“When you don't understand why you fell, it's time to retreat“. This is one of the most famous phrases attributable to “The hero of two worlds“, John Norman Surtees. The fall: a key moment in the sporting life of every centaur, a concept that sublimates the act of collapsing and rising again.
Surtees, in his very peculiar career, fell and got up dozens of times. And it is precisely this attitude that has allowed the Englishman to develop a gift that has allowed him, over the years, to become a unique case in the world of motoring.
Surtees was born and established himself as a two-wheeler rider. And he will not be a simple interpreter, nor a modest craftsman. JS, acronymed for convenience but with extreme respect, is a monolith in the history of motorcycling, by virtue of a short but brilliant experience. And above all full of records. The Brit from Tatsfield made his debut in 1952, at just eighteen, in the 500 class which was the premier category at the time.
It is the seat of a Norton that welcomes the young John who will have his asphalt baptism on the Clady circuit, in the Ulster Grand Prix, sixth stage of a world championship dominated by Enrico Lorenzetti on Moto Guzzi. At his debut, the new Surtees attracted the interested glances of the experts thanks to an excellent and unforeseeable sixth place.
It didn't take long for “Big John” to win his first race. After just three years, in the 350 class, he managed to establish himself on the very track on which he had debuted, driving an NSU Motorenswerke. The performances of a now structured and competitive driver did not go unnoticed and it was MV Augusta that came forward and tried to sign the English talent. No sooner said than done: from 1956 to 1960 Surtees competed for the glorious Italian manufacturer, winning everything that could be won, thus entering the Olympus of the world championship.
Five epic, unrepeatable seasons that definitively marked Surtees' professional history: 4 world championships won in the premier class (1956, 1958, 1959, 1960), three in the 350 category (1958, 1959, 1960). No, we did not make a mistake in compiling the dates. The 1950s were an unparalleled and extraordinary era: the centaurs changed categories with extreme flexibility. Often, again, they ran on the same race weekends in two different series. And this is precisely the case of John Surtees, the true progenitor of a plethora of interpreters devoted to extreme technical malleability.
In fact, he was often seen struggling to reach - still with the laurel wreath around his neck for his victory in the 35th - the garage where the Augusta 500 was waiting for him. Still dirty from burnt fuel that mixed with the champagne sprayed on the podium, John climbed into the saddle and, with embarrassing regularity, beat the competition with performances that seemed unachievable. An alien.
1959 was the year in which John rose to the altars of eternal fame: the centaur won all the grand prix in both the 350 and 500 classes. It was everlasting glory: the first and only driver to achieve a goal of this magnitude . The opponents have no choice but to observe from below a star who will shine forever in the firmament of motorsport.
But it is precisely from the unrepeatable 1959 season that something changes in the perception of the Briton. Although he will repeat the 350 -500 double in 1960 (this time he will not repeat theen plein of victories in single GPs), Surtees is dissatisfied with the environment. Also because the envious glances of his colleagues are multiplying, evidently powerless in the face of his excessive power.
The search for new stimuli takes Surtees to other sporting shores. The four-wheel worm digs a small tunnel in the head of the rider who decides to abandon the two wheels. Ambitions win over the rational side, the road clears towards formula cars.
What is the trigger in the mind of someone who, in five years, had triumphed in 38 races out of 49 held? A drivers capable of reaching the podium 45 times, someone who hasn't looked at the adoring crowd from those magical three steps only 4 times in five years. Courage and humility. These are the two forces that pushed Big John, at 26 years old, to ruin the world that had weaned him, raised him and made him a legend.
Could such a character enter through the side door? Of course not! Surtees decided, with a thunderous entrance and with great fanfare, that he would make his debut directly in the highest category of motorsport, challenging established champions, real ferocious beasts who responded to the name of Sir Stirling Moss (the "King without a crown", from the heights of on the 16 GPs won which never led him to the world title), Wolfgang Von Trips, Bruce McLaren, Phil Hill, Jack Brabham.
And so it was that Surtees appeared at the 1960 Moscow Grand Prix at the wheel of a Lotus: a son of Albion in the English car by definition. The debut was not very happy: Big John had to withdraw due to a technical failure. But it didn't take long to achieve remarkable results. Same season, home crowd, Surtees achieved an amazing second place starting from eleventh place. At the end of 77 very tight laps, the reigning world champion of the 350 and 500 classes of the world championship bowed only to Jack Brabham, an F1 veteran.
The performances of a driver as immature as he was damned fast and concrete did not escape the knowledgeable and competent observer of Enzo Ferrari. The Drake himself, as usual, picked up the phone and, in a fit of love (one of many), courted the driver who declined the Maranello team's contract proposal. The reasons for this decision are not known, but Surtees probably preferred to improve before taking the chance of a lifetime. And so it was.
After a further season of apprenticeship at Lotus, Big John decided that the time had come: he let himself be enchanted by the lure of Ferrari and embraced red in 1962. Two seasons of testing for a marriage that proved to be successful and bore fruit very sweet. In 1964, thanks to two grand prix wins out of a total of ten on the calendar, Surtees won the F1 world championship, entering legend and forever becoming "The Hero of Two Worlds". Unique drivers to have united the world of two and four wheels with an imaginary bridge.
1964 marks the birth of a myth that still endures and which, in all likelihood, will never be undermined. Today's motorsport, the result of completely different, certainly less genuine, commercial and competitive dynamics, would never allow a transfer between two environments so distant from each other.
Author: Diego Catalano – @diegocat1977
Photo credits: F1