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World Championship

September 26, 1957. The bigwigs of the Italian brands FB-Mondial, Gilera and Moto-Guzzi officially announce their withdrawal from the world championship. Faced with rising costs and the bad image of a sport that kills one rider per race on average this year, there is no other way out. For the 1958 season, therefore, only MV Agusta has the hope of winning titles, as the competition has become so weak.

One driver in particular made the most of this lull in Grand Prix history. John SurteesLet's take a look at these three seasons of outrageous domination.

The British does not come out of nowhere: he was the one who shook up the great Goeff Duke for a championship a few years back, this gifted man capable of individual exploits. At the dawn of the 1958 season, he was already 500 1956cc world champion and spearhead of the MV armada. The Italian firm had the best riders and exceptional machines. When the late Carlo Ubbiali was in charge of the 125cc and 250cc, the 350cc and the category were Surtees' hunting grounds.

Everyone expected an extreme domination of MV Agusta. But to this extent, no one could have predicted it. Surtees won every race he took part in. In both categories. It was unprecedented: only the Swedish round where MV Agusta was not represented – the service truck being too big for the ferry – escaped him.

 

World Championship

The legend John Surtees.

 

Anyway, John was already titled in both categories.. However, Ubbiali struggled and had all the difficulties in the world to overcome his teammate Tarquinio Provini; they shared the titles in the two remaining categories. In the middle of this carnage that was the motorcycle grand prix of the 1950s – eight deaths in seven races – only one man reigned supreme. This was only the beginning: the Benellis and other Morinis could not hope to stop the forward march of the Samarate firm.

In 1959 Surtees delivered a true copy of the 1958 financial year.. All the races in the championship, in both classes, were won by the same person. Imagine that following a withdrawal of Ducati and Aprilia, Pedro Acosta won 100% of the races for four consecutive years. After having won 25 out of a possible 26 in two years – Sweden 1958 except -, one could believe that the soufflé would fall in 1960. The Briton showed signs of weakness in the first two 350cc rounds, being beaten by Gary Hocking then by John Hartle, his two teammates. But still remaining well ranked, he did not worry about the championship.

In 500cc, however, everything was going well. By winning the Tourist trophy For the third time in a row, Surtees showed again who was boss. But the extraordinary run ended at Assen. His mechanics failed him before a crash eliminated any chance of a podium. After 11 consecutive victories in 500cc, the third longest winning streak in history, Remo Venturi came to stop the progress of a John who was increasingly attracted to Formula 1. Despite some reliability issues at the end of the year, the Englishman achieved another historic double. A unique performance in history, which will remain forever etched in the annals.

For some time now, Surtees had been eyeing the automobile industry and its premier category: Formula 1. After having raced for Lotus, Cooper and Lola, He won the world title in 1964 with Ferrari at the end of a sumptuous year.. To date, he is the only one to have gleaned a world title on two and four wheels.

Legendary driver, legendary performance. This fantastic series allowed the Tatsfield native to offer us absolutely incredible statistics. Records that are not about to be beaten.

Did you know about this particular period in motorcycling history? Tell me in the comments!

 

John Surtees won Formula 1 with Ferrari, but was a much better motorcycle racer.