OldRacingCars.com | F5000

Surtees TS11

Clive Santo in ShellSport's Surtees TS11-02 at the 1973 Race of Champions. Copyright Ted Walker 2001. Used with permission. Based on the F1 TS9, the 1972 TS11 design attempted to take forward the promise of the previous season's TS8 design. An attempt to drum up sales through a works Tasman effort with Mike Hailwood went awry when Hailwood wrote off the prototype while testing. As a result, only two teams opted for the Surtees design but both saw considerable success, Gijs Van Lennep taking the UK series and Sam Posey finishing second in the US series.

Up to seven cars may have been built. One was destroyed and four have been located so far. It is not clear if the missing numbers 05 and 06 ever existed as complete cars.

All and any help would be gratefully received. Please e-mail Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com if you can add anything.

Thanks to John Bladon, Wolfgang Klopfer, Al Moore, Marcus Pye, Don Sills, Chris Townsend, Aniruddh Kasliwal, Johnty Williamson (via Steve Wilkinson) and Anthony Goddard for their contributions to these histories.

Car	History	Current owner
Surtees TS11 01	Built October 1971. Was due to debut at Brands Hatch "Victory Race" on 24 Oct but the engine did not arrive on time. Then due to debut at Australian GP on 21 Nov but written off in testing by Mike Hailwood.	Destroyed
Surtees TS11 02	Built for 1972 season. Jackie Epstein's Speed International Team (UK) for Gijs Van Lennep (UK) 1972 (won championship); as ShellSport Luxembourg for Clive Santo (UK) 1973 (not seen after R5 Brands Hatch 23 Apr 1973) - Willie Wood (UK) 1973: raced at R16 Zandvoort 30 Sep 1973 ... bought from Chris Oates (Notts) Johnty Williamson (UK) March 1974 and fitted with 5.7-litre Chevy: used in sprints 1974-1976. Sold to Mike Gue Jan 1977 and then sold to the Maharajah of Gondal (Gujarat, India): raced by Maharaj Kumar Ghanadityasinhji of Gondal at the 'All India GP' at Sholavaram circuit at Madras (now Channai). The Maharajah won in 1978 and 1979 but retired with engine problems in 1980. Fitted with a new 5.7-litre engine from the US, he won again in 1981 and won a preliminary race in 1982 despite the presence of Vijay Mallya's Ensign N177 MN08. The Surtees also won races in Calcutta and Bombay but details are not available. The car is presently the proud possession of Yuvaraj Kumar Himanshusinhji (Crown Price of Gondal). My great thanks to Aniruddh Kasliwal and Ashish Doshi for helping me with this car and to HH Maharaja Chaitanyadev Sinhji of Wadhvan and Yuvaraj Kumar Himanshusinhji.	Yuvaraj Kumar Himanshusinhji (India) 2003
Surtees TS11 03	Unknown. Possibly the identity given to the car used in Australia by Hailwood.	Unknown
Surtees TS11 04	Built for 1972 season. Champ Carr Inc (San Juan Capistrano, California) for Sam Posey (US) 1972 (second in championship), Tasman 1973 in red-and-white livery. Not raced in US 1973. Advertised with a race ready sister car by Champ Carr 28 Jul 1973. Subsequent history unknown but one or both TS11s are believed to have gone to Gary Mathews and Zeke Justice. It appears one complete car was sold by Justice in the 80's (the Christeanson car) and a further complete car and a partial car also sold to Chuck Haines. The originality of these cars can not yet be confirmed but it would appear that TS11/04 was rebuilt on a new tub and the original tub was sold separately. With Chuck Haines in white livery by 1990. Sold to unknown owner early 1990's and restored (by Tom Fredericks?). Later to Scott Drnek (San Francisco) accompanied by spare TS9 tub to John Bladon (UK) 1998. Sold to Anthony Goddard (Isle Of Wight) for 2003. Retained 2006. This car bears the TS11/04 chassis plate and has been accepted by UK authorities for historic racing but Don Sills has asked OldRacingCars.com to state that he disputes this. However, after two years' research, Don accepts the complete story may never be known. It appears that TS11/04 may have been wrecked at some point and rebuilt on an accompanying spare tub. This would account for Haines having had a damaged tub in Mathews livery as well as a separate complete car. Chassis with Chuck Haines in blue and gold livery by 1990, indicating the Mathews car. The tub had been damaged at the right front. Sold to Don Sills (Incline Village, NV) January 2000. Under the blue and gold livery is a red colour and then a blue which strongly suggests it was a Posey chassis. Retained by Sills 2005.	Anthony Goddard (UK) 2006 original tub with Don Sills (US) 2004

The unknown cars

As well as the cars listed above, there was also the TS11 tub sent to Australia to replace the TS9/TS8 crashed by Hailwood. Team Corsair then acquired this car for Ron Grable. Champ Carr Inc definitely owned a second car as they advertised "2 cars complete with engines - race ready" in July 1973. All the later US TS11 references are thought to refer to these Posey and Grable cars. However, it is believed that several spare tubs were supplied to owners and one of these may have become a separate complete car.

Car	History	Current owner
Surtees TS11 'the Hailwood Tasman car'	Built from a new TS11 tub and incorporating parts from the TS9/TS8 used by John Surtees and Mike Hailwood in the 1971 Australian GP and the New Zealand Tasman races and crahed at Teretonga. For Mike Hailwood at Surfers Paradise (6th), Warwick Farm (5th), Sandown Park Australian GP (4th) and Adelaide (2nd). According to Motoring News, this car then goes to Team Corsair for Ron Grable to race in the US but it has been pointed out that the two cars look nothing like each other. Grable US 1972 (raced only twice, at R1 Laguna Seca 7 May 1972: classified 14th overall; then at R2 Edmonton 4 Jun 1972: classified 27th and last in heat 1, did not appear in heat 2). According to F1 Register book, Grable crashed and the car may have been badly damaged. Team Corsair went bust some time in June or July that year and Autoweek of 22 Jul 1972 reported that Minnesota Invader Inc (Minneapolis/St. Paul) had bought the TS11 from the defunct Team Corsair for Ron Grable to drive at Elkhart Lake on 16 Jul. However, no money was forthcoming and the cars were eventually bought by Gus Hutchison (Dallas, TX). The TS11 was intended to act as a spare for his new March 73A. Advertised in Autoweek 22 Sep 1973 "one Surtees TS11 with spare tub" and later 7 Dec 1974: said to have a new tub and a further new spare tub. Subsequent history unknown but see the Baca car below.	Unknown
Surtees TS11 'the Zeke Justice car'	Gary Mathews 1974 (Ontario 2 Sep 1974, Laguna Seca, Riverside). Entered by Wiley & Mathews Engineering at Ontario. Note that this is while Hutchison is still advertising his ex-Grable car, implying this is a Posey car. Advertised by Mathews (Fresno, CA) 23 May 1976. Later retired from Heat 2 at Riverside 1976 (entered by Justice Bros and listed as Blue/Gold in colour). Retired from SCCA National at Riverside 13 Feb 1977 (Formula April 1977 p51). Then Justice invited Ron Dykes (who had raced the Justice Bros Lola T192 and Eagle in previous seasons) to drive the TS11 in a National at Riverside 29 May 1977 which Dykes won with a new lap record. Dykes then appears with a TS11 on the entry list for the 1977 SCCA Run-Offs. A sidepod for a Justice Bros TS11 was with Don Sills (Incline Village, NV) in 2002. See details under TS11/004 for likely later history.	See TS11/004
Surtees TS11? 'the Baca car'	Advertised by William T Baca (Santa Ana, CA) 3 Jul 1976: "F5000 - Surtees: Built 1973. 1976 Pro legal. Never bent. Absolutely ready to race. New spare Traco engine. Numerous spares. Trailer ... $12,500". May not be a TS11. Maybe the Grable car if that was built on a new tub in 1973 or a second car built up from spares by Champ Carr for 1973? Note that this advert is while Mathews still has his car. So if Mathews' car is an ex-Posey car, this suggests this one is the ex-Grable/Hutchison car or possibly a second TS11 built up by Champ Carr in 1973.	Unknown
Surtees TS11 'the Christeanson car'	Paul Christeanson (US) bought a disassembled Surtees TS11 from "a guy called Ramiraz in Florida" in 1997. The chassis plate says "TS11-07" and it had a SCCA plate attached to the seat tank cover. Among the accompanying documentation was a bill of sale from Zeke Justice in early 1980 and public notary bill of sale also in the 80's actually detailing the chassis number from Russell Racing (Ohio?) to a Will Cronkite. Christeanson advertised the car for sale in Jan 2003 and sold it to John Bladon in the UK, already the owner of "TS11-04". Could this be the Grable car - or the second Posey car?	John Bladon (UK) 2003

These histories last updated on 28 February, 2006 .