76 years old today. Happy Birthday John. A brave and proud man, I am glad to have been associated with him.
Met him years ago, a very, very nice guy. Without the airs of an awful lot of people who have less to be stuck up over. Art
Art, like you, I'm a bike and car guy, so Surtees is beyond legend in my book. very cool that you got to meet him. Happy birthday to John, although I'm sure it is bittersweet to celebrate without his son this year.
Met him at Autosport International's 100 Year's of Grand Prix dinner several years ago, Henry was there with him. Have photos of us with him as well as our friends from Glasgow with him. A VERY memorable evening for sure. Happy Birthday Mr. Surtees. Carol & John
I joined as a mechanic (on the spare car) for the European season in 78. Back then guys used to "hang on" thru the winter, do the early season flyaways and quit before the "real work" started in the European season...... Jockey's were Vittorio Brambilla and Rupert Keegan. These were the days of pre-qualifying and if we made the grid it was a success!..... Then Keegan destroyed a car in the Netherlands and John didn't want to (read, have $) to build a 3rd car for Italy and USA/Canada at the end of the season and I was laid off - At the time I was pissed, but then Ronnie was killed at Monza and I was really happy I wasn't there We were working on a ground effect car for '79, but I went and ran Eddie Jordan in F3 - My memory's going a little, and I think I may have done something else in 79 as Jordan ran the terrible March 803, which would have been 1980..... He was (still is I guess) a tough taskmaster - I'll leave it at that Cheers, Ian
Ian, aside from the american football thing, it sounds like you were into racing right at the end of the really good times, that's about when I started to get involved with it. I remember the March 79B was the rage, then the 80A came, then it was downhill after that, thanks to Ralt. Wish we could go back in time, but those days are gone forever. Funny how money (or lack thereof) screws everything.
My photos of the Surtees exhibit at the Barber Museum last October: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=262196
I saw John in the Watkins Glen garage in 1978 or so but didn't have a chance to talk with him. I remember the furor over his "Durex" sponsorship!
The Durex sponsor was a fond time for sure. I started by running 2 formula 2 Surtees cars at BS fabs sub contracted from Team Surtees. Later that year, the Surtees truck had a failure in Europe and JS asked me and Dave Morgan to go over and switch out the engine! we did this at the Van Hool bus factory, interesting to say the least, also one and only time I ever worked on a truck. later, i was asked to help with the John Watson entry TS16 and went with the team to Germany then Austria which turned out to be the last race that season 1975. I stayed on full time working on the build and development of the TS19 which then appeared in South Africa with Brett Lunger. Three, yes THREE, of us went to that race along with JS and Lunger. We worked almost as many hours as the Lotus team for two weeks, rebuilding and modifying parts daily. After the race we were given a few days vacation to go to the safari parks etc. Wanna hear more? Image Unavailable, Please Login
