Tag Archives: John Surtees

Some British Sporting Heroes of Mine

The Forum re-assembled on the 8th of January after its Christmas break.

The first guest speaker for the new session was Neil Ramshaw who is the Secretary of the Harlow Forum and brought New Year’s greetings from his members. Neil’s talk was titled Some British Sporting Heroes of Mine in which he described the life and achievements of sportsmen whose careers he had followed.

His surprising first choice was Jackie Pallo, a professional wrestler who featured in ITV’s Saturday afternoon programmes during the seventies and eighties which Neil watched with his father.

He followed with Christopher Brasher, an athlete most famous for acting as a pace-maker for Roger Bannister’s first four-minute mile and for co-founding the London Marathon.

Although not a great fan of motorsport Neil featured John Surtees in his list because he was the only person to be world champion on both two and four wheels.

Neil followed with Roger Utley from Rugby Union, the runner Brendan Foster, Ray Reardon from snooker and Henry Cooper the celebrated boxer, before time forced him to finish.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle thanked Neil for a trip down memory lane.

Formula 1 British Champions

On the 13th of February the Forum welcomed Graham Read as guest speaker.

Graham is a motoring writer and Formula 1 correspondent who has entertained Forum members a number of times speaking on motoring topics.

This time his subject was Formula 1 British Champions.

There have been nine World Formula 1 champions from Britain but Graham also included a tenth name Stirling Moss who won 16 grand prix races but never the world championship, one year failing by one point. The list began with Mike Hawthorn who won in 1958 and ended with Lewis Hamilton, the current champion. Graham gave us the life and career history of each champion.

One champion John Surtees had also been a motor cycle champion and Graham included in his presentation a video of part of the Isle of Man TT from a bike-mounted camera travelling at full speed around the circuit.

At the end of his talk Graham gave us a list of three young British drivers, any of which could be a future world champion.

Members then questioned Graham about various aspects of the motor racing scene before Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks enthusiastically supported by Forum members.