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by Unknown

  JOHN SURTEES

  1955 - 1971

  Reference: German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring Mr Surtees, who was recommended to us by Mr Aldington, started in this race for the first time on an RS machine with 52 horsepower engine and four-speed gearbox. Although Mr Surtees knew neither the Nurburgring nor the BMW engine, he soon settled in and rode the third-fastest time in practice. During the race, after a bad start, he worked his way through the whole field to third place, but then had to stop to change a spark plug. He worked his way back to third position and then had to abandon the race because of continued oiling up of the spark plugs (the reason for this was a flooded flotation chamber). If we want to take part as a works team in next year’s races, it would be necessary for Mr Surtees to commit himself soon. v. Falkenhausen, Sporting Division Alex von Falkenhausen sent that note to the directors of BMW after John had taken part in the German motor cycle GP at the Nurburgring on June 26, 1955. John actually raced three times that day, crashing his own NSU in the 250 cc race; finishing third on his Norton in the 350 cc event and finally riding the horizontally opposed BMW twin in the 500 cc race. von Falkenhausen also made it clear to his bosses that John Surtees was ‘the man who can win races for us,’ but they weren’t listening. However, as Surtees recounts in his autobiography, ‘I think it was my performance on this bike which alerted Count Agusta to my potential and indirectly led to the invitation to join MV the following year. In fact, if BMW hadn’t dithered around I might well have ended up riding for them in 1956, rather than for the Italians.’ BMW’s indifference to John’s performance that day undoubtedly shaped his career and it is indicative of his astonishing skills that he should shine on his very first appearance at the Nurburgring. Alright, so he made an inauspicious start, falling off the NSU and flying through a hedge on the very first lap of the 250 cc GP, but that was due to having the wrong tyres rather than anything else. In the next two races he rode with great skill and made the Continentals sit up and take notice. He learned the Nurburgring by driving round it when it was open to the public, “and when possible, I would walk, getting a picture in my mind of exactly where I was. The Ring was 14.2 miles round, so I would walk a section at a time. I always picked up circuits pretty quickly.” In 1956 John rode for MV Agusta and won the 500 cc World Championship for the first time. The motor cycle GPs did not return to the Ring until 1958, when he tied up the 350 and 500 cc titles by winning both races on the MVs. In its GP report, punningly headed ‘Surtees Makes Certain!’, The Motor Cycle noted that, ‘Surtees’ determination to leave nothing to chance in the 350cc race was obvious from the drop of the starter’s flag. Closely shadowed by Hartle, he fairly rocketed away from the rest of the field and, on his very first flying lap, shaved 0.10 secs off Geoff Duke’s 500 cc lap record (made on a Gilera in 1955) to turn what eventually proved to be the fastest lap of the day in 10 mins 23.2 secs (81.83 mph).’ He would undoubtedly have improved upon that in the 500 cc race, had not a thunderstorm almost drowned the proceedings. ‘Rain fell with the force of hailstones and the track was awash.’ reported The Motor Cycle. Just how bad were the conditions is reflected in the race speeds, John completing the 7-lap 350 cc race at 80.47 mph and the 9-lap 500 cc event at 68.97 mph, with a fastest lap in 11 mins 18.5 secs. He won by more than 30 seconds and the magazine declared, ‘To counter the argument that his task has been easy in the absence of worthy opposition, his faultless ride in the appalling weather which marred the 500 cc race was real championship stuff.’ The absent ‘worthy opposition’ comprised Gilera, Mondial and Moto Guzzi, teams which had all retired from racing at the end of 1957, but that did nothing to alter the fact that with his two victories John had established himself as a Ringmeister, and not for the last time. That year, the 24 year-old Surtees won an astonishing 12 World Championship races on the trot, starting with the Junior and Senior TTs in the Isle of Man. In December he attended the BBC-TV Sportsman of the Year Dinner in London and found himself at the same table as Mike Hawthorn (who had just become Britain’s first World Champion racing driver); Tony Vandervell (whose Vanwalls had won the first Constructors’ Championship) and Reg Parnell (Team Manager of Aston Martin). During the evening Mike suggested that John really ought to see what he could do in a racing car and Tony Vandervell immediately offered him a drive in a Vanwall at any time. However, Hawthorn died in a road accident a few weeks later and then Vandervell announced his retirement from racing, so Surtees thought no more about cars and went back to motor bikes. Remarkably, he won the 350 and 500 cc Championships again in 1959 and increased his run of consecutive Championship victories to 13! Shortly before the Italian GP in September he received a phone call from Reg Parnell, who reminded him of Mike Hawthorn’s suggestion and, in his usual, no-nonsense manner, virtually ordered John to go to Goodwood in October, when there would be an Aston Martin DBR1 waiting for him. John agreed and found himself sitting in a racing car for the very first time; and not just any old racing car but the one which Stirling Moss had driven to victory in sensational fashion in the Nurburgring 1000 kms a few months earlier. It was a true meeting of Ringmeisters. Although he had never contemplated a career on four wheels, Surtees had always enjoyed driving fast cars. He started with a Jowett Jupiter, went through several Fords and a Porsche and owned and enjoyed a DB2/4 Aston for some time. His great love was a BMW 507, which he had bought from the factory in 1957 and owns to this day. He had driven a considerable number of high speed miles on the Continent in this car and so quickly found himself at home in the DBR1 at Goodwood. “The Aston felt really good.” he recalls. “It was a fabulously forgiving car, which was a big benefit to somebody as inexperienced as I was. Its engine was very flexible and I have very fond memories of the test. I must admit that the Aston felt a little strange after a bike, from which you get quite a different view of the track, but the lines didn’t seem much different and I got down to about the same times that Stirling had done in the Tourist Trophy a month or so earlier. I enjoyed driving a racing car far more than I had anticipated and although I had gone to Goodwood with no real intention of moving into motor racing the Aston aroused a new interest in me. Nevertheless, I was completely taken aback when I stopped at the pits and Reg asked me to sign a contract with Astons for 1960!” Surtees was in no position to do any such thing, being already committed to MV Agusta, but Parnell was persistent and a few days later John was back at Goodwood driving the DBR1 again. Reg was so impressed with John’s abilities that he again asked him to sign for Aston Martin (Patron David Brown had not yet announced his withdrawal from sportscar racing). By now Surtees really had the car racing bug, but was convinced that he ought to get some ‘grass roots’ experience under his belt before he signed with a works team. Tony Vandervell thought otherwise. Learning of his trial with the Astons, he scornfully told him that he was wasting his time and should drive a proper racing car. So John found himself at Goodwood once more, this time in a Vanwall and, predictably, Vandervell immediately asked him to sign a contract. John reminded him that he had retired from racing, but Vandervell just shrugged and said, “Doesn’t matter. I’ll build a car for you.” At this time Surtees had never seen a motor race, let alone taken part in one, yet here he was with offers of a works drive from two of the biggest names in the game. He was flattered, of course, but very wary, for he had seen how his great rival, Geoff Duke, had tried to move into motor racing (also with Aston Martin) in 1952 and failed. Such was Duke’s prowess on two wheels that the press were hailing him as a World Champion on four before he had started a race. This did not go down well with his team-mates and he was never happy at Astons. As a result, although Team Manager John Wyer was convinced he had the makings of a great racing driver, Duke returned to bikes. Determined not to suffer the same fate, Surtees decided he would go motor racing, but in his own time. He turned down the offers from Aston Martin and Vandervell and went home to prepare for his 1960 programme with MV. But then, just as BMW’s lack of interest in him had led him to MV Agusta, the latter’s di
sinterest in races other than Championship events led him to motor racing. In 1957 John had built up a couple of Nortons and raced them as well as the MVs, winning several races in England. The Italian press made much of this, to the effect that ‘Surtees doesn’t need MV Agusta to win races’. Needless to say, this did not go down well with Count Domenico Agusta, who told Surtees that as from 1958 he would only be allowed to race MVs and they would only be competing in World Championship events. At a stroke, John’s racing programme was reduced from the 46 events of 1957 to just 16! He was not impressed, convinced that a rider could only remain on top form by racing constantly, but he was under contract to MV so he put up with it - for two years. However, there was nothing in his contract that said he could not race cars, so in 1960 he bought an F2 Cooper. His very first car race was a Formula Junior event at Goodwood, which the RAC agreed would be enough to qualify him for his competition licence. He won pole position on the grid in Ken Tyrrell’s Cooper and finished second in the race to Jimmy Clark. ‘A most impressive first appearance -,’ wrote Michael Durnin in Autosport, ‘a new star is in the ascendant.’ Surtees duly won his licence, took his F2 Cooper to Oulton Park and finished second to Innes Ireland’s works Lotus. Colin Chapman was so impressed that he invited Surtees to race an Fl Lotus when his MV commitments would allow. John accepted and duly turned up for the International Trophy meeting at Silverstone in May. In practice he was almost six seconds slower than pole man Moss, but held his own in the race initially until the Lotus lost all its oil and he had to retire when in fourth place. Shades of Bernd Rosemeyer at Avus in 1935. Then came Monaco. Whereas Rosemeyer had found the savage twists and turns of the Nurburgring easy to master, Surtees was, as he freely admits, completely outfumbled by the twists and turns of Monaco. “I had a dreadful time. I was able to cope with the faster circuits quite easily, as the relationship between cars and bikes wasn’t much different, but the techniques required on slow corners were very different and to begin with I always had a bit of trouble. So Monaco was a new experience, with all that stop-start business. On top of that we had lots of gearbox problems and the Lotus ground to a halt after 18 laps. Then I went to Silverstone for the British GP and finished second, which upset quite a few people!” For someone who was taking part in only his sixth motor race Surtees’ drive in the 1960 British GP was remarkable but, as Denis Jenkinson noted in Motor Sport, it went almost un-noticed, ‘as he had driven such a smooth and unspectacular race, but one of such precision and smoothness that it put many accepted stars to shame.’ He had indeed made several look rather ordinary and there was a certain amount of resentment directed at him afterwards for making Grand Prix racing look so easy. He did the same thing again in his very next race, the Portuguese GP. He won pole position, took the lead on lap five and seemed to have his and Team Lotus’ first GP victory locked up for the next thirty laps, only to make a mistake and spin out of the race. His success on two wheels continued unabated, however, and once again he was double World Champion. For the last time however, as at Monza (where he won the 500 cc GP) Count Agusta told him that he would still only be competing in Championship races in 1961. This was not good enough for Surtees, who decided to give up racing bikes altogether and concentrate on cars. Colin Chapman immediately told him that he would be Number One at Lotus for the coming season, unfazed by the fact that he had already given that position - in a contract! - to Innes Ireland. Distinctly unhappy at Chapman’s cavalier behaviour, Surtees joined Reg Parnell and Yeoman Credit’s team of Coopers for 1961. It was not a successful union. Nevertheless, John returned to the Nurburgring for the first time since 1958 on four of John Cooper wheels instead of two of Count Agusta’s. The Cooper was last year’s car and so another victory at the Ring was out of the question, but John gave a good, if undistinguished, account of himself, being tenth fastest in practice with 9 mins 11.2 secs, which was almost 11 seconds faster than his team-mate, Roy Salvadori. The German GP was all about Stirling Moss in Rob Walker’s Lotus beating the Ferraris (See Ringmeister 6, Stirling Moss) and John brought the Cooper-Climax home in fifth place, behind another youngster - and future Ringmeister - who was also making his Nurburgring debut in a GP car - Jim Clark. John found that quite a few people in racing still resented the fact that he had more or less started at the top, without serving an apprenticeship. One man who was quite unfazed by this was Enzo Ferrari, for having had Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi driving for him in the past, he was well aware that great motor cycle racers often turn into great racing drivers, so he invited Surtees to join his Scuderia for 1962. John declined, convinced that he was still too new to motor racing to join such a prestigious team. Also, he was already involved with Eric Broadley in the making of the Lola GP car and convinced Reg Parnell that Yeoman Credit should dump the uncompetitive Coopers and go racing with the Lolas, which they did. The 1962 German Grand Prix was remarkable in that three drivers, Surtees, Graham Hill and Dan Gurney, were within a few yards of each other for the entire 15-lap race, and in the most appalling conditions. Gurney (Porsche) led initally from Hill (BRM) and Surtees (Lola), but Graham took the lead on lap two and despite the best efforts of the others, stayed there until the chequered flag. (See Ringmeister 9, Graham Hill) “The BRM had a bit of an edge over the Lola uphill and along the 3 km straight to the finish.” says John. “In order to get by Graham I had either to do so before Adenau, or going onto the straight, but the conditions were very wet and misty, making it very difficult to overtake. The right-hander up and over the hill leading onto the main straight was where Graham always took a pretty wide line. I reckoned that I could get on to the straight considerably faster than him and once I did that I could make the Lola very wide, particularly with the weather conditions. “So my demon plan was to tuck in behind Graham before the right-hander and dive through on the inside on the final lap. This wasn’t as easy as it seemed, bearing in mind how much spray was flying around and while I was right up Graham’s exhaust pipe, I had Dan scrambling all over me on the tight sections of the track. So, although I needed to drop back slightly in order to take a run at Graham through that right-hander, I couldn’t slacken the pace too much because Dan was looking for any opportunity to push me down to third. “I was nicely placed for a big effort, came flying over the brow into that right-hander - and who was cruising along in the middle of the road? Heini Walter in a slow, four-cylinder Porsche! My demon plan was dashed! All three of us had to scramble round the Porsche and I had to settle for second place behind Graham and just ahead of Dan.” And that was as good as it got with the Lola so when, at the end of the year, Enzo Ferrari approached Surtees again, John was in a receptive mood. Joining the Scuderia for 1963 posed an enormous challenge, for following Phil Hill’s World Championship in 1961, Ferrari had fired seven of his key men including Designer Carlo Chiti and Team Manager Romolo Tavoni. Although the Scuderia won the 1962 Sportscar Championship, the F1 season had been a disaster, with the virtually all-conquering 156 sharknose of 1961 lacking development and being unable to catch its own shadow in ‘62. A thoroughly disillusioned Phil Hill left the team and morale was at a very low ebb when Surtees agreed to join it for 1963. But the Italians had enormous affection and respect for the man they called Il Grande - the Great - from his days with MV Agusta and, with its new Chief Engineer, Mauro Forghieri, John set about revitalising the team. The season began well with a Surtees/Ludovico Scarfiotti victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Porsche then won the Targa Florio, but at the Nurburgring the Ferraris, led by the 25OP of Surtees and Willy Mairesse, simply dominated the event. The three works entries were reduced to two when Nino Vaccarella went into the woods at Hocheichen on his first practice lap, breaking his arm and writing off the car. Surtees won pole position with a lap in 9 mins 13.1 secs, taking 2.7 secs off Phil Hill’s lap record set in 1961. Mike Parkes made second fastest time in his 250P with 9’ 21.1”. Next up were the Porsches of Herbert Linge/Edgar Barth and Phil Hill/Jo Bonnier. ‘At 9 am, with the enormous crowd already assembled, the starter li
fted his flag and half the field ran towards their cars while the other half waited until he dropped it.’ wrote Patrick McNally in Autosport. ‘The result was a very ragged start with Peter Lindner in the lightweight E-type streaking into the lead followed by the two works Ferraris of Scarfiotti and Surtees.’ Lindner held the red cars at bay for the whole of the first lap, but they roared past him in front of the pits and by the end of the next lap were 18 seconds ahead of the Jaguar. On the sixth lap the Porsche of Jo Bonnier overtook Lindner and by lap 10 Surtees had pulled out a lead of 2 mins 38 secs over the Porsche, setting a new lap record of 9’ 16.0” in the process. Bonnier handed over the Porsche to Phil Hill on lap 11, by which time the two Ferraris had lapped all but the six cars immediately behind them. Three laps later Surtees stopped, the Ferrari was refuelled and Willy Mairesse took it back into the race, now in second place behind team-mate Scarfiotti. But a lap later he, too, was in and Mike Parkes rejoined the fray still in the lead, his pit stop having been the quicker. The race had become something of a procession, with the two Ferraris running in close formation and ever-increasing their lead over the Hill/ Bonnier Porsche. But now it was raining and the track became very slippery indeed, so much so that on lap 17 Parkes lost his 250P at Aremberg and hit the stone support for the bridge there. This removed much of the rear suspension; Mairesse was too close to avoid running over some of it and suffered a punctured front tyre. Aremberg is fewer than six kilometres into the lap, so Willy stopped to fit the spare wheel before returning to the pits to check for further damage. He rejoined the race in fourth place, behind new leader Phil Hill (Porsche), the privately-entered GTO Ferrari of Pierre Noblet/Jean Guichet and Lindner’s Jaguar. After 21 laps Mairesse had fought back to second place and inherited the lead when Phil Hill suffered the same slippery fate as Mike Parkes and crashed at Aremberg. After 28 laps Surtees took over once again and comfortably held his lead until lap 40, when he gave the Ferrari back to Mairesse for the final hour. So John Surtees scored his first victory for Ferrari at the Nurburgring, and the circuit would prove to be a happy hunting ground for the man who had stuffed his bike through a hedge on his first visit there. But while he enjoyed sportscar racing, his main objective was to win the Drivers’ World Championship, which meant turning the once-victorious Ferrari 156 into a winner again. He lost no time in doing so. Ferrari were on the floor and the only way to go was up. During his years with MV-Agusta John had developed a taste for things Italian. He spoke the language and quickly established a good rapport with the Ferrari team and with Mauro Forghieri in particular. “He was a new boy and I think I was able to inject a little of my experience into things, so there was something of a fresh approach. It was all a hotch-potch really, because we had to choose from a great pile of bits and pieces to put something together. We started with this hacked-about tubular chassis car which I thrashed around Modena. That little V6 was a good engine.” The 1963 car was still designated the 156, but its dramatic sharknose bodywork was removed, one reason being that it was all too visibly the work of Carlo Chiti, who was no longer persona grata at the Scuderia. As a result the new Ferrari looked just like any other F1 car, but as the season progressed, it became more and more successful. Surtees retired in the Belgian and French GPs, but from the start of the season he and the 156 rose progressively in the results sheets: fourth in the Monaco GP; third in the Dutch and second in the British. Next was the German GP at the Nurburgring where, numerically at least, the Ferrari ought to finish first. The Germans were celebrating their 25th German Grand Prix, so it was unfortunate that Porsche had withdrawn from Fl after just one season. Nevertheless, the entry comprised the works teams of Ferrari, Lotus, Cooper, BRM and Brabham, with BRP, ATS and Scirocco making up the grid. Before the race, Surtees spent several days with the technicians at Bosch, sorting out the fuelinjection system to give the best mid-range torque. This was done to such effect that in the first practice session he set an unofficial lap record with a time of 8 mins 46.7 secs, beating Phil Hill’s official 1961 record by just over 11 seconds. In 1962 the 156 had gone backwards, the fastest time in practice being set by Ricardo Rodriguez at 9’ 14.2”, so Surtees and Forghieri had really made progress with their new version of the car. By the time practice was over only Jim Clark in the Lotus had managed to better John’s time - by just 0.9 secs - and the GP turned out to be a battle between the two. Jim made a terrific start, but by the time the cars reached Breidscheid he was back in third place, behind the BRM of Richie Ginther and the Cooper of Bruce McLaren, and Surtees was right behind him. At the end of lap one it was Ginther leading Surtees, Clark, McLaren and Graham Hill (BRM), with virtually nothing between them. Then, as they swept out of the North Turn and through the twists and turns of Hatzenbach, Surtees forced the Ferrari to the front, ahead of Clark and Ginther. The 156 was now really to his liking and with his confidence sky-high, John set a new lap record of 8 mins 48.6 secs on that second lap, leading Jimmy across the line by two seconds. But the Lotus was in trouble, now running on seven cylinders from time to time. ‘Every now and again Clark’s eighth cylinder would go back to work,’ reported The Autocar, ‘and the Lotus would temporarily retake the lead, clearly the faster car when running properly. The battle between the two leaders was so intense that the race speed was well over 95 mph and the two cars, separated by feet, were together pulling away from McLaren.’ Clark had won the previous four GPs and was trying to emulate Jack Brabham’s 1960 feat of five wins in a row, but Surtees was not about to let that happen. After eight of the 15 laps, he was 5.3 secs ahead of Jimmy and set another lap record with 8 mins 47.0 secs. Team Lotus were given a smidgeon of hope when the Ferrari was heard to go onto five cylinders as Surtees accelerated out of the North Curve, but it was only a momentary stammer, whereas the Lotus was now very definitely on seven cylinders and Clark had given up any more thoughts of victory. By lap 11 the Ferrari was almost 20 secs ahead of the Lotus, and although the V6 stuttered again at the start of the final lap, the Lotus now sounded like a V6 itself and Clark was slowing visibly. Surtees took the chequered flag 1 min 17.5 secs ahead of him, to record his first GP victory and the first for Scuderia Ferrari since the Italian GP of 1961. John had driven the 156 flat out all the way, the proof of his stunning performance being reflected in his race average of 95.82 mph, which was within 1 mph of his fastest lap - 96.81 mph -and was faster than the old lap record of 94.89 mph. To win his first Grande Epreuve was exciting enough, but to win it at the Nurburgring and after such a monumental drive in a car built up “from a box of bits”, as he described it, was very special indeed. And he became the first and only man ever to win the 1000 Kms and the Grand Prix in the same year, an achievement which, in one fell swoop, established him uniquely as King of the Nurburgring, on four wheels as well as two. There was also a delightful bonus in store, for after the race he was congratulated by Rudolf Caracciola’s widow, Alice, who told him, “You drive the Ring just like my Rudi!” “That was one of the nicest compliments I have ever been paid,” says John. “I regard my victory that year as my finest drive at the Ring and it marked the beginning of our recovery at Ferrari, which led to the World Championship in 1964.” Although he had put a stop to Jim Clark’s run of success in Fl, Ferrari failed to win another GP that season. They did win the Sportscar Championship, however, and set out to retain their title in 1964 with the new V12, 3.3-litre 275P. Three of these cars were sent to the Ring for the 1000 Kms, two as works entries to be driven by John Surtees/ Lorenzo Bandini and Ludovico Scarfiotti/Nino Vaccarella; the third for Ronnie Hoare’s Maranello Concessionaires in the hands of Graham Hill and Innes Ireland. Surtees won pole position, with a time of 8 mins 57.9 secs, but a surprise in second spot was the new V8 Lola-Ford, which Phil Hill took round in 9’ 04.7”. John went into an immediate lead and completed his standing lap in 9 mins 17.7 secs, a mere 1.3 sees slower than his own sportscar record. Phil Hill was some way behind, ahead of Scarfiotti, Graham Hill and Jo Bonnier in a 2-litre Porsche 904. After five laps Surtees had a 50 sec le
ad over Graham Hill, Scarfiotti and Phil Hill. He had extended this to well over a minute when, after 14 laps, he handed over to Bandini. Graham Hill now moved into the lead, but his namesake was out of the running, the Lola-Ford retiring with suspension problems. Graham stopped next time round and by the time Innes Ireland went back into the fray the two works Ferraris were ahead of him. Then Vaccarella passed Bandini and Ireland began to threaten both. After 27 laps Bandini stopped at the pits, thinking he was running out of fuel. Surtees then took over with full tanks and new rear tyres, and set off after Vaccarella and Ireland. Two laps later the former made a scheduled stop, during which the mechanics took their time, allowing Surtees to catch up and go into the lead once more, as Ireland’s Ferrari had run out of petrol due to a split fuel tank. Scarfiotti rejoined in second place and with their two main rivals out of the race, Scuderia Ferrari looked set for an easy 1,2 victory. But just as Surtees was cruising along nicely, stretching out his lead over Vaccarella, the right-hand rear axle shaft on the 275P broke and suddenly John was driving a three-wheeler. This happened at Hocheichen and the car went into the bushes. John was unhurt, but his race was over. Happily for the Scuderia, there were no more alarums and excursions and the Scarfiotti/Vaccarella car went on to win. It was no substitute for another victory but, as he had done the previous year, Surtees had dominated the event (while he lasted) and had made fastest lap in both practice and the race, the latter being a new record in 9 mins 09.0 secs. By the time of the German GP, however, John was very concerned with the way Enzo Ferrari put most of his team’s efforts into sportscar racing until Le Mans was over and done with. This was because victories in these races helped sell his road cars and this, in turn, helped finance his racing programme. John was fully aware of this, but was understandably frustrated by the way it held back the development of the Grand Prix cars. The new V8 was ready in time for Monaco, but John failed to finish there. He was second in Holland, retired in Belgium and France and was third in the British GP. This gave him a paltry 10 Championship points from five races, whereas Jimmy Clark, with three wins, had amassed 30! Ferrari sent three cars to the Nurburgring, two 158s for Surtees and a 156 for Lorenzo Bandini. Clark had a brand new Lotus 33, but it would be Dan Gurney in a Brabham, not Clark, who would give John a hard time in the race. In the first practice Graham Hill (BRM) set the ball rolling with an impressive 8 mins 44.4 secs, shaving 2.6 secs of John’s lap record. He replied with 8’45.2” in the V8 and Gurney did 8’ 47.8”, only for Bandini to beat them all with 8’ 42.6” in the V6 Ferrari. On the Saturday Surtees reasserted his superiority at the Ring with a time of 8 mins 39.2 secs in the morning, followed by 8’ 38.4” in the afternoon. This secured pole position, but only just, as Jim Clark had the Lotus really wound up and was a mere 0.4 secs slower. Finally, Dan Gurney and Lorenzo Bandini locked up the front row with 8’ 39.3” and 8’ 42.6”, respectively. Bandini led into the South Turn from the start, but it was Jim Clark in the lead as they fled down the back straight behind the pits. He was still there as they came past the pits after the first lap, but Surtees was right on his tail, with Gurney, Hill and Bandini in close attendance. As they went into the South Turn Surtees dived inside Clark who went wide and mounted the bank briefly. He was then seen to shake his fist at Surtees. On that first lap the engine of Mike Hailwood’s Lotus-BRM blew up and left oil on the road for some distance. This slowed the others considerably and after a standing lap of 8 mins 49.6 secs, Surtees completed the second tour in 8’ 58.2”. Dan Gurney now went after Jim Clark, as The Autocar reported: ‘Just before Breidsheid, where the road takes to open country and a brief, right-curving 130 mph “straight”, Gurney was through to second place, with Clark 100 yards or so behind. By the Karussell, the Brabham was right up behind the Ferrari and as the field raced at 150 mph down the final straight Gurney was slipstreaming Surtees, the two cars close together. At the end of the straight, past the pits, he pulled out to try and nip through before the South Turn, but it didn’t work and it was Surtees who led into the curve and out onto the fourth lap... On the twisting climb up from Adenau Bridge to the Karussell, Gurney pushed his Brabham past the Ferrari and into the lead - a wonderfully exciting battle immediately developing between these two cars which slowly began to pull away from the next two.’ There was nothing between the two and neither driver was giving way or making it easy for the other, so that the 300,000 or more spectators were treated to some truly magnificent Grand Prix racing all around the magnificent Nurburgring. At the end of lap six Gurney and Surtees were still together and were jointly credited with the fastest lap in 8 mins 47.5 sees and had left Graham Hill and Jim Clark some way back. Gurney’s Brabham-Climax was now in trouble, for Dan noticed that the pressure in the water system was going up and the temperature was rising. He decided to ease off a little and John moved ahead, setting a new lap record in 8’ 45.1” on lap seven. Next time round Clark brought the Lotus into the pits to retire with engine problems and Surtees was now driving the only healthy car in the first three, as Graham Hill’s BRM was misfiring. John set a new lap record of 8’ 43.0” and after nine laps had a lead of 16 seconds over Gurney, but then Dan decided to have a go and next time round beat Surtees’ time with 8’ 42.9”, only to have Surtees settle things once and for all with a stunning 8’ 39.0” on lap 11, to beat his own 1963 record by 8 sees. Now Gurney’s race was run, for he stopped at the pits to see what could be done about the Brabham’s water problem. The answer was nothing, so he rejoined the race and, after yet another stop, managed to finish 10th, a poor reward for such a fine drive and all too typical of the American’s luck at the Nurburgring. So, to the great joy of the Ferrari team, John Surtees romped home to his second consecutive victory in the German GP at the record average speed of 96.57 mph. As Gregor Grant noted in Autosport, ‘it is sobering to realise that the modern 1.5-litre unsupercharged Grand Prix car is over 14 mph quicker than the almost mythical blown cars of the 1930s, when the fastest winning speed was Caracciola’s 82.15 mph in 1937 with the 6-litre Mercedes-Benz.’ Grant also remarked that, ‘John Surtees was definitely in the groove, the Ferrari sounding magnificent and the ex-motor cyclist driving with the skill that makes World Champions.’ He was absolutely right, although with six races down and four to go, John’s Championship prospects were not looking too bright. His victory in Germany brought his points total to 19, whereas Graham Hill had 32 and Jim Clark 30. However, he went on to win the Italian GP and finished second in America and Mexico, becoming World Champion by just one point from Hill. That gave him the unique distinction of being the first - and still the only -man to win the World Championship on two wheels and four. For the 1965 sportscar events Ferrari produced the 330P2, a V12, 4-litre Prototype, one of which gave Surtees his second victory in the 1000 Kms. It wasn’t much of a race for there was no real opposition, but once again John dominated the Nurburgring. He made fastest lap in practice with a time of 8 mins 53.1 secs, demolishing his own record of 9’ 9.1”. John was first into the South Turn had a lead of 10 seconds by the time he reached the Karussell. At the end of the lap he was 18 sees ahead of Phil Hill’s 5.3-litre, Cobra-engined Ford GT40. He set a new record on lap two with a time of 8’ 50.5”, which put him 23 seconds ahead of the Ford. Hill was driving superbly, but even with a 1.3 litre advantage over the Ferrari, he could do nothing about it and after seven laps the V8’s driveshaft broke and Phil was out of the race. Seven laps later John handed over the Ferrari to Ludovico Scarfiotti, who did the next 14 laps. Surtees did another 12, leaving a delighted Scarfiotti to do the final four and bring home the bacon. It really was just about as simple, and boring, as that. ‘As a race the ADAC 1000 Kms at Nurburgring was a bit of a farce,’ wrote Denis Jenkinson, crossly, ‘but as a demonstration of the power and force of Ferrari in motor racing it was most impressive. The only driver among the 126 taking part who was capable of challenging John Surtees, given an equal car, was Graham Hill, but as he was driving a 3.3-litre Ferrari against the 4-litre of Surtees, the outcome was inevitable.
.. From the start of the race to the finish Surtees gave a magnificent demonstration of his prowess on the difficult Nurburgring and he was ably supported by Ludovico Scarfiotti.’ If only Surtees could have earned such praise for winning the German Grand Prix that year! If only that race had been such a simple matter as the 1000 Kms! But whereas John had enjoyed a trouble-free run to the chequered flag in that race, in the Grand Prix his troubles began as he left the starting grid. Ferrari had now produced a flat 12 engine for Formula One and sent two 1512s to the Nurburgring for Surtees in the hope that with one of them he could complete a hat-trick of victories in the German GP, a feat only achieved by Alberto Ascari (1950, 1951 and 1952) and Juan Manuel Fangio (1954, 1956 and 1957, there being no race in 1955). There was also a 158 for Lorenzo Bandini. Since the previous year’s GP much of the circuit had been smoothed out and re-surfaced, so Surtees’lap record of 8’ 39.0” was not expected to survive for long. And it didn’t. By the time the GP teams arrived at the Nurburgring, Jim Clark was well on his way to his second World Championship, having won the previous four GPs with the Lotus 33. He electrified one and all in practice by gaining pole position with a time of 8’ 22.7”. John Surtees tried all three Ferraris and was fourth fastest in a 1512 with 8’ 27.8”, behind Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill (BRMs). The story of John’s race is soon told. He was accelerating away from the start when the gearselector mechanism failed and the Ferrari almost came to a halt. He did a very slow lap and then stopped at the pits in 16th place. He was there for almost two laps while the mechanics tried to solve the problem, eventually sending him back into the race with a lightened fuel load. ‘To immense applause,’ noted The Autocar, ‘at 2-30pm as the leaders were on their fourth lap, Surtees put on his helmet again and went off in search of a lap record or two.’ But that was in the hands of the unstoppable Jim Clark, who completed lap 10 in 8 mins 24.1 sees to set a new record at 101.23 mph, the first ever in three figures. The Ferrari pit informed Surtees of this and he made a valliant attempt to do something about it, but could only manage 8’ 27.0” before coming in to retire, as the gearbox was playing up again. By the time Surtees returned to the Nurburgring for the 1966 1000 Kms race, his relationship with Ferrari was falling apart. From the start, his arrival at the Scuderia was resented by Team Manager Eugenio Dragoni, whose main qualification for the job seemed to be that he was a close friend of Enzo Ferrari. Dragoni was a great admirer of Lorenzo Bandini, regarded him as his protege and felt certain that he would be the first Italian World Champion since Alberto Ascari. To this end he constantly sang Bandini’s praises to Ferrari, while bad-mouthing Surtees at every given opportunity. In addition to these woes, John had had a very bad crash in his Lola T70 at Mosport Park, Canada, at the end of September, 1965. His injuries were considerable, but he made a remarkable recovery and won his comeback race at Syracuse on May 1, driving the new Ferrari 312, built to the new 3-litre Formula which was now in force. He then finished second in the International Trophy race at Silverstone and retired at Monaco, the first round of the World Championship. That race was almost (but not quite) the last nail in the coffin of Surtees’ Ferrari career because despite the fact that the V6 Ferrari was obviously quicker than the new V12, John was forced to drive the latter at Monaco. He led for a dozen laps and then the differential packed up, handing victory to Jackie Stewart’s BRM. Bandini was second in the V6 and Surtees was convinced he could have won the race in that car. So it was on to the Nurburgring, where he was to drive the 330P3. Two of these cars appeared, one an open roadster, the other a coupe. John and his co-driver Mike Parkes, chose the open car. Once again, John was fastest in practice with a time of 8 mins 31.9 secs, a speed of 99.61 mph!. The big surprise was the speed of the Chaparral in the hands of Phil Hill, which was a mere 3.5 seconds slower. Nonethless, John was determined to add a fifth win to his list of Nurburgring victories and, as Motor Sport noted, ‘when Surtees appeared at the end of the standing-start lap in 8 mins 48 secs; two and a half seconds quicker than the existing Prototype lap record, it was clear that this was not going to be a race for the slow or enfeebled.’ On his next tour John recorded 8’ 37.0”, a new lap record, and after five laps was 90 secs ahead of the second place car, which was the Chapparal, with Jo Bonnier up. It looked like a repeat of last year’s race - a runaway win for Surtees in the Ferrari, but at the end of the sixth lap John stopped at the pits with a rear wheel fouling the bodywork. A shock absorber had broken and by the time Mike Parkes rejoined the race, the P3 was in P22! After 17 laps, Surtees took over again, but was back after just one lap with the same problem. Another shock absorber was fitted and John shot back into the race, now more than a lap behind the Chapparal. Nine laps later the P3 was in the pits again, this time with a slipping clutch. The mechanics did what they could and Mike Parkes, starting the engine in gear, went jerking back into the race. After 36 laps the clutch finally cried enough and the Ferrari was retired. The following weekend John had a reversal of fortune, winning the Belgian GP with the Ferrari 312 after a superb drive. But that was not how Team Manager Dragoni saw it. It was a very wet race and John, running on lightly grooved Firestone tyres, elected to stay for some time just behind leader Jochen Rindt’s Cooper-Maserati, which was on Dunlop rain tyres. This way John could run in Jochen’s wheel tracks, giving his tyres a better grip. When the rain eased, Surtees passed the Cooper-Maserati and won by 42 seconds. Dragoni told Enzo Ferrari that Surtees had been ‘behind a Maserati for most of the race.’ The final parting of the ways came at Le Mans the following weekend. Dragoni told the French Press that Ferrari had no chance against the might of Ford because Surtees was still not fully recovered from his crash in Canada and might not be able to last the 24 hours. The crunch came when Dragoni insisted that John’s co-driver, Ludovico Scarfiotti, should start the race “because Mr Agnelli of Fiat will be here and Scarfiotti is part of the family - a distant cousin.” Now thoroughly convinced that the lunatics were running the asylum, Surtees packed his bags and drove to Maranello, where he had a ‘full and frank discussion’ with Enzo Ferrari - and resigned from the Scuderia. He was quickly snapped up by Roy Salvadori, now retired from racing and running the Cooper team. The Coopers were powered by a 3-litre V12 Maserati unit, a bored-out version of the 2.5-litre Fl engine of 1957. The V12 never gave the power that Maserati claimed for it (360 bhp), but John managed to put his car on the front row for the French GP, slap bang in between the Ferraris of Bandini and Parkes, which must have given him some pleasure. It was only fleeting, however, for moments after the start the fuel pump drive failed. A new one was fitted but John retired on lap 6. He had to retire in the British and Dutch GPs, too, but then it was back to the Nurburgring for the German GP. Despite the fact that the new, 3-litre Formula was halfway through its first season, 10 of the 19 F1 cars which arrived at the Ring still did not have 3-litre engines. Lotus and BRM were awaiting the BRM H16 and Ferrari were employing their 2.4litre V6 as well as the 3-litre V12s. The latter sent three cars, two V12s for Bandini arid Parkes and a V6 for Ludovico Scarfiotti. Again, it must have pleased Surtees when Ludo put the V6 - the car he had wanted to drive at Monaco - on the front row, ahead of both the V12s. Even more pleasing was the fact that John was quicker than all of them, but his rather cumbersome Cooper-Maserati was sandwiched between two 2-litre cars, the very nimble Lotus of Jim Clark - on pole position - and the BRM of the remarkable Jackie Stewart. It was raining as the cars set off at 2 pm and initially Surtees led Jack Brabham (3-litre Brabham-Repco), Bandini and Jochen Rindt (CooperMaserati), but as they swept past the pits it was the Brabham in the lead. At the end of lap two both were given the time of 9 mins 16.1 sees, but then Brabham did 9’ 03”, only for Surtees to demolish that with 8’ 49.0”, which would remain the fastest lap of the day. He and Brabham were seldom more than two seconds apart, and after 10 laps they were almost a minute ahead of third man Rindt. The 2-litre cars of Clark and Stewart, which had been so fast in practice, were never in contention and the red cars were right out of it. Surtees co
uld be forgiven a quiet smile of satisfaction at this, for he was beating the brand new Ferraris hands down, and in a Cooper powered by a ten year-old Maserati engine. One in the eye for Dragoni! For 12 laps the Brabham and the Cooper had been virtually tied together with string and the soaked spectators were hoping for a Surtees victory, as he had a huge following in Germany. It was not to be, though, for the Cooper’s clutch began to fail and John dropped further and further back as he had to change gear without it. So Jack Brabham won his fourth successive Grand Prix - and his first at the Nurburgring - to give him an almost unassailable lead in the World Championship. Surtees was second, 44 secs in arrears and his team-mate Rindt was third, almost two minutes behind. The only Ferrari to finish was that of Bandini - the V6! John went on to win the final GP of the year in Mexico, for which the Ferraris did not even enter. Brabham duly won the Championship, with Surtees second. The Ferrari drivers Bandini and Parkes were equal eighth and Scarfiotti was 10th. John remains convinced that he and Ferrari could have won the title in ‘66, and probably ‘67, too. But 1966 was the last time he enjoyed any success at the Nurburgring. He joined Honda for the next two years, finishing fourth in the 1967 GP and retiring in ‘68. For 1969 he joined BRM which was now being run, allegedly, by Louis Stanley and when they got to the Ring John had trouble breaking nine minutes in the first practice, whereas Jackie Stewart (Matra) and Jochen Rindt (Lotus) were well under eight! Surtees eventually managed 8’ 12.1”, but as the fastest F2 car had recorded 8’ 11.1” he realised he was wasting his time and withdrew from the race. He rejoined Scuderia Ferrari in 1970, but only for three sportscar races, the last being the 1000 Kms at the Ring. Driving the 512S, John was the fastest Ferrari driver in practice with a time of 7 mins 57.1 secs, but then co-driver Peter Schetty wrecked the car when he was caught out by a rain shower on the very fast section between Bergwerk and the Karussell. He was unhurt, but Surtees was paired with Nino Vaccarella for the race. Despite a broken steering wheel, of all things (which cost them a pit stop of 4 mins 45 secs), they managed to finish third overall, behind the two works Porsches. But Surtees was not impressed with the Ferrari. “I was very disappointed in the 512S, which simply didn’t handle. The Porsche 917 made it look silly.” That year he also decided to go it alone in Fl and formed Team Surtees. In 1971, driving his own Surtees TS9-Cosworth, he finished seventh in the German GP and that, sadly, was his final race at the circuit he had dominated a few years earlier. However, there was one more success to come for Il Grande at the Ring, for in 1973 Carlos Pace drove a Surtees TS14A to fourth place in the Grand Prix and set a new lap record in 7 mins 11.4 secs, a speed of 118.43 mph. John has many happy memories of the Nurburgring and, most of all, he loved the sportscars he drove there. “The Ferrari prototypes were the best cars to drive around the Ring, they were very special. I lost a wheel one year, but generally you could drive them hard, secure in the knowledge that when you came down from a flight, they wouldn’t fall apart! “The Ring was challenging all the way round. In the old days it was less than smooth, too, and you had to make up your mind as to how much time you spent in the air, rather than on the track. It was a case of finding out the best places to leave the road and making sure you were pointing in the right direction so that you landed at the right place, which was not that easily done. The bestknown place for that was Flugplatz and you could do very spectacular things there - and go nowhere! The question was: how quickly could you get off the ground and how quickly could you get the power back on the road. You also had to make certain - on bike or car - that you took off in the right position, so you didn’t leave the ground with the front down and the back coming up. “One of the most important sections was after the Karussell, through Wippermann and on to Pflanzgarten. That always required a fair degree of precision and you needed to know where you could treat the car or bike quite softly and where you had to be pretty physical just to hang onto the thing! “The Ring was one of my favourite circuits, but I preferred it as the old Ring, when we had hedges instead of guardrails. In those days, with the bikes, I would be rubbing my helmet on the hedges here and there!” That brings a remarkable picture to the mind’s eye and is a reminder that John Surtees was the first man to move successfully from two wheels to four since Bernd Rosemeyer, 25 years earlier. Their careers bear comparison for their differences, rather than their similarities, for apart from the fact that both stepped off bikes and into mid-engined racing cars and both shone at the Nurburgring they have little in common. For Bernd, the transition from bikes to cars was smooth and uncomplicated, an in-house move from DKW to Auto Union. For John, the move was fraught with near-impossible choices, as Aston Martin and Vanwall sought his services even before he had appeared on a starting grid, and with only a handful of races to his name he was then courted by both Lotus and Ferrari. He had no-one to guide him through these heady advances and, on his own, he managed pretty well, but he was never the easiest man to please and made heavy weather of his career from time to time, as he is the first to admit. And the success of the two men on two wheels and four was quite different: where Rosemeyer was merely remarkable on bikes, winning 12 events in two seasons, Surtees was a phenomenon, winning 249 races in 10. They included 38 Championship races, which produced seven World Championships. On four wheels, however, each was a phenomenon. Bernd took to the Auto Union as an eagle takes to the air, soaring above the V16’s idiosyncracies and mastering racing, mountainclimbs and record breaking with breathtaking speed. He came within an ace of winning his second Grand Prix (which was only his second motor race) and came good in his ninth. In all he won 10 Grands Prix, the European Drivers’ Championship and Mountain Championship in just three seasons, an astonishing achievement which remains unique in the annals of motor sport. John, too, took to four wheels with consummate ease, though it must be said that the 2.5-litre Lotus 18 was probably not quite the handful that the Auto Union was. And unlike Rosemeyer, John had 10 years’ experience of motor cycle racing to draw on. In his four-wheeled career, Surtees won six Championship GPs, four Championship sportscar races, one Drivers’ World Championship and one CanAm Championship in 12 seasons. Success didn’t come as quickly as it had to Rosemeyer, his first Championship GP victory coming at his 27th attempt in his fourth season. This in no way diminishes his achievement, but it makes Rosemeyer’s all the more remarkable. But one achievement of John’s that not even Rosemeyer can match is that in a four-year period at the Nurburgring, from 1963 to 1966, he won pole position for the 1000 Kms and made fastest lap, every year! He also made fastest lap in the German GPs of 1963, ‘64 and ‘66 and won pole position in 1964. He started eight races in those four years and won four of them, two 1000 Kms and two Grands Prix. In the mid-1960s John Surtees was indeed, King of the Nurburgring.