Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/798489
Agusta's—two-wheeled super- star, Mike Hailwood, convinc- ingly won the 1972 European Formula 2 Championship in the Surtees TS10, to register the team's greatest success. After a frequently troubled nine-year existence in the Formula 1 pad- dock, not helped by a perpetual funding crisis, Team Surtees was disbanded in 1978. Having renovated a lovely 16th century Tudor house near Lingfield, Surrey, Surtees then turned to building up a prop- erty business, and to restoring many of the motorcycles and cars he'd collected or had on loan that were associated with his long career on both two and four wheels. He enjoyed demon- strating these and other classic machines at numerous events all over the world, but especially at the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed, where he rode historic BMW motorcycles and drove Mercedes-Benz cars alongside Nortons and MV Agustas from his own stables, with equal aplomb. Motorcycles remained his first love, though, and with the advent of Historic GP racing, Surtees renewed his racing licence for what proved to be his final competitive event, the 1986 French Historic GP at Paul Ricard, run as a support race to the 500cc French GP. In that he finished third on his Manx Norton behind American Dave Roper and Kiwi former world champion Hugh Anderson, both on Matchless G50s, but after that decided to hang up his helmet for anything except tests and demos—though it didn't stop him from sampling Wayne Gardner's factory Honda NS500 two-stroke triple at Snetterton, and impressing Honda race engineers with his perceptive questions and grasp of detail after riding it. Surtees was a hard but fair man who set high standards for himself and others which he expected them to adhere to. He absolutely knew his own mind and wasn't afraid of irking influential people, stubbornly sticking to his guns even if it meant ruffling feathers. If he'd been prepared to compromise or go back on his word on various occasions, he might have achieved even more than he did, especially in the murky world of the Formula 1 paddock where a straight-shooter like Surtees was a fish out of water. He achieved a very great deal in life in spite of his humble ori- gins, and both motorcycle and car worlds are very much the poorer for his leaving us. Alan Cathcart IN THE WIND P40 Surtees in 2015.