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Thread: John Surtees

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    Senior Member MrJan's Avatar
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    John Surtees

    Why has this man not been given a knighthood? My old man raised the question whilst watching The Killer Years the other day, and I have to say that I agree with him. Jackie Stewart has obviously done a lot for safety, so his services to motorsport can't really be questioned, but how come Stirling gets one and Surtees doesn't? Surtees can pretty much go down in history as being the only man ever to win world championships on two wheels and four, it's a feat that is extremely unlikely to be repeated in the specialised world of motorsport that we watch today, so on what basis is the Queen holding back?
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    There was a campaign to get him knighted a few years ago, but he only got upgraded from MBE to OBE.

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    Mr Surtees is a true gent and doubtless is honoured to have received his OBE, much as we would all love to see him as Sir John Surtees
    All other opinions are wrong....

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    Suspect this year's Queen's Birthday honours will see him appropriately titled. I second Sonic's view, and it was apparent at the 2010 Goodwood revival just how much respect and affection the public have for him and not just as sympathy for the loss of Henry.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mintexmemory
    Suspect this year's Queen's Birthday honours will see him appropriately titled. I second Sonic's view, and it was apparent at the 2010 Goodwood revival just how much respect and affection the public have for him and not just as sympathy for the loss of Henry.
    I'm not so hopeful... I think they probably feel they already responded to the concerted campaign to get him knighted with the OBE.

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    He should be highly honored as much as any other.

    as they say, he is the last of his kind, a WDC and a world champion on bikes.

    In sports cars as well, where he won the first can Am championship, driving the sports cars that had monster HP engines for their time period.

    I think he would have been a second time world champion in 1966 as well. He was doing well with the ferrari, led EVERY RACE he was enterred with the ferrari (he only drove the first two races for Ferrari), until he had a blow up with ferrari at Le Mans about his co-driver( although my guess there were much political issues blowing around beyond who was to drive what). He went to Cooper Maserati, and won the final race of the season, finishing in second place in WDC, despite a number of mechanical failures.

    If they had not screwed with him, ferrari might well have won the WCC and WDC that year.....not that stuff like that ever happens at ferrari, ever.
    Only the dead know the end of war. Plato:beer:

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    Quote Originally Posted by barryfullalove
    but how come Stirling gets one and Surtees doesn't? Surtees can pretty much go down in history as being the only man ever to win world championships on two wheels and four, it's a feat that is extremely unlikely to be repeated in the specialised world of motorsport that we watch today, so on what basis is the Queen holding back?
    Perhaps Prince Phillip put Stirling forward for the knighthood? http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t767025/
    Rule 1 of the forum, always accuse anyone who disagrees with you of bias.I would say that though.

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    That is one nasty website isn't it? Some of the sentiments expressed are sickening!

    Let's not take this thread up that road.
    Duncan Rollo

    The more you learn, the more you realise how little you know.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Daniel
    Perhaps Prince Phillip put Stirling forward for the knighthood? http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t767025/
    Remeber Moss and Surtees talking together with some other folks at Riverside in 1967.

    Moss did not have his shirt on.

    Only person I saw at the track or pits without his shirt

    I asked, "why do you not have on your shirt?"

    Moss said, "because I want the birds to notice..."

    About that time some birds flew over, and Surtees made some comment about birds ignoring Moss as usual and something crude that I, in my younger years, did not quite understand.

    Everyone but Moss laughed.

    I asked what was your name, Told it was Moss. So I asked if he drove race cars.....more laughter.....as Mr Moss stomped off


    At the time I did not know that birds meant women, and for days, perhaps years, I wondered about the connection with birds with feathers and Moss's chest.

    The most interesting thing about Surtees was that he looked less like a race driver than anybody else I saw at Riverside. He looked more like an accountant or schoolteacher. Very trim and very proper, something of an English version of Dan Gurney who I did not think looked like a race driver either. Surtees, McLaren and Gurney seemed to smile frequently while in the pits.

    Yes that was real access, in the days of old.....Imagine some snot nosed kid with a relatively very cheap pit pass, having that conversation (and some other conversations like that) with the likes of Hamilton, Vettel or Schumacher on a Friday before the race.
    Only the dead know the end of war. Plato:beer:

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    I first began following Surtees when he was still racing bikes, even before he moved to the Italian bikes, in fact. We tend to forget just how big bike racing was during the Fifties in Europe, given that this was the primary mode of transportation for most young people, cars not being much of an option until someone was close to thirty.

    Given the quite arbitrary, even capricious nature of the Honours system in Britain, this is really not worth worrying about. I am not going to waste time wringing my hands or fretting about it. Surtees is an extraordinary person and most of us recognize that. End of story.

    Keep in mind that in the aftermath of the 1958 season, it was Moss who received either the OBE or MBE while neither Hawthorn nor Vandervell got even the equivalent of an MID (Mention in Dispatches) when the New Years Honours list was announced. Personally, this was a big lesson for me as a big Hawthorn fan at the time and probably helped add to my already rapidly developing sense of cynicism about various aspects of public life.
    Popular memory is not history.... -- Gordon Wood

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