128 replies to this topic

[Doug Nye]

Spare a thought tonight for John and Jane Surtees whose son Henry was injured today at Brands Hatch...

DCN

[Paul Rochdale]

Spare a thought tonight for John and Jane Surtees whose son Henry was injured today at Brands Hatch...

DCN

http://www.telegraph...atch-crash.html

[Coral]

Oh no, what dreadful news. My thoughts are with John and Jane Surtees.

[Gabrci]

It's not too funny to report the second piece of news like this today after Londono, but several of the drivers present at Brands are reporting on Facebook and Twitter that he's gone...

https://twitter.com/Carlosiaconelli

This is absolutely dreadful, I'm so sorry for his parents, for Jonathan Palmer, for Williams, who designed the car and everyone concerned.

It's not offical yet and I'm hoping it's not true.

Edited by Gabrci, 19 July 2009 - 20:04.

[David M. Kane]

My thoughts and prayers are with the Surtees family.

[Dennis Hockenbury]

The same for me Dave.....terrible news and I pray that there is a good ending.

[FLB]

Jonathan Noble's Twitter account...

https://twitter.com/noblef1

[Gabrci]

Jonathan Noble of Autosport confirmed it too on his twitter, I think the hope is gone.

https://twitter.com/noblef1

RIP Henry and sincere condolences to family and friends.

[bigears]

R.I.P Henry Surtees.

[Gary C]

My goodness, this is terrible news. My thoughts are with his family this evening.

[Paul Taylor]

Officially confirmed on Autosport.com, RIP Henry. Thoughts go out to John and Jane Surtees.

[kayemod]

My goodness, this is terrible news. My thoughts are with his family this evening.

Almost the worst thing imaginable for any parent, outliving one of your children.

[sterling49]

Awful news, after all Big John lived through, the worst thing ever for parents, thoughts with the family this sad evening.

[Giraffe]

A very pleasant young man who was at the Festival of Speed with his folks only 2 weeks back; how terribly sad.

[Brynmor]

Oh how dreadful, I watched on Eurosport and soon turned off. RIP and thoughts are with the family.

[Paul Parker]

Tragically he has subsequently died according to the home page of this site.

My absolute and sincerest sympathy and condolences, mere platitudes are wholly inadequate but that's all I can offer.

[Arturo Pereira]

My condolences to John and Jane

God bless them, and Henry.

[Keir]

Sad news.

In a sport where much has been done to prevent such tragedies, it remains that these things can still happen.

[24hourman]

My sincere condolences go out to John and Jane Surtees on their tragic loss today.

Edited by 24hourman, 19 July 2009 - 21:05.

[hay!]

That these things happen less these days make them all the more shocking.

My sincere condolences to John and his family.

[David McKinney]

That's terrible
My thoughts are with his parents

[RStock]

Such a sad thing . And such a minor looking accident .

Condolences to the entire Surtees family .

[David M. Kane]

I agree it was an innocent looking accident; but think about it, what does a racing rim and tire weigh? Let's say 10lbs. It look like he was going around 100mph and let say the wheel was going 100mph, that's a 200mph collision with a fairly heavy object. He was probably killed instantly. Much like the Earnhardt accident it didn't look that bad; but heavy impact physics is heavy impact physics. Apparently the wheel weren't teethered.

Like a lot of you I was following his career. He certainly looked like he was making great progress.

RIP Henry. I really feel for John and Jane, they must be shattered.

[D-Type]

I just don't know what to say.

My condolences to John and Jane

[Vitesse2]

I heard Henry's voice for the first time on Radio 5 only last week as part of an insignificant piece about karting. As soon as he spoke, I could hear the tones of Il Grande John - he sounded very much his father's son.

RIP Henry.

[JacnGille]

damn

[Jack-the-Lad]

Tragic beyond words. May his family be comforted.

Jack

[Ian Stewart]

Awful.

My sincerest condolences to the Surtees family.

R.I.P. Henry Surtees.

[ac_Masaryk]

R.I.P. I am without words

[Rob G]

Awful news. It's tragic irony that John survived and thrived in such a dangerous era only to see his son die during a time when safety is paramount before he got a chance to succeed.

Edited by Rob G, 20 July 2009 - 00:16.

[B Squared]

Very sad to hear. I have nothing but respect for John Surtees. Comfort to his family and friends.

Brian

[RStock]

I agree it was an innocent looking accident; but think about it, what does a racing rim and tire weigh? Let's say 10lbs. It look like he was going around 100mph and let say the wheel was going 100mph, that's a 200mph collision with a fairly heavy object. He was probably killed instantly. Much like the Earnhardt accident it didn't look that bad; but heavy impact physics is heavy impact physics. Apparently the wheel weren't teethered.

No , it didn't appear there were wheel tethers . But indications are he was unconcious and had been stabalized when airlifted to the hospital . So perhaps it wasn't instantaneous . I wonder if the head-on shunt into the wall played a part . I take it they are required to use the hans device in F2 . I just wonder if like Earnhardt it was a basal skull fracture .

And , thoughts go out to Jack Clarke and family , he must feel awful about the situation .

[Ray Bell]

A dreadful thing to happen, but the risks are still there...

I often think of FJ and the reason he got that name. I also add my sincere condolences to my one-time favourite and his family.

[Cris]

Godspeed, Henry.


Cris

[RogerFrench]

That's dreadful. I'm so sorry for the Surtees family.

[Barry Boor]

Motor racing has always been dangerous and will continue to be so. I think sometimes we forget that fact, then something like this happens to remind us.

Deepest condolonces to the Old Boy and his family.

[RTH]

Truly shocking news. All our thoughts with the family in such a tragedy

Do we know exactly what happened and why? Was it just the wheel or a corner knocked off another car ? Wheel safety securing clips were brought in for centre lock wheels more than 35 years ago on GP cars and the current F1 car has has a positive more sophisticated method of loose wheel retention. Until we can hear eye witness reports of the circumstances of just how a wheel came to hit poor Henry's car can we even begin to understand how such a disasterous and fatal accident could happen today on a new car designed to 2009 standards.
It is a one make single seater series ,the cars are Williams JPH1 with 4cyl 1.8 Audi turbo 400BHP engines maintained centrally from Bedford Autodrome, drives are rented by competitors.

Quite awful , our condolences to the entire Surtees family and people close to them.Tragic loss of a young man.

[Barry Boor]

The other car went off at Westfield, across a reasonably wide area of, I think, grass, and clattered into the armco. Various bits flew off and one of the rear wheels simply bounced back across the track.

Henry was a number of places behind the crashed car and as the wheel started its journey across the road, several cars went past. It was just pure chance that Henry was the one whose trajectory co-incided with the wheel. It appeared to be a glacing blow but as already stated, the forces involved were considerable. The wheel, in fact, continued its path across to the inside of the track.

The most ironic thing is that Henry was way quicker than the guys in that section of the field but had spun coming down out of Druids earlier in the race and so was behind the guy who went off when he should have been well in front...

Upon such circumstances are tragedies born....

[RobertE]

That is appalling, shocking news. He was a charming young man and would have gone far. Poor Jane, John and Henry's sisters will be devastated.

[Andrew Kitson]

Terrible news last night. Very sad this morning and my thoughts are with John and his family and all of the MSV/F2 community, including poor Jack (Julian Bailey's step-son) who's car lost the wheel in the first place, he must feel awful.
John absolutely adored Henry of course, always present at the tests and races, hovering over the car making sure the mechanics were doing things properly. A bossy racing dad but, with real credentials.

I remember first meeting Henry about 7-8 years ago I think, John was showing him around the F1 paddock at Silverstone and we had a chat about the karting that Henry was doing. John was most enthusiastic about it, telling me it was far more competitive than any racing he had ever been involved with.

Sometimes this sports turns around and shocks us, we do indeed become complacent and forget that it can be deadly, despite the very modern safety standards.

RIP Henry, here shown at Snetterton testing just a few weeks ago, with John (as ever) present.
A pleasure to have met you.

[Pedro 917]

My condolences to the Surtees family, friends and relatives, RIP Henry.

A couple of pictures from this year's Goodwood Festival Of Speed, Henry driving the 1972 Surtees TS-10 F2 :





Copyright Luc Ghys

[Maldwyn]

My sincere condolences to the family and friends of Henry Surtees.

RIP.

[wdm]

Truly dreadful news. My condolences to all concerned.

[Ronnie792]

An appalling sequence of events and a young and talented life lost. My condolences to the Surtees family.

[Odseybod]

So very sad - sincere condolences to his family.

I hope the old boys in the paddock upstairs make him welcome.

[RTH]

Autosport's first report

http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/77088

[Greystone]

So sad. Big John is one of my heroes.

Having had so much success earlier in life there was now a new challenge and a fresh goal to strive for. This has now been cruelly snatched away.

My deepest condolences to John, his family and friends.

[Kingsleyrob]

The right words fail me, so I can only echo everyone else's thoughts.

Another foot, another half a second, and we wouldn't have had this sad thread today.

To think that only a couple of corners before Henry had been rounding "Surtees".

Tragic.

Rob

[Richard Jenkins]

Utterly dreadful news. I cannot begin to imagine what John & all his family must be thinking & feeling at a time like this.

My thoughts too, are with Jack Clarke and the enthusiastic band of people that have put these cars & the new F2 series together. They will be asking a lot of questions of themselves and in my view, unfairly so. As with the recent death of Carlos Pardo, in Mexican NASCAR, sometimes these things cannot be helped.

I remember first hearing about Henry nearly 10 years ago when he was starting to take an interest in the sport. I was struck by the age difference firstly between John & Henry, but after that, I was struck by how well Henry was doing for himself, gradually coming up the ranks.

My sincere condolences to everyone who knew him. RIP

[Greatest]

Yesterday, while watching the F2 race from Eurosport, I could feel something eerie; a little bit like Imola '94. An accident waiting to happen...

Never in my wildest dreams could I predict this, though. The accident looked quite harmless, but a thud in a helmet can be a disaster (I've had a big bird hit my helmet and in Henry's case it was a totally different matter, a big wheel with a lot of momentum). This was a sad reminder of the fact that racing can never be 100% safe. The only time when a racecar is safe is when you don't drive it...

My sincerest condolences to the Surtees family and to all of his friends! Henry, I salute you! You had so much more to give...!