John Surtees - a remarkable man and role model
by Murray Walker
 Welcome to the newly-launched John Surtees website. John is a truly remarkable man but - before giving my reasons why - a word about Michael Schumacher.
The multiple World Champion has retired. But, as many will be wondering: What's he going to do now? He's got enough money to last us all a lifetime, he's got an unequalled record of achievement behind him and, hopefully, he has still got at least as long to live as he's done already, After what he's achieved in his first 37 years anything else is going to seem pretty humdrum.
When you've been used to non-stop, worldwide travel, making an extremely lucrative career out of living on the edge between life and death, leading and inspiring others, exciting millions of people all over the world, being feted wherever you go and enjoying the massive buzz you get from being better at a dangerous and thrilling sport than anyone else in the world, the thought of spending the rest of your life opening Ferrari dealerships and glad-handing sycophantic sponsors can't have much appeal
Knowing Michael as I do, I've no doubt that he'll think of something fulfilling to do once the novelty of being at home with the kids, mowing the lawn and watching the races on TV has worn off.
Ice cream business
But, just for the heck of it, let's see what some of his Formula One predecessors have done when their racing days were over. Just about everything from disappearing without trace to using their brains and competitive spirits to become even more successful actually. Carlos Reutemann, for instance, who drove with great success for Ferrari in the 1970s, and who very nearly won the Drivers' Championship for Williams in 1981, is now one of Argentina's top politicians and potentially in the running for the Presidency.
On the other hand Pier Luigi Martini, one of the most successful drivers that Minardi ever had, is doing very nicely thank you out of his ice cream business in his native Italy. Jonathan Palmer and Jackie Stewart were always going to be able to translate seamlessly from the cockpit to business and that's exactly what they've done, with Jonathan heading up the Motor Sport Vision organisation which runs Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Oulton Park and Cadwell Park and Jackie exploiting his business acumen, persuasiveness, eloquence and personality to add to his considerable riches.
Nigel Mansell has transformed a small-time golf course near Exeter into the enormously successful Woodbury Park complex with a stunning hotel, health, club and championship-standard golf course while South African Jody Scheckter, having made a fortune out of the weapons training business he founded in America, is now one of Britain's leading organic farmers. Niki Lauda founded and ran a highly successful airline in Austria. Patrick Tambay is the Mayor of his township near Cannes.
The evergreen Stirling Moss, over 40 years after the crash at Goodwood which finished his glittering career, is still one of the most famous racing drivers in the world, in non-stop demand at functions all over the world. And double World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi has massive orange groves and a string of businesses in his Brazilian homeland.
Darling of the nation
But not every retired Grand Prix driver was able to switch with continued success from a uniquely demanding and satisfying career to something more normal in everyday life. For instance, and very sadly, the charismatic James Hunt, World Champion in 1976, the darling of the nation and the man with whom I shared the BBC TV commentary box for 13 memorable years, died at the tragically early age of 45, a comparatively poor man after a succession of business failures, a messy and expensive divorce and a victim of the Lloyds names crash.
Fortunately though, such are the astronomic amounts of money today's Fl drivers are paid that, provided they are sensible, they don't have to worry where their next meal is coming from after they have retired.
Murray Walker:
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"Cream rises to the top as John has proved, not once but many times over and I salute him as a truly remarkable man..."
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There is, however, one shining example of a man who has not only achieved something that no one else in the history of our great sport has done but who, post-retirement, has contributed massively to it in several different guises as well as carving a successful niche for himself in the business world. He is, of course, the man whose website I have the honour of contributing to and whom it has been my very great pleasure to know and admire for well over 60 years - John Surtees.
I first met John when he was the teenage passenger for his sidecar-racing father, Jack, but who was also a fast-developing solo racer. I briefly raced various bikes at Brands Hatch immediately after the end of World War 2 and was sometimes unfortunate enough to be in the same events as John. I say 'unfortunate' because all that I ever saw of him was his rapidly-disappearing backside as he meteorically shot away from me.
I didn't really have anything to be ashamed about though for John went on to become one of the greatest and most successful motor-cycle racers of all time, winning countless events and seven World Championships in his glorious career before switching to cars to become, as the 1964 Formula One World Champion for Ferrari, the only man ever to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels. In sports cars, too, he was one of the greatest ever.
Remarkable life
Then he founded his own car race team, for whom another of my idols, the great Mike Hailwood, became the European Formula 2 champion and, very nearly a Grand Prix winner. When the time came to wind up the Surtees Fl team John took up a rewarding, more normal, business life in the field of property development but he never lost his enthusiasm for the sport from which he had received so much and given so much to.
 You'll doubtless be able to read more about his remarkable life elsewhere on this website but one of the things for which I admire him most is his unswerving, endlessly dedicated and passionate encouragement and support for the youth of today who want to go Motor Racing.
Through his support for his son Henry's racing career, John learned that the karting world was the way to go and he has done an enormous amount to improve and develop it. And, as if that wasn't enough, he still finds time, at the age of 73, to be the enormously active and demanding principal of the British team in the impressive and fast-developing A1 World Cup single-sealer series.
In life the cream rises to the top as John has proved that, not once but many times over and I salute him as a truly remarkable man whom Michael Schumacher could do far worse than try to emulate.
Pictures:
1) Legendary broadcaster, Murray Walker
2) Surtees puts the case for young driver support to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone
14 May 2007
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