John Morton

John Morton (born February 17, 1942) is an American racing driver from Waukegan, Illinois. After his father took him to a race at Road America in 1957, Morton became an avid racing fan. He went on to race jalopies in South Carolina before he dropped out of Clemson University to attend Carroll Shelby's racing school at Riverside Raceway in California. where his instructor was Peter Brock. One thing led to another, and soon John was working at Shelby, doing the odd job, sweeping floors, doing whatever it took. Morton saved his money to purchase his first race car, a Lotus Super 7, which he was racing in amateur events, which he eventually upgraded to a 23, powered by the twin cam Ford / Lotus motor. which he raced in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) amateur races in 1963. The following year, he co-drove a Cobra prototype with the late Ken Miles at Sebring. As the Shelby empire continued on in '64, John found his Lotus supported and entered by Shelby in some of the USRRC races of the year, even being transported in the Shelby truck. Teaming with Miles and Skip Scott, Morton won the GT class at the Road America 500, second overall, in a team Cobra. But all things must change or end, and as the Shelby effort went to Europe in '65, John found himself looking for work. "It was an amazing time and I didn't really know how good it was until it was over." That year he bought his second race car: a Lotus 23B. In 1968, he won his first SCCA Divisional Championship. He won his second two years later, along with his first National Championship, driving a factory Datsun 240Z. John then found himself working in a variety of jobs, including wrenching in the Can Am for Lothar Motschenbacher and others, all while still driving his Lotus, now powered by a Porsche motor. In '69, Pete called, asking if John would be interested in working for him at BRE, fabricating and building race cars. "I had a pretty crappy job at the time, fabricating oil pans, so I figured why not. The money was better, and I worked it out that I would get to drive. I would not be the lead driver, but at least I would get to drive. We started with the Datsun 2000 Roadster in 1969, racing it in SCCA D Production. We then went to the new at the time 240Z for 1970 and that was the year that we won our first National Championship. In 1971, when the 2.5 Liter Challenge came about, we started building the 510, and ran both the Z car and 510 programs and won Championships in both cars. In 1972, we focused on the 510, and yet again won the 2.5 Liter Challenge. In 1971, he repeated as National Champion and took his first Trans-Am 2.5-Liter title, qualifying on the pole in every SCCA race. The Trans-Am 2.5-Liter Championship was his again the next year, and he competed in Formula 5000 as well he continued driving the F5000 series for the next three years and also kept busy by winning in IMSA's RS and GTU series, moving up to the GT classes in 1977 and winning the GT class in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1979. With the economy not doing well, Pete decided it was time to get out of racing and take up hang gliding. As the 2.5 Challenge went away and the F5000 series did not offer anything for Datsun, John found himself looking for work again. Sportscar racing was not doing real well during this time, but John did manage to get some time in, racing in the IMSA sanctioned GF Goodrich Radial Challenge, winning races in '73, '74 and '75. In a way, this series could be looked at as a continuation of the 2.5 Liter Challenge, but with closer to production cars, using regular street tires. This series was popular for a very long run and produced some close and entertaining racing. When the SCCA decided to revive the Can Am Series in 1977, they did so with a new rules package, converting old F5000 cars to closed bodywork. John managed to convert the car and race it in the Can Am. Despite operating on a shoestring budget, John was able to finish 3rd twice in the three races they entered in 1977. They continued racing the Can Am through 1982, when the series folded yet again. In that year, John was able to finish 6th in the season points, recording a season best 3rd at Mid Ohio. Racing in F5000, Can-Am and IMSA occupied the next few years. A short almost accidental foray into the movie industry in 1975 led to stunt work on a couple of feature films (Gumball Rally and Greased Lightning) and several TV shows (Rockford Files and Fantasy Island). Morton has been a frequent Can-Am competitor since 1977 and has done a great deal of endurance racing in recent years both in Europe and America. Bouncing around in IMSA during the '70s, John saw some success and eventually made it to Le Mans in 1979 in an Interscope Porsche 935, where they retired after 11 hours. That same year, he had teamed with Tony Adamowicz to finish 2nd overall, 1st in class at Daytona - in a Ferrari Daytona. This eventually turned into quite a long run in the IMSA GTP series, through a contact with Phil Conte. "When Phil decided to get into the GTP Class, we first used the Mirage that the Andretti family tried to race at Le Mans, then he bought a Lola T-600, powered by a Chevy V-8 and then progressed to the March chassis. From there, I hooked up with Jim Busby, first in the Lola 616 Mazda, winning class at Le Mans, and then into the Porsche 962. When I had heard that Riverside was going to close, I thought it would be really great to win the last race there. Last year, he also drove an Indy Car to a ninth-place finish at Long Beach, and was a regular in IMSA's Camel GT Series, competing in the top-level GTP class. He teamed with Yoshimi Katayama and John O'Steen to win Group C2 at Le Mans in one of the BF Goodrich-Mazda Lola T-616s. In 1981 Phil Conte joined John's small Can-Am team as a sponsor for two years after which Phil formed his own IMSA team with John as one of his two drivers in the GTP category. In 1985 Jim Busby hired John as team driver in one of his BF Goodrich sponsored Porsche 962s with Pete Halsmer. The pair won the Times GP at Riverside in 1985. Well, I was able to team with Pete Halsmer to win in 1985, but that ended up being the First Annual Last Race at Riverside. By 1987, I was racing with Bob Tullius in the Group 44 Jaguar, and was able to win the Third Annual and truly the Final Race at Riverside. Having taken my driving school there through Shelby, it really made those victories special. Add into that the fact that Tullius knew that he was about to be replaced by Walkinshaw in the Jaguar program really made it even more special." In 1987 John drove for the Group 44 Jaguar team of Bob Tullius and won the last Times GP at Riverside and the West Palm Beach GP, both sharing the car with Hurley Haywood. In 1987, John also found himself behind the wheel of the Nissan GTP. "Originally, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Geoff Brabham were to be the drivers, but Geoff was also racing in CART, so when conflicts arose, Nissan need another driver. The replacement driver was supposed to be my teammate at Jaguar, Hurley Haywood, but he didn't really like the car. Eventually it got to the point that the team asked me to drive for them. I really felt that I was in an awkward spot, so I spoke with Hurley about it. He said that it would not bother him at all, as he really wanted out of the ride anyway. In 1988, it really became sweet to be a part of the team, as we won quite a bit and really took it to Walkinshaw. After winning their first IMSA race at Daytona, Tom just thought they would walk through the IMSA schedule. We at Nissan took off and just dominated from then on." The Walkinshaw team replaced Tullius' Jaguar team for 1988 and the Electramotive Nissan Team signed Morton. John and Geoff Brabham won several races that year setting the stage for Nissan's domination of the IMSA series for several years. In 23 years of racing, John Morton has driven virtually every type of road-racing machine, from tiny production sports cars to proto-types to Indy Cars; and he has accumulated two SCCA National Championships, two Trans-Am 2.5-Liter Championships, and several SCCA Divisional titles.

The Hawk Buick was powerful but suffered from unreliablilty.