To this day, he’s still the only one. John Surtees, not just a champion on two wheels and four, the champion on two wheels and four. For he was a master of motorcycle racing long before even turning a hand at racing cars. It just so happened that his ability to transfer both his accrued skills of balance and transient intuition was second to none. Such that in his fourth year in F1, he became champion. This weekend at the Goodwood Revival, we celebrate one of motorsport’s great multi-talents 60 years on from when he clinched the 1964 F1 World Championship.
It was parade unlike any other, as both bikes and cars took to the Motor Circuit. The cars are varied, too, given his history in sportscars, saloon cars and as a team owner, as well as in single seaters. Three Ferrari F1 cars joined a 250 GTO, his BMW 503 Cabriolet, his 1961 Coopers, a Jaguar Mk2 and more. In terms of bikes, machines from Vincent, MV Agusta, Norton and Triumph. And in terms of his off-track racing endeavours as an aspiring marque, an array of Surtees F1 cars from the 1970s.
Almost impossibly, the man’s breadth of impact on the sport spans well beyond his seven motorcycle championships and his F1 title. We all knew it, but to see it on full display on the Motor Circuit brings home exactly how far and wide his power was felt.
Photography by Pete Summers, Joe Harding, Jochen Van Cauwenberge and Jordan Butters.
revival
Revival 2024
event coverage
john surtees