Race and classic pictures

A unique motorsports world champion

A very happy birthday today to Sir John Surtees, who turns 83 today having been born in Tatsfield, Surrey on February 11, 1934 and pictured above at last year's Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Sir John occupies a unique place in the world of motorsports. Not only did he win the Formula One world championship in 1964 with Ferrari, he had already taken four 500cc motorcycle world titles in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960. That makes him the only person ever to have won world championships on both two and four wheels.

Since Sir Jack Brabham passed away in 2014 at the age of 88, Sir John is the oldest surviving Formula One world champion. And following Geoff Duke death at the age of 92 in 2015, Sir John is now also the oldest surviving 500cc/MotoGP World Champion.

We very hope that continues to be the case for many years to come. The world of motorsport has never seen his like before or since, and wouldn't be the same without him.

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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.