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Saturday Sporting Icon - John Surtees

In terms of motorised dominance, John Surtees sure gave it a good go. He remains the only person ever to win world championships on both two and four wheels and holds an infamous reputation for walking away from Enzo Ferrari. There is no question - from his inaugural race in 1950 to his retirement in 1972, he established himself as one of the greatest racing drivers who had ever lived. 

To truly break down the man's success, it's probably simplest to divide his success into 3 sections - Motorcycles, Formula One, and Le Mans. 

On two wheels, Surtees was pretty much unstoppable. From 1956 to 1960, he won 68 out of the 76 races he entered on both 350cc and 500cc engines and won seven world championships for the famed Italian MV Augusta. As the son of a British Motorcycle Champion, it was destined for the man from Tatsfield, England to follow in the family business and by the time he was 11 he had already had the technical proficiency of any professional mechanic and rider. In addition to his world title success, he also won six tourist victories at the Isle of Man. 

But for a man like Surtees, two wheels wasn't enough. After a quick meeting with Ken Tyrell, a famed Formula One constructor, he was entered into the 1960 Goodwood F3 race and immediately set the pole lap time. In the race he continued to impress, coming second to Jim Clark, a future F1 World Champion in his own right. After a single race in F3, Surtees was promoted alongside Jim Clark and joined Lotus for the remaining 4 races of the F1 season. Disappointing seasons in 1961 and 1962 kept Surtees away from the winner's circle until a Mr Enzo Ferrari decided to sign the most sought-after driver on the grid for the 1963 season. 

The following year, key victories over Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, and Graham Hill brought Surtees in contention of a world title. At the last race in Mexico, a blockbuster finale saw Surtees competitors waylaid by oil leaks and accidents that let Surtees sail home to a second-place finish, just enough to win him to take home his one and only F1 world title. 

His racing days for Ferrari would not finish there, as a war on the tarmac of Le Mans loomed. He was the lead weapon in Ferrari's crusade against Ford and previous to the famed 1966 race, he was an easy favourite to take home another Le Mans victory for the Scuderia. However, internal politics stopped Surtees from running the first stint and when he took his disgruntlement to Enzo, the pair couldn't settle the matter and Surtees walked away from what was the most successful motoring constructor at the time. 

In his later years, Surtees spent much of his time working for the Henry Surtees Foundation, founded in memory of his son who was killed in a freak F2 accident in 2009. He later passed in 2017, as one of the greatest sportsmen to have ever graced a racetrack. 



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