SPEED KING
Who hasn’t heard of John Surtees? He’s the only man to have won both the motorcycle and F1 World Championships: at 22 he was the 500cc World Champion: that was followed by an incredible run of six titles – three each in the 350cc and 500cc categories. Oh, and let’s not forget that he once had a Formula 1 racing team with the late, great “Mike the Bike” Hailwood as one of his drivers.
Okay, so maybe this all too brief-summary barely scratches the surface of his remarkable life, but on the strength of those snippets it isn’t hard to see why John Surtees is a legend with anyone who knows anything about motor racing.
Born in 1934 in the Surrey village of Tatsfield, John Surtees was destined for a career in the fast lane. His father owned a motorcycle business and was a three-time British motorcycle sidecar champion. Surtees got his first motorbike when he was still at school and from that day on he never looked back. There were plenty of successes but that doesn’t mean the great man hadn’t experienced a few dramatic near misses, including a life-threatening accident in 1965 at Mosport, Canada.
Tragically, Surtees’ eighteen-year old son Henry was killed in a freak accident at Brands Hatch in 2009, and it’s fitting that royalties from the sale of this readable and enjoyable book will go to the foundation set up in his name.
John Surtees, one of the true greats of motor racing history, died in 2017 at the age of 83.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
© Archant Community Media Limited used under limited licence
