wheels, has been named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on Queen Elizabeth II’s latest birthday honors list.
The son of a sidecar racer from Surrey, Surtees originally raced motorcycles for the Norton works team, but it was with the crack MV Agusta outfit that he enjoyed his greatest success. His first World Championship came in 1956 in the 500-cc class, and he followed it up with an unprecedented “triple double,” winning both the 350-cc and 500-cc class titles in 1958, ’59 and ’60.
He first raced on four wheels in the latter year, moving almost immediately into F1, and his third GP, the British at Silverstone, ended with him standing on the second step of the podium alongside winner Jack Brabham.
Following a year each with the Cooper and Lola teams, Surtees signed with Ferrari for 1963, and claimed his first GP triumph at Germany’s Nürburgring that summer. The next season he suffered four DNFs from 10 starts, but after every other race stood on the podium, twice on the top step, as he edged Jim Clark and Graham Hill for the World Championship.
After recovering from a near-fatal 1965 crash at Mosport in a Lola T70, Surtees became the inaugural champion of the legendary Can-Am series the next year, winning three of that first season’s six races with another T70.
In 1969 he decided to become a constructor, taking over the Leda Formula 5000 project and rechristening it as the Surtees TS5, in deference to four prior motorcycle projects. For 1970 his operation began building its own Cosworth-powered F1 car, which he debuted at the British GP at Brands Hatch. Although no Surtees car ever won a Grand Prix during the nine years the marque contested Formula 1, his F2 team did win the European Championship in 1972 with Mike Hailwood—the same year Surtees himself retired from driving. In recent years he’s been involved in England’s team in the A1GP feeder series.
An OBE is a fine honor for a fine man, but many feel Surtees deserves a full knighthood and hope that will follow in the years to come.
By John Zimmermann
