Driving John Surtees' first racing car in tribute at 75MM

The mechanical cacophony echoed around the Motor Circuit before the flag dropped for the last race of the meeting, fittingly the Surtees Trophy.

Earlier in the day Il Grande John, who died aged 83 just 10 days before the 2017 Members’ Meeting, was remembered in an extraordinary replaying of the moment when exactly 57 years earlier he made his four-wheeled racing debut. 

That was at the Members’ Meeting on Sunday, March 19^th, 1960. At Ken Tyrrell’s invitation, John Surtees had climbed aboard a Formula Junior Cooper, finishing second to Jim Clark – and beginning a motorsport success story unlikely now ever to be matched.

To mark the occasion there was one very special lap of the circuit – surely the most poignant of the whole meeting – in the same car that he drove all those years ago, a 1960 Cooper Junior Mk1 Type 52.

The car was the same, the circuit was the same, and equally true to period for this Surtees tribute lap was the Cooper’s driver, Richard Attwood. Like John and many other drivers at that time, Richard tasted early success in Formula Junior Coopers.

Today, the Cooper is owned by Jeremy Deeley, who says it was a great honour to be asked to bring the Cooper to Goodwood to be part of such a special tribute. “I got the call only a few days ago and luckily the car was all back together and ready to go.” 

Was it a good choice for a budding car talent (already world motorcycle champion) to drive in 1960?

“Absolutely yes. It was an entirely natural car for a young John Surtees to start racing in. All the young drivers of the time were behind the wheel of these Cooper T52s. It revolutionised Formula Junior at the beginning but it became very much a transitional car, overtaken by technology by mid season 1960."

“John obviously felt very comfortable with the car straight away at that first Goodwood race. I think it must have made a very good car for a motorcycle racer.”

Jeremy characterises the Cooper as a “very tough little car” with its high-up driving position, narrow track, solid chassis and cart springs at the back. The engine in period was a 1.0-litre BMC unit with 85bhp, since then taken to 1.1-litres and, in Jeremy’s car, 108bhp. Jeremy has owned it since 2008 and has raced it at both MM and Revival in the past.

So was this the actual car that John drove 57 years ago at his first race? A more pertinent question is: who’s to say it’s not?

It mattered not to the thousands at the Members’ Meeting who rose as one to remember the great champion, one whose remarkable four-wheeled career began at Goodwood and whose debut here was replayed in such an evocative way.

Photography by Pete Summers and Tom Shaxson