'Big John' Surtees: Still a giant in our hearts

©GoodWood

40

©Goodwood

John Surtees, who was born in Surrey, England on this day in 1934, remains one of the true giants in the annals of motorsport.

He was a four-time 500cc motorcycle world champion who switched from two wheels to four to become Formula 1 world champion in 1964, the only driver in the history of the sport to have achieved this remarkable feat.

During his 13 years in Grand Prix racing he competed with Lotus, Cooper, Lola, Ferrari, Honda, and BRM.

He even set up his own F1 team in 1970 for his final two years in competition.

Surtees himself retired from driving in 1972. His eponymous team continued to compete in Formula 5000, Formula 2 and Formula 1 until 1978.

John was also the founder of the Henry Surtees Foundation, a charity supporting people with brain or physical injuries. It was named in memory of his son, who tragically died aged just 18 during a Formula 2 race at Brands Hatch in 2009.

Surtees was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996. During his life, he was granted an MBE, OBE and finally a CBE in 2016 for services to motorsport. It's a mystery why he never received a well-deserved knighthood as well.

He remained a familiar figure in the world of motorsport right up until he passed away in 2017 at the age of 83.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.