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Surtees Racing Organisation

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This article is about the motor racing team. For other uses, see Surtees Racing Organisation (disambiguation).
Surtees
Full nameSurtees Racing Organisation
BaseEdenbridge, Kent, United Kingdom
Founder(s)John Surtees
Noted staffLen Terry
Noted driversJohn Surtees, Derek Bell, Andrea de Adamich, Mike Hailwood, James Hunt, Jochen Mass
Formula One World Championship career
First entry1970 British Grand Prix
Races entered119
EnginesCosworth DFV
Constructors'
Championships		0
Drivers'
Championships		0
Race victories0
Pole positions0
Fastest laps4[1]
Final entry1978 Canadian Grand Prix

The Surtees Racing Organisation was a race team that spent nine seasons (1970 to 1978) as a constructor in Formula One, Formula 2, and Formula 5000.

History

The team was formed by John Surtees, a three time 500 cc motorcycle champion and the Formula One champion in 1964. Surtees formed the team in 1966 for the newly-formed CanAm series (an unlimited sports car series), winning the championship as an owner/driver in its first year. He fielded an entry in another newly formed series in 1969, becoming part of Formula 5000 after taking over the failed Leda F5000 project, and his team constructed its own cars for the first time. His team was successful, winning five races, all in a row, during a twelve race season.

This inspired Surtees to expand to Formula One, and after having had a difficult season with BRM in '69, John decided to become an owner/driver again. Surtees ran the full 1970 season, but John was forced to run the first four races in an old McLaren because of a delay in the construction of his in-house F1 car. The new British Petroleum sponsored car earned its first (and only) points that year in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Surtees added a second full-time car in 1971 for German sports car ace Rolf Stommelen, and ran a third car for various drivers in a number of races. Three drivers, Surtees, Stommelen, and Mike Hailwood (himself a motorcycling champion) earned three points each for the marque that year.

After the 1971 season, Surtees retired from full-time competition, and the team ended up with three new full-time drivers in 1972. Hailwood returned to Surtees for a full year, joining him were Australian Tim Schenken and Andrea De Adamich, the latter of whom brought sponsorship money to the team. "Mike the Bike" produced Surtees' first podium finish that year in the Italian Grand Prix finishing second to Emerson Fittipaldi. All three drivers scored points for the team, and Surtees would finish fifth in the constructors' championship.

Schenken was replaced in 1973 by Brazilian Carlos Pace, and the team went down to two full-time cars after de Adamich left following the season opener. Pace finished third in Austria and fourth in Germany, but it was the only points finishes the team had all season, as Hailwood was left scoreless. Hailwood departed for McLaren after the year, being replaced by Jochen Mass in 1974. It was a difficult year for Surtees, as Pace left the team in mid-season, and replacement Derek Bell struggled to qualify for races, capped by Austrian driver Helmut Koinigg's fatal crash at the 1974 U.S. Grand Prix. A fourth place by Pace at his home track were the only points Surtees managed to get, and they failed to finish in the top ten in the constructor's championship.

The team struggled to survive in 1975, and ran only a car for John Watson regularly. The season was a tremendous struggle for Watson and Surtees, as the team failed to score points. Desperate for money, Surtees landed a controversial sponsorship deal from Durex condoms in 1976. Australian Alan Jones drove the Durex car that year, a second car also ran for American Brett Lunger. Lunger was uncompetitive, but Jones ran effectively for the team, finishing in the points three times.

Jones's success resulted in him leaving the team for the emerging Shadow team, and money problems forced Surtees to run one car regularly again in 1977, this time for Vittorio Brambilla. Brambilla's season was effective, also finishing in the points three times. Still, his good results did not prevent Surtees from further monetary troubles. In 1978, the team added a second car for pay-driver, Briton Rupert Keegan, but the money problems continued. A lack of decent results caused further problems.

Unable to get sufficient money, the team left F1 after the 1978 season, despite having a car built for 1979. After racing the car in the British Aurora series (formerly F5000) briefly that year, Surtees Racing Organization was closed for good.

Models


  • TS5 1969-1970 F5000/Formula A. Based on abandoned Leda prototype. Runner up in the 1969 Guards F5000 championship. Intended as a customer car, but there were no takers.
  • TS8 1971-1972 F5000. Runner up in Rothmans Championship in 1971.
  • TS9 1971-1972 Formula One. A derivative of the TS7 with a longer wheelbase and wider track. Surtees repeated his Oulton Park win in 1971.
  • TS10 1972 Formula 2. Powered by a Cosworth BDA engine Mike Hailwood convincingly won the 1972 European F2 Championship in this car. Two independent teams purchased TS10s but were not contenders in the series.
  • TS11 1972-1973 F5000. Based on the TS9 with a Chevy engine. Raced as a single car team and driven by Gijs van Lennep, this car won the 1972 European F5000 Championship. A TS11 chassis with TS8 bodywork was cobbled together to run the 1972 Tasman Cup series after the TS8 intended for the series was wrecked beyond repair. Hailwood finished second in the series in this car.
  • TS14 1972-1973 Formula One. This car marked the beginning of the end for Surtees. Firestone was anticipating leaving Formula One and had little interest in working with Surtees to cure the TS14's habit of devouring tires. It was the first car in F1 to fully comply with crumple-zone legislation, incorporating these into its side pods within which the radiators were mounted, laying down the floorplan for the vast majority of subsequent F1 designs. It was a very quick car at its introduction but a series of accidents and lack of development support did not help it reach its potential. John Surtees drove his last F1 race in the TS14 at Monza in 1972.
  • TS15 1973 Formula two. With BMW supplying engines exclusively to March Surtees was forced to settled for second place in the F2 Championships. A good car, but no match for the BMW engine. A development of this car, the TS17, was intended to run a Ford Motor Company V8 in F5000, but nothing came of the plan.
  • TS16 1974-1975 Formula One. Based on the TS14, but overweight and with less than top notch DFV engines. The team also failed to engage a single major sponsor for 1974 so money was tight to say the least. Only a single car was run and to cap off a truly terrible year driver Helmuth Koinigg was killed during the U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. The car was run again in 1975 and John Watson scored in three non-Championship events, but no championship points were scored.
  • TS19 1976-1978 Formula One. A fresh car designed by John Surtees and Ken Sears the TS19 managed to score points for Surtees in 1976 and 1977, and even ran the opening races of the 1978 season.
  • TS20 1978 Formula One. A development of the TS19, the TS20 was a clean design that promised well, only to be completely overshadowed by the introduction of ground effects.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

The first table below details the complete World Championship Grand Prix results for the Surtees "works" team. The second table includes results from privately owned Surtees cars in World Championship Grands Prix.

Works team entries

(key) (results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Chassis Engine(s) Tyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Points WCC
1970 McLaren M7C
Surtees TS7 		Ford V8 F RSA ESP MON BEL NED FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA MEX 3 8th
United Kingdom John Surtees Ret Ret Ret 6 Ret 9 Ret Ret 5 Ret 8
United Kingdom Derek Bell 6
1971 Surtees TS7
Surtees TS9
Surtees TS9A 		Ford V8 F RSA ESP MON NED FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA 8 8th
United Kingdom John Surtees Ret 11 7 5 8 6 7 Ret Ret 11 17
Germany Rolf Stommelen 7 Ret 6 DSQ 11 5 10 7 DNS Ret
United Kingdom Brian Redman 7
United Kingdom Derek Bell Ret
United Kingdom Mike Hailwood 4 15
United States Sam Posey Ret
1972 Surtees TS9A
Surtees TS9B
Surtees TS14 		Ford V8 F ARG RSA ESP MON BEL FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA 18 5th
United Kingdom Mike Hailwood Ret Ret Ret 4 6 Ret Ret 4 2 17
Australia Tim Schenken 5 Ret 8 Ret Ret 17 Ret 14 11 Ret 7 Ret
Italy Andrea de Adamich Ret NC 4 7 Ret 14 Ret 13 14 Ret Ret Ret
United Kingdom John Surtees Ret DNS
1973 Surtees TS9A
Surtees TS9B
Surtees TS14A 		Ford V8 F ARG BRA RSA ESP BEL MON SWE FRA GBR NED GER AUT ITA CAN USA 7 7th
United Kingdom Mike Hailwood Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 8 Ret Ret Ret Ret 14 10 7 9 Ret
Brazil José Carlos Pace Ret Ret Ret Ret 8 Ret 10 13 Ret 7 4 3 Ret Ret Ret
Brazil Luiz Bueno 12
Italy Andrea de Adamich 8
Germany Jochen Mass Ret 7 Ret
1974 Surtees TS16 Ford V8 F ARG BRA RSA ESP BEL MON SWE NED FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA 3 11th
Brazil José Carlos Pace Ret 4 11 13 Ret Ret Ret
Germany Jochen Mass Ret 17 Ret Ret Ret DNS Ret Ret Ret 14 Ret
France José Dolhem DNQ DNQ Ret
United Kingdom Derek Bell DNQ 11 DNQ DNQ DNQ
Austria Dieter Quester 9
France Jean-Pierre Jabouille DNQ
Austria Helmut Koinigg 10 Ret
1975 Surtees TS16 Ford V8 G ARG BRA RSA ESP MON BEL SWE NED FRA GBR GER AUT ITA USA 0 19th
United Kingdom John Watson DSQ 10 Ret 8 Ret 10 16 Ret 13 11 10
United Kingdom Dave Morgan 18
1976 Surtees TS19 Ford V8 G BRA RSA USW ESP BEL MON SWE FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA CAN USA JPN 7 10th
Australia Alan Jones NC 9 5 Ret 13 Ret 5 10 Ret 8 12 16 8 4
United States Brett Lunger 11 DNQ DNQ Ret 15 16 Ret Ret 10 14 15 11
Sweden Conny Andersson Ret
Japan Noritake Takahara 9
1977 Surtees TS19 Ford V8 G ARG BRA RSA USW ESP MON BEL SWE FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA USA CAN JPN 6 11th
Italy Vittorio Brambilla 7 Ret 7 Ret Ret 8 4 Ret 13 8 5 15 12 Ret 19 6 8
Austria Hans Binder Ret Ret 11 11 9 Ret 11 Ret Ret
Australia Larry Perkins 12 DNQ DNQ
France Patrick Tambay DNQ
Australia Vern Schuppan 12 7 16 DNQ
Italy Lamberto Leoni DNQ
1978 Surtees TS19
Surtees TS20 		Ford V8 G ARG BRA RSA USW MON BEL ESP SWE FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA USA CAN 1 13th
Italy Vittorio Brambilla 18 DNQ 12 Ret DNQ 13 7 Ret 17 9 Ret 6 DSQ Ret
United Kingdom Rupert Keegan Ret Ret Ret DNS Ret DNQ 11 DNQ Ret DNQ DNQ DNQ DNS
Italy Gimax DNQ
France René Arnoux 9 Ret
Italy Beppe Gabbiani DNQ DNQ

Results of other Surtees cars

(key

Year Entrant/s Chassis/ Engine Tyres Driver/s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
1971 RSA ESP MON NED FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA
Stichting Autoraces Nederland TS7 Ford Cosworth DFV F Netherlands Gijs van Lennep 8
1972 ARG RSA ESP MON BEL FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA
Champcar Inc. TS9B Ford Cosworth DFV G United States Sam Posey 12
Team Gunston TS9 Ford Cosworth DFV G Rhodesia John Love 16
1974 ARG BRA RSA ESP BEL MON SWE NED FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA
AAW Racing TS16 Ford Cosworth DFV F Finland Leo Kinnunen DNQ Ret DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
1976 BRA RSA USW ESP BEL MON SWE FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA CAN USA JPN
Team Norev Racing TS19 Ford Cosworth DFV G France Henri Pescarolo DNQ Ret Ret DNQ 9 11 17 19 NC
Shell Sport/Whiting TS16 Ford Cosworth DFV G United Kingdom Divina Galica DNQ
1977 ARG BRA RSA USW ESP MON BEL SWE FRA GBR GER AUT NED ITA USA CAN JPN
Melchester Racing TS19 Ford Cosworth DFV G United Kingdom Tony Trimmer DNPQ

See also

Compare Brabham Racing Organisation, Fittipaldi Automotive and Stewart Grand Prix, three other Formula One teams established by Champion Drivers.

References

  • Hodges, David. A-Z of Formula Racing Cars 1945-1990, MBI Publishing Company, 1990. ISBN 1-901432-17-3

Footnotes

  1. ^ Total of 4 fastest laps = 3 fastest laps in Surtees cars plus John Surtees' fastest lap in the 1970 South African Grand Prix driving a McLaren
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