Surtees: The Official Website

Switching the Clock Back

It was switch the clock back to meet old friends and make new ones over the weekends of 28/29 June and 5/6 July.

First it was a return to Solitude with memories of successes in the way of wins on two wheels but also in that first World Championship year of my most serious motorcycle accident. I clipped the edge of the road a little too finely on the sweeping corners coming back to the start line, lost the front wheel and slid across the road to hit a boulder. I did not find it funny when they told me in the hospital that I had broken my humorous and they were going to nail it!

However the circuit has a beautiful setting just outside Stuttgart. It had helped tremendously when we had taken the Ferrari Formula One car there in 1964 to try some different injection settings near to the home of Bosch whose equipment it was and helped me in my quest to win the World Championship as I then went on to win the German Grand Prix the following week at the Nurburgring.

This recent visit was not to ride a bike again but to sit in a Fangio 1955 196 Mercedes and take it up the section of the circuit that still exists. The straight eight is always a pleasure to be sitting behind. Sunday brought new experiences driving two Porsches. Both the 550 Spyder Sports Car 1500 and the 2 litre Abarth Coupe were a delight to drive; agile and responsive.

I have long been associated with Arai helmets and when the retiring head, Ferry Brouwer, said “you must come to Spa for our Festival”, I couldn’t refuse. There is something very special about an historic Grand Prix circuit and Spa in particular. As soon as you enter the Paddock you immediately feel history all around you. It is fortunate that when the long and at times quite frightening Grand Prix circuit had to make way for a more modern and self-contained version that much of the character was still retained and a wonderful Grand Prix circuit recreated.

Although I took my personal Manx Norton from the late Fifties and my experimental F Norton, I purely ended up riding my 1960 MV Agusta. Partly because another ingredient had been brought in and that was a Lotus 18 Formula One which was reputedly my first Grand Prix race car from that year. So it was back on 2 and 4 wheels of the Sixties and whilst Silverstone had the heavens open up, Spa provided us with sunshine and a superb event which was who’ who of motorcycle sport with all the attending champions.

John Surtees

10 July 2008