John Morton (racing driver)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Steve_Millen_and_Johnny_O%27Connell_IMSA_1990s_Nissan.jpg/290px-Steve_Millen_and_Johnny_O%27Connell_IMSA_1990s_Nissan.jpg)
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 |
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1979 |
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Porsche 935 |
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failure | Engine failure |
1981 |
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Ferrari 512BB LM |
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failure | accident |
1982 |
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Ferrari 512BB LM |
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Rank 9 | |
1984 |
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Lola T616 |
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Rank 10 | |
1986 |
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Porsche 956 |
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Rank 3 | |
1994 |
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Nissan 300ZX |
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5th place and class win | |
1996 |
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Chrysler Viper GTS-R |
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Rank 23 | |
1997 |
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Chrysler Viper GTS-R |
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Rank 14 | |
1998 |
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Porsche 911 GT2 |
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failure | accident |
Sebring results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1964 |
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Shelby Cobra 427 |
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failure | Engine failure | |
1976 |
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BMW 2002 |
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failure | Engine failure |
1977 |
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Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 |
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Rank 17 | ||
1980 |
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Porsche 935 |
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failure | malfunction |
1981 |
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Ford Mustang |
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Rank 33 | ||
1982 |
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Ford Mustang |
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Rank 9 | ||
1983 |
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Ford Mustang |
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Rank 9 | ||
1984 |
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Lola T600 |
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Rank 7 | |
1985 |
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Porsche 962 |
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failure | accident |
1986 |
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Porsche 962 |
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Rank 2 | |
1988 |
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Mazda RX-7 |
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Rank 12 | ||
1989 |
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Nissan 300ZX |
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failure | Valve damage | |
1990 |
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Mazda RX-7 |
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failure | accident |
1991 |
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Mazda RX-7 |
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Rank 14 | |
1992 |
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Nissan 300ZX |
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Rank 11 | |
1993 |
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Nissan 300ZX |
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4th place and class win | |
1994 |
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Nissan 300ZX |
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Overall victory | |
1995 |
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Nissan 300ZX |
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5th place and class win | |
1998 |
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Porsche 911 GT2 |
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Rank 8 | |
1999 |
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Porsche 911 GT2 |
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Rank 24 |
Individual results in the sports car world championship
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
Individual evidence
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Morton, John |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American automobile racer and racing team owner |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 17, 1942 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Waukegan |