On a belatedly sad note, we would also like to mark the passing of motorsports ace John Surtees. Having won the World 500cc motorbike racing championship four times in the 1950s, he changed to four wheels and went on to win the World Formula One motor racing championship driving a Ferrari in 1964. Surtees later drove for other teams with less success including BRM and Honda.
There was a beauty to those curiously anachronistic cars which look even more basic when you consider that “modern-era” supersonic jets were already flying, and the space age had already begun.
However, those basic racing cars, which had no downforce-inducing wings, did at least allow drivers to really show off their abilities even if the chance of death was always present. Surtees saw his share of tragedy during his career as many of his friends were killed in those more dangerous days.
Worse was that late in life, John Surtess lost his 18-year-old son Henry to the same sport (he was killed in a Formula Two motor race) in what was supposed to be a safer era.
We give our salute to John Surtees and our condolences to his family and friends.
