Death at the Nurburgring! Surtees responsible!

There I was in a three lap race at the dreaded Nordschleife. I had made a bad start but catching up the field again down through Schwedenkreuz, managed to tangle with a back marker going through the Aremberg hairpin before the bridge. I spun out, but he carries on with nonchalant impunity. ***y Surtees! Now, I've got nothing against the real John Surtees, he seems like a nice bloke. But in GPL in his dog-slow Honda, he's a nightmare to overtake. Carried on with the lap - now in real banzai hot-lap mode. Got a good exit out of Bergwerk and accelerated flat-out, pedal to the metal all the way the undulating section at Kesselchen. I come over the blind crest in the middle of the section at around 170 mph. Aarrghh! There's Surtees - absolutely stationary in the middle of the track about 100yds in front of me. There's nothing I can do - I brake from 170 to about 158 at the point of impact. The white Honda is projected forwards about half a mile. My green Lotus translates all its forward momemtum into a vertical moonshot. The car hits the virtual roof at around 150ft, issuing a trail of black smoke, spinning at around 1000rpm before crashing to the tarmac and burning furiously. I don't know about you - but I think I would have died. And its not the first time I've tangled with Surtees, I can tell you. - Michael

>I don't know about you - but I think I would have died. ROFL, I think you are right !!!

Now you know why f1 is no longer held there! Imagine the mayhem Ricardo Rosset could cause! (Not to mention one M. Schumacher :o)) -- Robin. http://www.oppositelock.freeserve.co.uk Nurburgring and Grand Prix Legends Remove nospam from e-mail address to reply

>before the bridge. I spun out, but he carries on with nonchalant impunity. >***y Surtees! Now, I've got nothing against the real John Surtees, he >seems like a nice bloke. But in GPL in his dog-slow Honda, he's a nightmare I've never seen or read any interviews with Surtees. However, in the book I'm reading (Can-Am by Pete Lyons) he comes across as pretty arrogant. Amazingly, Papyrus seems to reflect this in the driving style of GPL's Surtees. But, in the words of Dennis Miller "That's just my opinion. I could be wrong." BTW - I did read somewhere that Surtees now spends a lot of his time doing work for children's charities. So I guess he can't be all THAT bad. -- Bill Mette | "A person is smart. People are dumb." MCSNet, Chicago | - K MiB

I know! But surely they could have had a few more flag marshalls out there waving yellow and white flags to indicate a slow car on the track. I should complain to the virtual organisers of the virtual German GP:-) - Michael

I don't do Nurburgring yet, but at the circuits I do the marshalls never do a good job with slow cars. They do with stopped cars or accidents - maybe slow cars are outside their remit? So when I come blasting round the bend (last time was in the dip in the esses at Kyalami) I'm not good enough to avoid them. Greg.

>>before the bridge. I spun out, but he carries on with nonchalant impunity. >>***y Surtees! Now, I've got nothing against the real John Surtees, he >>seems like a nice bloke. But in GPL in his dog-slow Honda, he's a nightmare

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> I've never seen or read any interviews with Surtees. However, in the >book I'm reading (Can-Am by Pete Lyons) he comes across as pretty >arrogant. Amazingly, Papyrus seems to reflect this in the driving style >of GPL's Surtees. But, in the words of Dennis Miller "That's just my >opinion. I could be wrong." >BTW - I did read somewhere that Surtees now spends a lot of his time doing >work for children's charities. So I guess he can't be all THAT bad. >-- >Bill Mette | "A person is smart. People are dumb." >MCSNet, Chicago | - K MiB

A while back John Surtees wrote a very interesting autobiography. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but it was quite an enjoyable read. He always kind of struck me as a British version of Ritchie Ginther. A little guy, but a very tough customer. He's also the only guy to win the Formula One driving title, AND the Formula One Motorcycle title in the same year. Imagine someone doing THAT in 1999. TB

And he looks like the Pope too.......! Cheers! Graeme Nash http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk ICQ# 11257824 1998 Xoom GP2 League Champion

From the Cruel Sport by Robert Daley: " In the 1961 Grand Prix of Italy, Bonnier swerved to avoid a flag marshal in the road. Surtees couldn't swerve. His car went up the back of Bonnier's car, over Bonnier's head, and left skid marks on Bonnier's front cowling on the way down. Both cars retired. No one was hurt. Surtees said to Bonnier, "I'll fix you for this. I'll fix you permanently." Whatever is said in moments of panic such as this one, no driver would ever deliberately endanger another. Their lives are in each other's hands, and they know it. However, there are very few close friendships amount the drivers, They often speak bitterly of each other. Partly this is because it is hard to forgive a man who has caused you to be that frightened, hard to be fond of him ever again." .... Jeff Haas

I've got 3 documentary videotapes about J. Clark, G. Hill and J. Brabham, and Surtees is interviewed on some of these. He seems to be a nice guy at least at older age... Arto PS The film clips of -67 in the tapes look just like GPL... :-)

While it's true that Surtees won World Championships in cars and on motorcycles, he never performed this feat in the same year. John Surtees won 7 World Championships for Agusta between 1956 and 1960. His only Formula One World Championship came in 1964 while driving for Ferrari. Source:<http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/drivers/surtees.html> -don