“I read a magazine story about a new school in California: The Carroll Shelby School of High Performance Driving. School was held at Riverside Raceway. A student had the option of using his own car for five hundred or the school car for a thousand. I wrote them and they gave me an appointment in September.
Arriving in Riverside I checked into a small motel then went out to the track. As I wandered around, a man rode up on a small motorcycle, a Honda 50, and asked why I was there. I told him I had an appointment to attend the Carroll Shelby driving school next week. He wore a baseball cap and looked like he might be in the military. ‘I’m going to be your instructor. My name’s Pete Brock.’
I was disappointed because I thought Carroll Shelby was to be my instructor. Mr. Brock said Carroll is too busy getting his Cobra operation going to teach right now.”
“I went down to see Bob Challman the Lotus dealer in Manhattan Beach about five miles from work. There was a new Lotus Formula Jr. on the show room floor. I told Mr. Challman that I had been to the Carroll Shelby driving school and was now working for Shelby in Venice. I explained that I planned to be a professional racecar driver and wanted to buy a Lotus Formula Jr. to start when I turned twenty-one in February. I remember clearly what he said, “I won’t sell you a Formula Junior. You’d be dead in three months. What you need is a Lotus 7 America.”
“I thought that sounded a little melodramatic. I said, “I would consider a Super 7 but the 7 America has a Sprite engine and I’m not interested in that.” He pushed hard for the 7 America but I told him either a Super 7 or I’d go somewhere else. He agreed to order a Super 7.”
Lotus Super 7 (S/N US641532)
Morton collection
Morton collection
Morton collection
John and the Lotus Super 7 in front of Shelby American
12 Hours of Sebring
March 23, 1963
“I had asked for and been granted permission to ride in the (Shelby) car hauler to and from Sebring with the truck driver. After the last minute panic and late night loading of the Florida-bound racecars, Joe and I hit the road.
We finally arrived at the racetrack, unloaded the cars and rolled them into one of the old hangars left over from when the Sebring airport was a 1940’s training base for B-17 bomber crews. The drivers were Dave McDonald with Fireball Roberts, Phil Hill with Dan Gurney and Ken Miles with Lew Spencer.”
Morton collection – Bernhard Cahier photo
Phil Hill (L) talks with John (R)in pits
Pomona Road Races (Cal Club)
Pomona, California
Lotus Super 7
April 20, 1963
“I’d been planning for this day since 1957 when I saw Phil Hill and Carroll Shelby at Elkhart Lake and thinking, “This is what I’m going to do.” April 20, 1963 was the day I started doing it.”
Morton collection
John in number 86 on right
Del Mar Pacific Coast Divisional Championship Sports Car Road Races
Del Mar, California
Lotus Super 7
April 28, 1963
“For this race I had three helpers. They were my friend Gordon Goring, the Goodyear race tire guy: Paul Anfang and Anfang’s young helper Dan Doniack. Not one of them was a mechanic so it wouldn’t be right to call them my crew – more appropriately my company.
When we arrived at the track, which was really just a parking lot with a course defined mostly by hay bales, I discovered that because of my lack of experience, I had to run in the novice race. This hadn’t applied in the Pomona race because the rules can vary from one SCCA region to the next. Pomona was in the Cal Club region.
Shelby American had entered a Cobra for Dave McDonald. It wasn’t a Sebring or Daytona type effort with lots of cars and parts and people, just Dave and Wally Peat with a pickup and an open trailer. Not much more than my little team, which was comprised of a parts man, a tire changer, a bullshit artist and a novice driver.
During our practice session I got a pretty good feel for the course. It was relatively tight so should be good for a car like mine. We lined up for our race. Looking around it was amazing what a motley group we were. All the production classes were represented and some modifieds because the only criteria was that the drivers were inexperienced. There were several Porsches, Triumphs, Alfas, Sprites, Morgans, Austin Healeys, a Sunbeam Alpine, a Corvette and a Devin Special.
All races then had standing starts. I quickly got into the lead and pulled away. The race only lasted fifteen minutes but I got such a lead I started showing off, sliding my car through the tight turns at an exaggerated angle thinking “I sure look good. I hope someone’s watching.” I won by a large margin.”
On Sunday, I made it to my pole position on time and as the race started, immediately pulled away from the field. Well into the race with another easy victory in sight, my water pump fell off, ending my heroic drive.”
Morton collection – Allen Kuhn photo
Morton collection – Allen Kuhn photo
SCCA Divisional Meadowdale
Carpentersville, Illinois
Lotus Super 7
June 30, 1963
“This very high-speed track shouldn’t have been good for a Lotus Super 7, especially against Corvettes, my main competition. The Monza Wall, a steeply banked bumpy one hundred and eighty degree turn that preceded an almost mile long straight, much of it downhill, was pretty intimidating. It must have been more intimidating for others than for me, because I could usually make up ground on faster cars there. Then came a fast downhill banked right hander with a steel guardrail around the outside and no escape road called Greg’s Corkscrew. There were numerous elevation changes at Meadowdale with challenging combinations of fast to medium speed turns.
The crew was again my friend Johnny Opitz and my brother. Unfortunately I was again slowed by overheating and finished third in class.”
Morton collection
Morton collection
Morton collection
John Morton collection
Wilmot Hills SCCA Divisional races
Wilmot, Wisconsin
Lotus Super 7
July 21, 1963
The Wilmot Hills Race Course was first constructed in 1953. It was rebuilt in 1957 by Chicago Region SCCA members on land leased from the ski hill owners. This summer use coordinated neatly with the land’s winter use as a ski area. Located just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border in Wilmot, Wisconsin, the track was active from 1953 to 1967. It was very short; only 7/10ths to 1 mile long.
*Barcboys.com
Morton collection
“My brother Lyman sitting in my car wearing my driver’s suit before taking a highly illegal practice lap during official practice for the SCCA Divisional at Wilmot Hills, Wisconsin, on July 21, 1963. If our ruse had been discovered, I would have been in big trouble.”
Morton collection
Mid-Ohio SCCA Divisional
Lotus Super 7
July 28, 1963
1st in B production
“On Sunday it rained and the Goodyears were very poor in the rain; the Dunlops had an even bigger advantage. My car was sliding all over the place while Lyall was building up a nice lead before he had a problem. I inherited the lead pulling away from the Corvettes and even started enjoying the slick conditions, reminding myself of driving in the snow back in high school.”
SCCA Divisional Waterford Hills, MI
Lotus Super 7
September 1, 1963
1st in B production
“On Saturday I finished second in class, having some electrical problem that affected the way the engine ran. The problem was related to the electric tachometer, which was a mystery to me. I had met a race driver and mechanic who lived near Waukegan and worked at a foreign car dealership in nearby Lake Forest. His name was Horst Kwech and it was my good fortune that he was racing an Alfa Romeo that weekend at Waterford because he fixed my car. I won my class on Sunday giving me an insurmountable lead in my quest for the Central Division B Production championship.”
Road America Badger 200
Lotus Super 7
September 7, 1963
1st in B production
“It almost seemed foolhardy to try to run a two hundred mile race in a Lotus Super 7, especially on a track as long and fast as Road America. Our top speed was low due to very high aerodynamic drag coupled with relatively low horsepower. The advantage of lightness and high cornering speeds would be more than negated by three very high-speed straights. But this was the greatest sports car track in the country and it was a thrill to be racing there. Dave Ott, whose nemesis I had been, said before the race, ”I think I’ve got you here,” counting on the advantage his 1961 Corvette would have on this track. I had to agree with him.
A pit stop was going to be necessary to make two hundred miles. I don’t remember if it was mandatory for everyone. A field of over fifty cars started; most had never run a race this long – fifty laps around the four-mile track. I tried to conserve my car by shifting at a lower RPM than I would have in a typical half hour race.
After about an hour and twenty minutes, I made my pit stop for fuel. It was a rule that during the refueling process, the driver had to be out of the car. The fuel was added by dumping it from cans into a funnel. We had planned for Lyman to put the funnel into the tank then Johnny and I would pour the gas. When I pulled to a stop and exited the car, Lyman, the funnel man, forgot where the funnel was. Lyman always meant well but tended to not think on his feet or plan ahead very well. Finally the funnel was located and the pit stop resumed.
I don’t recall how much time was lost but not too much I suppose because not long before the end, Dave Ott’s B Production leading Corvette came into sight. Even though I didn’t really know our relative positions, at the time I felt I had to get past him which I did in Canada Corner. I had won the class with Dave second. We were sixth overall and with a little better pit stop we might have finished higher, but we still did better than expected.”
John Morton collection – Allen Kuhn photo
John Morton collection – Allen Kuhn photo
SCCA Divisional
Greenwood, Iowa
Lotus Super 7
September 22, 1963
1st overall
“I had a pretty good starting position behind a couple of Stingrays and a Cobra, all A production cars so a B production win should be easy barring any problems. I got by the Stingrays after a couple of laps which put me in second with only George Montgomery’s Cobra ahead. I was pleasantly surprised to be gaining on him. After pestering the Cobra for a number of laps, I finally got by for a very satisfying overall win.”
SCCA Regional Lynndale Farms, WI
Lotus Super 7
September 29, 1963
1st in B production
“I got an entry in the mail for a race at a brand new track not far from Milwaukee and less than fifty miles from Waukegan called Lynndale Farms. I sent in my entry. It was only a Midwestern Council race but because this was the first race on this new track, they had imported Stirling Moss to be the grand marshal and drive the pace car, a Cobra of all things. Lynndale was a fabulous little track running up and down through rolling hills with a nice variety of fast and slow turns. It was perfect for spectators because there was an amphitheater like view as most of the track could be seen from a single vantage point.
On Sunday we did the pit pass trick again. Though the Lotus Super 7 was a production car with a passenger seat, I had to take it out before I raced because all it was was a padded piece of plywood which at high speed would be sucked up and try to leave the car. They used to allow a passenger to ride holding the checkered flag on a victory lap so I told Jan to take the seat to the finish line if I won and I would ride her around with the flag. I did win the B Production class. A driver named Scott Beckett won the overall victory in a Birdcage Maserati with a 289 Ford engine.”
Willow Springs, California
Lotus Super 7
November 17, 1963
1st in B production
“The race I was in was for production cars A through E, which included a Stingray, a Corvette, a Cobra and Ronnie Bucknum in the world’s fastest MGB. There was enough practice that I learned the course pretty well. Late in the afternoon as our race group waited on the pre-grid, I happened to be standing beside the Cobra driver, Paul Cunningham. I asked him about his car and told him I worked at Shelby’s. He said Monday he was going to take the car to Doane Spencer and have a number of improvements made. I didn’t think of myself as very superstitious but I didn’t like to say I’m going to do such and such in the future just before a race. It’s morbid but when Paul said, “I’m going to take my car to Doane Spencer on Monday,” I couldn’t help that I thought, “You can’t be sure you’ll be alive Monday.”
There was a standing start and as we entered turn one for the first time, I went almost completely blind due to the late afternoon sun directly in my eyes. I assumed everyone else’s too. The instantaneous loss of vision was startling and lasted until entering turn two some six or eight seconds later. Things were OK until we entered turn eight and again into the blinding sun.
I could see dust and a glimpse of a car crashing on the outside of the very fast turn nine. The race was red-flagged; it was too late in the day so it wasn’t restarted. That night in the hotel bar Gordon and I learned that Cunningham was killed in the accident. There was a feeling of extreme sadness coupled with a sense of guilt for the terrible irony of my thoughts when we spoke just before the race. I had heard someone say the crash was caused by Paul trying too hard and he just ran off the road. Davey Jordan racing a Sunbeam had a clearer view than I had and said Paul went too wide as he entered turn nine. I’m sure that was true, but I felt certain the sun was a factor.
The next day the sun wasn’t an issue because our race was earlier. Doug Hooper, the driver who won at Riverside in a Corvette Stingray when Krause’s Cobra broke a stub axle, led from the start in his B Production Corvette. This wasn’t like the Corvettes in the Central Division I had been racing against. In fact in the Central Division every B Production race was won by a Lotus Super 7.
I found myself in a very close race with Ronnie Bucknam’s MGB, which if it hadn’t been this particular MGB, I would have been disappointed. Hooper’s Corvette threw a tread from one of his racing recapped tires which left the second half of the race to Bucknam and me as we ran nose to tail. This was my poor car’s thirteenth race with no major engine work so it was a little tired. Try as I did, I could never get around Ronnie; we finished first and second. It caused quite a stir because no one in California had even heard my name, that is, except Carroll Shelby who had happened to be at Willow Springs that day to recruit Ronnie Bucknam for his Cobra team.”
Morton collection – Allen Kuhn photo
Morton collection – Allen Kuhn photo
Morton collection
Morton collection
Morton collection
Morton collection
Dodger Stadium Road Races
Los Angeles, California
Lotus Super 7
December 15, 1963
1st in B production
“Jack Hoare, one of the new engine shop employees and John Collins joined my pickup crew. The course was made up of turns defined by hay bales and cement pylons in the parking lot encircling the stadium.
There were several Stingrays entered but no Cobras this time. Ronnie Bucknum won as usual, beating everyone in sight although the best Stingrays had problems, failing to finish. I won my class after a good race with Lew Spencer’s very fast Morgan Super Sport. When a hub broke, one of Lew’s front wheels left his car right in front of me, a common Morgan failure. I was third overall which was not very gratifying; my engine was definitely getting tired but I was too inexperienced to determine that because it was still running OK.”
Morton collection – Dave Friedman photo
Morton collection – Dave Friedman photo
Morton collection
Ronnie Bucknum in MG – Morton collection – Dave Friedman photo