He finished the year by beating reigning world champion Duke at Silverstone and then at Brands Hatch. In 1955, Norton race chief Joe Craig gave Surtees his first factory-sponsored ride aboard the Nortons. He first gained prominence in 1951 when he gave Norton star Geoff Duke a strong challenge in an ACU race at the Thruxton Circuit. In 1950, at the age of 16, he went to work for the Vincent factory as an apprentice. He entered his first race at 15 in a grasstrack competition. However, when race officials discovered Surtees's age, they were disqualified. He had his first professional outing, which they won, in the sidecar of his father's Vincent at the age of 14. His father Jack Surtees was an accomplished grasstrack competitor and in 1948 was the South Eastern Centre Sidecar Champion. Surtees was the son of a south-London motorcycle dealer. He was also the ambassador of the Racing Steps Foundation. He founded the Surtees Racing Organisation team that competed as a constructor in Formula One, Formula 2 and Formula 5000 from 1970 to 1978. To this day Surtees remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels. Surtees then made the move to the pinnacle of Motorsport, the Formula 1 World Championship, and in 1964 made motor racing history by becoming the F1 World Champion. On his way to become a seven-time Grand Prix motorcycle World Champion, he won his first title in 1956, and followed with three consecutive doubles between 19, winning six World Championships in both the 500 and 350cc classes. John Norman Surtees, CBE (11 February 1934 – 10 March 2017) was a British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver. Lotus, Cooper (Inc non-works), Lola, Ferrari, Honda, BRM,
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