John Morton (racing driver)

Nissan 300ZX with starting number 75; Winning cars from John Morton, Johnny O'Connell and Steve Millen in the 1994 Sebring 12 Hours

John Morton (born February 17, 1942 in Waukegan , Illinois ) is a retired American car racing driver and racing team owner.

Career in motorsport

John Morton was a professional racing driver for almost 40 years and can therefore look back on one of the longest careers in US motorsport. Already as a child and later as a teenager , he was interested in racing as a spectator, as he and his father repeatedly attended racing events. After college , he completed a racing driver course at Carroll Shelby's School of High Performance Driving and then worked as an assistant at Shelby American .

With the money he saved, he bought a Lotus Seven in 1963 and began to compete in national sports car races. It celebrated its first race win in September 1963 in Greenwood. In 1964 he started as a driver for Shelby American. He made his debut in the 12 Hours of Sebring as a partner of Ken Miles and finished second overall with Miles and Skip Scott in the 500-mile race of Road America . The emergency vehicle was a Shelby Cobra 427 .

The factory outings for Carroll Shelby in 1964 remained the exception in international racing for the time being, until the end of the 1960s he had to be satisfied with private outings in SCCA races. The turning point came in 1970 when, with the support of Datsun North America, he became the determining driver in the SCCA series for the next three years.

In the early 1970s he was also involved in the SCCA Continental Championship , the North American counterpart to the European Formula 5000 Championship . The best result in the overall classification of this championship was eleventh place in 1975. In the 1980s, he also competed in the Champ Car series , but was also always primarily a sports car driver.

Between 1963 and 2002 he was entered in 274 sports car races, of which he was able to win 26. In total, he was on the podium of the first three 50 times. In addition to the overall wins, there were 21 class wins. His greatest international success was winning the Sebring 12-hour race in 1994 , after finishing second there in 1986 . At the 24 Hours of Le Mans he also finished on the top three podium once. In 1986 , he and his two compatriots George Follmer and Kenper Miller finished third in the Joest - Porsche 956 .

His last season as a professional racing driver was in the American Le Mans Series in 2002 . Since retiring from professional sport, he has been driving historic sports and monopostor races with vehicles prepared in his own racing team. In 2010 he had a serious accident with a Scarab at the Laguna Seca Raceway , which he survived unharmed. The destroyed car was rebuilt and Morton is still active with it today.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1979	Interscope Racing	Porsche 935	Ted Field	Milt Minter	failure	Engine failure
1981	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 512BB LM	Philippe Gurdjian	Alain Cudini	failure	accident
1982	North American Racing Team	Ferrari 512BB LM	John Paul Sr.	Alain Cudini	Rank 9
1984	BF Goodrich Company	Lola T616	Yoshimi Katayama	John O'Steen	Rank 10
1986	Joest Racing	Porsche 956	George Follmer	Kenper Miller	Rank 3
1994	Clayton Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Steve Millen	Johnny O'Connell	5th place and class win
1996	Canaska Southwind Motorsport	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Victor Sifton	Alain Cudini	Rank 23
1997	Société Viper Team ORECA	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Pierre Yver	Justin Bell	Rank 14
1998	CJ Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT2	Harald Grohs	John Graham	failure	accident

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1964	Shelby American Corp.	Shelby Cobra 427	Ken Miles		failure	Engine failure
1976	Miller & Norburn	BMW 2002	Nick Craw	Joe Peacock	failure	Engine failure
1977	Modena Sports Cars	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4	Bobby Carradine		Rank 17
1980	Andial Racing	Porsche 935	Randolph Townsend	Howard master	failure	malfunction
1981	Firestone Tire & Rubber	Ford Mustang	Tom Klauser		Rank 33
1982	Marketing Corporation	Ford Mustang	Tom Klauser		Rank 9
1983	Marketing Corporation of America	Ford Mustang	Tom Klauser		Rank 9
1984	Conte Racing	Lola T600	Tony Adamowicz	Tony Garzia	Rank 7
1985	Busby Racing	Porsche 962	Jim Busby	Jochen Mass	failure	accident
1986	BF Goodrich	Porsche 962	Jim Busby	In it Brassfield	Rank 2
1988	Clayton Cunningham Racing	Mazda RX-7	PJ Jones		Rank 12
1989	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Steve Millen		failure	Valve damage
1990	Downing Atlanta	Mazda RX-7	Pete Halsmer	Elliot Forbes-Robinson	failure	accident
1991	Mazda	Mazda RX-7	Pete Halsmer	Calvin Fish	Rank 14
1992	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Steve Millen	Jeremy Dale	Rank 11
1993	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Steve Millen	Johnny O'Connell	4th place and class win
1994	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Steve Millen	Johnny O'Connell	Overall victory
1995	Cunningham Racing	Nissan 300ZX	Steve Millen	Johnny O'Connell	5th place and class win
1998	CJ Motorsports	Porsche 911 GT2	Ron Fellows	John Graham	Rank 8
1999	CJ Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT2	Davy Jones	John Graham	Rank 24

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th
1964	Carroll Shelby International	Shelby Cobra	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
				DNF																	11
1976	Vasek Polak Racing	Porsche 934	MUG	VAL	ONLY	MON	SIL	IMO	ONLY	ZEL	BY	WAT	MOS	DIJ	DIJ	SAL
												10
1978	Dan Ward Racing Performance Tuning Adams Associates	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 Datsun 200SX Pontiac Firebird	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	SIL	ONLY	LEM	MIS	DAY	WAT	VAL	ROD
			8th									DNF	DNF
1979	Modena Sports Interscope Racing	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 Porsche 935	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	BRH	ROA	VAL	ELS
			2								DNF
1980	McRoberts Racing Andial Racing Racing Beat	Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 Porsche 935 Mazda RX-7	DAY	BRH	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	VAL	DIJ
			14th		DNF			DNF								10
1981	Firestone BMW North America NART	Ford Mustang BMW M-1 / C Ferrari 512 BB	DAY	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	BRH
			20th	33			6th			DNF
1982	NART	Ferrari 512 BB	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	MUG	FUJ	BRH
						9
1984	BF Goodrich	Lola T616	MON	SIL	LEM	ONLY	BRH	MOS	SPA	IMO	FUJ	KYA	SAN
					10
1986	Joest Racing	Porsche 956	MON	SIL	LEM	NOW	BRH	JER	ONLY	SPA	FUJ
				6th	3

literature

• Ken Breslauer: Sebring. The official History of America's Great Sports Car Race. David Bull, Cambridge MA 1995, ISBN 0-9649722-0-4 .
• Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .

Web links

Commons : John Morton  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Information about John Morton
• John Morton at Racing Sports Cars
• John Morton at the Driver Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1964 Road America 500 Mile Race
2. ^ SCCA Formula 5000 Championship 1975